Essential concepts, tools, and practices

For starters, the important thing is to read your Learner's assignment thoroughly - perhaps two or three times to allow the words to sink in and make an impression upon you.

Then, tell what you experienced as a reader when you read your Learner's words.

4 elements of effective feedback

In this spirit of engagement, we have identified 4 Elements of Effective Feedback that we would like you to use when giving your Learner feedback on assignments. The first twoelements are inspired from Peter Elbow's work and are a part of exercising your "believing muscle." The other two are developed from "what works" incoaching. They are as follows:

• Pointing
• Summarizing
• Posing 1 question for your Learner to consider
• Offering 1 or 2 things for improvement

Elements 1 and 2

As you read your Learner's completed assignment, here are the first two elements to consider:

• Pointing
• Summarizing

Each are described fully by Peter Elbow in his book called Writing Without Teachers , a book we highly recommend. The excerpts provided here are a useful starting point,especially the section called "Giving Movies of Your Mind," which includes Pointing and Sumarizing.

Element #1 of Effective Feedback

Pointing

Elbow writes:

Start by simply pointing to the words and phrases which most succcessfully penetrated your skull...somehow they rang true; orthey carried special conviction. Any kind of getting through...Also point to any words or phrases which strike you as particularly weak or empty.Somehow they ring false, hollow, plastic. They bounce ineffectually off your skull. (p. 85)

As a reader giving your reactions, keep in mind that you are not answering a timeless, theorectical question about the objectivequalities of those words on that page. You are answering a time-bound, subjective but factual question: what happened to you when you read the words this time . (p.85)

Element #2 of Effective Feedback

Summarizing - Tell your Learner "very quickly what you found to be the main points, main feelings, or centers of gravity [in theirwriting]...Summarize into a single sentence; then choose one word...Dothis informally. Don't plan or think too much about it. The point is to show the writer what things he made stand out most in your head." (p. 86)

Examples

How not to give feedback:

In your feedback , do not use words like "good", "great", "nice" or "bad." They are words that do not help a person improve.For example, let's say you wrote a short story and then you gave your short story to a friend or a colleague to read. If that person said, "Hey, that storyyou gave to me to read was really good," you might perk up and feel happy about the compliment, but it does not help you improve as a writer.

Feedback that would be more helpful is as follows:

• "Hey, I read the short story you sent to me. The part where you talked about training your dog made me laugh out loud: 'When I commanded Spiketo give me his paw, he just rolled over, yawned, and gave me his belly to rub.'" (Pointing/Movie of the Mind)
• Another example of effective feedback is: "My mind started to wander when you started talking about the cows. I tuned out for a while and then Iwas listening again when you talked about crossing the river. At the description 'tree branches and rocks swirled past me like a hurricane;the sky darkened to a coal-gray' I could feel my heart starting to pound in my chest." (Pointing/Movie of the Mind)
• An example of "summarizing" might be: "Home. The comfort of home - its foods, smells, the conversations. Home is like an anchor for yourcharacter; it keeps her from drifting off. That's what stays with me after reading your piece."