Remember the playground game 4 Square? One large square is divided into quadrants with one player in each as participants bounce a ball between each other. Some quadrants receive the ball more than others, but each usually receives the ball at some point. Likewise, classroom feedback should bounce between the quadrants of what I call 4-Square Feedback.
1. Teacher-to-Student
Square one is the most common form of feedback, teacher to student. This feedback must be specific and growth oriented, as well as balanced between what is going well and what needs work. Written comments, a note to the student, and face-to-face discussions work best and set up the teacher as mentor, rather than judge. Grades in the form of letters or numbers are not effective feedback. In fact, education expert Alfie Kohn and other researchers including Anastaysia A Lipnevich and Jeffrey K. Smith claim letters and numbers do more harm than good. For example, “study after study has found that students -- from elementary school to graduate school, and across cultures -- demonstrate less interest in learning as a result of being graded,” and “students given numerical grades were significantly less creative than those who received qualitative feedback but no grades” (Kohn). I must also note that feedback must occur throughout the learning process, not just at the perceived end, if we value introspection and growth. In most classrooms the ball bounces in the teacher-to-student feedback square more than any other, but when the ball only bounces in the teacher-to-student square, participants never experience the joy of 4-Square Feedback.
2. Student-to-Student
Square two is student-to-student feedback. This practice usually demands purposeful structure and guidance from the teacher.
- Trust must be established among the students. Frequent small group and partner opportunities foster trust, as well as a student-centered classroom that emphasizes how the curriculum is relevant and meaningful to the students’ lives.
- Students must know what useful feedback looks like. Again, is it specific and growth oriented, as well as balanced between what is going well and what needs work?
- The teacher, or better yet the student receiving feedback, must provide a framework for the reviewer, such as what to look for or questions to answer. Do I have enough examples to support my claim? Do my examples have enough details? Is my thesis clear and memorable? Does my conclusion provide closure? Does my piece leave you with any questions? When the students being reviewed must verbalize what they want reviewed, they increase their own abilities to critically view work and describe what makes good work good.
3. Student-to-Self
Square three is student-to-self feedback. Most practice can be assessed this way by providing answers or, better yet, a spectrum of sample responses. I also can’t go without saying that practice must never be graded. Practice must be a safe place to experiment and test one’s skills. My student Hope wrote this to me: “I learned to take mistakes as an impetus to future success. ...In your class due to the lack of constant grading, I cared less about the mistakes, and I grew into appreciating failure more.”
I learned the value of student-to-self feedback best while teaching AP English. College Board provides every essay prompt from former exams and three sample responses -- often an essay representing exceptional skills, another with average skills, and a third with emerging skills. When my students practice with these former prompts, I require them to read and analyze the samples after they’ve finished writing. Then they assess themselves by assigning their own writing a score on the AP scale and composing a paragraph to justify their choice. Much more often than not, their assessment is the same I would have given, if not more critical. In Walt Whitman’s “Song of Myself,” the speaker says, “He most honors my style who learns under it to destroy the teacher.” That’s my goal. I want my students to need me less as the school year develops, which is only achieved through student-to-self feedback.
4. Student-to-Teacher
Square four is student-to-teacher feedback. This underutilized tool is best done regularly and frequently, rather than at the end of the semester. At the end of a unit, I like to sit with my students to ask what is going well in class and what needs revising. As students courageously share their feedback, I diligently take notes and always thank them for sharing. This practice not only makes me a better teacher for my students but also creates a culture of feedback that models how to give and receive feedback civilly, which I suspect is sorely needed not only in schools but also in homes, businesses, and government. Although some might sing the praises of anonymous feedback, I choose to foster a culture where people own their opinions and communicate with respectful and productive language that includes empathy, constructive criticism, solutions, and encouragement -- in that order.
Outside of the Square
If your elementary school was like mine, a crowd always gathered around the square to watch and wait for their turn to participate. Don’t forget those outside of the square: family, friends, or an even larger network. However, since not all students have these networks easily accessible, the teacher must gather the crowd as much as possible. My students have shared their work with school and district administrators, the school newspaper, and writing contests, as well as through blogs they created on their own and websites I’ve asked them to create for class. In every case, writing gains importance and meaning when shared with a broader audience at any point in the learning process.
Conclusion
I miss playing 4 Square on the playground. I was a decent player who knew to spread the ball around as much as possible to be effective and enhance everyone’s experience. I’m no longer an 11-year-old on the playground but a 47-year-old in the classroom. Still, I strive for the same joy and sense of community that 4 Square once brought me. Let’s focus more on feedback than grades. Let’s give the best feedback possible. And, let’s spread the feedback from square to square to increase relevance, agency, and joy for our students.
