Feedback in the Classroom

Before life took me down the path of becoming a teacher, I was working for Squarespace as Quality Specialist. My job was to provide Customer Operations Advisors (who would answer customers via email and live chat) with feedback.  In this role, I found a knack for giving positive, actionable, and constructive feedback. I also saw how important it is to give good feedback. One of the most important aspects of providing feedback is having a rapport with that person. If you don't have a rapport with that person, how will they trust the feedback you're giving them?

I was able to attend a LifeLab all about providing feedback, which used a piggy bank as an analogy. The coins inside are pieces of positive feedback, and you take a coin out whenever you provide constructive feedback. So, it’s essential that you have provided positive feedback and built an overall positive rapport with the person before any constructive feedback is given. Additionally, an important aspect of this is ensuring the positive and constructive feedback is both meaningful and actionable. To make positive feedback meaningful, it should explain exactly what the student did correct, and how they can replicate that in the future (whether that’s their schoolwork, their behavior, socially, etc.). This is the same case for constructive feedback; it must be explicit in how the student can improve, and the steps to achieve this. I believe this way of providing feedback will empower students with confidence.