Hearing (and Seeing) Feedback

Having students give each other feedback is a feature of many classrooms activities, though one that can be a challenge for young writers, and for the teachers helping them navigate it. Despite its frequent use, Dr. Kimberly Lenters, and her PhD student Kimberley Grant, found that students need support and guidance on how to provide helpful feedback.

In their study, Lenters and Grant worked with a fifth-grade classroom teacher in designing a peer feedback process using recordings made on iPads. The team examined how the multimodal communication (audio and visual) could influence the quality of the feedback.

Guided by question stems, the students used the camera function to record their feedback to their assigned peer at various stages throughout the writing process. Most students began by capturing their feedback while filming their peer’s work, focusing on the appropriate section as they made their comments. Other students filmed themselves using the devices.

Advantages

The students reported that the recordings provided several advantages. Among other benefits, most students felt:

• Able to give longer, justified explanations
• Able to use tone and body language to express their meanings more clearly
• More comfortable recording in a neutral space
• A better understanding about how their stories were received by readers
• Greater ownership as their drafts were not marked up by the other students

While the basic structure was in place, there was also room for students to adapt the process to their own style. Many students took up this opportunity, which fostered creativity and helped address learning needs. These helpful deviations were well received, and speak to the potential for student agency and self-direction, which can only be encouraged in less rigid spaces.

Considerations

At first, some students gave awkward or silly performances which detracted from their feedback. Students who received these recordings from their peers often felt disappointed and distanced from the feedback process. However, making accommodations and reviewing the feedback with students helped alleviate some of these concerns.

For Teachers

Integrating digital recordings into the peer feedback process brings benefits and challenges for teachers and students. Patience and effort will be required to help students learn how to provide strong, multimodal feedback. Offering scaffolded instruction along the way is particularly important to improving the quality of the students’ peer feedback. Attention to the role and impact of the device in the feedback process can help teachers navigate these constraints and possibilities.