Differentiated by Feedback Given and Home Work Policies

Differentiated by Feedback Given and Home Work Policies
You have learned a lot about the effects of positive or negative reinforcement in the
classroom during your teaching experience. These tools will you to motivate your
students, promote their autonomy, and help them improve as learners. In order to
get the most out of your students, you must learn how to give students effective
feedback that guides them towards better understanding and learning, while
reinforcing certain behaviours. You must also be aware of differences between
effective and ineffective forms of feedback, and the consequences that follow.
In the context of the classroom, your students always appreciated getting feedback
from you, especially when the feedback is concrete and specific. Students enjoyed
this type of feedback because they thought it demonstrated that the teacher cared
about their learning, and was not trying to embarrass them or make them feel bad
they had an incorrect approach. Furthermore, students disliked feedback that was
either too vague (for example, a teacher writing “good”, on their paper) because
they could not learn from it, or feedback that was overly directive, because it
frustrated them when they thought a teacher was solving a problem for them. A
greater promotion of autonomy through feedback would naturally equate to higher
levels of intrinsically motivated students (Black & Deci, 2000, p. 741), and therefore
better academic performance (Saeed et. al, 2013, p. 1385).
An overall model explained for providing feedback is explained by Hattie and

Timperley (2007).
1. First, teachers and students need to outline a desired goal, and

reduce the discrepancy between current performance and that
goal. They can do so by providing appropriate goals, and
effective strategies depending on those goals.
2. Second, “effective feedback must answer three major questions

asked by a teacher and/or by a student:
• Where am I going (What are the goals?),
• How am I getting there?, and
• Where to next? These questions correspond to notions of feed up,
feed back, and feed forward” Hattie and Timperley (2007, p.
86).
3. Finally, feedback works at four levels:

• task (how well tasks are understood), process, self-regulation
students,and self (personal evaluations and positive affect about
the learner) (Hattie & Timperley, 2007, p. 87).
This model of feedback can be seen as fairly straightforward, and potentially even
common sense for teachers, but it is the “process” of feedback that my research
focuses on.
Feedback plays a crucial role in differentiation. Timely and actionable feedback

enables students to identify the next steps required to progress in their learning. In
conjunction with clear learning intentions and success criteria, group and
individualised feedback can promote self-regulation. The use of peer-feedback can
also assist students to deeply reflect on the success criteria and what their
peer/themselves can do to improve their outcomes.
On the hand, the best homework tasks exhibit five characteristics. • First, the
task has a clear academic purpose, such as practice, checking for
understanding, or applying knowledge or skills.
• Second, the task efficiently demonstrates student learning.
• Third, the task promotes owner ship by offering choices and being
personally relevant.
• Fourth, the task instills a sense of competence—the student can
success fully complete it without help.
• Last, the task is aesthetically pleasing—it appears enjoyable and
interesting (Vatterott, 2018).
Charateristic 1: Purpose
Let us start by examining how purposeful homework assignments are and whether
there are better alternatives. Our goal is to give students methods that are
purposeful for them, methods that work for their learning styles. A better way might
be to allow students to design their own task.
Charateristic 2: Efficiency
Some traditional tasks may be inefficient—either because they show no evidence of

learning or because they take an inordinate amount of time to complete but yield
little "bang for the buck."
Charateristic 3: Ownership
When we customise tasks to fit student learning styles and interests, the task
becomes theirs, not ours. The goal of ownership is to create a personal relationship
between the student and the content (Vatterott, 2018). One of the easiest ways to
promote ownership is through individual research. For instance, if the class is
studying the history of Malaysia, students could write a report about the country of
their choice.
Charateristic 4: Competence
If all students are to feel competent in completing homework, we must abandon a

one-size-fits-all approach. Homework that students can not do without help is not
good homework; students are discouraged when they are unable to complete
homework on their own (Darling-Hammond & Ifill-Lynch, 2006; Stiggins, 2007). To
ensure homework is doable, teachers must differentiate assignments so they are at
the appropriate level of difficulty for individual students (Tomlinson, 2008).
Charateristic 5: Aesthetic Appeal
Every day, students make decisions about whether to do a homework assignment on

the basis of their first impressions. The way homework looks is important. Five-page
worksheets or endless lists of definitions or math problems look boring and tedious.
As a gourmet cook would say, "Presentation is everything." Wise teachers have
learned that students at all levels are more motivated to complete assignments that
are visually uncluttered. Less information on the page, plenty of room to write
answers, and the use of graphics or clip art make tasks look inviting and interesting
(Vatterott, 2018).
In conclusion, regardless of the specific goals that teachers have for their students,
student wellbeing and success should be the emphasis for every teacher, and for this
to be achieved teachers must see their students as individuals with different needs
and preferences. These differences require us as teachers to think about
differentiation, not only in terms of instruction, but also in terms of how we provide
students feedback in order to best support them, academically and otherwise.
Reference:
Black, A. E., & Deci, E. L. (2000). The effects of instructors' autonomy support and students'
autonomous motivation on learning organic chemistry: A self‐determination theory
perspective. Science education, 84(6), 740-756.
Darling-Hammond, L., & Ifill-Lynch, O. (2006). If They'd Only Do Their Work!. Educational
Leadership, 63(5), 8-13.
Hattie, J., & Timperley, H. (2007). The power of feedback. Review of educational
research, 77(1), 81-112.
Saeed, R., Lodhi, R. N., Sadiq, S., Hashmi, A., Sami, A., Dustgeer, F., ... & Ahmad, M.
(2013).
The effect of professed teacher feedback on the relation of intrinsic motivation regarding
university students’ academic performance. World Applied Sciences Journal, 26(10),
1385- 1390.
Stiggins, R. (2007). Assessment through the student's eyes. Educational leadership, 64(8),
22.
Tomlinson, C. A. (2008). The goals of differentiation. Educational Leadership, 66(3), 26–31.
Vatterott, C. (2018). Rethinking homework: Best practices that support diverse needs.
ASCD.
http://www.ascd.org/publications/educational-leadership/sept10/vol68/num01/Five
Hallmarks-of-Good-Homework.aspx
https://www.brycehedstrom.com/wp-content/uploads/Differentiated-Comprehension
Checks.pdf

Differentiated by Feedback Given and Home Work Policies

Uploaded by

Copyright:

Available Formats

Differentiated by Feedback Given and Home Work Policies

Uploaded by

Document Information

Original Description:

Copyright

Available Formats

Share this document

Share or Embed Document

Sharing Options

Did you find this document useful?

Is this content inappropriate?

Copyright:

Available Formats

Differentiated by Feedback Given and Home Work Policies

Uploaded by

Copyright:

Available Formats

Differentiated by Feedback Given and Home Work Policies

An overall model explained for providing feedback is explained by Hattie and

1. First, teachers and students need to outline a desired goal, and

2. Second, “effective feedback must answer three major questions

3. Finally, feedback works at four levels:

Feedback plays a crucial role in differentiation. Timely and actionable feedback

Some traditional tasks may be inefficient—either because they show no evidence of

If all students are to feel competent in completing homework, we must abandon a

Charateristic 5: Aesthetic Appeal

Every day, students make decisions about whether to do a homework assignment on

Tomlinson, C. A. (2008). The goals of differentiation. Educational Leadership, 66(3), 26–31.

You might also like