Growing from Peer Feedback Transcript
Marion: I'm Marion Ivey, Teaching Channel Laureate and kindergarten teacher at Longfellow Elementary School in Oak Park, Illinois. You see how ready Claire is? Kylie looks ready. This year in my practice I'm working on growth mindset with my students and encouraging them to develop some resiliency about trying things that are challenging.
We're going to be working on our writing. It's sort of come to my attention that I want to be conscious about having high expectations for all of my students. I recognize that students come with different natural gifts, but that with effective effort, everybody can get better.
Speaker 2: It doesn't necessarily mean to just keep doing the same things over and over again.
Marion: I participated in some professional development, and we had a round-table discussion talking about the ways that we have sort of incorporated growth mindset with our students, some strategies that we've tried, some successes that we've had. The standard that we've been talking about for the last couple of days is about editing your work using questions and suggestions from peers. Who remembers what peers are? One of the things that I took away from that meeting was doing some goal setting with my students and working on having them develop some resiliency about trying things that are challenging. I'm excited that we're going to reconvene and talk about ideas that we were able to apply.
I'm going to pull the first author for author's chair. In the past, the goals have been more broad about the areas that we wanted to work on as students. Sam, which side are we doing?
Sam: This one.
Marion: All right. Today, the goals that we were working on were specific for this assignment. This is really our first attempt at revising their writing based on peer feedback. Just to make sure everybody remembers, I have have 2 colors of Post-it notes. The greens ones are for ... ?
Student: Good job.
Marion: The things that they did a really good job on. The yellow ones are for ... ?
Student: Work on. Caution.
Marion: Precaution.
Student: Precaution.
Marion: These are the things you might want to pay attention to. Go ahead, Sam.
Sam: I love the park. I love the jungle gym.
Marion: The students are bringing their self-selected best work to share with the class for author's chair. Think first about one thing he did a great job at and one thing that you think he could work on.
Student: [inaudible 00:02:54]. You did a good job at the illustration and the thing that he still needs to work on is the using lower case letters at the end of the word except-
Marion: The peers have been working on giving each other feedback that's based on the criteria for success that we've been talking about in class.
Student: You need to work on putting meatball spaces.
Marion: Meatball spaces. Spaces between words. There's 2 categories on the Post-it note that's yellow: comments that are about criteria for success, those are things that you probably should go back and fix. Which side, honey?
Student: This side.
Marion: Okay. There are some opinions about illustrations or what have you, and those are optional.
Student: You did a good job on the picture, but you need to work on making the trees better.
Marion: Is there something specific you think that he might be able to fix in the tree?
Student: No, that's the best way I could make my tree.
Marion: Someone might make a suggestion, and you might choose not to take it. That's okay.
Specifically with the students, we talk a lot about using kind words and framing it with something that they did well first, and then something that they need to work on.
Student: You did a nice job for the picture, but what you need to work on is using end marks.
Student: Yeah, of course. I always forget to do that sometimes.
Marion: I think it's easier to take a suggestion if you have a little bit of positive feedback first.
Student: I like how you did the bird's feet, but where's the wings?
Student: I kind of forgot the wing.
Student: Oh.
Marion: Well, you can address it when we do our revisions.
Also, each student that's giving feedback has the responsibility of listening to the feedback from others so that you're not repeating something that's already been said. It gives everyone a responsibility. As an active listener, I heard the previous comment was also about lowercase letters. Can you think of something else? Remember-
Student: Making spaces?
Marion: Making spaces. In anticipation of this lesson, we watched a video called "Austin's Butterfly."
Male: Here was Austin's job: he was supposed to-
Marion: It's about revising your work based on the feedback that you get from peers to make it better.
Male: Show me what you would ask him to do slightly differently.
Student: To make it a little longer.
Male: Longer where?
Marion: We used the video to sort of model after and talked a lot about how the students give very specific suggestions versus "I like it" or "I don't like it."
Student: [inaudible 00:06:00], you did a good job on the words, but you need to work on ...
Marion: What specifically about the words did she do a good job on?
Student: She made meatball spaces.
Marion: She did make meatball spaces. Let's move to the next step of this process. Once all of the students had had an opportunity to share their work with the class, they were to sit down and look at the feedback and choose the items that were specific to criteria for success as they rewrote their piece.
Let's take a look at what the suggestions are. Using line for letters and add details. Do you remember how we talked about how to use the lines so that the capital letters start in the sky and they go all the way down to the ground?
Student: Mm-hmm (affirmative).
Marion: Where it says "Use the lines for letters," that's what it's talking about. You don't have to erase because you have a brand new piece of paper. You can move your words over there.
Student: [inaudible 00:07:11].
Marion: You know what? I would suggest to read through it again and decide where the spaces between the words should go.
Student: I don't remember what it says.
Marion: Let's read it together, and then where the spaces between the words should go we can make a line kind of like this so you can see where there should be a space. It looks like "I"-
Student: Did.
Marion: Did.
Student: Make.
Marion: As I walked around, I noticed that some of the students didn't get started right away, and it seemed as if they were waiting for permission. What's your favorite color?
Student: Green.
Marion: Okay. I wanted to reiterate with them about how the goal setting was theirs. Why don't you put your checks on the ones that you're going to focus on?
Student: Okay. By spelling these out.
Marion: Okay. You're going to write this sentence, but you're going to write it on this line over here. Do you want me to get a highlighter to help you know which sentence to write? We've talked a lot this year about how the goals that the set for themselves they take more seriously and they're more excited about working on the things that they've chosen for themselves. It says, "Use lowercase letters. Yes spaces between words," and it says, "Weapons" because someone was saying they didn't think you should have weapons in your drawing. That is one of those things that's a personal decision. You have a suggestion. You can decide to use it or not.
Student: Okay.
Marion: There was one student who shared his writing today. I think he noticed when it was time for him to read his writing that there were some words that he had left out when he was writing his first draft.
Student: It says, "I want to be a policeman because ... " I forgot. [Crosstalk 00:09:08].
Marion: Is that it?
Student: I can't remember, but [crosstalk 00:09:13]. Now I see.
Marion: Okay.
Student: Because they catch the bad.
Marion: Okay. When he went back for revision, he added some of the words that he had left out. Police catch the bad man. There's another end mark right there because you have how many ideas?
Student: 2 now.
Marion: 2 ideas. That's pretty sweet. Did you use lowercase letters? Work on that.
Student: Some of them I don't know how to do.
Marion: I have a suggestion. In the front of your journal, there's a place you could look to see how to make it.
Student: Yeah.
Marion: Okay?
Student: The G is easy. The H, easy. I, easy.
Marion: The ones that are tricky, you can trace.
Student: Yeah.
Marion: All right. I want to go to outside. Good. How about we start a new row.
Student: Okay.
Marion: I think it went really, really well. Typically with 5 year olds, they think, "It's finished. I'm done." You've got your check marks. Your goals are set. You're ready to go. Having that peer feedback really, really guided them in where to start making revisions. It goes full circle with the growth mindset and effective feedback in that they know how to improve. I'm looking to see who's being respectful. I really like the way some students were very good at encouraging one another.
Student: You did good at doing lowercase letters and a capital letter at the beginning.
Marion: You found a lot of stuff she did well. Next time I think I might point out some of the behaviors. I think very often when you make those behaviors visible, then other students emulate it just because it's being celebrated. Only have your hand up if there's something we haven't covered yet. Another thing I think is important to remind kids is that everybody wants to have a turn to give feedback.
Student: Specifically, what you really need to work on is using end marks.
Marion: We talked about using end marks. I think part of why comments are being repeated is because everybody wants to have a turn every time, and if I reduced the number of students who can comment on a single person, that might reduce the number of times the same comment is repeated.
Student: It's right there.
Marion: Next time, one of the things that we'll do is we'll come together and talk about the choices that students made as far as setting goals for themselves. I feel like it's important for them to make those decisions when they are happy with the writing rather than having that decision come from me. I see you've got your check marks here. Your goals are set. Nice. I think it's important for kids to be aware and to think about the fact that you're going to try things that you aren't successful at, but every time you try you get a little bit better at it. Where does the first idea end?
Student: Oh yeah, I forgot an end mark.
Marion: I definitely see a change in the way they're viewing their own work, but I also see a change in myself. Things that probably I would have been intimidated by, I recognize that this is an opportunity for me to grow.
79 Comments
Kimberly Lair May 22, 2020 2:52pm
I was amazed at the helpful feedback Ms. Ivey's students gave their friends. It was thoughtful and specific. I think it helped the children look more critically at their own work and to appreciate the feedback they can get from their peers. I liked the way Ms. Ivey reflected on the lesson and decided to limit the feedback and to help students continue to set their own goals for their written work. Very nice lesson.
MELINDA DRANEY Apr 22, 2019 3:41pm
When the students have a goal they are able to persist through challenges because they have a plan. A specific plan helps them to focus and be able to execute step by step. Ms. Ivey supports he students by helping them conquer things they are afraid to try. For example, by highighting a sentence for a child (chunking), that student was able to focus on one task at a time and not be overwhelmed. They also felt the support of their teacher.
Beth Tallman-McGlynn Dec 17, 2017 2:46pm
Margaret Peeno Sep 30, 2017 9:35pm
Julie Mills Sep 30, 2017 2:58pm