Write comments
Use these strategies to provide meaningful comments to students that they can apply to improve future assignments.
In this article:
1. Be transparent
Tell students beforehand what is important to you, what form your comments will take, and how they will be able to apply your feedback to future work. This information manages their expectations and points out the value of your comments.
2. Be positive
Begin your comments by highlighting what is good about students’ work.
3. Focus on what’s important
Students will infer that the subject of your comments is what is most important, so comment primarily on ideas, organization, development, and clarity. Then, turn to issues of style, grammar, and mechanics (unless these areas are topics of your course).
Ideas:
Focus your written comments on one main strength and one main area for improvement. Address other items with a grading rubric or checklist.
Ask students to identify 1-2 items they would like feedback on and submit these questions with their assignment. Focus your comments on these questions and address other items with a grading rubric or checklist. See examples of interactive cover sheets where students pose questions when they submit assignments.
4. Be efficient
Don’t be tempted to rewrite the paper or comment on every single problem. Instead, point out the changes that are likely to have the biggest impact on the quality of the assignment. For errors in spelling, grammar, and mechanics, highlight the first few and then advise the student to correct these items in the rest of the paper.
Ideas:
Use audio feedback. Record your comments instead of writing them down, and give them to the students in electronic format.
Use group feedback mechanisms. After collecting assignments from the class, generate a memorandum to the class which addresses some of the common errors you’ve seen overall.
Give feedback to a sample of students instead of the whole group. In courses with multiple assignments, stagger your feedback to students over the term so that students get detailed comments only once per term.
5. Be timely
It is important to provide feedback when students can still incorporate it, so give constructive comments early on or mid-process on at least a part of the assignment. Don’t invest time putting comments on final products if experience shows that students are unlikely to pay attention to them. See examples of multi-stage assignments that offer students feedback during the writing process rather than only at the end.
6. Teach students to provide peer-to-peer feedback, not grades
Provide a clear task and guidelines, and coach students. While coaching students on how to provide peer feedback can be time-consuming, students benefit in their roles as both reviewers and reviewees. Access resources to support the implementation of peer assessment.
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