I saw something on Twitter earlier about grading and feedback and it got me to thinking about the power of feedback as it relates to student learning.  I immediately began to think back to the challenges I faced as a kid with math.  I think I spent my entire childhood thinking I was terrible at math.  For some reason most other subjects came pretty easy but I just couldn’t math.  I want to be clear, I had some really good teachers growing up, but I do think my past anxieties about math caused my lots of problems.  With that being said, I realized one big problem in school for me was that I never really got a lot of feedback on the math I was expected to master.  My teachers would work hard at teaching it and then they’d give a quiz or test and I would fail it.  I would receive my failing grade and usually we just moved on.  Thinking back if I would have gotten specific feedback on the areas that I couldn’t do I probably would have been in better shape.  When I speak of specificity I mean spending time with me on why each time I get to the second step I get off and ultimately miss the entire problem.  My teachers were busy like most teachers are, and I had a few behavior issues that may have also gotten in the way.  So what I’m saying is that I was so discouraged by the grades that I never entered into a feedback partnership with my teachers.  Because if I tell the real truth I would get so mad that I would shut down. 

As educators we cannot forget the power of formative assessment and the feedback that goes along with the assessment.  Students deserve to know exactly how they are not mastering the standard and exactly how to get it right.  Yes this takes time, but it is the greatest way to move students forward.  Let’s begin to focus less on grades and more on feedback!