Feedback in Secondary Math: It’s More Than a Grade Pt. 1

By Constance Hallemeier

Secondary math teachers often find themselves juggling multiple responsibilities: having a limited amount of time with students, managing a large number of students, and teaching a multitude of standards. Amidst these challenges, providing effective feedback can seem like a daunting task. As a former high school math classroom teacher, I struggled with how and when to provide feedback that would be useful to my students. However, researching strategies by John Hattie and Carol Dweck, I found methods to leverage feedback to maximize student learning in my classroom, even within these obstacles.

The Power of Feedback

Feedback is more than just correcting errors. It can motivate students, enhance their understanding, and foster a growth mindset when delivered effectively. Hattie’s research consistently ranks feedback as one of the most powerful influences on student achievement, progressing students more than a year and a half in one year. I saw this firsthand in my classroom by providing my students timely, specific, and actionable feedback. This feedback helped my students develop a deeper understanding of mathematical concepts, improve their problem-solving skills, and maybe even learn to love math.

Overcoming Time Constraints

One of the most common challenges in providing feedback is time. With a limited amount of time in each class, providing feedback within 40-90 minutes of class can be difficult. Here are some strategies I used in my classroom to overcome this constraint:

Prioritize Feedback

Instead of providing feedback on every assignment, focus on key learning moments and essential standards. For example, you might prioritize feedback on quizzes or in-class quick checks over feedback on homework on specific problem-solving strategies. You might also prioritize specific and timely feedback on key standards and learning targets for a unit, but not every supporting or additional standard. I would often provide verbal feedback to students while they were working on a quick check in class but write actionable feedback to make corrections to a quiz.

Use Technology 

Utilize technology to streamline the feedback process. For instance, online grading platforms can provide automated feedback on multiple-choice questions or simple methods for providing targeted feedback on specific questions. Many times, the same feedback was needed for multiple students on a given question, so I would create a document with a collection of often-used feedback to copy and paste into the comment section. Screencasting tools are also a great way to create video feedback, which can be more efficient than written comments. Quick videos of key reminders were invaluable for quiz corrections for students and helped the feedback be timely, specific, and actionable.

Encourage Peer Feedback 

Encourage students to provide feedback to each other. This can be done through peer review, group work, or online discussion forums. Peer feedback can help students develop their critical thinking and communication skills while also providing teachers with valuable insights into student understanding. Student-to-student feedback requires trust and a growth mindset culture in your classroom where mistakes are an opportunity to learn. I used cooperative learning techniques like numbered heads together, give one get one, and roundtable to promote conversations between my students. Other methods to promote peer feedback include many Building Thinking Classroom teaching practices like random grouping and hints & extensions.

These strategies can help you incorporate effective feedback into your classroom, even with limited time. But time isn’t the only challenge. In our next post, we’ll dive into tackling feedback for large class sizes and managing the many standards secondary math teachers face.

References

Brock, A., & Hundley, H. (2016). The Growth Mindset Coach: A Teacher’s Month-by-Month Handbook for Empowering Students to Achieve. Ulysses Press.

Gordon, B. (2020). The Joyful Teacher: Strategies for Becoming the Teacher Every Student Deserves. Heinemann.

Hattie, J. (2008). Visible Learning: A Synthesis of Over 800 Meta-Analyses Relating to Achievement. SAGE Publications.

Liljedahl, P. (2020). Building Thinking Classrooms in Mathematics, Grades K-12: 14 Teaching Practices for Enhancing Learning. Corwin.