Feedback in Secondary Math: It’s More Than a Grade Pt. 2
By Constance Hallemeier
In Feedback in Secondary Math: It’s More Than a Grade, Pt. 1, we explored how timely, specific feedback can transform student learning, even when time is tight. Strategies like prioritizing feedback, leveraging technology, and fostering peer-to-peer discussions were just the beginning. But time isn’t the only challenge secondary math teachers face. With large class sizes and a multitude of standards to address, how can we ensure every student receives meaningful feedback? In this second part, we’ll dive into strategies for managing these challenges while continuing to maximize student growth and achievement.
Addressing the Challenge of Large Numbers of Students
Feedback takes time, but when secondary math teachers have upwards of one hundred students, individualizing feedback is another challenge. However, there are strategies that I’ve used in my classroom that are supported by Hattie and Dweck’s research to address this challenge:
Small-Group Instruction
After an exit ticket, a quick check, or a short quiz, identify key mistakes made by students. Using those mistakes, I would break students into smaller groups for targeted instruction and feedback. I would utilize small groups when I had essential standards that students needed to know before moving on in a unit. While in small groups, other students were provided activities to practice their newly acquired skill or an extension activity. This allowed me to provide more individualized attention to students who need it.
Effective Questioning
Questioning techniques can assess student understanding and provide immediate feedback. By asking probing questions, you can encourage students to think critically and explain their reasoning.
Asking these types of equations would encourage my students to think about whether they got the right answer and how they got it instead of just asking, “Am I right?”. This would lead to conversations about effective strategies and/or learning from mistakes. Questioning can also help students link to prior knowledge and go deeper than surface-level learning.
Use Scoring Guides and Checklists
Providing students with scoring guides or checklists allows students to self-assess. These scoring guides or checklists can be an anchor chart (yes, in a high school classroom). I often had my students who were ready for extensions create the anchor charts for other students to reference during group or individual practice. The feedback can be followed up with a student-teacher conference to evaluate the finished product and determine additional feedback needed.
Managing the Number of Standards
Providing feedback on every standard can be a discouraging task for secondary math teachers. There were times in my classroom when the sheer number of tests or quizzes I had to grade became overwhelming. Here are some strategies I used to overcome this constraint:
Use Learning Progressions
Learning progressions are a powerful tool for providing actionable and effective feedback. They outline the learning stages of a specific skill or concept, making it easier to identify where a student is in their learning and what steps they need to take to progress. I did not have written progressions like the Comprehensive Standards Guides (CSG) provide (see image below), but through my twenty-six years of teaching, I began to see how the learning fit together for students. I could outline the steps that led to the learning, acknowledge what the students know in the learning, and link it to the future learning they needed to overcome the mistakes. This took me years to do quickly and effectively; however, developed progressions like the CSGs would have been tremendously helpful. Feedback becomes actionable for students as they progress through the stages of learning and recognize they are not poor math students but just haven’t learned the content yet.
Focus on a Limited Number of Standards
Departments of Education often outline priority, major, or essential standards, so take time with your fellow math teachers to select the most critical standards for your course based on these standards. As a Professional Learning Community, we would work together each year to determine the key standards students needed to know and be able to do. My PLC would collect data about those standards and offer intervention to support students who still struggled with those standards. Providing feedback on a specific set of essential standards helps students see the value of learning them.
Fostering a Growth Mindset
Looking at all of the constraints in a secondary math classroom draws attention to the atmosphere. For students to be able to work in a small group, provide peer feedback, or use learning progressions, the focus of the class needs to be on the process of learning and not just the outcome. Carol Dweck’s research on mindset emphasizes the importance of believing that abilities can be developed through effort and practice. By fostering a growth mindset in my students, I helped them view challenges as opportunities for learning and growth. Here are some strategies I used in my classroom to promote a growth mindset through feedback:
Praise Effort and Strategy
Instead of praising intelligence or talent, praise effort and effective use of strategies. This transition took time and effort on my part because “that’s right,” “way to go,” or “here’s where your mistake is” were my go-to feedback. However, acknowledging that my students had a great strategy for solving a problem, a unique method for showing work, or had a part of a problem correct but should focus on a different part helped my students to keep trying. Effort-focused feedback helps students see their abilities as flexible and improvable with hard work. Encourage students to view mistakes as opportunities to learn and grow.
Focus on Learning Goals
Help students set specific, achievable learning goals. Setting goals with students takes time; however, using the Comprehensive Standards Guide progressions can help students understand the learning they need to master the standard to set their goal. By focusing on progress and improvement, students are more likely to embrace challenges and persevere in the face of setbacks.
Encourage Persistence
Emphasize the importance of perseverance and the value of learning from mistakes. My students had a tendency to give up when things were difficult or they didn’t think they had the correct answer. I would give a quick hint and encourage students to try again. Many were reluctant to begin, but quickly realized they could accomplish the challenge.
Teachers can provide effective feedback instead of just grades that maximize student learning despite time constraints and large class sizes. Combining Hattie’s research on the power of feedback with Dweck’s insights on mindset, I created a classroom culture that fostered student growth and maximized achievement—you can, too.
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.
