Commenting and Feedback

Between reading comments and giving comments here, continually working on those little boxes flooded with words on my thesis Google Doc, and continually giving students feedback on, well, pretty much every thing, I have been thinking a lot about feedback and commenting.

There are many aspects to feedback and commenting (for today’s piece, I am calling one in the same), and I thought I would make it personal — about how I like to give and receive feedback.

The kind of feedback I like

1. Personal. I love it when my name is involved.
2. Noting how hard I have worked. And, yes — even these little slice of lifes, I do work on them. I brood and think over them. So I really like a specific acknowledgement to time, putting it out there, etc.
3. Specific, specific, specific! Something you liked or a feeling I gave you in my writing.
4. A question or wondering or connection to your life.
5. Anything you think I should do next.

The kind of feedback I like to give

1. Use your name if I am confident on your name (students always!)
2. I usually ask you how you are, note something funny or silly in your work, or just interesting.
3. I leave YOU out of it; I make it about the work. For example, “the way this metaphor was used really gave me as reader a strong visual to match your experience. This helped me understand you.”
4. Something I loved or thought was really interesting. I might quote a line, or a spot.
5. Where I think you should go next — either revising, chunking, clarifying…

A sample of me working on the “bulk” of student feedback. Does anyone else do this with their students?

In the end, I want students to feel like I put just as much effort into reading and thinking about their work as they did in writing. Commenting is such a personal experience, and I wonder:

1. What kind of feedback do you like?
2. What is the feedback process for your students?