Step Up Your Grade
Following my recent post on Assessment and as suggested in a feedback comment on that post, I am adding a few notes on a just piloted session titled Step Up Your Grade, which is being developed by members of the Academic Support team here at LCF. This session was arranged after I suggested to the AEM team that a session about unpicking marking criteria would be really useful to our students as they are asking about how they are graded. To be clear, I have not taken part in designing this session. However, after supporting the delivery of it today I have made some notes on how it was successful as well as how we might develop this further for the future.
Session delivered: “Step Up Your Grade is an academic support intervention providing an embedded 2-hour session to develop feedback literacy and agency. It involves small group (2/3) peer to peer unpacking of assessment feedback designed for students to analyse feedback, map it to the learning outcomes and create a plan to improve their work to achieve a higher grade. Initially aimed at yr3 as an attainment intervention it has much wider pedagogical implications when embedded within the curricula for yr1 students. Whilst this strategy can be used for student referrals it is designed specifically for high achieving students who want to break out of the C or B grade. (key to independence and autonomy)”
A couple of notes I took from my colleague’s opening of the session was first of all asking a quick warm up question of ‘where in the world are you?’ and asking students to answer in the chat. Also deciding to not record the session and announcing this at the start shows an intention that this is a safe space. The same thing was done by another colleague recently in a session we delivered on cultural appropriation. I think it’s important to remember that depending on the topic, it may sometimes be appropriate to not record an online session, just like an ‘in person’ session would not be recorded. This way the people in the room may feel more confident to share their thoughts, knowing that what is said in that space stays in that space.
The first task students were given was to share an emoji or gif that represents how they feel before, during or after receiving feedback. (In this case we were focusing on written feedback after assessment.) This Padlet from the last group is my favourite – full of every emotion! (The Padlets used were of course anonymous.)
The next task was for the students to pull out positive feedback they were given at their last summative assessment and post this onto a new Padlet. Some students said that they were struggling to find positive feedback or that they wish there was more. We discussed that sometimes the positive and negative feedback may be combined within the same sentence, which may make the positive harder to spot. I learned from this task that by saying ‘This was good, however.. this could be better..’ sort of means the suggestions for improvement gives the impression of erasing the positive. In the future I will aim to separate the sentences to help the positive feedback stand out better; ‘This was good. This could be better.’ I also learned to be conscious of making sure I write a good amount of positive feedback. In the past we have summarise with three areas of key positives and three areas of key improvements – I think this was a good idea which could be re introduced.
The rest of the session also covered assessment criteria – what the different areas mean and placing the feedback within the right category. This was done with positive feedback, but also later on with improvements. We also worked with a ‘mystery student’ piece of feedback. Some students in the last group fed back that they would like to see an excellent (A) example of feedback, which we agreed is a good idea.
Overall I really enjoyed connecting with students as well as tutors from the Academic Support department. I noted such a positive energy that emerged in the room as us tutors were speaking to the students and bouncing ideas off each other on how to unpick and fulfil the assessment criteria and achieve the best results possible. I also noted that this may be the first time students have been shown how to access their assessment feedback through Moodle (not via link in publication email) and how important it is to run these follow up sessions to encourage them to revisit their feedback many times, using it to improve and develop their skills. Not only by taking on areas of improvement, but to also understand areas of strength and to use this to their advantage by pushing this even further in the future.
Hi Erica, what a wonderful post to read – particularly as I’ll be doing my first set of assessments in a months time.
What a great ice breaker to use before, during and after the session. I really like the contemporary (and very accessible) use of memes to show an emotion, and a way to let a students personality really shine through. It must have created such a relaxed and friendly environment, where the students were keen to learn and contribute/engage in.
It’s so true that the assessment feedback can be a real mystery, and as you noted, a mystery as to how to find it for some! It’s great to unpack the differences between different grade bands to highlight how a student could potentially progress from one area to another. The use of their own summative feedback is a great way for the students to reflect critically on the feedback they themselves have received.
I’m so happy to have read your post, and will definitely be taking the advice of not combining positive and ‘room for improvement’ feedback notes in the same sentence. It’s definitely worth leaving the space to celebrate good feedback rather than adding the dreaded ‘but’ in the sentence. Thank you for the recommendation! 🙂
Hi Frances, thank you so much for taking the time to read my post and for your lovely comment. I’m glad you found a couple of useful tips. I’m sure you’ll do an amazing job!!
Hi Erica,
I really enjoyed reading this blog post and this sounds like a great session!
Your decision to not record the session and reflection on creating a safe space for non recorded discussions about particular topics such as cultural appropriation was fascinating. Having some sessions where students are aware that they aren’t being recording is creating a similar environment to the physical class room. Sometimes making a comment in a recorded session adds another level of pressure and can led to less engagement, so it is nice to see how you are building in opportunities online for nonrecorded sessions to take place too. I would be curious to know did you notice a difference in the level of engagement and discussion in your nonrecorded session?
Secondly It was great that you showed your students how to access their assessment feedback via Moodle. I’d love to know how if you could share those instruction as this would be great to share with our students. Encouraging students to refer back to feedback on a much more frequent basis is so important, and helping them to do this quickly and efficiently must really help in encouraging them to do this.
Thank you for sharing your ideas.
Crimson
Hello Crimson! Thank you so much for taking the time to read this post and for your comment. Yes, I have only quite recently been introduced to the idea of not recording sessions where there may be a more sensitive topic for discussion. (It seems so obvious now that I have been made aware.) yes – so true that it’s more like a physical classroom where what is said in the room stays in the room. Students did feed back later that they appreciated the session not being recorded.
Assessment feedback – just go to Moodle > Assessment Feedback (from drop down menu). Where we would add feedback students will see the feedback they have been given. Try through your student account and you should see the difference. I didn’t know this either until I had to work it out!
All the best!