Engaging Teacher Candidates: High Quality Feedback, Self-Reflection, & Goal Setting

Presenter:

A retired New York City Department of Education teacher and instructional assistant principal of 31 years, Karen made the move to higher education first as a full time Assistant Professor of Education at the College of New Rochelle, NY. and now serves as the Director of Field Based Education and Accountability at the Graduate School of Education at Fordham University. In this capacity, she works closely with student teachers and their field specialists. In addition, she develops strong, mutually beneficial partnerships with Title 1 districts and schools that serve underrepresented and high needs communities. She is thrilled to share how she uses GoReact as a video coaching tool with a view towards improving teaching and learning. Karen earned her doctorate in Educational Leadership from the Graduate School of Education at Fordham University.

Transcript:

Jessica Hurdley:

I am pleased to introduce Dr. Karen Andronico, who is the director of Field-Based Education and Accountability at the Graduate School of Education at Fordham University. Welcome, Dr. Andronico. I’ll go ahead and turn the time over to you now. If you want to go ahead and share your screen.

Karen Andronico:

So, Jessica, very quickly, am I sharing my PowerPoint or-

Jessica Hurdley:

Yes, you’re going to go ahead and share your PowerPoint.

Karen Andronico:

Okay. Just give me a minute. Hey, nothing like starting at the beginning. All right. Welcome, everyone. Very happy that you have attended this session, engaging teacher candidates, High-Quality feedback, Self-Reflection and goal setting. And just to see, we hope you’re going to enter your names and where you’re from in the chat so we can see who’s viewing. We did have a poll question, but for now, just to give you something to think about, to get you ready to discuss feedback, do you spend a lot of time, sometimes hours giving feedback, but some teacher candidates fail to absorb it? And when I say teacher candidates, I’m referring to student teachers that are in teacher preparation programs. So if you’d like to think about that. Jessica, do we have the poll going?

Jessica Hurdley:

They could just enter in the chat.

Karen Andronico:

That’s fine. I want to have enough time for all our activities, so it’s just something for you to think about and I’m going to move on. So the first thing, I think, is to establish a good definition of what effective feedback is, especially with regard to teaching practice. So I’m going to read this from Douglas Reeves and just underline what’s really important here. Effective feedback, not only tell students how they performed, but how to improve the next time they engage in the task.

Effective feedback is provided in such a timely manner that the next opportunity to perform the task is measured in seconds, not weeks or months. So the main thing is in giving feedback, it’s not only telling objectively what they did but what they need to do next to improve. And that’s called actionable feedback. Again, it’s also an objective description of a student’s performance intended to guide future performance. It’s not evaluation, which judges the performance. Feedback is the process of helping our students assess their performance, identify areas where they are right on target, and provide them tips on what they could do in the future to improve.

So I see so many comments and that’s why I love GoReact. I can actually view what the field specialists are writing, and there was such an array of different types of feedback and many of which were not helpful for the student. That’s why GoReact allows me to develop professional development sessions in order to improve the quality of the feedback. So I see so many comments. I really like your bulletin board, or I really like what you did when the kids were on the rug, but it’s really not about like or love. It’s very objective and leading to the next steps.

It’s not about praise or blame approval or disapproval. It’s not about like or love or I didn’t like. It’s value neutral. And some people may disagree, but as we move on, I hope you’ll think about this. It describes what you did and did not do. So effective feedback shows where we are in relationship to the objectives. In other words, the rubric criteria for good teaching and what we need to do to get there. It’s so important for students to understand their strengths and their areas for improvement, but also based on a certain set of criteria.

So they’re very aware of what goes into good teaching and learning. It’s also a two-way street. When I went to school, I always felt the feedback was something done to me. I wasn’t an active participant, I’d get my paper back all in read. And because I was motivated, I did correct my paper. But having that two-way conversation and GoReact certainly encourages that greatly.

So providing multimodal feedback via GoReact effective feedback is critical to the development of teacher candidates, but making it effective requires it being targeted to a skill timely and specific. Somebody said, “Oh, you need to improve your classroom management.” That’s very vague and general, and we’ll talk later about what it takes to make it very specific and actionable. And as a GoReact user, you have all the tools needed to deliver the components of effective feedback.

So I just would like you to take a minute to pause and think about the definitions that I provided. Think about the current feedback that’s being used for possibly your teacher candidates, is it actionable, is it objective? Is it aligned to rubric criteria, do the students have enough feedback so they know when they go into the classroom their next lesson plan, they can make a change? So what happened was because our feedback that I saw from… We call them field specialists, were so different from one another. And I said, “We need some kind of consistent model of effective feedback.”

So I developed this, I’m not saying it’s the only model, but at least it was a start so that the students would be able to get the kind of feedback that was going to move them to the next level on the rubric. Of course, the model requires the use of a marker. The markers that we created at Fordham Graduate School of Education are directly aligned with the components of the Danielson Rubric. It doesn’t matter what rubric you have, our markers are also coded like 1E, 1D. So right away it’s aligned. So for a model, I said, “Okay, so this marker was…” I think it’s 3B, higher-order questioning and discussion.

So now here comes your written comment. Notice that it’s objective. I’m not saying I really liked the question you asked. I’m not saying that was really great that two students answered. I wrote, “You asked a higher-order question. How do we know that Jonah is a good friend? Cite two pieces of evidence from the text.” So we know that 3B asks for higher-order, so I named it. Okay? The credit is given that you asked a higher-order question. Then I said, two out of 12 students responded to the question and you responded to and assessed all of the responses.

So again, I was objective. I didn’t say only two students responded, and I didn’t say you were the only one that assessed the responses. It’s just completely objective. I’m following the research-based definitions for effective feedback, but then I’m adding the actionable next step. So I wrote, and this is just a model, “Next time, increase the number of participants by asking the students to turn and talk, and then circulate so you can assess and give feedback. In addition, instead of assessing the student responses yourself, ask, ‘How many agree with Johnny? Why do you agree with Johnny? Who had a different answer?'”

So it’s twofold because if you read the Danielson Rubric, it also includes discussion techniques, which means how are you going to get the students to respond to one another into a accountable talk type of discussion? It’s not ping pong, teacher-student, teacher-student, it’s all about the volleyball, student to student. So also we have the rubric that is attached to our comment page. So what I did was I went to the rubric and I actually highlighted the part of the rubric that shows where they are according to this marker. And basically, this explains almost exactly what I saw. The teacher attempts to ask some questions designed to engage students in thinking, but only a few students are involved. That was right in the rubric.

I know the students get a little nervous when they see this evaluation. You could call it… I think the original Danielson called it something else that wasn’t maybe as harsh. But the bottom line is they need to know, especially right from the beginning, they need to know where they are in order to go to the next level, as we say when we’re playing a video game. And then again here with the teacher mediating all questions and answers and only a few students participate. So they’re in between these two rubric components.

So then I just made a quick feedback checklist, did you provide evidence? Did you align that evidence with the marker and the rubric? What did you see? What did the teacher do? What did the students do? How is that evidence aligned… Align that with the marker and the rubric, and then clearly indicate the next step and try to provide a research-based strategy, for example, the turn and talk. I might have modeled that using video on GoReact. I might have uploaded a YouTube video of a turn and talk. I may have also uploaded an article on accountable talk. And then the student could also, as they’re practicing that skill, the student can also send you a quick practice video of their practicing that skill.

This was, and I hope this link works, and this also was a live example of… I’m just going to show you one component. I hope it loads, otherwise you won’t get a copy of all of this. It’s taking a little while. Do we have time for me to… I think I have to sign in.

Jessica Hurdley:

Yeah, go ahead.

Karen Andronico:

Okay, so while I’m signing in, I want you to think about what we just spoke about. See if this works. And so this is an example of actually using the model with a video. I’m trying to stop this. Oops. Okay. So I might try… I don’t know. Let’s see. I will try… Maybe I’ll use the… I don’t know, use of formative assessment.

Speaker 3:

[inaudible 00:13:31]. When I say go, you’re going to talk with your partner. [inaudible 00:13:37], how are they treated when they first [inaudible 00:13:41]? Talk with your partners, okay? And then I’ll move your chair over there [inaudible 00:13:46].

Karen Andronico:

Sorry. Can everyone hear it?

Speaker 3:

[inaudible 00:13:58].

Speaker 4:

[inaudible 00:13:58].

Speaker 3:

[inaudible 00:13:58].

Karen Andronico:

Okay. So if we look at formative assessment, the teacher showed a clip from West Side Story, that song when they’re singing America, and she asked the students right here, you asked the students to turn and talk to discuss the following question. Based on the lyrics and what they said, how were immigrants treated when they came to America? Students responded, “They had a rule that if you were white, you could come to America and only whites were allowed to come to America.” The other students agreed.

After their discussion, you told them that was only during the first immigration. So for next steps, this is what I saw, and I didn’t show the whole clip. I saw them watching the little video of them singing America. And then I watched the student discussion. Next steps, based on the turn and talk. And again, this is marker 3D down here, which we changed. Yeah, we used a formative assessment and that’s right from the component of the Danielson Rubric.

So based on the turn and talk, it was clear the students did not understand the meaning of the song. The song did not say only whites could come to America. So the students misunderstood. The song really spoke to the hardships they faced when they did come to America based on the point of view. So I suggested that she provide a written text with the lyrics maybe after they watch it or even before. And ask students to underline or place a star or emoji next to the words that shows how the Puerto Ricans were treated when they came to America.

Ask students to find one to three lines or phrases that provide evidence on how the immigrants were treated. So basically, the rubric said students appear to be only partially aware of the assessment criteria and the teacher monitors student teaching for the class as a whole because she was walking around and speaking while they were talking. So that’s just an example of how you might use this model to give feedback so that they walk away with an idea of what to do next time, possibly. Okay. Now I have to find my PowerPoint again. Okay. Is everyone seeing the PowerPoint again?

Speaker 3:

Yes, you’re good.

Karen Andronico:

Okay. Okay, so now we were going to invite you to watch a video maybe for five minutes, five or six minutes. This video shows a teacher introducing vocabulary for social studies, something about government, and he’s introducing different words for the students. He’s going to break them into teams, and he’s asking them each team to write a sentence for each new word. Before we do that, I’m going to quickly just show you at a glance. If you want to refer to the markers that we provided, these are the domains that you’ll be able to see with the markers.

That 1A has to do with the planning. 1E, again, is about the lesson planning itself. But like 2A, the teacher interaction with students, showing mutual respect and rapport with the students, and students’ interactions with other students. So you could be looking at that. 2A, creating environment of respect to rapport or… Okay. So if you go to 3B, that’s my favorite, of course, I’m using questioning and discussion techniques. So it’s the quality of the questions, are they higher-order, are they open-ended? What kind of techniques is the teacher using to have the students engage in student-to-student discussion and student participation?

And just in general, engagement is 3C. We’re looking at grouping, pacing, what the activity really is. Is it really rigorous? What do you think of the task he gave them? What do you think of the instructional materials? And 3D is about assessment. How is he assessing student learning and how is he giving them feedback? So we invite you now. I would start at about five minutes and 28 seconds in. Maybe watch it for about five minutes. It’s only a clip, but just you could practice and choose maybe one of the markers that you would like to delve into. And this is your teacher. How can you give him feedback so that the next time the lesson might be more successful? What do you think he did well? So, Jessica, are you inviting?

Jessica Hurdley:

Yes, everybody should have been invited as a guest reviewer through GoReact to enter in and find that video. When you log in with either your credentials or quickly creating your guest reviewer account, there’s no cost to doing so, you’ll be able to go in and leave a comment in the format that Karen has discussed. So we’ll give you a few minutes to be able to do that, and then we’ll regroup to talk through. If anyone has not received that email, please feel free to let us know in the chat as well.

Karen Andronico:

Jessica, will they be sharing their screens or how are we going to see?

Jessica Hurdley:

We’ll pull it up on our end to share the-

Karen Andronico:

Okay. But you’ll be pulling it up? Okay. I think I’ll just leave this up.

Jessica Hurdley:

Or do you want to put up the feedback so they can reference the steps-

Karen Andronico:

Model?

Jessica Hurdley:

Yep.

Karen Andronico:

Oh, yes.

Jessica Hurdley:

There we go.

Karen Andronico:

There’s also a shorter checklist after that. I guess five minutes.

Jessica Hurdley:

Perfect. Again, if anybody is having trouble jumping into that video that you were sent via email, please let us know in the chat. If you did not receive it, if you can send to the host and panelists your email address, I’ll make sure that it’s sent to the correct email.

Karen Andronico:

I think they can access the rubric too if they wanted to highlight something. Does everyone know how to access the rubric with that little icon?

Jessica Hurdley:

The checkbox. It looks like a little clipboard with a check.

Karen Andronico:

A little clipboard. Right.

Jessica Hurdley:

Thank you for that feedback, Erin, as well.

Karen Andronico:

I think they could start entering some comments now.

Jessica Hurdley:

Absolutely.

Karen Andronico:

Maybe the chat, they could tell us when they think they’ve had enough time.

Jessica Hurdley:

That would be great.

Karen Andronico:

Another three minutes or so.

Jessica Hurdley:

Perfect. For those that are on this session, when you’ve entered in your piece of feedback on the video, please feel free to comment in the chat that you finished.

Karen Andronico:

How does it look, Jessica? People finished yet or they need more time?

Jessica Hurdley:

It looks like there is a little bit more time needed.

Karen Andronico:

Okay, that’s fine.

Jessica Hurdley:

From our attendees, are there any questions as you are going through and placing that feedback? Feel free to ask any questions in the Q&A, but also respond in the chat.

Karen Andronico:

Remember, you really only have time to watch about five or six minutes.

Jessica Hurdley:

It looks like we have two people who have entered in some feedback. Karen, do you want to stop sharing your screen and we’ll start from there?

Karen Andronico:

Sure.

Jessica Hurdley:

Perfect. I’ll go ahead and share my screen. And we’ll share these two pieces of feedback that came in.

Karen Andronico:

Sure. Thank you for sharing your work. And here we are, 3B engages student discussion. So, students… If you don’t mind, I’ll read it. Students are not actively engaged as a group, but appear to be working more in isolation. Students do not appear to have clear expectations. For example, when the teacher asked the first group leader to repeat the task, he didn’t know what to answer. There’s no next steps here. That would be the marker. To me, this is an accurate observation.

I think I would put it in more even more objectively here, this is objective, students appear to be working by themselves or in isolation. Again, we want to try to avoid as much evaluation and just writing what we see, but this really describes what we’re seeing. And so this would be, I think it’s 1A if I’m saying correctly.

So activating prior knowledge. So this is what we’re seeing, use of open-ended questions. Students grouped by readiness, interest learning style. I’m not sure how we know that, but connects prerequisite knowledge. So these actually look like they’re directly connected to the rubric. I would specifically write down an open-ended question. Like the example of it, like I did in my example, you asked an open-ended question, how blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. And I’m not sure how the students were grouped, he kind of count it off and moved them unless you saw something else.

Not sure that he… It showed that he actually had data like that to group them, but feel free to respond to that. And connecting prerequisite knowledge. I know he did that when he was giving the definitions. So basically, they were asked… Oh, that’s fine. No, we appreciate this. This is just practice. This is fine, and we appreciate your participation. We just wanted you to roll your sleeves up and try this out. So what I would suggest though, what’s next, how is this teacher going to improve for the next time? Did anyone else try this out? But thank you so much for your feedback.

Jessica Hurdley:

Looks like just the two so far, Karen. [inaudible 00:35:27].

Karen Andronico:

Okay. I just wanted you to not worry about giving perfect feedback, but just try it out. I guess I would share my screen again. Let’s see. Okay. And please feel free, if you didn’t understand what we had asked for you to try to do, please feel free in the chat to let us know if it wasn’t clear. So we shared out what was written. But again, the checklist would be are you objectively describing what the teacher did and what the students did? Are you connecting that to the rubric criteria? And does the student know where they stand in regards to the rubric criteria and what their next step is going to be? How is their instruction going to change next time?

Without that next step, think back to the definitions. The feedback has to be actionable. It has to lead to a change in their pedagogy. So what we’re talking about here, and I know our time is… We have a few minutes left, that was more about giving effective feedback. You must have the description of what you saw, the objective evidence, we call it. And it must be connected to the rubric criteria. And there must be a next step offering a research-based strategy of best practice for the student to implement pretty much right away after you discuss and maybe model or send the student a video or have them observe you using that best practice.

So now it’s about engaging the students, not just with great feedback, it’s moving forward with having them reflect and set goals. So again, I like to start with a definition of what reflection really is, and who better than John Dewey? Ongoing reflection is essential for our growth as educators. Consistent reflection on our experiences and setting clear and meaningful goals for our own progress as teachers should be part of each day.

And that’s serious. It’s reflecting on what went well, what would I change moving forward. If not all students were learning, then what can I do to improve that? And then it’s all about setting the goals for the next one very quickly. And then I’ll just go through the slides. And if you want the slide deck, you’re welcome to it. But how can you include more student voice? They should respond directly to your comments and GoReact.

You should have that ongoing dialogue. Students should write their own comments accompanied by markers directly on GoReact. They could do that before you even comment. Students should write a reflection in the comment box by just removing the timestamp based on your feedback and their self-assessment. So at the end, after reading the feedback, maybe they got some peer feedback or from their instructor that they need to write a reflection about that lesson in that comment box at the end. And they should write a measurable goal for improvement.

So I’ll show you an example of that. Student and field specialists. Some of my student teachers and field specialists watch the video together and are typing in their comments and reflecting. So I gave you here just some sample questions that if you are a mentor or field specialist, you could ask. One of my student teachers loves these questions.

Basically, what did I want the students to learn? Who learned? What evidence shows this? Who didn’t learn? What evidence do I have to show this? What will I do for the students next who learned? What will I do next for the students who didn’t learn? It’s just a quick… We were I was discussing with Jessica that we would like to try video journaling where students can create a video journal where they record their reflections and goals for the next lesson.

The last video journal can be an overall reflection of their growth over the semester as well as their goals for moving forward. So how cool is that that we could have video journaling and using reflection that way? Here’s a sample of a student reflection at the end of her lesson after receiving feedback. So she said that her students love to participate, but they couldn’t answer any of the open-ended questions. So her goal is to have 50 to 60% of students answering higher-order questioning by scaffolding their questions and differentiating them.

She also wanted to see how to use media to help her ENL students be able to participate in the discussion. So you see this reflection, she took the feedback. She’s creating what we call a smart goal, and she had a specific goal to work on. So she’s going to really have to work on how to scaffold those questions for her students so they could start answering more higher-order questions. And we left you some resources about virtual coaching and reflection. So I hope that would be helpful. And I think we have a couple of minutes to look in the chat if there’s any questions. Do we have a couple of minutes or not really?

Jessica Hurdley:

We do.

Karen Andronico:

Okay. But I want to thank everybody for attending, and let’s see if we have any questions. I know that was an awful lot.

Jessica Hurdley:

Questions that came in through the chat or through the Q&A.

Karen Andronico:

Oh, Q&A might… The link was blocked. Somebody, the link was blocked, they couldn’t access it. Oh, the captions on the GoReact were not understandable on the closed captions. And she’s deaf, so she really needed that. But she did like the concept, she said. Does anyone have any questions or even comments? Thank you. Thank your holistic approach to connecting our dynamic conversation with our teacher candidates. Thank you. I was not familiar with the rubric. Right. Right. So again, feel free to play around with it. You could just still use that model to provide feedback with whatever rubric that you’re using. But I think… Is our time up?

Jessica Hurdley:

It is. So thank you so much, Karen, for all of the information-

Karen Andronico:

Thank you.

Jessica Hurdley:

… you shared. It’s really insightful. And as you’re seeing students progress, I’m sure others who implement that process, we’ll see their students progressing as well.