.3 Individual Feedback

In this class, student initiative is a big issue in terms of knowing how well individual students are doing. Anytime I find students taking initiative on their own, I know they are engaged in the topic of study.

Reports from other teachers can be useful, but they can also be problematic. Some people say you should never get reports from other teachers because they stereotype the way you respond to your students. Each student should have the opportunity to start a relationship with a new teacher with a blank slate. But I think we should use reports. I want to have all the information I can get. However, it is wrong if you don't allow a student to escape from a stereotype.

One of the most powerful kinds of individual feedback is access to individual student records. Student records are important because you can look at both an individual record and a combination of other records to get a group file. These records place the teacher in a much better position to make judgments.

If you know your students, you can do a much better job teaching because you can tailor your lessons to the individual circumstances of your students. To do this you must rely on both group and individual feedback. We mentioned eye contact and in addition to this are other nonverbal clues found in body language. Teachers must rely on these things because they have to make many of their judgments based on feedback from groups rather than on an individual one-on-one basis. There are a lot of teachers that teach their groups without focusing on the sources of feedback.

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