.5 Evaluating Feedback

OK, so you've got a lot of information (feedback) about your students. Now how do you use that information to improve what you're doing or to acknowledge to yourself and others that you've done a good job? When should you make changes based on what you've learned? Learning to evaluate the feedback you collect takes practice. You have to time your response so that you don't react too early. Your evidence says they're not learning. But if your chart shows a flat learning curve (repeat graphic for Learning Curve H) you don't have to do anything, you just keep on doing what you're doing and eventually they're going to get it. But if it's this kind of learning curve (learning Curve L), you have to do something about it before it gets worse. The usual solution to this kind of problem is to revise your instruction.

As you evaluate student feedback, you have to be willing to make individual exceptions. Teachers often become victims of their own rules. They make rules and then follow them even when it isn't sensible. I can think of many times when I passed a student even when the numbers said I should fail them. You need to have a reputation for making the rules, but the wisdom to break the rules when you have a good reason for breaking them. Let people know there are exceptions. For example, we had a really picky student who had a picky question about every quiz. One of the questions he disputed had the wrong answer, an error on our part. We gave everybody an extra point on the quiz because of this. There was another question he challenged for which he could esoterically prove his answer was correct. Individually, we gave him credit because he went through a legitimate thinking process. But we didn't give extra points to everybody because it is very unlikely anyone else went through that thinking process. We made an individual exception. An exception like this is not something I would ordinarily announce to the class, but it isn't a secret either. As the teacher, you must put yourself in a position to legitimately break your own rules. You run the class; don't let your rules run the class.

	As feedback is evaluated, individual exceptions for students may have to be made. In doing so, teachers often become a victim of their own rules. Why does this happen?	Answer Here
	Jane Doe is a student in Mrs. Adams' Advanced Placement Calculus class. Jane's father had major surgery at the beginning of the semester, and he has been in and out of the hospital since then. As a result, Jane has missed a lot of classes and her grades have slipped from straight A's to barely C's. How can Mrs. Adams revise her instruction for Jane's purposes, and what accommodations could she make?	Answer Here