Feedback Whole Class:

Providing prompt effective feedback is imperative for the ultimate success of the students.
During my instructional unit on addition and subtraction, I provided feedback in a variety of
ways. During whole class instruction, I questioned students throughout the unit. The method
previously set up in the classroom consisted of students names being pulled out of a jar.
Sometimes I would directly call on specific students if I saw a lack of focus or if the students
seemed to be clearly confused. No matter who was called on, I always asked students to
explain their thinking. Since the whole idea of explaining their thinking was somewhat complex
for 2nd grade students, I allowed them to explain their thinking through a picture or some type of
model. Having students explain their thinking allowed me to provide the students with more
detailed feedback during the discussion. If students answered incorrectly, I would allow other
students to assist them in answering the question. Allowing the students to hear their
classmates explain things sometimes provided the students with a better understanding of the
problem. Oftentimes, I would go back to the students who answered the questions incorrectly to
have them answer a similar problem to check the effectiveness of the feedback given. I find that
discussion, especially discussion that involves the students explaining their thinking, provides
great insight to what the students really know. A lot of the times, the class discussions directed
my path and flow of the lesson.
Formative assessments were another huge tool used in providing the students with feedback.
Check my progress worksheets and anecdotal notes taken during small group lessons really
allowed me to provide specific individualized feedback. The most effective feedback, in my
opinion, was the feedback given to students during small group instruction. I always took
anecdotal notes during small groups, so that every time we met, I could say to students that
this, specifically, is what you did last time. Heres how we can fix that.
Feedback with Individual Students:
My high performing student performed extraordinarily well throughout the unit from pre- to postassessments and all of the formative assessments in between. I always made a point to call on
this student during whole group instruction to hear his thinking and to provide the other students
with another explanation of how to solve the problem. It was amazing to see the students make
the final connection after hearing another one of their classmates explain the same problem. I
had to provide a different type of feedback to this student compared to the other students in the
class. We talked more about ways to push his learning to the next level. I suggested more
difficult activities that could be integrated through technology or other worksheets. He thought
this was good idea and seemed to be very encouraged. We also discussed ways he could
assist his classmates with understanding the strategies being taught.
My average performer required more attention and feedback in the beginning of the unit, but this
lessened as the student became more confident with her work. This student really participated
in whole group discussion, so this allowed me prime opportunities to correct her thinking with
instant feedback. It was very clear to me that this student was making progress throughout the
unit based on her formative assessments. A lot of the feedback given to this particular student

was based on careless mistakes. Sometimes this student would become overly confident and
work too quickly through her work. I suggested that she check each problem at least once to
ensure she gets the same answer each time. Her post-assessment was a prime example of
working too quickly through her work. Each problem missed on the post-assessment was a
direct example of careless mistakes.
My low performer required much more attention and feedback. I called on him during whole
group instruction and corrected his thinking when wrong. When this student answered questions
correctly, I made sure to praise him and restate this thoughts to reinforce his correct thinking. A
lot of his mistakes throughout my instructional unit on addition and subtraction were mixing up
the addition and subtraction signs. I suggested him reading the problem out loud, and asking
himself if the answer he got made sense. I also suggested drawing pictures to help him find the
answer. A lof of his problems derived from not being able to read things in his head.I realized
this when he could read the problems out loud to me and receive the correct answers. This
feedback seemed to help a lot during the unit, but he did not use this strategy on his postassessment.
Adjustments and Modifications:
While my feedback to students is extremely important, the feedback I receive from the students
is extremely important for guiding me with future lessons within the unit. During the lesson on
relating addition and subtraction, I had to modify my lesson because students werent able to
understand the connection between the two. Hands on modeling really assisted the students
with understanding the concept, and it was great because I could watch the students form the
models and provide instant feedback. I used the formative assessments throughout the unit to
plan specific instructional strategies based on the student feedback. Students worked really well
in the small group rotations, and based on the feedback given from the students I decided to
continue teaching in this method. Small group rotations proved to be a very effective
instructional strategy for math in this classroom. The most common mistake found on the post
assessments all revolved around problem solving. Problem solving is a very difficult concept for
students to understand. For this reason, we briefly revisited the problem solving questions on
the post-assessment, but I did not dwell too hard on this concept because problem solving
comes up in between every four lessons throughout the MyMath workbook. Overall, most of the
adjustments or modifications made throughout the unit were based on on whole and small
group discussions as well as written formative assessments. These adjustments and
modifications were made in the best interest of students to lead to the mastery of the unit
objective for this unit.