The Story of the Dialectical Journals…
So…I am eating dinner with my son after his hard fought football win (we always go out to dinner after his football games) and the conversation turns to grades…because…well…I am a high school Principal.
He says, “I have know idea if I am doing my dialectical journals correctly?”
I ask, “why not?”
His response, “because there is no rubric for how we are to be graded.”
Then he said something even more interesting…”I have now done three dialectical journals and have not received any feedback on them and they have not been returned. How am I to improve and get better if I am not receiving any feedback? In football, the coach is right there correcting us on the spot so we can do better.”
…and there it is! If a 15 year-old student understands the importance of feedback and academic growth, why can’t some teachers?
“Feedback is information about the task that fills a gap between what is understood and what is aimed to be understood.” – Visible learning: Feedback
“When teachers spend hours and hours writing comments, if there’s no feedback providing concrete steps for the students to improve, students will argue themselves blue in the face that they never received anything. The key question is, does feedback help someone understand what they don’t know, what they do know, and where they go? – That’s when and why feedback is so powerful, but a lot of feedback doesn’t—and doesn’t have any effect.” – Getting Feedback Right