Chapter 3 Feedback Exercise 1
Chapter 3
Effects of Classroom-Based Assessments on Students
Providing encouraging feedback
Exercise 1
Following are some examples of fifth grade students’ essays on the use of character-development strategies in a piece of fiction, Someday Angeline by Louis Sachar.
The learning objectives for the essays are shown next.
Learning objectives:
Students will learn how authors use various strategies (e.g., action, description, dialogue) to create characters.
Students will learn how authors useliterary devices(e.g., simile, metaphor, personification, imagery, symbols) to enhance the descriptive qualities of characters, setting, and plot.
Read the directions for students. Then, using the guidelines for feedback on pages 86 through 93 of your text, try providing some encouraging feedback that will (a) help each student learn more about writing literary essays and (b) support their motivation to learn.
Once you have finished, exchange papers with a fellow student or colleague. Discuss why you provided the feedback you did.
The task:
Students read the first chapter of Someday Angeline and responded to the following prompt. They had an opportunity to draft their essay. They revised it and then produced a final draft. The essays you see in this exercise represent the final drafts of fifth grade students at different levels of skill.
Here are the directions that the students had for the activity.
There are different ways that authors show what kinds of people their characters are. Some of these ways include
- Using the narrator to tell about characters
- Describing what characters say, think, and feel
- Describing what characters do
- Showing how characters react to another character
Now, read the chapter “A Goat with Two Heads” from Someday Angeline by Louis Sachar. As you read, think about the ways the author uses to tell you about Angeline. When you have finished reading the passage, do the writing activity below.
WRITING ACTIVITY DIRECTIONS
Angeline is caught in a special circumstance. Write an essay telling how the author, Louis Sachar, helped you know what kind of character Angeline is. In your essay, include any of the ways he used, including the following ways:
- How he described Angeline
- What the narrator told you about Angeline
- What Angeline said, thought, or felt
- What Angeline did
- How other characters reacted to Angeline
You may want to use a web or outline to plan your writing. At any time, you may look back at the writing activity directions or the chapter.
Keep the learning objectives in mind as you write encouraging and useful feedback for the following student essays.
HINT: Use the first four criteria from Characteristics of Effective Feedback to guide and evaluate your feedback.