Providing feedback to kindergartners is sometimes challenging. On my best days I am able to spend a couple minutes with every student and open with the question, “What do you think about your work?” Sometimes I will ask them a more specific question such as, “Which one of these letters did you write the best? Why?” I ask these questions to spark their metacognition and get them thinking about their work critically. We then discuss what they did successfully and what to work on moving forward. Feedback on how to move forward is presented as actionable steps the student can take immediately. I will then stay to observe their continued work and point out the feedback they have implemented. When I am in a rush I try to find one thing that a student has done well and tell them I noticed it. Then I will find one thing they did not do successfully and point their attention to it. I will have them agree to work on this in the future before hurrying away. Something I privilege while giving feedback is every piece of work having something that was done successfully and something to work on for next time. I try to keep my feedback between students consistent by choosing one thing to look at every day and telling the students explicitly what I will be looking for. For example one day while practicing writing letters I may tell students that I am looking for letters to touch the bottom line. When I give feedback it will mostly focus on this element of their work. This allows students to receive feedback on several skills and allows me to have clear goals when giving feedback. Focussing on one goal for each assignment allows kindergarteners to learn about each goal in more detail and recognize it in their work. Their age also means that feedback given during work is significantly more valuable than feedback given after completing work. Most kindergartners are not likely to remember what feedback they were given yesterday but can implement actionable feedback in the moment. When I give feedback I try to get student’s to use metacognition, provide actionable steps, and keep it specific.

Providing Feedback