processing — Learning Blog — Teaching to Learn

I have done theater for a long time now. I started in middle school, got my bachelor’s degree in it and continue to do it. I run my own theater company, Arts in the Open, here in Denver and continue to direct and be in shows. One thing that always happens in theater, whether you are the director, choreographer, music director, or an actor in the show is notes. Basically, for any non-theater folk, at the end of each rehearsal you all sit together and the director or choreographer gives notes on what went well or not, what looked good or not, basically how to make the show better for the next rehearsal or for opening.

This is a process that happens in every show. There is always time set aside for it either as a group or sometimes in writing if time is short. It is an expectation that this time or method will always be included in the process. The ins and outs of how notes are given and received is a whole other post’s worth of material, but it is always a part of collaborating to create a show. The Performer Learning Objective is the show after all. So why in education do we not specifically make time for this important piece of growth?

It is fair to mention here that time is a valuable currency for teachers. According to Goodwin and Hubble (2013) teachers only spend around 68% of teaching time actually teaching core curriculum, with other time swept up in other tasks. I am sure we have all felt the crunch for time while teaching even when planning to every minute, making routines effective for students, and using technology to our advantage. However, I would argue that taking time to receive and process feedback is worth the time. Teachers often worry that feedback goes ignored, not understood, or goes unheeded by students (Price et al, 2010). Therefore we must make the time to process this feedback if we don’t want these fears to be realized.

I was inspired in how to frame this time by Chris Kaundart (2019) in an article about processing feedback without stress when he used a lyric from a great song. Well, let's say “great” with quotation marks. He asserts that we should Stop, Collaborate, and Listen. Now I’m back with a brand new invention to use as a ten minute feedback processing exercise in my classroom. Each time I return written, oral, audio or video feedback to students or after they deliver feedback to each other I would like to have students take the following steps.

STOP - 3 mins 30 sec

In this step students will stop and re-read, or listen to the feedback again on their own. Or simply take it in and think about it. Maybe even calm down.

COLLABORATE - 3 mins 30 sec

In this step they can think of questions to ask the teacher or the student accessor about the feedback. They can have peers read, listen, or watch the feedback to get an outside view of it, maybe even collect questions they might have. They should choose the most important questions to ask.

LISTEN - 3 mins 30 sec

In this step students can ask the teacher or accessor the most important questions that they had about the feedback. They only have three and a half minutes after all.

So why these steps? “Stop” comes from the instant anxiety, defensiveness, or stress that can occur when you get feedback. Especially feedback that students feel is negative. In truth, receiving either good or bad feedback can make you anxious or stressed (Hayes, 2018). Any feedback can make you anxious because it is a situation in which you are being judged, usually by someone in authority like the teacher, but also just as scary maybe your friend or peer (Hayes, 2018). This stop gives students time to take a deep breath and actually process what the feedback is before reacting. A student’s first reaction may be stress, anger, or embarrassment and that can’t really be stopped, but we can give students the opportunity to attempt to change or stop that response (Kaundart, 2019).

Once we have taken the three and half minutes to get calm and actually know what the feedback is, we can collaborate on what it means and what we need to know more about the feedback. Group-thinking about how to ask questions about the feedback can help us clarify. Getting the opinion of someone outside the group you are in or even a good friend can help you see the feedback from a different angle. This can also be time to choose which questions you want to ask that will be the most important to help you absorb the feedback and grow from it.

Finally, listen. Once we have calmed down and picked the important questions, we are much more likely to be able to actually listen to the explanation of the feedback. One of the reasons getting feedback is so hard sometimes is that we equate feedback with judgement of us personally (Hayes, 2018). I remember an opera singer telling me that all notes in theater have to be written down by performers. When I asked why, his simple answer was that getting feedback, in our case notes, always feels like an attack on who you are. So his solution like “Stop” was to just write it down. Of course this isn’t true. My acting doesn’t make me a good or bad person, just like a lackluster paragraph about penguins doesn’t make a student good or bad. An important item to teach before using this system will be the difference between constructive feedback and just judging.

I plan to start with that first. I hope to create a lesson on what feedback is and how to give/get it. Once that has happened this 10 minute process can be used in class. I think it would be most effective after more high-stakes assessments or projects. Hopefully, after practice, students will be able to give and get feedback and actually use it after really analyzing what it meant and what should be done next.

Yo man, let's get out of here.

Word to your mother.

References

Goodwin, B., & Hubble, E. R. (2013). The 12 touchstones of good teaching: a checklist for staying focused every day. ASCD, McREL International.

Hayes, L. N. (2018, November 27). Why Feedback Makes Us Anxious. TalkSpace Voice. Retrieved from https://www.talkspace.com/blog/receiving-feedback-anxiety/

Kaundart, C. (2019, February 18). 5 Ways To Process Feedback At Work Without Triggering A Stress Response. Trello Blog. Retrieved from https://blog.trello.com/process-feedback-at-work-stress

Price, M., Handley, K., Millar, J., & O’Donovan, B. (2010). Feedback: All that effort, but what is the effect? Assessment & Evaluation in Higher Education, 35(3), 277-289. Retrieved from http://www.library.uwa.edu.au/__data/assets/pdf_file/0006/1888530/Price.pdf