How To Provide Middle School Students With Feedback On Their Writing

Provide Feedback That Helps Your Students To Love Writing

Have you ever had a student hand you a completed writing assignment with a look of pride and accomplishment on their face? You know that they have worked hard on the assignment, but when you sit down to read it, it’s just…not good? Their writing might be completely off topic, or it might lack any clear structure, or it might have too many grammatical errors to count.

Situations like these are always a little tricky for educators. We want to provide our middle school students with writing feedback that will help them to grow, but at the same time we don’t want to point out all of their errors and crush their spirits. After all, no one feels good about getting a paper back that’s covered with red ink.

So how can we provide meaningful feedback on these types of assignments?

FOCUS ON THE CONCEPT

While it might be tempting to start circling every error in every sentence, that’s probably not the most helpful route to take. I like to narrow things down to two or three topics that I want to focus on. If we have recently covered a writing concept in class, I try to focus on that. For example, if we have just done a lesson on using relevant textual evidence, or on making sure that our body paragraphs support our thesis statements, then I will focus on those topics. If we have recently covered a Writing Revolution lesson on combining sentences, then that will be my focus. 

Once I’ve chosen two or three areas to hone in on, I leave the rest alone. Yes, there might be run-on sentences. Yes, there might be capitalization errors in every paragraph. Yes, the conclusion paragraph might only be one sentence long. But I choose to let those errors go so that I can focus on areas where I want the student to grow. If I focus on everything at once, there is a high chance that the student will become overwhelmed, and won’t make any progress. They might even become discouraged and become less willing to try to improve in the future. So I try not to go beyond three focus areas at a time.

THE SANDWICH METHOD

With those focus areas in mind, I then go about writing constructive feedback. Middle school students can be sensitive about their work. In order to help students receive the feedback in the way that it is intended, I like to use the sandwich method.

The sandwich method is fairly simple. We simply sandwich the area of growth between two positive statements. Positive feedback – area of growth – more positive feedback. Here’s an example:

You are getting much better at creating topic sentences that support your thesis statements! Remember that each body paragraph needs at least two pieces of evidence to support the topic sentence. Your second body paragraph only has one piece of evidence. Please include another quote to support your analysis. The quote that you did include is perfect, and I love the reasoning that you use to explain its relevance.

Here we have specific and actionable feedback sandwiched between two positive statements. This gives the student something to work on while praising them for the things that they did well.

USE RUBRICS

I like to use rubrics when scoring writing assignments. Especially in middle school, students like to know why they received the score that they did. Rubrics help students to make sense of their score, and they make grading easier for teachers. 

Even though my written feedback will be limited to my chosen focus areas, the rubric can be a place to address other issues. For example, if I have a category on the rubric dedicated to editing or proper use of grammar, the students might receive a low score in this area. While I won’t circle every grammatical error on their actual assignment, I might write a brief note on their rubric saying, “Watch out for capitalization errors and run-on sentences.” This helps to make sure that students are aware of the problem, without me hammering them over the head with corrections.

LOOKING AHEAD 

If I notice that a student has repeatedly turned in assignments that are riddles with errors, I try to be proactive. When our next writing assignment rolls around, I make it a point to check in with them during each stage of the writing process. As I work my way around the classroom, talking to students about their writing, I am sure to meet with that student, look over their work, and help them fix minor problems before they get too far into their writing. Ideally, this will result in less errors when they turn in their final drafts.

CONCLUSION

When it comes to providing feedback on middle school writing assignments, I have found that focused feedback sandwiched between positive statements produces the best results. If I am ever tempted to go overboard with my correction pen, I simply remind myself that the goal is student growth. And when it comes to student growth, a few well placed reminders can go a long way.