Umaru was concerned about the quality of feedback he was giving to his JSS 2 Physical Science students. Most of the time, he just gave marks with the occasional comment. But Umaru had participated in a recent teachers’ meeting where he heard how research had showed that commenting on students’ work was very important.
However, although Umaru knew this was important, he also knew it was difficult to do because he had a large class and commenting in detail took a long time. After thinking about this, he came up with a new approach.
He would try to talk to every student individually every term and then write a comment following their discussion. He told the class that they would have this regular discussion and they kept a rota on the wall. In the meetings with each student, he talked with them about their progress and about areas they were having difficulty with and suggested ways to help them learn better.
He also told the class that at least every six weeks he would write more detailed feedback on how they were each doing in their exercise books and then they would take their books home so they could share the feedback with their families.