Incorporating Feedback into Teaching

Last week, a mentee came to me after her annual review. Her feedback was good — specific enough to sting a little. She walked out with every intention of acting on it. I asked her one question: "What's different on your calendar this week?" She paused. Nothing was different. That's where feedback dies — not in the reading of it, but in the week after, when life resumes and the document closes. Understanding feedback and acting on it are two completely different skills. Most people only practice one. Here's what I told her to do instead: 𝟭/ 𝗧𝗿𝗮𝗻𝘀𝗹𝗮𝘁𝗲 𝗲𝘃𝗲𝗿𝘆 𝗶𝗻𝘀𝗶𝗴𝗵𝘁 𝗶𝗻𝘁𝗼 𝗮 𝗯𝗲𝗵𝗮𝘃𝗶𝗼𝗿 "Be more strategic" tells you nothing. This does: take the project you're leading and present how it accelerates a priority your organization cares about — before your next leadership meeting. Specific. Timely. Actionable. For every piece of feedback, ask: what does this look like in practice? 𝟮/ 𝗔𝗱𝗷𝘂𝘀𝘁 𝘆𝗼𝘂𝗿 𝗴𝗼𝗮𝗹𝘀 If it doesn't make it into your goals, it's not going to happen. Don't create a separate "development item" that lives outside your work — embed it into the goal itself or into how you'll achieve it. If the feedback is "delegate more and develop your team," don't just note it. Update your existing goal to: 𝘥𝘦𝘭𝘪𝘷𝘦𝘳 𝘗𝘳𝘰𝘫𝘦𝘤𝘵 𝘟 𝘣𝘺 𝘘3, 𝘸𝘪𝘵𝘩 𝘵𝘸𝘰 𝘵𝘦𝘢𝘮 𝘮𝘦𝘮𝘣𝘦𝘳𝘴 𝘪𝘯𝘥𝘦𝘱𝘦𝘯𝘥𝘦𝘯𝘵𝘭𝘺 𝘭𝘦𝘢𝘥𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘬𝘦𝘺 𝘸𝘰𝘳𝘬𝘴𝘵𝘳𝘦𝘢𝘮𝘴. Same goal. The feedback is now inside it. 𝟯/ 𝗖𝗵𝗮𝗻𝗴𝗲 𝘄𝗵𝗮𝘁'𝘀 𝗼𝗻 𝘆𝗼𝘂𝗿 𝗰𝗮𝗹𝗲𝗻𝗱𝗮𝗿 Your calendar is your priorities made visible. If the change you need to make doesn't appear there, it won't happen. If the feedback is "scale your impact by partnering across the organization," don't wait for opportunities to show up. Schedule 1:1s this week with leaders in adjacent teams to learn their priorities. What's on your calendar next Monday tells you more about your intentions than anything you wrote in your development plan. 𝟰/ 𝗧𝗲𝗹𝗹 𝘀𝗼𝗺𝗲𝗼𝗻𝗲 Share what you're working on with a peer, a mentor, or your manager. Not for accountability theater — because saying it out loud makes it real. And it invites the micro-feedback you'll need along the way. 𝟱/ 𝗦𝗲𝘁 𝗮 𝟵𝟬-𝗱𝗮𝘆 𝗰𝗵𝗲𝗰𝗸-𝗶𝗻 𝘄𝗶𝘁𝗵 𝘆𝗼𝘂𝗿𝘀𝗲𝗹𝗳 Not "am I trying harder?" — what's actually different in what you do? If the answer is nothing, the feedback is already expiring. The annual review is a gift. Most people open it, admire it, and put it back in the box. If nothing changes in what you do, the outcome is likely to be the same. What’s one change you’ve actually put on your calendar this year? PS: If you know someone in the middle of their review cycle — send this their way. --- Follow me, tap the (🔔) Omar Halabieh for weekly Leadership and Career posts

Most teachers think they’re giving feedback. They’re actually giving advice. And the difference matters more than we think. I ran a training with 1,000+ university faculty. We ran a simple thought experiment: A student steps up to bat. The pitcher winds up… The ball flies in and the student closes their eyes. Swoosh. Miss. I asked: What feedback would you give? 99% gave advice: “Keep your eye on the ball.” “Don’t close your eyes.” “Watch the pitcher.” Helpful? Sure. But not feedback. Here’s the key distinction: Advice tells students what to do. Feedback helps them understand what they did. 🧢 Advice: "Keep your eye on the ball." 🪞 Feedback: "You closed your eyes as the ball was thrown." 🧢 Advice: "Swing earlier." 🪞 Feedback: "Your swing was powerful — but it came a second too late." Advice feels supportive. But it creates dependence. It solves the problem for the learner. Feedback does more. It holds up a mirror. It turns the learner into the solver. If you want students to think critically… If you want them to revise, reflect, and grow… Stop giving advice. Start giving feedback. Because advice says: “Here’s what I’d do.” But feedback says: “Here’s what you did — and what it means.” And that’s how real learning happens. Advice talks. Feedback teaches. The best teachers do less telling — and more showing. P.S. We are hosting an education webinar soon. Be sure to sign up! https://lnkd.in/e7KuBzZg #canvasfam

I watched a teacher with a group of leaders the other day give nearly every student feedback as she circulated. Eager to see how much better students’ writing was going to be after all that feedback, we walked around the room expecting to see big improvements. From student to student, their work looked exactly the same as it had before the feedback. What gives? So we listened more closely to the feedback she was giving: “You’re missing key details. Go back and revise.” We watched as a confused 7th grader flipped back through the text, unsure where to start. So we helped in the moment by having the teacher adjust her feedback: “You’ve written strong topic sentences for your two body paragraphs—nice work. Your second paragraph is missing two key details, like we named in the criteria for success. Re-read page 71 and find at least one detail to add. I’ll come back in five minutes to check the detail you added.” What happened next? Students’ writing actually improved, and here's the added bonus: so did their connection with the teacher. Instead of feeling frustrated or stuck, they were eager to show her their revisions. That formula — affirm the effort, name the gap, name the fix, and plan the follow-up — is one worth practicing, especially if you have 32 other students you need to give feedback to like she did. When teachers use it, student work gets better, and so do relationships.

As an ESL teacher with many years in the classroom, I have learned that feedback is not just something we give… it is something we build into our students. Feedback is often seen as the teacher correcting mistakes, but in reality, it is much more powerful than that. When done with intention, feedback becomes the bridge between where our students are and where they are going. In my classroom, feedback happens in different ways and at different moments. Sometimes it is immediate, gently guiding students as they speak. Sometimes it is delayed, allowing them the space to express their ideas first. Sometimes it is written, focused on one clear goal, so students can truly improve. Here are a few simple ways I gently guide my students in the moment: • Student: He go to school yesterday. Teacher: Yes, he went to school yesterday. Great idea! • Student: She have two brother. Teacher: Yes, she has two brothers. Thank you for sharing! • Student: I am agree with you. Teacher: I agree with you. That is a strong point! • Student: Yesterday I goed to the park. Teacher: Yesterday you went to the park. That sounds fun! These small moments matter. They keep the conversation going while modeling correct language respectfully and encouragingly. But one of the most meaningful shifts happens when feedback is no longer only from the teacher. When students begin to reflect on their own work and support each other, everything changes. They become more aware of their language. They begin to take ownership of their learning. They gain confidence in using their voice. This is where true growth happens. Peer feedback and self-reflection are not just strategies. They are opportunities for students to feel empowered, to listen with purpose, and to speak with intention. Strong feedback is not about correcting every error. It is about guiding, supporting, and empowering our multilingual learners so they can communicate clearly and confidently. In the end, our goal is not just language accuracy. Our goal is student voice. Mariel Gómez de la Torre-MAED Reading Specialist 04/24/2026

Too often, offering students feedback is an exercise in compliance. The professor offers feedback, and expects the students to incorporate all of it. (It’s like the professor is giving items on a checklist. The subtext: “do these things and I’ll give you an A.”) But I want my students to think about feedback differently. I want them to be able to cut between different sets of feedback, connecting them to each other and linking them back to their own understanding. With that in mind… Here’s the feedback cycle I’ve designed for my Comp II students at Berkeley. 1️⃣ Self-Assessment Students use their own self-designed rubric to evaluate their own performance. 2️⃣ Peer Assessment Students get feedback and assessment from other students. 3️⃣ Instructor Assessment I’ll offer feedback on the assignment. 4️⃣ AI Assessment Students get feedback from a custom chatbot. I will be incorporating some of Anna Mills’s prompts for the PAIRR framework. 5️⃣ Assessment Assessment (or Reflection) Students apply the different assessments to their own self-assessment. They defend their ultimate edits within the context of their Self-Empowering Writing Process (SEWP).