Effective feedback: Revisit and respond
Revisit and respond is a type of feedback that requires students to consolidate their understanding by practising more questions, similar in style to the ones that have been marked.
What does it mean?
Revisit and respond is the third in a series of five ‘actions’ that students can take after receiving their work back. If a student needs to develop their answer to a particular style of question, you can give them more of the same type of question to practise as part of their feedback. For example, in English, you could ask a student to write a second PEE (point, evidence, explanation) paragraph using a different quotation as evidence. This technique replaces retrospective marking with a forward-looking approach that is active rather than narrative.
What are the implications for teachers?
Tailor the questions you provide to each student. Some will need to go back over the fundamentals while others may require more challenging extension questions to progress.
Avoid giving a commentary on what students have done before. You can put that time to better use by designing further questions for your students, informed by your review of their work or by their performance in a test.
Co-plan with your colleagues to produce multiple ‘banks’ of different types of questions. This early investment of time will produce valuable resources and save you all time in the long run.
Want to know more?
- Hattie J and Timperley H (2007) The power of feedback. Review of Educational Research 77(1): 81-–12.
- Sherrington T (2017) Five ways of giving effective feedback. Available at: https://teacherhead.com/2017/12/18/fiveways-of-giving-effective-feedback-as-actions/ (accessed 26 October 2018).
