Feedback Loops and Tools for Connecting KidsWhen the Regina Catholic School Division introduced Office 365 and the power of sharing via OneDrive, it was more than just a chance for classrooms to go paperless. Office 365 provides students the opportunity to learn how to manage their files, share, collaborate and use the tools for increased communication.
In many classrooms, including Wendy Brassard’s grade 5 class, the students have learned how to use these tools to maximize their learning. File sharing has allowed more opportunities for teachers to reach all students, and analyze their growth. With sharing in OneDrive and the comments feature, a teacher can check the progress of her students after school and provide timely feedback. Rather than holding on to the student work, and making comments at night, she can do all of this on-line, while the student continues to engage in the writing process. Thereby freeing her to work face to face with more students in class time, particularly those who might need that intensive assistance. Office 365 allows for more opportunities for feedback loops and teacher-student communication. The comments feature not only is beneficial for communication and collaboration between teachers and students, it also can benefit peer communication, particularly when students engage in collaborative assignments and projects. In addition to this, students can also use the commenting feature to self assess, as it offers an opportunity for students to record their own reflections of their learning. As demonstrated in Mackenzie’s Fuel Shortage piece, students can show that they are thinking about their own learning or metacognition and how they are meeting the requirements for the assignment. By inserting comments, students can self assess and share their own reflections and analysis of their progress. This is an essential part of students learning about learning. |
Student Sample Work & CommentsBelow are student samples that reflect the use of commenting for student self assessment as well as teacher feedback.
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