Turn Up Achievement with Practice Turns & Feedback

In the March edition, I mentioned that I was reading the book Great Instruction Great Achievement for Students with Disabilities by John L. O'Connor. I was surprised to find that so much of the book spoke to me. Most of the teachers with whom I work are not special educators (although nearly all of them have students with disabilities in their classrooms) and, despite the title of the book, I found the strategies to be good for ALL LEARNERS, not just those with disabilities.

The author poses the question, "Can we make a list of instructional practices that if implemented effectively, would increase the achievement of a large majority of students?"  He makes his list and goes on to make a compelling case for the first item listed: Drastically increase practice turns and feedback.  I have always known that these are important, but something about this section of the book really spoke to me on a new level and has impacted both my thinking and my practice.

Making The Case
FOR INCREASED PRACTICE TURNS & FEEDBACK

After reading this section of the book, I looked around and began noticing just how important practice turns and feedback really were in terms of learning -- and I don't just mean "school learning" but all learning! Think about it... we learn by making attempts and receiving feedback. When my trio of teenagers was learning to drive, we often went out together to practice (I have triplets, so all three of them got their learner's permit at the same time!). When we were practicing parallel parking, I made sure that they each had many many practice turns behind the wheel. They each needed practice turns – they each deserved feedback that was constructive and specific. After all, you can't learn to parallel park by simply sitting in the car while someone else practices. With each practice turn, they each received plenty of feedback from multiple sources: 

• THE CAR: Did the car do what they expected? 
• THE CURB: Did they successfully get the car between the orange cones without hitting the curb? 
• THEIR MOM: And, of course, they also received feedback from me as I gasped, clenched, and silently made noises that weren't so silent! 

The feedback they received, played a role in their next practice attempt until each of them was finally able to successfully parallel park.  

We see the importance of practice turns and feedback in the realms of athletics, academics, the fine arts, and in any other field that includes demonstration of skill and knowledge. If you ask virtually anyone how you get better at playing the piano (or blocking a tackle, solving equations, or singing), the answer is invariably, "practice practice practice". Any teacher, coach, professor, or construction worker will tell you that you get better at a skill by doing that skill. (O'Connor, p.26) 

In the mathematics classroom, this does not mean going back to the days of long, repetitive worksheets with 57 math equations! Think about the skills that we want students to be able to do? If we want them to develop skill in reasoning with numbers and articulating their ideas, then we need to offer them practice turns that require reasoning and involve them in discussions where they articulate their ideas about their reasoning. We'll talk about some specific classroom strategies to increase practice turns and feedback in a minute, but first, let's talk about the importance that feedback plays in the learning process.

Practice doesn't do much if we don't receive feedback about that practice. Imagine that I was trying to learn sign language. I practice learning words and constructing sentences, but I never receive any feedback about whether I am signing the words correctly or putting the words together in a way that makes sense – I need feedback. I need to use that language with someone who understands sign language to see if they can understand me. I need to participate in a conversation to see if I understand them. If they look confused or laugh, well, that's feedback. Ask me about the summer I was a lifeguard at a summer camp for the deaf and had twenty teenage boys rolling with laughter (unintentionally!) because I confused two signs that are similar as I (inappropriately) welcomed them to camp.... I received feedback that day and knew I needed to adjust. I needed more practice (a lot of it!), and I needed to be mindful of the feedback I received so I could make the appropriate adjustments that would eventually allow me to successfully communicate with the campers that summer.

When students struggle, they need MORE practice turns and more feedback than those who are not struggling, but often get less. Let's go back to my summer camp experience: I was not very skilled at signing, so the other lifeguard was the one who communicated with the campers most often. That OTHER lifeguard got a lot of practice; I shied away from signing with the campers and didn't get much opportunity to practice. Those who were better at it did most of the "talking" and received most of the practice turns. In reality, I needed even more practice than the other lifeguard, but actually got much less. The same thing happens in our classrooms. Mr. O'Connor explains it better than I can possibly paraphrase, so I'll quote him instead:

With twenty-five or more students in many classrooms, it is hard "to see" these students [the ones who need more practice turns]. They become invisible. The students don't answer questions. They don't volunteer to lead groups. They don't get engaged in those healthy discussions or debates in class. They don't disagree when a student or teacher says something that doesn't make sense, and they certainly don't ask for help. When the students are assigned independent work, they are masters at pretending they are engaged, but their apparent engagement is an act, a survival mechanism. They often don't understand the work and they don't want the other students or the teacher to understand that they don't understand. These students are invisible and they take very few practice turns and receive very little feedback. The youngsters who need the greatest number of practice turns take the fewest. (p.28)

An Action Plan
TO INCREASE PRACTICE TURNS & FEEDBACK

The truth of the matter is, in most classrooms, the teacher is the one who gets the most practice turns – I think we can agree that the teacher is the one who needs the least amount of practice, right? So let's work to remedy who is getting the most practice turns....

Let's consider a few ideas about how we can design our lessons and structure our classroom practices to facilitate a drastic increase in practice turns and feedback:

Every student in your classroom should be offered many (many!) practice turns every day. These practice turns are a key element of all learning. Along with increased practice turns, we MUST offer feedback that is timely, specific, and actionable, as well. Imagine that Tom practices his golf swing for 3 hours every day but never receives any feedback as to whether he is doing it correctly. How will he know if his swing is effective? He won't. If he is practicing his swing with a golf ball on a tee, the golf ball itself can provide feedback: Did the ball leave the tee? Did the ball go where he intended? How far did the ball travel? If Tom has a coach offering additional feedback, the coach may recommend a different grip on the club, suggest that he follow-through on the swing, or perhaps explain how a certain club such as the putter or driver works better in specific situations. For Tom to just go out and swing the club without receiving feedback will certainly not make Tom a better golfer. In fact, it may even lead to some bad golfing habits and beliefs about how to swing a golf club that are counter-productive and difficult to undo later down the road.

As you think about instruction in your classroom, ask yourself if you provide every student with an abundance of practice turns -- remember, EACH STUDENT must have many opportunities to swing the club himself and receive feedback about his swing. If the teacher just demonstrates the swing without providing many practice turns for the learner, the only one getting ample practice is the teacher! Our job is not to swing the club – our job is to provide feedback to our students as THEY swing the club. Our students will experience greater levels of achievement as WE become more mindful and purposeful with "drastically increasing the number of practice turns and feedback".