Comment Only, No Grades
Butler found comments alone produced the greatest gains. A grade cancels the comment: students see the score and skip the words. If grades are mandated, delay until feedback is used.
Find this under Make feedback more useful
The strategy, as published
Exactly as it appears on the card
Part of Timing & Frequency in 03 Feedback, where it sits alongside its neighbouring strategies, the infographic and the thinking for the whole area.
Why you might use it
The problem it may help with
Butler's study gives this strand one of its clearest warnings: when a grade sits alongside a comment, pupils look at the grade and miss the guidance. Comments alone produced the greatest gains.
The grade does not just distract from the comment, it cancels it. Two lines of careful writing in the margin cannot compete with a number at the top of the page.
What it might look like
One version of it, in a classroom
A geography teacher returns assessed work with comments only. Pupils respond to the comments and improve one section; only then, at the end of the week, do the grades go into the gradebook and become visible.
Try it
A way to begin
Choose one low-stakes piece and return it comment-only. Compare what pupils do with it against what they did last time a grade was attached.
What to notice
Reading what happens
- The first thing pupils look for when work comes back, and how long they spend on the words once there is no number to find.
- Whether the talk between pupils shifts from comparing scores to comparing responses.
Things to think about
Before and while you use it
- If your school mandates grades, the card's advice is sequencing, not defiance: delay the grade until the feedback has been used.
- Comment-only work still needs comments worth acting on. Removing the grade exposes the quality of what is left.
Technology second
Where technology fits
Most digital gradebooks and annotation tools show pupils a score the moment work is returned, which puts Butler's problem straight back on screen. If the approved tool in your setting has a hide-grades or scheduled-release option, use it: comments first, response time next, the number afterwards.
The wider thinking
Where the evidence sits
Butler's research distinguished task-involving from ego-involving feedback; a grade pulls attention towards how I did as a person, which is precisely the attention shift Kluger and DeNisi found so costly. The card’s attribution stands as published: Butler.
The fuller picture, sources included, is in further reading and evidence for Feedback.
Keep exploring
Where next?
Back to this strategy in 03 Feedback, across to what you're trying to improve, or into all 144 at once.
Want to take this further?
Support is available
Pedagogy First gives you a starting point. If you want support exploring how approaches like this can work across your school, trust or professional learning programme, that work is available.