Feed Up, Feed Back, Feed Forward

The strategy, as published

Exactly as it appears on the card

Part of What Feedback Is 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

Most comments tell a pupil how they did and stop there. Hattie and Timperley's three questions, where am I going, how am I doing, what next, are a quick test of whether a comment can actually move the work on.

A comment that only answers the second question leaves the pupil holding a judgement with nowhere to take it. The first question needs shared criteria; the third needs a next step the pupil can act on.

What it might look like

One version of it, in a classroom

A science teacher marking investigation write-ups checks each comment against the three questions before handing back. Where a comment reads only as a verdict, she adds a line naming the goal and a line naming the next move: your conclusion describes the pattern, the criteria ask you to explain it, so use your graph to say why it happens.

Try it

A way to begin

Take the last five comments you wrote and sort them against the three questions. If the middle column fills fastest, you know what to add next time.

What to notice

Reading what happens

• Whether pupils can tell you their next step after reading your comment, in their own words.
• Which of the three questions your comments favour across a whole set.

Things to think about

Before and while you use it

• Where am I going only functions when criteria have been shared and understood first, which is Sadler's territory as much as this card's.
• What next needs time to act built in, or the third question gets answered and then wasted.

Related strategies

Where this connects

• 📜 Sadler's Three Conditions Share the criteria before students begin. Show them how to compare their work against it. Give them time to act on what they find. Without all three steps, feedback cannot function. 03 Feedback · What Feedback Is
• ⏱️ Build In Time to Act Feedback with no time to act on it is wasted. Begin the next lesson with students reading and responding to comments before anything new. The response is the learning event. 03 Feedback · Closing the Gap
• 📈 Four Levels of Feedback Before writing a comment, ask: am I addressing the task, the process or the person? Task and process feedback improve learning. Self-level praise undermines it. Name your target. 03 Feedback · What Feedback Is
• 🎯 Separate Intention from Task The learning intention is what to learn, not what to do. Finishing the task is not the same as achieving the learning. Keep them distinct in your planning and in what you say to students at every stage of the lesson. 02 Formative Assessment · Clarify Learning Intentions

The wider thinking

Where the evidence sits

Hattie and Timperley's review found feedback to be among the most powerful influences on achievement and among the most variable; the three questions are their account of the difference. The card’s attribution stands as published: Hattie & Timperley.

The fuller picture, sources included, is in further reading and evidence for Feedback.