Whole Class Feedback
Record class patterns rather than individual comments: common strengths, recurring errors and two or three next steps. Teach to the gap, not to the individual paper. Workload stays manageable.
The strategy, as published
Exactly as it appears on the card
Part of Feedback That Moves Learning Forward in 02 Formative Assessment, 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
Thirty individual comments take hours and reach one pupil each. Reading the set for patterns takes a fraction of the time and produces something you can teach with: the class's common strengths, its recurring errors, and two or three next steps for everyone.
Teach to the gap, not to the individual paper, as the card has it. The gaps repeat far more often than the papers do.
What it might look like
One version of it, in a classroom
After reading a set of essays without writing on them, a teacher notes on a single page: conclusions strong across the class, evidence rarely linked back to the question, three recurring misconceptions. The next lesson teaches the linking move to everyone, then pupils revisit their own essays looking for it.
Try it
A way to begin
Next marking session, read the whole set before writing anything. One page of patterns, then decide what the following lesson does about them.
What to notice
Reading what happens
- Whether the recurring errors actually recur less after being taught to. That is the test of the next steps you chose.
- Pupils who do not fit the patterns, in either direction. Whole class feedback still needs eyes on the outliers.
Things to think about
Before and while you use it
- The saving is in the writing, not the attention. Patterns are only as good as the reading that finds them.
- The card offers this as a way of keeping workload manageable, not a rule that no pupil ever gets an individual comment. Where individual response is still needed is your call.
The wider thinking
Where the evidence sits
It draws on Wiliam's case for evidence that changes the teaching, and on Hattie's finding that feedback helps most when it is specific about the next step in the work rather than about the person. The card’s attribution stands as published: Wiliam & Hattie.
The fuller picture, sources included, is in further reading and evidence for Formative Assessment.
Keep exploring
Where next?
Back to this strategy in 02 Formative Assessment, 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.