How can I encourage my students to incorporate the feedback I provide them?

Dear Aggie,

How do I get students to read the feedback I leave on their assignments? Many students continue to make the same mistakes throughout the entire semester because they don't read the feedback I leave on previous work they've submitted. What should I do?

~Frustrated Faculty

Dear Frustrated Faculty,

Addressing the challenge of getting students to read and respond to feedback on their assignments is a common concern among educators. There are several strategies you can consider encouraging students to engage with the feedback you provide.

Some professors incorporate points in the rubric specifically for responding to feedback on assignments. This approach incentivizes students to review the feedback and make necessary improvements. Others offer extra credit opportunities tied to reading and responding to feedback.

However, I have a preferred approach that does not involve additional points but still promotes feedback engagement. I fill out the rubric for each submission and assign a zero, accompanied by a comment stating that the student will receive the points indicated in the rubric once they respond to the comments provided. I ensure that there is at least one question within the feedback that prompts students to reflect on and address specific aspects of their work.

Once students respond to the feedback, demonstrating that they have engaged with it, I revisit their assignments and update the scores from zeros to the points they earned based on the rubric. This method effectively encourages students to read and respond to feedback without artificially inflating their grades.

By implementing this approach, students are not rewarded with additional points for merely acknowledging the feedback; instead, they must demonstrate understanding and improvement based on the feedback provided.

I hope this strategy proves helpful in promoting a culture of feedback engagement in your classroom.

~Aggie