We have all been there: there’s a great big stack of writing assignments you need to grade, and it seems only to be getting bigger, more unwieldy. You know it will take you a significant chunk of time. Adding to the pressure, we have to navigate all the ways we’ve gotten feedback in the past, especially that dreaded red pen, the scribbles of “awk” and “???” in the margin, and other comments that make us question our value and place in higher education. We often struggle on how to give useful feedback that doesn’t waste a whole lot of time, and that is useful for students’ learning. One way to give helpful feedback in our classes and peer review work is by employing a feedback heuristic developed initially by Bill Hart-Davidson that includes three moves (Describe, Evaluate, and Suggest).

When Feedback Is (and Isn’t) Helpful

There’s longstanding scholarly consensus that feedback when it is timely, frequent, and constructive is a high-impact practice (AAC&U) and can aid in deep meaningful learning. However, how faculty use feedback can run the gambit, often reproducing their own experiences as students (Olinger, 2014), that can slow and disrupt impactful habits of learning and developing. For example, research on faculty feedback in writing studies has demonstrated that feedback that is too general or too focused on surface-level concerns (Beach & Friedrich, 2006; Smith, 1997) can lead students to be unsure, uncertain, and demotivated from their writing practices (Spandel & Stiggins, 1990). From this vantage point, more comments, corrections, and questions is not necessarily better (Harris, 2017). In fact, extensive comments is time poorly spent, especially since it often dilutes students ability to learn from their instructor’s feedback. Experts in writing pedagogy situate feedback as important for developing critical thinking skills, confidence, and habits essential for academic and professional success. 

Describe-Evaluate-Suggest Feedback Strategy 

According to EliReview, a digital platform designed by writing teachers to support giving helpful feedback and encouraging revision, describe-evaluate-suggest is a three-step process to give helpful feedback that ultimately constructs the experience of a reader, commenting on specific criteria, and offering pathways for revision. 

Step One: Describe

In a few sentences, explain what the main ideas, observations, and choices that are made in the student’s work. This step helps students understand the experience of someone reading their work. 

Example “describe” feedback: “Thank you for sharing your work with me! In this essay, you examine how the weather impacts the story. You make comparisons to data from Sweden and offer a quote from your primary source” 

Step Two: Evaluate

In a few sentences, explain where the student’s work meets stated criteria and where it might not meet the criteria. This step helps the student see connections between the stated gradable criteria and their work. 

Example “evaluate” feedback: “One criteria for this assignment is your ability to analyze, breaking apart different ideas based on different evidence. In this assignment, you move from offering your quote to directly saying what you think the quote means.” 

Step Three: Suggest

In a few sentences, explain what steps the student might take to develop their writing. The more concrete and specific the better. This step provides students with options for their next draft.

Example “suggest” feedback: “As you revise, give yourself space to unpack and identify specific ideas, words, and concepts from the quotes you provide. You might consider writing 3-5 sentences after each quote to explain what is significant to the point you are making.”

Classroom Ideas You Can Try 

The Describe-Evaluate-Suggest model for feedback is one way experts in writing pedagogy who focus on high-order concerns (audience, thesis, and more) can transcribe helpful feedback to students in a beneficial way. Below are a few ideas you can try out in teaching with the describe-evaluate-suggest model:

• Explicitly teach the Describe-Evaluate-Suggest model: Teach students how to use this tool for their own work and the feedback they give others (both in school and in their professional work). I have designed in class activities for students to use the D-E-S model to give feedback to their hypothetical messy roommate and as a side-by-side comparison from cake competition shows (like Nailed It!). This helps them practice these feedback moves in low-stakes, fun ways.    

• Position this feedback in a feedback loop: Feedback doesn’t only have to happen at the end of a project! Instead, consider where in the learning and writing process would be the most impactful time to give feedback– even if only on a small section of the final work. 

• Invite students to create a revision plan: Once students receive feedback, ask them to complete a revision plan. I ask students to plot the feedback they receive next to their plan to revise in a revision grid activity. 

Conclusion

Experts in writing pedagogy situate feedback as part of a broader set of teaching and learning toolkits that can foster belonging, build meaningful enduring relationships, and develop habits and practices for academic and professional success. By locating helpful feedback as part of the learning and writing process, we can maximize our time and increase helpfulness in giving feedback by trying out the describe-evaluate-suggest method. 

References and Resources

Beach, R. & Friedrich, T. (2006). “Response to Writing.” Handbook of Writing Research, edited by Charles A. MacArthur, Steve Graham, and Jill Fitzgerald, 222-234. New York: The Guilford Press.  

Bean, J. C., & Melzer, D. (2021). Engaging ideas: The professor’s guide integrating writing, critical thinking, and active learning. Wiley. 

Hart-Davidson, Bill. Describe – Evaluate – Suggest : A Helpful Feedback Pattern. EliReview

Harris, M. (2017). When responding to student writing, more is better. Bad Ideas About Writing. pp. 268-272. 

Olinger, A. R. (2014). On the instability of disciplinary style: Common and conflicting metaphors and practices in text, talk, and gesture. Research in the Teaching of English, 48(4), 453-478.

Smith, S. (1997). The genre of the end comment: Conventions in teacher responses to student writing. College Composition & Communication, 48(2), 249-268.

Spandel, V. & Stiggins, R. J. (1990). Creating writers: Linking assessment and writing instruction. Longman. 

About the Author

Nick Sanders (he/him) is an Assistant Professor at Writing & Rhetoric. He is a queer scholar-practitioner committed to justice-centered institutional change through antiracist and queer approaches to writing pedagogy, campus leadership, and public and professional writing. Outside of work, he likes to make (and eat) sourdough bread. 

Edited by Emma Sikora, CETL Editorial Assistant Intern. 

Others may share and adapt under Creative Commons License CC BY-NC.

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Towards the end of the semester, students and instructors alike are often worn out and tempted to take one of two avenues: shift into high gear or turn on cruise control. While either option may sound appealing at the moment, it could very well be more destructive than helpful in the long-run. There are many strategies to promote higher learning at the end of a semester that are beneficial to the student and instructor.  

Mode 1: Cruise Control

Students and instructors may be enticed to turn on cruise control, check out mentally, and go on break a few weeks early. This first option may be particularly attractive when final class sessions are devoted to student presentations. If students are not required to engage their classmates’ presentations actively, they may be inclined to listen to each presentation only passively. 

Make sure all students have something active to do while they listen to their classmates’ work, such as a presentation evaluation. In the future, also try not to pack all presentations into a few final weeks; if presentations are spread out more evenly across the second half of the semester, each class may include a combination of activities. Other activities could be  a field trip to an area on campus, roundtable discussion on the semester, or sticky notes on differing topics. In synchronous online classes, the whiteboard feature on Zoom is particularly effective for engaging activities at the end of the semester.  

Mode 2: High Gear, or Overdrive

Students and instructors may be enticed to shift into high gear, to overwork and cram as much as possible. This second option lures students who realize they are behind in class and instructors who have fallen behind schedule. Cramming may be enough to memorize and get by, but it yields little in meaningful learning gains. 

Instructors who fall behind and then cram content into the last days of class often overwhelm their students. Moreover, they miss the crucial moment afforded by the end of semester when higher levels of learning can happen, like synthesis and application. In the future, leave open days in the semester for catch up in order to save the final class days for review and reflection, which can also help compensate for unexpected class cancellations.

How to Promote Higher Level Learning at the End of the Semester

To promote higher level learning at the end of the semester, while avoiding both cruise control and shifting into high gear, help students reflect on their learning from the whole semester:

• Revisit the course’s learning goals introduced at the beginning of the semester. Have students take a moment and consider to what degree they have accomplished these learning goals, possibly giving themselves a 1 out of 10 rating based on how well they met the learning goal.  
• Ask students to create final exam essays/questions which would measure student comprehension of the course’s learning goals, or have students do mock interviews with each other being the interviewee and interviewer. 
  Invite students to synthesize their learning through a creative project (e.g., a diagram, a timeline, a concept map, creative writing, or visual art).
• Revisit readings and/or assignments from the beginning of the semester so that students can appreciate what and how much they have learned. Have students reflect on what they would have done differently with newly acquired knowledge.
• Ask students to prepare answers to questions such as: What are the most important things that you learned in this course? How will you apply this learning in your life?
• Have students compose a letter to future students of the course, advising them on what they need to know and how they should best go about learning it.
• Invite students to reflect on their development as learners, thinkers, and writers. Have students answer questions such as: What did you learn about yourself as a student this semester? Did you learn (or implement) any study strategies this semester that helped you be successful? What would you have done differently if you had to repeat this semester?
• Have students write a letter to their future self at the beginning of the semester, so by the end they are able to determine how their learning developed over the semester’s course.

References and Resources

“Ending the Semester on a Positive Note.” (n.d.) Columbia University Graduate School of Arts & Sciences Teaching Center

Connor, P. (2022) Teaching Tip: Teaching Higher Levels of Learning at the End of the Semester. MGH Institute of Health Professions.

Eggleston, T. J., & Smith, G.E. (2002). Parting Ways: Ending Your Course. Observer, 15 (3). Association for Psychological Science.

Walsh, M. (2009). Five Tips for Wrapping Up a Course. Faculty Focus.

About the Author

Originally written by Justus Ghormley, submitted by Kristi Rudenga, both from the Kaneb Center for Teaching and Learning at University of Notre Dame.  Edited and designed by Emma Sikora, Center for Excellence in Teaching and Learning at Oakland University. Others may share and adapt under Creative Commons License CC BY-NC.

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For those who have been following our teaching blog for a while, I have long praised Equity Unbound and OneHE’s Community-Building Activities, launched during the COVID-19 pandemic when so many new to online teaching were wondering how we were going to build class relationships online. While they centered online options, most of them also provide fresh ideas for on-campus interactions.

I still find myself returning to this treasure trove of ideas for classes, learning communities, and workshops when I suspect we need a new way to connect with one another or generate ideas together. These five catch my eye, particularly around the later mid-point of the semester when we either need to switch things up or stir up some new energy. 

1. Wheel of Life for Student Self-Help: While all of us have similar wellness needs, we are likely different in which areas are most important or strained and what works best for giving us a boost. This activity simply but meaningfully prompts our students to self-check their well-being and make a plan for sustaining themselves. This activity can be more organic way to remind students of the syllabus’ student support section offers important information so they take advantage of campus resources.
2. What We Don’t Know About Each Other: At this point, our students may recognize each other and those sitting around them (creatures of habit we are), but unless they are regularly chatting with each other, they may not have had a conversation since the first-week ice breakers. Such an activity may be well-timed as students continue working together in groups or prepare to work in groups.
3. Appreciative Interviews: Great for group work preparation and developing listening skills, appreciative interviews center stories of personal success and unpacking how they achieved that success, building self-efficacy for the teller and awareness and appreciation in the listener.
4. Structured Dialogues: Like appreciative interviews, this activity builds focused listening skills, providing a structure that builds sustained listening based on prompts you provide, which can be connected to course content or not.
5. Critical Uncertainties: Life is filled with complex challenges, and our classes should help students make their way through such challenges. Whether it is uncertainties about a societal issue related to the class, a challenging project or upcoming assessment, or navigating group work, internships, or experiential learning, this structured activity helps students describe the uncertainties, rate their factors, develop scenarios, and brainstorm strategies. 

Closing

There is a growing desire to do things differently and reimagine learning and work that is more generative and purpose-driven. We may struggle to implement new routines, and using activities like this can be a small but powerful start. Equity Unbound and OneHE’s community building activities library includes many more activities you can browse, each with video demonstrations of how they work, step-by-step planning directions, and starter materials as needed. For activities I have used and highlighted in the past, see Building Community Differently (2023).

Written by Christina Moore, Center for Excellence in Teaching and Learning at Oakland University. Photo by Robert Katzki on Unsplash. Others may share and adapt under Creative Commons License CC BY-NC.

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