Before drafts are submitted:

• Identify priority writing tasks as appropriate for the assignment that reflect or showcase discipline-related important skills or ideas. Examples might be:
  • What a “thesis statement” means in this discipline and how it might be different than a literary thesis
  • How to include specific kinds of supporting evidence (statistics, primary sources, etc)
  • How to address or include counter arguments 
• Guide students in priority writing tasks for the assignment and prompt discussion about how they can approach priority writing tasks. This may include a close reading of the assignment prompt or the grading rubric as well as a broader discussion about discipline-specific writing terms or approaches.
  • If the priority task is a new skill, incorporate instruction time and in-class practice opportunities before the draft is due. For example, if a strong thesis statement is critical to the assignment purpose, make class time to review thesis-writing and look at some examples that are specific to your discipline.
  • Priority tasks that you have reviewed should be the focus for formative feedback on drafts.
• As the term progresses, you may also include more detailed priorities related to skills targeted in earlier assignments, or specify particular skills you will be focused on as you grade.
• Use mentor texts (professional examples from the field) or previous student work (by permission) to model your expectations; ask students to practice evaluating these texts and giving feedback.
• Contextualize the assignment and potential feedback in a “real world” context–for example, if students are creating a policy proposal, discuss how the policy  might be received by its intended audience in a real world situation and provide feedback accordingly.
• Ask students to include questions about what areas they struggled with or what areas they would like feedback on when they submit assignments. You might consider giving students some kind of survey or chart to help them identify potential areas, especially in earlier assignments.

Providing individual feedback on student drafts:

• When possible, try to give written and oral feedback, using synchronous conferencing, class discussion, or recorded video conference. 
  • If feedback is primarily in writing, make sure it is clear to students where and how to access the feedback; you might consider incorporating some kind of receipt or acknowledgment (perhaps a short google form response to your feedback, etc) to ensure students are engaging with and applying your feedback. 
• Think in terms of expansions or additions, rather than corrections
  • If you are familiar with improv, you can think of this as a version of “yes, and. . .” 
  • Use feedback as an opportunity to highlight strengths as areas to build on, as well as areas that need improvement.
• Offer feedback in the form of questions, asking students to clarify or articulate their thinking.
• Consider choosing one or two specific writing tasks to focus on in depth.  These would be areas you would like to see prioritized in the revision, which are critical to discipline-specific written communication for the given situation and audience.
  • Be as specific as possible in telling students what you would like them to improve;  avoid generalizations like “awkward” or “unclear,” which students might not know how to improve.
• Guide students in focusing on big-picture feedback, rather than minor alterations. 
• If you notice a recurring issue throughout the paper, rather than comment on it in full each time, give feedback on the first one or two instances and use conferencing or a referral to a writing specialist to help students identify future instances. 
  •  You might also include a link to a writing/mechanics resource such as Purdue Owl.  For example, if a student is struggling with thesis sentence construction, you might point them to OWL Thesis Statement Tips.
• Frame feedback and revision in terms of improving ideas and clarity of communication for a specific audience and purpose rather than following rules.
• Encourage or remind students to share their writing feedback with learning support team members (via study tables or 1-1 tutoring sessions).

Class work after drafts

• Make note of common questions, trends, needs for clarification and growth opportunities and include discussion and support for them in class–additional resources, repeated evaluation of models or mentor texts, scaffolded specific peer review, etc.
• Contextualize feedback trends in terms of future work or discipline-specific practice.
• Encourage students to discuss their process and their feedback  in pairs or small groups.
• Ask students to work on revising one paragraph, section, or task during class time and submit before the next draft or final.
• Consider using class-time to workshop these revisions or to discuss them 1-1 or as a class.
• Consider doing a role play or model feedback conference with a student volunteer, or request that a writing specialist or learning support specialist visit class for this purpose.

Final submission feedback:

• Ask students to submit a short reflection specifying what revisions they made based on the earlier feedback.
• This could include asking them to use the rubric to self-evaluate. 
• Highlight places where students have demonstrated thoughtful revision.
• Offer suggestions in terms of growth opportunities for the next assignment or for future classes/professional endeavors (like internships).

Ways to Ease or Improve Feedback Workflow:

• Develop a template or shorthand that you can consistently use, rather than having to repeatedly write out extensive notes.
  • Be sure this is accessible to students; consider doing a brief roleplay or model using your shorthand.
  • You could choose to structure a template in a variety of ways:
    • Based on the rubric, possibly broken down in more detail
    • Based on questions you would ask yourself while reading
    • Based on the priority writing tasks identified earlier
    • Based on moving from global issue to more specific details
  • Use a resource like Purdue Owl to point students to writing examples or lessons, rather than providing them yourself.
• Require students to submit questions or areas of interest for feedback as part of the assignment submission. You may choose to give students a specific form or survey to help them identify or articulate these areas.
• Use scaffolding structures to allow feedback on smaller sections or excerpts of text at a time. (For example, having students submit an intro paragraph for feedback before the full draft). 
• If you find yourself repeating the same feedback over and over again (either for one student or the class as a whole), consider pausing and having a conference/lesson at that point and allowing them to resubmit based on a global issues discussion, rather than addressing the exact same theme or issue repeatedly.