Green Dots

For many classroom assignments I consider it useless to collect papers at the end of class, then wait a day or two to grade and return to students. I want to know now if students are understanding formative material, ideas, and tasks. In addition, students also want immediate feedback.

One of the most effective methods I use for immediate feedback is the Green Dot. This means I will quickly assess work and put a green dot at the top of student work if it is on track. If the student is not right on, I will mark with a red marker what needs work. At first, I was surprised how quickly 8th grade students pushed to successfully complete classwork and receive instant feedback. As an added bonus, I can leave school at the end of the day with no papers to grade.

Let me give an example of this practice in context: students in my 8th grade language arts class are currently working on annotating song lyrics and will soon be writing short analysis papers. Before annotating, the green dot task was a creative review of poetic devices. I insisted that students get a "green dot" and they understood why. A simple, yet effective method, especially if you're more about gauging learning than hammering students with grades.