D81: A new way to give feedback

I actually didn't miss a day here, we had a snow day - that is what 10 inches of snow will do! Exams started today, but I still needed to grade my CSA students processing project.  I had them all start up a computer with their code on it, put a post-it note with their name on the screen, and then put it on one of my two open tables.  While they took their test, I graded their code.

First hour, I graded it and wrote comments in the grade book.  When I was done with their computer, I shut it down.  I'm not sure if students actually look at the comments, but I felt like I needed to give some feedback to students beyond just a number.

Second hour I had one student that I wanted to make sure she got the feedback.  I wrote the feedback on to the post-it so I could give it to her when the test was done... then I realized, "Wait, I can do this for everyone!"

So I did!  Then, when each student was done with their test, I left the post-it note with feedback back at their table which I felt was a nice way for them to hear something (usually good) about their code right after they took the test.

This is what it looked like.

2 of many computers with names on it.

Post-it notes with feedback on it.

I still walked around the room every few minutes to make my presence known and orientated myself so I was facing the class at all times, but it worked out pretty well.  For some students, I even asked questions via post-it about their code.  A few students came up to me afterwards to talk more about it.

This seemed to work well - it allowed me to give feedback and grade pretty efficiently.  I think it was important for students to know what they did well or could have done differently to make their code more effective.

Next semester my classes will be a bit larger which might make it more difficult to do this strategy, but it might be worth trying again.