Eddy looks at the grade on his science paper in dismay. He thought he’d done so well, but the giant “D” with a “See Me!” at the top of the page tells a different story. Thinking back to his work on this assignment, Eddy begins to feel resentful as he pages through his work. There are all kinds of comments scrawled in the margins about what is missing, but Eddy has no memory of Mr. Gray ever telling the class what to include. The assignment sheet wasn’t that specific. Frustrated, Eddy stuffs the paper in his backpack and walks out of the room.

As Eddy leaves, Mr. Gray watches him and feels some anger bubbling up. He spent weeks telling kids what to do on this assignment, and Eddy just ignored everything he said. He probably won’t read the comments on the paper that took hours to make, much less come and see him about what went wrong. All that time grading, Mr. Gray thinks. What a waste of energy.

While it would be nice to think that the scenario above is rare, it probably feels familiar to anyone who has ever spent a lot of time grading papers, only to see students make the same mistakes repeatedly. However, as teachers, it is our job to change the way we provide feedback so that we don’t create a vicious cycle of resentment that stems from ineffective communication. 

While overhauling our systems of feedback is a daunting prospect, there is a far more incremental approach to making needed change known as “habit stacking.” This practice, made far better known to the general public in the bestseller Atomic Habits: An Easy & Proven Way to Build Good Habits & Break Bad Ones by James Clear, is grounded in building one habit atop another to gradually work toward a goal in manageable chunks rather than trying to achieve a huge shift in behavior all at once. As Clear writes, “It is so easy to overestimate the importance of one defining moment and underestimate the value of making small improvements on a daily basis” (p. 15). When teachers make incremental changes to their habits around providing feedback over time, the result is that students are able to focus more on improvement in a specific skill or standard rather than on a specific grade. 

Why “Habit Stacking” Prioritizes Feedback Over Grades

Strictly defined, feedback is the information that teachers give students about performance in relation to a set of expectations around a standard for learning. Without strong habits that reinforce giving students objective information about how they did, it is all too easy to cause confusion unintentionally by overextending the intention of feedback. According to backward design expert Grant Wiggins, “The term feedback is often used to describe all kinds of comments made after the fact, including advice, praise, and evaluation. But none of these are feedback, strictly speaking.” In essence, teachers who conflate providing suggestions to students or grading their work with the feedback process are misunderstanding the purpose of giving students fact-based information about what they have achieved, and where they can still make steps toward the right direction.

While suggestions about how to improve work (and to a degree, grades themselves) certainly have a place in making sure that success is a “no secrets” endeavor, teacher feedback should remain unsullied by judgment. For students, the benefit of transparent feedback is twofold. The first, of course, is that they know what it takes to meet the expected standard. The second is that when teachers provide clear criteria for success on each aspect of an assignment ahead of time in student-friendly language and then provide feedback that is geared specifically toward the criteria, students understand that how they performed is not personal. Not only does this reality help promote strong relationships, but it also decreases the likelihood that teachers act with implicit bias when they look at student work.

Habit Stacking for Quicker Feedback

The most meaningful instructional shifts do not happen in large, dramatic moments. Instead, smaller actions yield the most profound results. To get a sense of how to stack habits that lead to better and more streamlined results with providing feedback, think about incorporating gradual steps like the ones below:

1. Select a grade-level content standard of focus that students must achieve.

2. Phrase the standard in kid-friendly language, removing all jargon so that students understand what is expected of them.

3. Think about what success in the standard looks like. What evidence can be gathered (i.e., student work) to show growth? 

4. Create a short but clear list of criteria that students must meet to be successful. Again, gear this list toward a student audience.

5. Take some time in class to go through the criteria and to clearly explain the connection between the content standard and evidence that will demonstrate learning.

With habits like the ones exemplified above, it is not about enacting each item at the same time. Rather, experimenting with each one gradually creates a more organic way to reframe the mindset around feedback for both teachers and students, and it also allows for course correction along the way. In addition, when teachers provide focused feedback that addresses specific criteria for success, the grading process is quicker and more efficient.

Gone are the strings of comments in the margins that students do not tend to read or comprehend. Instead, they can look at the checklist and clearly understand which criteria they met, and where they still need to improve. 

Focused Feedback: Criteria in Action

When teachers think ahead about feedback by attaching a criteria for success component to each assignment as a matter of course, it has the dual benefit of providing transparent targets for everyone, not to mention a focused process. To get a sense of what students might find helpful, think about framing an assignment to include both the criteria for success and relevant standard(s). The example presented below is pulled from the grade 11-12 content standards band for writing in English language arts.

In the charted example above, students have received their criteria for success in alignment with not just the overall content standard, but with a sub-standard that prioritizes the focus for this assignment (in this case, the use of details and sensory language). As students work on their story drafts, they can move down the list of criteria for success and check off what they have achieved, and what is yet to be done. That way, they can clearly see the target that has been set up for them to achieve.

When the teacher grades the assignment, they can go through the same process. If a student is missing a criterion, it is not too time-consuming to circle that portion of the checklist and make a quick comment about what is not there so that the student can easily see where to improve. With the consistent application of a process like this, common problems like getting stuck in a grading rut or students perceiving that evaluation is unfair gradually dissipate because there is an overall understanding of how work is assessed, and how to make progress.

Keeping feedback objective and free of judgment or bias helps to build the sort of “no-secrets” classroom that is ideal. Furthermore, habit stacking gradual practices that reinforce a meaningful feedback process is a way to make change in a way that does not become overwhelming. At the end of the day, nobody wants to mark up assignments for endless hours only to see students throw their papers in the trash. To get out of a vicious cycle, building short but powerful habits over time that transparently show students how they can be successful will yield better results. That way, the painful focus on grading over progress will finally recede to the background, making way for a far more valuable feedback cycle.

Miriam Plotinsky is a learning and achievement specialist with Montgomery County Public Schools in Maryland, where she has worked for nearly 20 years as an English teacher, staff developer, and department chair. She is a National Board–certified teacher with additional certification in education administration and supervision. In addition to her work as a specialist, she is a freelance education writer who can be found on Twitter @MirPloMCPS.