Walk into any teacher store and you will find a slew of colorful stickers—Wow!  Amazing!  Great Job!  You’re #1!  Excellent!  Smart Cookie!  Good one!  A++!  We add brightly colored stickers or markings to student work as a stamp of approval, hoping children will continue this kind of work.

The problem is that it doesn’t tell children anything important.  In fact, this kind of “feedback”—vague praise—can do the very opposite of what we are trying to accomplish.

I have to admit, early on in my teaching career, there were times when I was overwhelmed with student work to grade that I quickly marked a plus, a check mark, or a minus, on homework or classwork just to get it graded and recorded in the gradebook.  Those marks were useless.  They provided absolutely no helpful guidance or feedback to students.  My students didn’t learn anything from those marks.  The students didn’t care.  They just wanted to know if it raised or lowered their overall grade.

What are we doing to our students?!  What are we doing to ourselves as educators?!

Gold Stars & Stickers Don’t Work

Gold stars, stickers, and a verbal “Good job!” don’t work.  Meaning, they don’t increase learning and they don’t increase motivation.  These forms of vague praise don’t help students perform any better.  In fact, they can have the opposite effect.  Research shows they can “. . . have similar negative effects on students, resulting in uncertainty, decreased motivation, and even diminished learning.”

If you are looking to increase student learning and motivation, it is essential to make specific observations regarding student work and behavior, rather than vague and useless evaluative judgments.

A Big Mistake

We’ve made a terrible mistake by thinking that our children need strong self-esteem to be successful.  We praise our kids and tell them how wonderful they are simply because they exist.  Don’t get me wrong.  All children are precious and valuable and need to feel loved just because of who they are.

The problem is that praise in itself does not help children build confidence in their ability to learn new skills and persist when things become challenging.  When children feel they are capable, that they have what it takes, they are willing to learn new things, try something they’ve never tried before, learn from failure, and persevere when it’s not easy.  They build healthy self-confidence from within.

Give Helpful Feedback

Children “. . . need meaningful attention and a chance to develop persistence, self-motivation and inner self worth,” according to Heather Shumaker, author of It’s OK NOT to Share. (286)¹ Our responsibility is to provide the opportunities and the right kind of support for children to develop self-efficacy and self-confidence.

Heather describes a simple but powerful way to get into the habit of giving helpful feedback that results in children feeling more capable and self-confident.

“Instead of praising, make observations.  Observations are specific.  It’s easy once you get the hang of it.  Just state what you see.” (291)¹

Make Observations

Here are some phrases to try:

• • • Thank you for cleaning off your desk and getting your book out.
    • You know how to unpack your backpack and hang it up.
    • You carried all those books to the library without dropping one of them.
    • You raised your hand before you started talking.
    • You used many different colors and shapes in your picture.
    • You know our class cue for listening.
    • You know how to solve a problem.
    • I saw you cooperating with your group when you decided together who was going to complete each part.
    • You were sharing your crayons with your classmate.

   

These types of statements affirm students and let them know specifically what it is they are doing.  Our acknowledgement that we see what they’ve done allows them the space to generate positive feelings from within about their own capability.

We can also support their determination and persistence in the face of challenge by using phrases like:

• • • How did you put all of those blocks together that way?
    • Wow! That looks challenging.  You are trying to build a model airplane.
    • That was a tricky problem. I see you’ve tried it twice and got the answer on the third try.
    • I wonder what else you could try, if that isn’t working for you.
    • What did you like best about working on this project?

   

Once observations rather than hollow praise become a habit, we will naturally give more specific and helpful feedback on student work that will help them learn and grow.  According to Goodwin and Miller, “As it turns out, the best feedback isn’t a score or grade; it’s clear, specific guidance on how to improve.”

¹ Shumaker, H. (2012). Its ok not to share: and other renegade rules for raising competent and compassionate kids. New York: Jeremy P. Tarcher/Penguin.

What difference do you notice in your students when you use observations rather than vague praise?  Leave a comment below.