Definition of Corrective Feedback: Locating and correcting students’ errors and explaining specifically what each error is and how it can be corrected.
Vignette: Ms. Patrick reviews Jorge’s responses to the problems on the Mathematical Problem Solving Assessment – Short Form. She reviews his answer to the second problem: Four friends have decided they want to go to the movies on Saturday. Tickets are $2.75 each for students. Altogether they have $8.40. How much more money do they need? It was clear that Jorge understood how to do the problem because he first multiplied and then subtracted. However, his answer was incorrect. Ms. Patrick provided the following corrective feedback.
Ms. Patrick: “Jorge, I see from your work that you understood how to do the problem, but your answer is wrong for a very specific reason. Can you find the mistake?” (Jorge checks his computation and finds his subtraction error.) “That’s right. You made a subtraction error because you did not regroup correctly. What is the correct answer?” (Jorge responds.) “That’s correct. In the future how could you avoid making that error?” (Jorge responds that he would check his work.) “Yes. That’s right. We can check our computation by using the reverse operation. For this subtraction problem, I would add.” (Demonstrates adding 0 + 0 = 0, 6 + 4 = 10 and carry the one, 1 + 2 = 3 + 8 = 11.) “You would have discovered your mistake by checking. So, checking is something you need to do when solving math problems.”
Learn more about this and other strategies in Implementing Solve It! A Professional Development Guide for Facilitators (https://www.exinn.net/solve-it/implementing-solve-it-2/).