The Benefits of Applying Draft Feedback

It is that time of term again, where students get their ‘busy bee’ attitude out and start to really apply their learning by preparing assignments and beginning to study for exams.

So why does revision matter anyway? Why not just cram it all in the night before? 

Actually, there is so much valuable learning that takes place in the process of preparing for assessments, whether they are assignments to hand in or exams to get right on the big day. There’s plenty to say on the topic of preparing for exams, but for now let’s have a think about drafts and feedback.

Research shows that going through the process of planning, drafting, receiving and applying feedback is very helpful for student learning. At King’s, a formal drafting process is employed for all assessments other than exams, where students submit their compulsory draft two weeks before the assignment is due. This allows students enough time to receive and apply feedback to improve their work before the final submission. The type of draft may vary depending on the subject and whether the assessment technique calls for written, oral, multimodal, practical or performance responses.

Drafts Are:

• Compulsory at King’s
• An opportunity for teachers to provide feedback
• An opportunity for students to apply feedback as they work to improve their response
• Used as evidence of student achievement in the case of illness or misadventure, or non-submission for other reasons.

King's also provides follow up suggestions so that students can learn from the process and improve for the future:

• Reminder email to student (Thursdays)
• Parent email if student still hasn’t submitted their draft (Fridays)
• Lunchtime ‘will’ session where the student has another opportunity to keep working (Mondays)
• Email to parents if the student did not attend the lunchtime session (Monday afternoons)

It has been excellent to see the improvements in time management and quality of student work as they have been through a number of cycles of this drafting process. This could be something you chat with your child about as you walk, drive or eat together? Perhaps you could encourage them to make the most of the opportunity to grow and improve as they participate in drafting and the assessment feedback process at King’s.