Audit one week of your own comments
Collect everything you wrote on student work this week and sort it. Most of us are surprised by what we actually write.
Sep 6, 2026 · 1 min read
Feedback is among the most powerful influences on learning and one of the most variable: the classic meta-analysis puts the average effect high but with a huge spread, and later re-analysis shows the type of feedback drives the difference (Hattie & Timperley, 2007; Wisniewski, Zierer & Hattie, 2020). Comments about the task transfer worst; comments about the student's process and self-regulation transfer best. The only way to know your own mix is to look. (Manning's feedback-quality-analyser skill runs this audit automatically.)
In practice
- Photograph a week of marked work, then tally each comment: about the task ("wrong formula"), the process ("test with easy numbers first"), the person ("great effort"), or the next step.
- Expect a pile of task and person comments. Neither changes next week's work; process and next-step comments do.
- Rewrite your five most-repeated comments one level up: from task to process (see "Comment on the decision, not the answer"), then bank them (see "Keep a comment bank").
Quick takeaway: you already know feedback matters. Audit whether yours is the kind that does.