Budget lesson time for acting on feedback
Feedback isn't finished when you hand it back. It's finished when they've used it, and using it needs minutes on the clock.
Jun 27, 2026 · 1 min read
Hours of marking evaporate in the thirty seconds between handing work back and starting new content. If the feedback matters, the acting on it deserves lesson time: read, respond, redo. Wiliam (2011) states it as a design principle: feedback should be more work for the recipient than for the donor. Otherwise you've written thirty private letters nobody answers.
In practice
- Ten minutes, structured: read your feedback, then do the fix. Rewrite the paragraph, redo the two questions, attempt the follow-up problem.
- Make the response visible: green pen, a "v2" section, a one-line "what I changed" note. You're building the norm that feedback produces action.
- Can't spare ten minutes? Mark half as deeply and buy the time back. Acted-on feedback at half the density beats ignored feedback at full density.
Quick takeaway: marking time you don't match with acting time is mostly wasted.