Giving feedback is an important part of the learning process for both teachers and students. It helps the students know what needs improvement and it gives teachers insight into how much the students understand and learn; it can guide your teaching and their learning. Regardless of what group you are in, feedback can be overwhelming and a little difficult to handle at times. Below you will find some suggestions on how teachers can give feedback while reducing burnout and helping their students improve their writing skills.

Have a clear purpose in mind

• Many students struggle to understand how exactly they are supposed to use the feedback they receive from you. Having an open and clear discussion with your students at the beginning of the semester to communicate how your feedback will be useful to their progress as well as what the expectations are and how you will follow through will be beneficial to creating a relationship of trust from the beginning. 
• Demonstrate to the students how they are supposed to use the feedback from you. One way to do this is by showing them a paragraph with some comments from you. Go through each comment one by one and show them how to make the necessary changes. If possible, first have a discussion about how they would handle the feedback and give additional suggestions. 
• Don't forget to continue having short reminders throughout the semester about what feedback is and how it should be used. 

Decide on the amount of time you want to spend on feedback

• Set a timer: Decide on the amount of time that you would like to spend giving feedback (it can be different each time). 
• Setting a goal and taking a break when that goal is reached may increase your productivity and help you not feel overwhelemed. For example, your goal might be to give feedback for 30 minutes and have a 5 minute break after that. 

Communicate to students how to use the feedback

• It is important for the students to know where to find the feedback, what format it will have , and what it means. Perhaps having a discussion at the beginning of the semester with an example of a paragraph with feedback that clearly shows what it would look like might help put the students at ease from the beginning. As the semester progresses, similar discussions might be useful and needed. Frequent reminders and opportunities to receive help will decrease burn-out and overwhelm.
• In addition to knowing where they can find the feedback, the students need to know what to do with it once they receive it. How are they supposed to make those changes and what does that entail? Similar to the point above, discussing this with your students and showing them an example early on will give them insight in what to expect and what is expected of them.

Give feedback on one section/task at a time

• You might choose to focus on specific parts of the assignment for each student (thesis statement, introduction paragraph, conclusion paragraph, etc.) For example, you can give feedback on the same paragraph of an essay for everyone and then move to the next paragraph. Similarly, you might decide to give feedback on the topic sentence of a paragraph to every student, then on the supporting sentences, then on the concluding sentence, and so on. Make sure you have clear instructions for each assignment. 

Narrow the focus of each assignment

• As teachers give feedback on writing assignments, it is really important that they really think about what they want their students to know and practice. Once the focus of each assignment is established, teachers should clearly communicate it to their students, preferably at the beginning of the assignment. For example, teachers can say somehting like, "The focus of this assignment is to practice paragraph organization. My feedback will reflect that."
• Providing fewer comments and markings would be more beneficial for the students, than commenting on all of their mistakes. For example, instead of marking all of the spelling mistakes, a teacher could mention that the student needs to check the spelling throughout the paragraph. 

Ensure professionalism and eliminate favoritism

• One way to ensure professionalism and eliminate favoritism is to hide the names as you are giving feedback. You can print all of the paragraphs without the names and then match them to the student. If you are using Canvas, click on the assignment and then on Speed Grader. In the top left corner you will see a Setting gear. Once you click on that, you can select whether you'd like to hide students' names or grade by question (still in the beta phase of the development). 
• Another option is to decide on a random start, meaning that you will not automatically start with the first student in your list. Rather, you will randomly select students from your list. You may decide to start with the last student or somewhere in the middle. 

Give constructive feedback and praise

• Students respond well to positive feedback. The key for teachers is to find ways to give constructive feedback in positive ways. You might consider using statements like, 'I like this idea. Is there a way you could elaborate more on this?', 'What made you think of this idea? Can you give some examples?,' What could you add to your introduction paragraph to make it easier for the reader to understand?', 'Can you think of a different word to use here?,' etc. Focus your praise on the writing, not the student. 
• Make sure to mention what you liked about their writing as well. For example, you could something like, 'It's very easy to understand your topic sentence,' 'I like the academic words you used in this paragraph,' etc. 

Provide timely feedback

• Feedback can be very useful when it is given in a timely manner. If students receive feedback two weeks after the assignment was due, they might have a difficult time remembering the assignment or staying motivated to continue working on it. 

Be specific 

• Avoid statements like, "Fix your grammar." Rather, try to use statements like, "pay attention to the subject-verb agreement." This will eliminate any confusion on the students' part as to what 'grammar' is and it will make grading go faster for the teacher as well since he/she will know what to look for specifically. 

Avoid giving feedback when you are distracted

• Try not to give feedback when you are hungry, upset, sad, etc. 
• Find out what kind of environment works best for you and try to eliminate any distractions as you give feedback. For example, do you work better with music in the background or do you prefer quietness? Are you more efficient when you are surrounded by people or when you are by yourself? 

Create a rubric for each assignment 

• Having a clear rubric with all of the requirements for each assignment will make it easier for the students to be more engaged and focused. It can guide their writing and set clear expectations. Make sure you share it with and explain it to your students when you first introduce the assignment. 
• Make sure to follow the rubric as you grade and give feedback

Collaborate with your peers

• Collaboration between teachers (in the same track or not) is very beneficial for both teachers and students. Teachers can help each other with ideas, and students will be able to sense the consistency between their teachers and classes.
• The writing teacher can collaborate with the listening/speaking teacher on creating assignments on the same topic so students can practice and develop both productive skills.
• The writing teacher can also collaborate with the grammar teacher. For example, students might write a paragraph or an essay in the writing class, and the grammar teacher can choose to give them grammar feedback, while the writing teacher gives them feedback on organization using the same paragraph/essay.