Glossary · Teaching and intervention
What is corrective feedback?
Definition
Corrective feedback is an immediate, specific response to a student's error that helps them fix it themselves, such as pointing to the missed letter and asking for its sound.
Good feedback is quick, calm and specific. “Look at this letter. What sound?” is better than “No, try again,” and much better than just saying the right word. The student does the fixing, so the correct version is theirs.
Timing matters. Correct a decoding error right after the word, before the student reads on. For a student reading connected text, wait to the end of the sentence so meaning isn't broken, then go back.
The student should finish every correction by reading the whole word or sentence correctly. That final correct read is what gets remembered. Counting corrections is useful too. Fewer corrections on the same pattern over a week shows the teaching is working.
In a lesson
The student reads ship as “sip.” The teacher points to sh: “What sound do these two letters make?” “/sh/.” “Read the word again.” “Ship.”
Examples
Each word with its spelling units, one per sound.
- shipsh·i·p
- chinch·i·n
- shutsh·u·t
Words come from our lexicon, checked against a pronouncing dictionary. Words a student sees in our assessments are left out.
Why does this matter for the record?
Note which errors needed correcting more than once in a session. Those are the review targets for next time.
Rate each skill as you teach it
Needs support, Developing, Secure. The rating schedules the review and builds the report.