I recently read an article on edutopia.org, the George Lucas Educational Foundation site, about Brain-based Learning. What follows are some of their thoughts and tips with my two cents added in.
Tip #3
All ages of students need positive and constructive feedback rather than praise that says. “That’s nice. I like it.” It’s important to learn that we must all strive to improve our work and thinking. That means discovering what went wrong or what doesn’t work as well as what worked.
For informal testing. consider marking the number of the error/problem with a circle. Leave the student to discover what needs to be checked. Once it is fixed, turn the ‘O’ into ‘OK.’
Add in gallery walks around the classroom to share students projects, art, etc. Install a student author’s chair for sharing reading and writing aloud. Provide guidance on presentations via checklists and rubrics to share how their work will be evaluated/assessed.