Feedback & Reflection
Feedback is one of the most powerful — and most variable — influences on teaching. This system makes it growth-focused, specific, and reflective: structured feedback models, reflective questioning, teacher self-reflection, strength-based coaching conversations, goal monitoring, and continuous-improvement planning. The aim is feedback that teachers act on, not feedback that is merely delivered.
Effective feedback answers three questions — Where am I going? How am I going? Where to next? — and is most powerful when it targets the task and process, invites reflection, and is followed by a chance to apply it. Feedback that changes practice is specific, timely, growth-oriented, and paired with a single high-leverage next step rather than a long list of corrections. Scenarios are illustrative.
Growth-Focused Feedback Generator
Choose a focus area to draft a strength-based, single-next-step feedback note you can adapt to a specific teacher and lesson.
Generate a draft to adapt.
Feedback Models
Structured moves keep feedback specific and growth-oriented. Click a model to explore it.
Glow: name one specific, evidence-based strength to reinforce — what the teacher did and the effect it had on learning.
Grow: name one high-leverage next step, framed as a move to try rather than a deficit to fix.
Why it works: protects the relationship, keeps cognitive load low, and makes the next step unmistakable.
Instead of telling, ask: "What did you notice about student talk in the second task?" The teacher surfaces the insight, which makes the change more durable.
Use when: the teacher has the capacity to self-diagnose and you want ownership, not compliance.
Bright spot: identify an effective move already in the teacher's repertoire.
Bet: propose extending that strength to a new context — building from what works rather than starting over.
Evidence: a low-inference observation ("12 of 24 students answered the cold call").
Effect: the impact on learning that evidence suggests.
Step: one concrete adjustment and a date to revisit it.
Reflective Questions for Professional Conversations
Open, non-evaluative questions that invite the teacher to think — sequence from describing to analyzing to planning.
- What were you hoping students would learn, and how would you know they had?
- What evidence showed students were — or were not — learning?
- Which moment in the lesson are you most curious about, and why?
- What did you decide in the moment that you might reconsider?
- If you taught this again tomorrow, what is the one thing you would change?
- What support would make that change easier to try?
Strength-Based Coaching & Goal Monitoring
🌟 Name the strength
Anchor the conversation in an effective move the teacher already owns, described with specific evidence so it feels earned, not flattering.
🎯 Set one goal
Co-create a single, observable goal with success criteria. One goal pursued well outperforms many goals pursued shallowly.
📅 Monitor progress
Schedule brief, regular check-ins. Track evidence of the goal over time so progress is visible to the teacher, not just the coach.
🔁 Continuous improvement
Close each cycle by reflecting on impact and naming the next focus, turning feedback into an ongoing improvement loop.
Feedback only improves teaching when it is specific (tied to evidence), timely (close to the lesson), growth-oriented (one next step, not a verdict), and followed up (revisited together). Delivering feedback is not the goal — changed practice is. Illustrative.
Teacher Self-Reflection Journal
A private space to capture reflections after a lesson, observation, or coaching conversation. Saved locally in this browser — nothing leaves your device.