Fast Frequent Feedback and CEC

The Project VOYCE youth at CEC Middle College of Denver continued with the work that was done in previous years. They continued with the Fast Frequent Feedback (FFF) project that was first introduced and piloted at CEC back in 2012. Here at project VOYCE we believe in two big things:

1.) Students are the Experts in the classroom - Students are the ones who spend the most time in the classrooms and they are the ones who have to go through the lessons. Students will know what is working and not working before anyone else. If something is not working, instead of trying to figure it out, students could be asked for their feedback and this will give you the best answer for what is going on. Go directly to the Source

2.) Work with us not for us - Youth/adult partnerships are a big part of our program. We believe that the best way to do our work is to create those relationships and support each other for a common goal. We believe that in the classroom, Students want teachers and staff to be mentors and role models. someone they can and want to learn from, someone who can guide them in the right direction, and someone who they can look up to. What students do not want is a boss or someone acting like a parent at school. We always say "work with us not for us" because we want the adults and youth in the classroom to work together to achieve a common goal instead of having a monarchical system in the classroom. We also believe that when there is that partnership and understanding between the students and adults, students will be much more engaged in their education.

With Those two things in mind, Project VOYCE came up with a service we named Fast Frequent Feedback (FFF). FFF is a system that can be used to collect effective feedback quickly and efficiently so that there is a quick turn around as well as opportunities for doing it frequently. Through FFF we train our youth and some staff at the schools that we are in on some of our feedback tools, engagement tools, as well as ways they can ensure that students have a voice in their education. We have our youth go into their classrooms, describe FFF, and we make sure the students understand that FFF is a way to provide useful feedback only.

The ideal way to use FFF in schools would be in the classrooms as often as possible. This is perfect for the classroom because it is fast, it can be done as often as one pleases, gives quick data that can be used immediately, and students really appreciate it. One of our FFF tools is a love sandwich. A love sandwich is a way to give constructive feedback. It includes giving one piece of feedback that mentions something you enjoy in the classroom/ something that you like doing/ want to continue to do, or just something that you think is useful in the classroom. It is followed by a piece of feedback that explains the room for growth or something that could be improved. It ends with another piece of positive feedback which finishes of our love sandwich. A piece of of feedback used for growth or improvement is sandwiched in between two pieces of positive feedback.

For example, one of the teachers that helped us pilot the FFF project used the love Sandwich in one of her classrooms and received amazing feedback. They told her that they loved how she did her tests for the units, appreciated the fact that she was always willing to help anyone understand what she was teaching at any time, and they told her that they appreciated the fact that she was asking for their feedback because it showed them that what they had to say was important. When she looked at the feedback for what can be done to make the classroom better, she realised that most of the students had said the same thing. They all asked for more hands on independent/ group work instead of lecturing for the entire class period. This helped her understand that not every students learns the same and that the way the class was being taught to that group of students was not the most effective way. She started to lecture less in her classroom and give the students more opportunity for independent work, group work, and more hands on lessons. She noticed that student engagement had increased, the students were performing better on assignments, attendance had gone up more than 15%, and this class was outperforming the rest of the classes. All of this was possible through FFF and the love sandwich which only took less than 5 minutes to be completed in one class period.

We have expanded our FFF services to other schools including Denver Justice, Bruce Randolph School, and Aurora Central High School. This Year the Project VOYCE youth at CEC plan to recruit one of the largest groups of teachers for the FFF project at CEC and have the teachers use FFF to increase engagement in their classrooms