Gwynne Langley Rivers

December 1, 2014
Student Feedback Summary
On December 1, 2014 I administered a twelve question survey to two of my classes of
students. These classes of seventh grade language arts students are among my highest-achieving
classes, although there is still quite a broad range of abilities represented among the students who
completed the survey. There were 43 responses. The survey results were generally positive, with
few negative comments. On the first set of questions, where students rated me on a scale of 1-5, I
averaged a 4.7 across all questions. I received the most positive feedback on Question 7, The
instructor treats students with respect, where I averaged a 5 out of 5. My weakest area was
Question 4, I feel encouraged to participate and respond to others, where I averaged a 4.53 out
of 5. When answering the three open-ended questions at the bottom of the survey, many students
said they appreciated my humor and the fact that there was time for fun in the class. Few
suggested changes, although one student wished we could take notes in a different way, and
other mentioned that they did not appreciate doing homework. Others, however, wished for more
writing and more reading opportunities. The last question addressed my strengths, and many
students saw me as kind and caring, and good at explaining concepts. In my second block class,
many mentioned that they appreciated that there was room for debate in the class, and that I was
willing to let the students go on tangents on occasion but am capable of refocusing their
attention.
Getting student feedback on my teaching was useful in many ways. It showed me that I
have accomplished one of my primary goals: to show students that I respect them and appreciate
them as individuals, and that I have created a fun and safe learning environment in my

classroom. The survey also showed me areas where I need to improve. I was surprised by the
fact that many students seemed to feel they were not always encouraged to participate or respond
to their peers. This is an area I have worked hard to improve, but there is still more to be done,
apparently. In the future, I will strive to find more ways to foster interaction among my students,
and to allow them more time and space to discuss ideas with one another. The other area of
weakness is in creating and explaining assignments to the students. I was surprised by this
because I feel like I explain what the assignment is and why we are doing it repeatedly over the
course of our class time. Although I need to be better at putting unfinished classwork on the
board as homework assignments, I was surprised that many students do not seem to see the
connections between coursework and homework. I will be mindful to communicate that more
clearly going forward.
As a novice teacher, this exercise is certainly useful in helping me to understand how I
am seen by my students. Often there is something of a divide between what I see as my strengths
and what my students see. Indeed, I believed that I was doing relatively well at getting my kids
to talk to one another and interact, but that seems to not have come across to them as I had
hoped. In the future, I will concentrate on creating more of that give and take between students
so that all of my kids can feel successful and as though they are contributing to the discussions in
my classroom.
The table below summarizes the scores per question for the quantitative section of the
survey. The averages are rounded to the nearest hundredth place in order to present a more finely
graded view of the questions and consequently my abilities as a teacher.

Average Scores per Question

5.1
5
4.9
4.8
4.7
4.6
4.5
4.4
4.3
4.2
4.1

Block 2 Average
Block 3 Average
Total Average