Transforming teacher feedback: A checklist for assessing and supporting reading skills, motivation and student agency in oral reading

Abstract

Teachers’ supportive feedback is essential for young students’ reading development and academic thriving. In providing feedback on oral reading, however, teachers typically focus on measurable aspects, such as accuracy in word reading, while neglecting other broader competencies that are also crucial for reading development and student agency. The present study investigates how the Read To Me Checklist, a feedback intervention designed to improve the quality of teachers’ feedback across multiple reading dimensions, can also foster student agency in reading. Employing an exploratory mixed-methods design, we gathered detailed insights from teachers regarding their observations, focus areas, and proposed feedback on two recorded cases of students’ readings with contextual information. This occurred before and after a non-intrusive intervention spanning 7–9 weeks, alongside students’ self-reports on agency. The findings suggest that the teachers’ feedback practices became more multifaceted and focused on promoting agency, with an increased emphasis on motivation and comprehension. While the decoding aspect was slightly less prominent in the teachers’ feedback after the intervention, it remained the central aspect in their overall assessment practices. The findings related to agency were supported by combining students’ reports on agency with data on teachers’ beliefs. The intervention provides a cost-effective strategy to expand feedback practices, covering a wider range of reading aspects, including comprehension, motivation, and decoding. This beneficial change in teachers’ feedback is particularly notable for the minimalistic nature of the intervention.