Publication by Karine Bélair

About the Author

She has been teaching at the Collégial international Sainte-Anne since it opened in 2011. She has a double diploma in Civil Law and in Common Law and is a member of the Barreau du Québec. She also has a Bachelor’s and a Master’s degree in French Literature, both from McGill University. She wrote this Real Life Story following a series of experiments within the context of a Professional Community of Learning (communauté d’apprentissage professionnelle) at her college. In this community, teachers are matched up with their peers according to their interests, and are encouraged to share the results of their pedagogical research or discoveries with their colleagues.

Real Life Stories

Published May 3, 2016

Audio Feedback: Customized Follow-up for Students

Karine Bélair Teacher, Collégial international Sainte-Anne

When I am correcting my students’ assignments in my French or Law courses, I often feel the need to go beyond my correction codes. For me, it seems insufficient to simply mark “unclear” or “requires further development.” How can you clarify? What does “requires further development” mean? I really want to reformulate the sentence that requires clarification, and to outline the explanations in order to provide an example. It’s unfortunate that my handwriting is difficult for students to decipher. It’s also unfortunate that their copy looks like a construction site after I have finished my job of editing, crossing out sentences and adding comments, as much within the text as in the margins… That’s why I tried out a new style of providing feedback – audio feedback.

French (Language and Literature)