What does this pupil response tell you?

Before writing another comment, consider what the learner will be able to do with it. The Education Endowment Foundation’s feedback guidance focuses on underlying principles rather than choosing written feedback over spoken feedback.

An illustrative classroom move

A pupil’s paragraph makes a claim but offers no supporting example. Instead of simply writing “more detail”, point to the claim, ask for a relevant example and provide time to revise that sentence. Then inspect whether the example actually supports it.

This is a suggested application, not proof of effectiveness. The right next step depends on the task, the pupil’s understanding and the learning goal. Sometimes the pupil needs further teaching before they can use a comment.

Source: Education Endowment Foundation (2021), Teacher Feedback to Improve Pupil Learning. The paragraph example is original TeachBox guidance.

Looking at a familiar explanation and reconstructing it without looking are different tasks. Retrieval practice asks you to bring previously learned information back to mind.

A review by Kathleen B. McDermott describes evidence that practising retrieval can support later remembering across a range of materials and learning settings. That does not make every quiz equally useful, or recall a complete measure of understanding.

A practical starting point

1. Read a short explanation that you can broadly understand.
2. Close it. Write the main idea and one example from memory.
3. Compare with the source, correct errors and identify a gap.
4. Return later and try again, with a suitable prompt if needed.

Try explaining how the example illustrates the idea. Remembering words and using a concept deserve separate checks.

Evidence: McDermott, K. B. (2021), Practicing Retrieval Facilitates Learning. The sequence above is TeachBox practical guidance, not a tested intervention.