OWENSBORO, Ky.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--This school year, Daviess County Public Schools will use Turnitin Feedback Studio as a key element of the district plan to emphasize writing across the curriculum. Feedback Studio is an instructional technology that supports teachers as they teach students how to improve their writing and develop original thought. Click to Tweet.
Daviess County, like many other Kentucky districts, is systematically building literacy and communication skills in K12 students across curriculum areas. Feedback Studio will help the district’s teachers grade and give feedback in writing assignments in English/Language Arts classes and other subject areas, such as social studies and science. It is also a platform to collect and grade essays and generate similarity reports that help identify potential content matches so teachers can address how to properly cite and reference sources.
Feedback Studio streamlines time-consuming tasks like giving comments and feedback. Feedback Studio QuickMarks are common preloaded comments teachers use when grading papers. They can drag-and-drop preloaded comments and attach them to specific sections or words, or they can customize their own QuickMarks. DCPS teachers are creating their own QuickMarks, which they can use again and again. The district has also identified its own set QuickMarks which are shared with all teachers and bringing consistency to the grading and feedback process. In addition, teachers can quickly and easily record audio comments or give detailed individual feedback – just as they would on paper – which helps them maintain autonomy when grading or commenting on student papers.
DCPS director of instructional technology Anthony Sparks said teachers have found Feedback Studio QuickMarks to be a valuable resource. “The program supports our district’s focus on literacy and communication skills while also implementing the efficiency of technology,” he said. “This results in more immediate and meaningful feedback for students, which encourages their growth as writers.”
“With Feedback Studio, we can focus on guiding students in their writing because the comments we need to record for grammar can be quickly added using QuickMarks either generated by each teacher or with the district’s standardized set,” said Therese Payne who teaches ELA at Daviess County High School. “Furthermore, Feedback Studio is helping our students to write better because they are learning how to synthesize new ideas from the existing content they discover. At Daviess County High School, in particular, Feedback Studio has become a great teaching tool for students to practice and refine how they cite sources. When students see citation problems early on in their writing, it becomes a teachable moment and a skill they can take on to college.”
Nancy Skiadas who also teaches at Daviess County High School said, “I recognize the huge benefit for teachers to use Feedback Studio’s ready-made Quickmarks and e-Rater as great time-savers. The students have benefited from using Peermark, and a few teachers have shared our PeerMark Questions with each other. As another time-saver, I have created my own QuickMarks with brief key words and longer explanations, and I’ve added clarifying web links to the Quickmarks explanations.”
About Turnitin
Turnitin is committed to building better writers, with integrity. Turnitin’s formative feedback and originality checking services promote critical thinking, ensure academic integrity, and help students improve their writing. Turnitin provides instructors with the tools to engage students in the writing process, provide personalized feedback, and assess student progress over time. Turnitin is used by more than 30 million students at 15,000 institutions in 140 countries. Backed by Insight Venture Partners, GIC, Norwest Venture Partners, Lead Edge Capital and Georgian Partners, Turnitin is headquartered in Oakland, Calif., with international offices in Newcastle, U.K., Utrecht, Netherlands, Melbourne, Australia, Seoul, Korea, Delhi, India, and throughout Latin America. @Turnitin
