Teacher feedback vs. annotated exemplars: Examining the effects on middle school students’ writing performance

The current study investigated students' improvement on a writing task following the use of annotated exemplars, teacher comments, and the combination of both approaches. A sample of 94 middle school students (age M = 12.42, SD = 0.96) from a private school in Brazil was randomly assigned to one of three feedback conditions: annotated exemplars, teacher comments, and both annotated exemplars and teacher comments. Participants were asked to write an essay and then revise it by using teacher comments or annotated exemplars (or both). Results showed improvements in students' writing from first to second draft, but no statistically significant differences among the groups were found. Further, girls scored higher than boys in both the first and final drafts irrespective of the feedback condition. These results show the promise of annotated exemplars in facilitating students' improvement on a writing task through effective self-feedback generation while significantly reducing teachers' time investment.