Give Constructive Feedback on a Student's Writing

Feedback that just covers a draft in red ink overwhelms students and rarely improves the next piece. Effective feedback is specific, prioritized, and growth-oriented, and that's what this prompt produces. It names genuine strengths first, using actual examples from the text so the praise feels earned rather than generic, then limits improvements to the top three priorities so the student knows exactly where to focus instead of trying to fix everything at once. Each suggestion comes with a short before/after example, which teaches the revision skill rather than just pointing out the problem. Crucially, the prompt forbids rewriting the whole piece, because doing the work for students robs them of the learning, and it asks for a single revision goal to carry into the next assignment. You stay in control: review the feedback, adjust the tone, and decide what to pass along. It scales feedback to a full class without sacrificing the specificity that makes feedback actually work.

What you can expect back

Nice work telling a real story! Here's some feedback just for you.

What's working:
- You picked a clear topic, your day at the lake, so the reader knows what the story is about.
- You included an ending ('went home') so the story feels finished.

Let's make it even stronger:
1. Add details. Before: 'We swam.' After: 'We swam out to the floating dock and raced back.' What did you see, hear, or feel?
2. Show the fun. Instead of telling us 'It was fun,' describe one moment that made it fun.
3. Connect your sentences with words like 'after that' or 'suddenly' so it flows.

Your goal next time: add one sentence of detail to each part of your story.

Illustrative example — your results will vary by tool and inputs.

Get sharper results

• 01Paste the assignment rubric too so the feedback aligns to exactly what you'll grade.
• 02Ask for the feedback at two depths and pick the one that fits the student, since a struggling writer needs fewer priorities than an advanced one.
• 03Request a version written 'to the student' and a separate private note 'to the teacher' summarizing the pattern for your grade book.
• 04Always read the AI feedback yourself before sharing it, and adjust the tone to sound like you.

Adapt it for your case