Write formative feedback comments on primary school writing

Context

A Language Arts teacher (grades 3–6) who has a stack of student writing to review and wants specific, honest, and encouraging feedback for each student — without copying the same generic comment into everyone's work.

Paste first

Before opening the model, prepare the following for each piece of writing:

• An anonymized version of the student's text (replace the name with "Student A", "Student B", etc. — never paste the real name, ID number, or any identifying data)
• The assessment criteria or aspects you want the feedback to cover (e.g.: main idea, structure, use of connectives, spelling)
• The expected writing level for that grade
• Your preferred tone: more direct? more encouraging? balanced?

Privacy rule: Always replace the student's name with an initial or code (Student 1, Student 2). Do not paste ID numbers, birth dates, or any information from the class register.

Act as a Language Arts teacher for {{grade level, e.g. "Grade 4"}} who knows how to give formative written feedback: honest, specific, and improvement-oriented without discouraging the student.

I'll share a student's text. Help me draft a written feedback comment.

**Criteria I want the feedback to cover:**
{{list of criteria, e.g.: "main idea, coherence between paragraphs, use of punctuation, at least one strength and one improvement suggestion"}}

**Comment length:** {{brief (3-4 sentences) / moderate (6-8 sentences) / detailed (one paragraph per criterion)}}

**Preferred tone:** {{encouraging / direct / balanced}}

**Student's text (no name or identifying information):**
---
{{paste the student's text here, replacing their name with "Student A" or a code}}
---

Please:
1. Identify one concrete strength in the text (something this student does well in particular — not something generic).
2. Point out the most important thing to improve, with a specific action suggestion.
3. If there are multiple things to improve, prioritize the most relevant one for this grade level — don't list everything that's wrong.
4. Write the comment in the second person, addressed to the student, in clear language a {{grade}} student can understand.

Expected output

Your writing has a very clear idea from the beginning: we know the character is scared and we understand why. That's not easy to do and you pulled it off.

The thing that will help you most now is working on punctuation. In the second paragraph there are several very long sentences that the reader has to re-read to understand. Try putting a period after "he reached the door" — you'll see how it changes the feeling of the story.

Keep going: when an idea is clear, everything else can be polished.

Watch out for

• Never paste the student's real name, ID number, or any identifying data. Use "Student A", "Student B", or any neutral code.
• The model can give generic feedback that sounds good but isn't specific to the text. If that happens, paste the comment alongside the actual text and ask: "This comment could apply to any text at this level. Make it more specific to what this student wrote."
• AI feedback doesn't replace face-to-face conversation. Use it as a draft: read it before handing it back and adjust anything that sounds artificial or doesn't match what you know about the student.

Suggested iteration

If the comment sounds too cold or mechanical, ask: "Soften the tone of the second paragraph — make it sound like something I'd say in person, not a formal evaluation." If you want to generate feedback for several texts in a batch, use the same prompt changing only the student's text each time — don't mix multiple texts in one message.