What is the Difference Between Giving Feedback and Evaluating Students?

I have been interested in this topic for some time, but I am just now getting into researching the difference between "evaluating" students and giving students "feedback". Understanging that "evaluating" refers more to judging and assigning a grade and "feedback" is assessing the progress of student learning. Reading various articles helped me realize that it is quality and prompt feedback that will help my students reach higher levels of learning and independent thinking. The articles discussed how feedback is something given daily and should be communicated between the teacher and the student and evaluation is done at the end of learning. (I guess you could compare it to formative "feedback" and summative "evaluation", as Natalie so nicely said, the check up vs the autopsy :) Feedback is (and should always be) CONSTRUCTIVE and intended to improve student performance. According to my research, feedback should not criticize; but rather give specific comments on skills dones well and skills needing further work, "Feedback should be presented as a method of improvement rather than as a punitive step and used as a method of building up the learner and strengthening the professional relationship between learner and mentor."

http://www.uab.edu/uasomume/cdm/feedback.htm

My question to myself now is am I continually giving my students the prompt, specific and constructive feedback they need on a daily basis to improve their ability to apply Spanish? My hope is that I am.
I would love to hear some students' thoughts about what they feel helps them improve their skills/performance in various subject areas. Does a unit test do this?

Almost all of the research that I read agreed upon one thing, "If faculty and students are less focused on evaluation, they can be more focused on learning."

http://www2.umassd.edu/CISW3/people/faculty/rupchurch/papers/feedback.pdf

Reflecting on Articles

So I am finally catching up on some educational reading sent by Karl, "It's Not What We Teach; It's What They Learn" and "Put Understanding First" (I know, a bit late). Both articles were interesting and gave me some food for thougtht. I have a few favorite quotes from the articles that I cannot stop spinning through my mind.

1. "I taught a good lesson even though the students didn't learn it"

2. "What we do doesn't matter nearly as much as how kids experience what we do" -Alfie Kohn

3. "Every educator ought to make a point of trying somthing new in their own lives, something they must struggle to master, in order to appreciate what their students put up with every day" -Alfie Kohn

4. "It's not to help students get good at school, but rather to prepare them for the world beyond school-to enable them to apply whay they have learned to issues and problems they will face in the future."-Grant Wiggins and Jay McTighe

Reading these articles and thinking about the implications of my teaching of course lead me to more reading (that is what always happens). Here are some other interesting things I came upon that also made the wheels in my head spin:

1. Should be a teacher’s job to motivate students to learn. (Many teachers feel that it is not their job and students should come to class predisposed to learn.)

2. There is a tremendous advantage if teachers truly remember what is was like to be a kid (teenager).

3. I am teaching students first content second.

These quotes got me thinking about teaching. What is good teaching? What defines success within a classroom? Good quiz scores? When we think about learning do we simply analyze data? What am I doing in the classroom on a daily basis to deepen understanding? Am I bringing a passion for learning and empowering students to be able to apply new knowledge and realize how to become independant thinkers?