Teaching Routines / Two Stars and a Wish
Two Stars and a Wish
Two things that worked, and one thing to change. It is the most-used peer feedback frame in primary schools, and it lives or dies on whether the stars say what was good rather than just that it was.
A timer for each stage, with what the children do in each · free to try · no sign-up
The sheet it prints — optional
What is two stars and a wish?
Two stars and a wish is a peer feedback frame: the reader identifies two things that worked in a piece of work — the stars — and one thing to change — the wish. It is used across primary schools because it is memorable, it forces a positive-to-critical ratio, and children can hold it in their heads without a prompt sheet.
The frame is not the hard part. Getting stars that say what was good, rather than that it was good, is the hard part, and it is what separates a useful ten minutes from a decorative one.
How do you use it, step by step?
- Read it properly (about four minutes). Twice. The first read tells you whether you liked it; the second tells you why.
- Write it (about four minutes). Two stars with reasons, then one wish that names a change rather than a fault.
- Talk it through (about three minutes). Give it face to face. Handing over a slip of paper and walking away is not feedback.
Eleven minutes. The reading stage looks generous and is not — most weak peer feedback is a reading problem rather than a writing one.
How do you stop the stars being empty?
Give them the sentence shape: “X worked because Y”, where X is something you can point at on the page. “Your opening worked because you started with the noise rather than the place” is a star. “Great work, well done” is a sticker.
For the wish, insist on a change rather than a judgement, and only one. “Too short” is a judgement; “add what the room smelled like in the second paragraph” is a wish, and a child can act on it tomorrow.
Making them read it twice before touching a pen changed the quality more than any modelling I did. My first attempts had children skim-reading and writing “I like your writing, it is good, wish: make it longer” — and I was blaming their feedback vocabulary when the real problem was that they had not read the work. The second change was banning the word “good” on the sheet entirely. It sounds petty and it works, because it forces them to find the actual word for what happened. And I insist on the wish being said out loud, face to face, because a written wish is easy to be blunt in and children are much fairer to each other when they have to look at the person. With Year 3 I do the stars only for the first half term and add the wish later, once they can do a specific compliment.
What usually goes wrong?
- The stars are empty praise. Require the because, and ban the word good.
- Three wishes creep in, and the child receiving it hears only criticism. One.
- It is handed over in writing and never discussed, so nothing is clarified.
- The reading is rushed, which is the root cause of most of the above.
Which year groups is it for?
| Year group | US grade | What to change | How long |
|---|---|---|---|
| Years 1–2 | K – Grade 1 | Two stars only, said out loud, no wish and nothing written. | 5 min |
| Years 3–4 | Grades 2–3 | Stars with a because, one wish, and the face-to-face stage. | 11 min |
| Years 5–6 and up | Grades 4–8 | The wish must name a specific edit, and the writer acts on it before the lesson ends. | 15 min |
Compared with the other feedback structures
- Explain & Record gives feedback on thinking as it happens rather than on a finished piece.
- Whole-Class Feedback as a technique covers the same ground far faster, but without the child having to judge anything themselves.
- Pass the Problem is the version where the checking is of method rather than of writing.
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Written by a practising primary school teacher, and part of the free-to-try Teaching Routines set on Sage Teachers. Last checked August 2026. Everything here is free to try.