Sample Student Reflection
It's been three weeks of school, and my students are really starting to get the hang of things, so I decided to have them reflect on a few topics today. I gave them the title of this blog post (of course mine was capitalized properly - when will they catch on to that?). I listed five questions and asked them to give me three sentences for each (because I wanted them to think deeper than they typically do), but it was OK if they didn't get to every question. The questions were:
Reflection is an important 21st Century skill. I try to have my students reflect on their learning on a daily basis whenever new learning should have happened, and whenever I need students to combine their prior knowledge with their newly learned information or skills in order to synthesize the learning. I created a video this past summer that details the reasons why reflection is important, how to do it in your classroom, and features many of my students from last year's 21st Century Classroom talking about their reflection experiences. You can see the 7 minute video here. Or, you can see all three videos I created regarding 21st Century Education here.
This activity is fairly rudimentary and has been done for decades by excellent teachers who knew the value of reflecting. My students particularly enjoy the technology aspect that writing on their blogs provide, especially since they have an authentic audience in their classmates, parents, and teacher who regularly read and comment on their entries.
Later on in the year, I will teach my students to write specific reflections that will be paired with their learning products online. Here is a link to the page I created that details that process.
The screen shot above is the first reflection that I decided to read, and although there are spelling and capitalization mistakes, I am happy to see that this student has chosen goals that appropriate for them, their advice to their peers is something that I would say, and this particular kid likes me! Yay! :) I'm looking forward to reading the rest tonight!
Read more of their reflections by reading their entries. Hover over "e-Portfolios" above, and click on a student number.
- Why will this school year be great?
- What have you learned so far this year?
- What goals should you make for yourself this year?
- What has surprised you so far this year?
- What would you tell other students in our classroom to help them be successful this year?
Reflection is an important 21st Century skill. I try to have my students reflect on their learning on a daily basis whenever new learning should have happened, and whenever I need students to combine their prior knowledge with their newly learned information or skills in order to synthesize the learning. I created a video this past summer that details the reasons why reflection is important, how to do it in your classroom, and features many of my students from last year's 21st Century Classroom talking about their reflection experiences. You can see the 7 minute video here. Or, you can see all three videos I created regarding 21st Century Education here.
This activity is fairly rudimentary and has been done for decades by excellent teachers who knew the value of reflecting. My students particularly enjoy the technology aspect that writing on their blogs provide, especially since they have an authentic audience in their classmates, parents, and teacher who regularly read and comment on their entries.
Later on in the year, I will teach my students to write specific reflections that will be paired with their learning products online. Here is a link to the page I created that details that process.
The screen shot above is the first reflection that I decided to read, and although there are spelling and capitalization mistakes, I am happy to see that this student has chosen goals that appropriate for them, their advice to their peers is something that I would say, and this particular kid likes me! Yay! :) I'm looking forward to reading the rest tonight!
Read more of their reflections by reading their entries. Hover over "e-Portfolios" above, and click on a student number.
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