reflections of the students
Answers
Answer:
Explanation:
This past school year, I sought to ask my students to reflect upon their learning more often. These reflections have allowed me to get to know my students better, understand their strengths and weaknesses with content and study habits, and discern what kind of connections they are making between topics and disciplines. But the reflections had great benefits for my students, too. Over the course of the year, I saw them grow as they were asked to more frequently take time to self-assess what they knew or how they could improve their understanding.
Here, I share how I collect student reflections, when I ask students to reflect, how reflections benefit students, and how I use their reflections to inform my teaching.
Answer:
Reflect is what educators do. College professors give value to reflecting on pedagogical practice. Administrators expect us to reflect on our practice in instructional evaluations. Inservice instructors ask us to reflect on what we learned from each training session.
As teachers reflecting on ways to enhance our daily instruction, we ask: How did the students respond to the day’s lesson? Were the objectives met? How could we better manage our time? What methods might engage our students?
As a middle school teacher, I found myself asking similar questions until I realized: who better to ask than the students themselves? After all, I might believe a lesson was absolutely wonderful—it seemed as though every student was attentive and focused on the classroom activity—but what if I was wrong? What if my students weren’t getting all that I hoped they would from our time together?
So, I implemented student reflection as a weekly component of my classroom instruction. Every Friday, students spent 10–15 minutes reflecting on our week together. They responded to four key questions that prompted personal reflection:
What did you learn this week?
What activities helped you to learn?
What activities did you find engaging?
What questions or comments do you have for me?
Student reflections guided my classroom teaching and lesson planning as I had hoped, but I was surprised by the unexpected benefits it brought to the students. An activity intended to suit my own instructional needs became an activity that inspired connection, openness, diversity, metacognition, and sense of community for my students.
Here are some of the ways reflection benefits students.