Reflection Activities for Students
Providing opportunities for students to monitor their own learning is important, and teachers play a vital role in creating opportunities for students to assess personal learning and performance. This week we offer tips to promote student self-reflection.
This Week's Tips
Administer Pre- and Post-Assessments (Monday)
Carefully devise pre- and post-assessments for the content about to be presented. A carefully designed speculative or opinion pre-assessment will lay the groundwork for new material without frustrating students. Following instruction, administer a post assessment requiring students to formulate appropriate answers/responses before demonstrating acquired knowledge.
Student Learning Logs Record Learning (Tuesday)
Require students to maintain a two-column learning log in a centralized section of their class notebooks. In one column, students should copy the lesson objectives prior to instruction. In the second column, students should respond to the objectives following instruction. Learning logs are logical study guides as well as demonstrative records of learning opportunities.
Give Wait Time After Asking Questions (Wednesday)
After asking a question, provide at least five seconds of wait time before calling on any student to answer. Wait time allows students to thoughtfully formulate a response and increases the likelihood of an appropriate answer. Inform students of your strategy so they know that they have time to think about your question before answering.
Key Word Cluster Activities Enhance Learning (Thursday)
Review previously learned material by asking students to brainstorm a list of key words associated with the topic. Using the brainstormed list as a prompt, students should consider and be able to explain the relationship of each word to the learned material. Use the download to provide a visual for key word clusters.
Self-Evaluation Helps Students (Friday)
Encourage self-evaluation of performance on projects and papers by providing students a carefully designed rubric. Allow for realistic self-assessment by providing categories, such as strong, average, and weak for each assessed standard. Present the rubric at the onset of an assignment and encourage students to consider how well they want to perform on the assignment.
