Encouraging Student Reflection!

While looking for presenters that were not only educational but thought provoking for our workshops, I ran across some research that students learn best when they are active participants in their own learning.  I've known this for a long time but I kept reading anyway to give myself a bit of a refresher course.

Yet again I found myself slogging my way through a lot of information that's really meant for full-time Teachers, based around long term planning and strategies that take time to implement and get the students engaged in.  That rely on being in the same classroom every day and integrating certain things into the normal function of your classroom.

For example, one of the things you run across is to tell students that "they own their own learning".  The last thing I need is a frustrated teacher telling me stories of how little Johnny or Jenny piped up and said "But Mrs L told us we own our own learning"...  Theories like these need time to implement and a guiding hand over a period of time so that the students gain a full understanding of what "owning your own learning" really means.

This doesn't mean this tool is taken out of your toolbox as a CRT!  It just means you need to integrate it into the way you teach or the way you plan your activities in a way that encourages the students to "own their own learning" without telling them about it.

Worksheets are the backstop of our profession.  When all else fails, there they are to give the students access to some learning when something has happened that leaves you totally unprepared.  Lets use these as a basis to explore ways to get students to "own the learning" with word searches.

Integrate Choice into your activities.

We often use word searches (for example) but word searches are just... word searches.  The words are there to find.  You either find them or you don't.  It's pretty cut and dried but how do you create some choice in the activity?

• Choose a word search that lists the words to be found and look for the good ones that give a range of words (or find online tools to make your own!).
• Now tell the students that they have to find 5 words, then stop.  They are only allowed to find 5.
•  They then have to take those 5 words and write a sentence that says something about themselves, a friend, a toy they own or a memory.

 Now watch what happens.

The activity can now be approached in a number of ways.  They can search first and find 5 words then try to fit the words to one of the topics.  They can read the list, pick out 5 generic words that will fit almost anything.  They can decide what they would like to say up front and then pick 5 words from the list that lets them say it.

They have a choice in how they approach the activity now.

Focus on Process.

When they are done, talk about the choices the students made.  How did they approach it?  Could they have approached it another way?  Why did they choose that particular topic to write about?

Encourage them to explore why they, and others, did it a certain way.

Model.

Do the activity yourself.  Pick something interesting to them to write about.  Choose your words based on that topic.  Take your turn in explaining how you approached the activity, why you chose what you did, etc.

Then ask what they learnt.

This is an important one and again will give you a view into the thinking of your students.

This, in essence, shifts the focus from the activity from their result to what they have learnt.  It helps them understand that grades aren't the ultimate goal, they are just the way to measure how much you have learnt.  In the young ones it is a way to get them understanding that school is all about learning even though their parents and teachers put a heavy emphasis on "scores" when their report comes out.

For the older students it starts to become an arena for collegial learning.  By discussing these aspects they can see how other students have approached the given problems giving them access to alternate problem solving skills and schools of thought.  They can see that alternate answers that may not be as eloquent as their own receive a higher "score" because it contains more information than their own.  It will help them understand that paying attention in class, further research and essay writing skills all play a part in good grades and help them to understand the best place to spend their time.

In the example above, a high school student is given the information necessary to come to the understanding that their essay writing skills are the least of their worries.  They need to spend more time on further research, as an example, rather than redrafting their essay that extra two times to get it "perfect".

It is the difference between "what to answer", which is the essay question, and "how to answer", which is how to choose the most relevant way to answer the question.

Think of this in terms of your own time too.  As a CRT you may not have the time to make yourself available after class for students to visit you and discover why they only got 25/50 for their latest essay.  As a full-time teacher, dealing with this in class is not only a learning experience for the students, it maximises the time you have available for students who need genuine help rather than those who simply need a nudge in the right direction.

Regards,

Mel.