Reflection; an important part of the learning process

Giving students the opportunity to reflect on what they've learned, how they've learned it and why they've learned it is an important part of the learning process.

But who has time to set up that kind of reflection?! We hardly even have time to get through the actual lesson!

One teacher with whom I work has an answer. She has set up a reflection procedure with her students which allows them to meaningfully - and consistently - reflect on the learning they've done. Yesterday, I got to see the procedure first hand.

The class is currently digging into the idea that expansion transforms culture over time. During the unit, students are primarily exploring how European expansion into the New World transformed the European, African and Native American cultures.

During the lesson yesterday, the students were still exploring the concepts of expansion, transformation and culture but were thinking about these big ideas through a different context: the current refugee crisis precipitated by the violence, instability and economic troubles in the Middle East and Northern Africa.

To explore these ideas, the teacher lead the students through a Tug-of-War, a visible thinking routine from Making Thinking Visible by Ritchhart, Church & Morrison. She presented the dilemma, "Countries should be required to let refugees settle within their borders," and the students had to generate "tugs" or reasons that support one side of the dilemma or the other. Students then read through the "tugs" as a class, determining the strength of each.

As students did this work, wonderful thoughts and questions were shared and discussed. Connections were made to the push-pull factors the students had learned about when they studied the European Explorers. Students also made connections to the UN Declaration of Human Rights, the treaty signed at the 1951 Convention relating to the Status of Refugees as well as the Ebola crisis last year.

At the end of the discussion, the teacher asked the students to reflect on how their thinking had changed, by inviting them to complete the thinking routine, "I used to think, Now I think," where students reflect on how their thinking has shifted and changed.

The teacher also required the students to respond to the following prompt:

front of the essential elements mat

back of the essential elements mat

Below are samples of some of the students' thinking.

These students simply answered the prompt, identifying two attitudes they demonstrated during the Tug-of-War discussion.

Another student was able to identify more than two attitudes demonstrated during the discussion.

The following students went beyond the requisites of the prompt and elaborated on their responses, explaining how they showed the particular attitudes they demonstrated.

Giving students the opportunity to reflect on their learning is an integral part of the learning process. After reading about how this teacher set up a reflection procedure with her students, how could you or do you give students the opportunity to reflect on what they've learned, how they've learned it and why they've learned on a consistent and daily basis?

Using Thinking Routines at Student-led Conferences

On February 7, 2015, I posted Making Professional Thinking Visible, where I wrote about how our pedagogical leadership team used See-Think-Wonder (a thinking routine from Making Thinking Visible by Ritchhart, Morrison, & Church). I received some great feedback from colleagues around the world, detailing how they have used thinking routines in professional settings too.

One educator (Philippa Morgan from the MEF International School in Istanbul, Turkey) mentioned another context she has used See-Think-Wonder (S-T-W). She said she has used S-T-W "as a format for 3-way conferences with my [first grade] students and parents. The familiarity of the routine gave the students confidence as they shared portfolio pieces and the parents were able to follow lead and see a routine in action."

Inspired by Philippa, I shared her idea with a couple of teachers with whom I work. One second grade teacher decided to use S-T-W with her students as a way to prepare for their student-led conferences. Here is her story:

Throughout the last several months, students have been writing poetry and have been collecting their pieces in their poetry binders. To prepare for their conferences, students were asked to look through their binders and reflect on the learning they had done by documenting the things they saw, what they thought, and what they wondered. Some students decided to additionally write a goal for the future based on what they saw in their poetry binders.

Below are seven examples of what students created.

Student #1:

Student #2:

Student #3:

Student #4:

Student #5:

Student #6:

Student #7:

After reading about how one teacher used See-Think-Wonder to prepare her students for the conferences that they'll end up leading, how could you use thinking routines to prepare for or to structure their student-led conferences?

I used to think ... Now I think ...

"I used to think ... Now I think ..." is a thinking routine from Making Thinking Visible (Ritchhart, Church, Morrison) that helps students reflect on how their thinking has shifted and changed over time. On March 20, 2014, I wrote about how this thinking routine could be used with Kindergarteners to show their thinking about cycles.

One of the advantages of thinking routines from Making Thinking Visible is that they can be used in a variety of contexts with a variety of topics over and over again. All teachers can use them, because all students need to think.

Recently, an English Language teacher proved the flexible nature of the thinking strategies when she adapted this thinking routine to fit her content and context. She had asked me if I would suggest a thinking routine that would help her small group of English Learners reflect on their writing and how they had improved during the academic year. After working with her students on this routine, I received the following e-mail:

"I took the 'I used to think' activity and turned it into a “We used to write…” for my small group of 4th grade girls. Since they hadn't done anything like that before, we did it as a group and I recorded their statements. It went well and I think I’ll keep using it in various forms. The girls had a lot of “Oooohhhhh yeah,” and, “AAAhhhhhh,” moments. It was great to witness. What made it even better is that we were sitting right underneath the sign of 'Reflective Alley'."

She also shared their thoughts she had recorded:

We used to write…

• We used to repeat words over and over in our writing: and, and then, then, he said, she said.
• We didn’t use “juicy” words at first. 
• We didn’t really really describe things.
• We used periods sometimes.
• We wrote short, simple sentences.
• Our writing was boring.
• We used too much dialogue sometimes.
• We used a little bit of expression or no expression at all.
• We felt that writing was boring. 

But now we write…

• We write in longer, expanded sentences.
• We write with more expression.
• We use more accurate punctuation.
• We can write in paragraph form.
• We use similes and metaphors.
• We have a balance of dialogue.
• We have a stronger author’s voice.
• We feel more satisfied with our writing--we feel like real authors now. 
• We feel like writing is not as hard as it used to be.
• We can write for a longer amount of time.
• We are more excited about writing projects.
• We write multiple drafts and do peer editing and revising, and we still do editing and revising with a teacher.
• We celebrate our writing.
• We talk about our writing and reflect on it.
• We share our writing by reading it to our peers and teachers. 
• We use our typing skills more.

After reading about how English Learners used the Visible Thinking Routine "I Used to Think ..., Now I Think ..." to reflect on how their understanding, knowledge, skills, and attitudes regarding writing had changed over the academic year, how could you use "I Used to Think ..., Now I Think ..." in your instructional practice?