Reflection
Reflection is the foundation from which students develop a wide range of transferable skills and knowledge, or “global competencies”, including critical thinking, innovation, creativity, and problem-solving skills. Reflection is a fundamental feature of meta cognition – that is, of “learning the process of learning” and of self-aware and self-directed learning.
Experiential learning is not learning by doing - simply participating in a learning activity doesn't necessarily make is experiential.
Experiential learning requires educators to provide explicit instruction in the skills of reflection and to assist students in developing the habit of looking for the learning that can be drawn from all life experiences.
Reflection is a strategy that develops skills of metacognition – the process of thinking about one’s own thought processes. Metacognition includes the ability to monitor one’s own progress towards achieving a learning goal, a skill that is reinforced in curriculum expectations and assessment policy (assessment as learning).
Reflect: So what? Students think about their experience, guided by reflective questions and prompts, and identify what they learned as a result of the experience – about themselves, other people, the world, their opportunities, or the subject of study.
Reflection Routines and Activities
The Google Sheet embedded below provides a number of resources to facilitate meaningful instruction in reflection with our students. There are five tabs located at the bottom of the sheet, each with different a focus and a variety activities:
Reflection Strategies
Each activity is linked to a doc. Scanning the information you're able to see the name of the activity, when you might want to introduce it (pre/during/post), minimum time required, group size (individual, pairs, group), suggested ages, and materials you'll need.
Collaborative Activities
These are DPA style collaborative activities designed to have students working together to complete an activity. They are a good way to build community in your classroom, especially when paired with reflection strategies found on the first tab of the sheet.
Mental Health Reflection
Adapted from School Mental Health Assist Resource, each activity opens to a google slide that contains questions, resources, and instruction on how to lead a group through reflection on different topics relating to mental health, such as stress management and positive motivation skills.
Curriculum Questions
Questions from a variety of curriculum documents (often in the "teacher prompts" section) have been transferred to google slide decks. These questions are primarily ones that could be used to begin a group discussion before or after studying a certain topic, or for the teacher to put up for individual reflection (journal, blog, etc.) at various times throughout the term.
Documenting Reflection
A large number of curriculum questions, sorted by learning skill. These are pre-loaded into google forms that will prompt you to make a copy. Once copied, you may with to share it with students through classroom or Edsby. There is also a link to each question in a master google slide deck if you'd rather present it to students in another format rather than the google form itself.
