InClass

You can help students learn to recognize both their personal strengths as well as where they have room for growth — and channel that knowledge into fuel for their futures.

1. Get started with reflection sentence frames to get students started. Think along the lines of “I’m still wondering about…” or “This summer, I was really frustrated by…”. Another idea? Put reflection questions on a dice and have students roll for a prompt. Feeling techy? Check out this QR code example.


2. Give kids the big picture in the beginning. Why is teaching reflection skills important? How will this help develop their mindsets? What should the end product look or sound like?


3. Participate and build class culture. If you want kids to be honest and open in their self-evaluations, step up and go first. Share a summer memory from your youth and how it changed or affected you.


4. Put them at the center of their reflection. Reflection is all about constructing meaning from our individual experiences and using them for analysis and problem solving. Students should choose a summer event that transformed them, even in a subtle way. Help kids navigate their memory or event as a platform for a decision, self-identification, or improvement.


5. Link to other events. Reflection is most powerful when we construct meaning from one life experience and link it to another — a skill known as building background or scaffolding. Encourage students to enhance their reflection by showing how one event or lesson learned impacted another experience.


6. Share reflections with an authentic audience. Whether it’s a journal entry, a blog, or a videoed response (the possibilities are endless; be creative), think about how you can open up reflections to a real and appropriate audience. Think peers, administration, parents — and beyond. Going public can be intimidating at first, but it will seriously deepen the reflection impact (and connect to other 21st century skills while you’re at it).