Students summarize their learning on a weekly basis. They express the key points for that weeks lesson and receive feedback from the instructor.
Appropriate Content Areas
Often used social sciences, but appropriate for most fields.
Goals and Objectives
After completing this exercise to a satisfactory level, students have reinforces and synthesized the materials covered. The material is further internalized and personalized through reflection. By viewing other reflections, students obtain additional perspectives on the material covered.
Prerequisites
Student must first complete the materials for the time during which the reflection covers.
Materials and Resources
What needs to be prepared in advance by the teacher? – Provide an area for the reflections to be posted. They may be private or public.
What does the student need to bring to the lesson? – Complete all of the prior activities for the given unit.
Guiding Questions for this Activity
What did you learn during this unit? How will/does it apply to your practice? Will/Have you been able to put any of this knowledge into practice?
Typical Activity Outlines and Procedures
Following a unit of activities, students are directed to post a brief reflection of their learning for that module. Specific points to address can be included in the assignment description (as done in the typical example linked above).
Teaching Strategies
- These reflections can be used to help personalize any end of module summaries by the instructor such as…’this module we studied x, and as student y and z noticed, a is true about x.
- It is important to give some feedback other than ‘nice job’ so that students are motivated to deeply reflect over the materials. Some points towards a course assessment should be given for quality reflections.
Timeline
Generally completed at the end of the module. If kept brief, should only take about 15 minutes for the students to complete.
Ideas for Activity Evaluation and Teacher Reflection
End of semester evaluations should ask about the usefulness and learning accomplished through such activities. Also, the responses in the reflections will help gauge how the students are enjoying various aspects of the course in general.