What Reflective Teaching Looks Like…
From the couch of Monica…
In my first contribution to the ERG blog, I wrote about reflective teaching and how true reflection transforms what we are able to accomplish in the classroom through our planning. Considering the 20 kiddos in front of me as a teacher, and balancing their need with the demands of the curriculum is the magic in the classroom. I have been thinking about some excellent and reflective teachers I have been blessed to work with in my 13 years as an educator, and these are some of the characteristics I have seen and learned from them:
Formative Assessments. For reflective teachers, there is a natural flow between “I do,” “we do,” and “you do.” It’s almost like a wash-rinse-repeat cycle. A reflective teacher revisits “we do” and “you do” during a lesson cycle and it often looks seamless. How does that teacher know when to cycle back to “we do?” There are lots of ways to know: Thumbs up, down or to the side gives a quick snapshot of mastery. White boards held up are another way. Sticky notes are often my go-to when it comes to formative assessment. I can give students a problem, have them work it on the sticky note, and quickly divide the class into a “gets it” group and a “not yet” group. I can also pose a question and have them answer it in a way that shows me what they know. Power strategies like parallel lines give the teacher a way to listen to student talk and know who gets it and who doesn’t. My all time favorite is for students to get a sticky note and self-assess. Three headings: I NEED MORE PRACTICE, I CAN WORK IT OUT, AND I COULD TEACH SOMEONE HOW TO DO IT. Students put their names on the sticky note and put themselves in the right category. Reflective teachers, throughout the lesson cycle, constantly assess their students and change things up to meet the needs of their students, sometimes on the fly!
Professional Conversations. I love Sunday night/Monday morning conversations with a teacher friend of mine that often starts with one of us saying, “I was thinking I could do…for this child/group…because…” I also have a small group of teachers I can message and say, “I have this kid who…what do you think?” The others will ask a few questions and we pull collective knowledge and experiences together to make professional decisions. Through professional conversations, teachers can hold each other accountable, and improve each other’s practice at the same time. Hallway conversations have always yielded useful and insightful results for me in terms of reflection.
Reflective Students: Reflective teachers often have reflective students. One of the most meaningful activities I’ve ever seen is an ongoing data graphing project where a teacher took a picture of each of her students, and then printed and laminated the pictures. Then she created a simple chart where students could graph 4 weeks of their 10 question comprehension weekly assessment performance. She paper clipped the graph to the front of the student picture, as if the kids were holding the graph, and they were posted where the kids could see them all over the room. They could easily track their own progress as they graphed week to week, but then at the bottom of the graph, students were given a sticky note where they reflected with the teacher on what went wrong or right and what their plan for improvement was going to be. Reflective students also learn how to take their own data and learn what their own personal trend lines are. They can tell you whether or not their performance is moving in the right direction and what they plan to do about it.
Last Minute Lesson Plans: The most reflective teachers I know finish their lesson plans for the week at the end of the previous week, after they have had a chance to measure their students’ learning and think about what the next step needs to be. Sunday night lesson plans are the norm. Re-teach or move on? What structures need to be utilized to effectively and productively keep moving through the curriculum while balancing student learning rates? Timelines come second to these teachers. Reflective teachers don’t dust off their lesson plans from previous years and recycle the same tired lessons and resources. Reflective teachers aren’t able to write lesson plans for the whole 2nd semester over Christmas Break, as tempting as it may be to try to get ahead. In a school I worked in that emphasized reflection, lesson plans were due to the principal at 7 am on Monday morning for that week. School started at 7:15.
I think, at the end of the day, being reflective means the same as being responsive to our kids’ interests, levels, abilities and skills. What do you do to be reflective in your classroom? I’d love to hear your thoughts.