Hobbes is displaying the type of reflection I'm most accustomed to. Sit back, relax, and don't try to force self-awareness. I feel like the reflections I've had to do in school (from grade school through college) don't allow for this type of self-discovery. Most reflection assignments look the same: tacked-on questionnaires that help round out a portfolio from that school year. The same cookie-cutter questions were applied to each year's work. What was your favorite piece? What was your least favorite? How would you improve your body if work? It's not so much reflection as it is completing a new assignment.
Yancey says students should be "agents of their own learning" and not "objects in a study", which is how the previously described reflection made it seem. For the student to take any kind of ownership from looking back at his or her work, he or she must feel invested in it. An assigned reflection with tailored questions is not done out of a desire for growth, but simply to meet a requirement.
Yancey mentions that reflection is is habitual. Like most habits, reflection needs to be taught. As a teacher, one of the best tools I can provide to help teach students to reflect is the topic of our second article: teacher comments on papers.
Poor Calvin. He not only failed the test, earning the scorn of his teacher, but he also still doesn't know who the first president was. Miss Wormwood gave him quite the dressing-down without helping him at all. It's very clear what he doesn't know so it shouldn't be too hard to correct his mistake. The comments she chooses to make are anything but helpful; she must have missed that day in college.
But Sommers points out that most teacher training doesn't even address responding to student papers. I know mine didn't. I invite the other educators who are reading this to think back on their training. Does this hold true for us all? The first time I had to grade a student's paper, I remember sitting at my dining room table feeling so powerful... and rudderless. How do I know what to say to this kid? Sure I was the one in charge, but I still lived with my parents. I'm supposed to tell this kid what he meant to say?
So I'm thankful for this article. It opened my eyes to how pointless most of the comments I've made on countless papers have been. Hundreds of students has simply fixed grammar mistakes I've pointed out, only to go on and make the same mistakes on the next paper. Sommers makes a great point when she says that correcting grammar in sentences that will more than likely be eliminated is pointless. Attack the ideas within the piece and force the student to focus on the meaning. I'll be sharing this article with my PLC this week.
In regards to the final group project, I was amazed at how quickly the idea took off. I'm usually very easy going so I will agree with anything the majority chooses to do. I don't want those not in education to feel like they don't have a voice and were forced to create something they don't fully agree with. I agree that if this is the route we take, the audience must be determined quickly.
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| This would have been perfect for last week. |
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