Reflecting on Our Learning

As we move into the final six weeks of school before summer break, our class is beginning to reflect on all aspects of our learning this year. Since reflection is such an important part of our learning process and our portfolios, I thought I’d share some insight into how and why we do it.

Reflection can happen after experiences such as a field trip, the completion of a book presentation, or even following an interesting conversation or discussion during our Hawaiian Studies inquiry. “Talking in your head” is something most people do regularly. When we turn that internal conversation into spoken words, sharing our experiences aloud, we strengthen those memories for future use. This is a valid form of reflection. Reflection is a crucial part of learning for children. They can learn from their experiences by asking themselves questions such as, “What did I learn from this?” and “How can I use this knowledge in the future?” To summarize John Dewey, an American philosopher, psychologist, and educational reformer: “We do not learn from experience... we learn from reflecting on experience.”

Helping a child through the reflection process is key to their learning. For example, most children need help organizing their thoughts. This can be done by asking them questions about their experience during and after it. I have found it is best to reflect right after the experience for an accurate recollection of details and immediate thoughts. Writing down answers to these questions is a great way to document learning and to create a record for future reference. I also like to have the children revisit their reflections more than once, to encourage deeper understanding, sometimes leading to the “aha moment.”

Reflecting is a valuable learning tool. Not only do my students and I enjoy it, but we both get a lot out of it!

This week, our class has been finishing up our writing reflections. In Noio Room 3, I encourage independence throughout the writing process. Although there is a lot of “teacher input” in the form of suggestions for corrections (paragraphing, spelling, organization, and punctuation), ultimately, students are encouraged to make their own decisions about which recommendations to edit. This is just one of the many stepping stones to becoming creative, self-sufficient writers.

Next week, Noio Room 3 will be finishing our ePortfolios. Please be sure to set aside some time either during the week or the weekend before conferences to listen to your child’s reflections and read their work. They are very proud of the effort they put into their portfolios, and I hope you are too!

I look forward to seeing you soon!