Written by In just a few days, we will be gathering for the final F2F session of this year’s Cohort 21. I’m excited to share my journey.
The beginning:
I came into Cohort 21 with an idea of what I thought my classroom was missing. Having used VNPS regularly, I thought the missing link was getting students to better document the work they completed at the white boards so they could refer to it as the unit progressed. But after the first 2 F2F sessions and talking to some of my students, it became clear that there was a bigger piece missing.
The middle:
In a conversation at the end of the second F2F session, I was struggling to put my thoughts into clear words and after rambling on about what I was trying to say someone stopped me and said “it seems like you want to get your students to be better at identifying what they know”. (One of the wonders of the Cohort 21 experience – having the chance to chat with educators from various backgrounds and a common goal of helping each other). And just like that, a light bulb went off. What was really missing was a way for my students to self-reflect on their learning throughout the unit and not just rely on the final unit assessment as a measurement of success.
What evolved over the course of the year started with having students generate “I can…” statements at the end of each lesson. This has helped them get a better view of the key skills of the lesson and not just focus on answering specific questions. This then led to having students create a master list of the unit’s “I can…” statements on a separate sheet of paper during the unit review class and self-assess their knowledge. A star beside a statement indicated mastery, a – meant practice still required and a ‘x’ meant help was required to further clarify the concept. On the day of the test, students were asked to hand in their “I can…” list. My current iteration of this self-reflection piece involves a pre-test self-assessment around the success criteria of the unit as well as a post-test self-assessment. It’s interesting to see how this has helped direct students to personalize their studying for the test.
The end: (or the beginning of the next step)
Though I have been intentional in incorporating self-reflection into my lessons, a next step would be to have individual conversations with my students around comparing their pre and post test self-assessments. In addition to this, I hope to use this process to personalize their exam review and possibly have the students create some questions based around their strengths.
I would also like to investigate ways to incorporate more peer feedback into the learning process in my classes. While coaching volleyball, it struck me how natural it is for a player to give feedback (both positive and negative) to teammates. As the team has the same goal, every team member is invested in the goal and held accountable. This got me thinking, I wonder how I can recreate this team mentality in the classroom and incorporate more peer feedback into the learning process?
So with all that said and done, I look forward to the last F2F on Friday. And though I think I know what the next steps will be, Cohort 21 has taught me that this is just the end of the beginning…
You have been on quite a journey this year! I really enjoyed reading about your realizations, experiments and considerations for next steps. There is so much that happens naturally when doing sports or any more physical activity (like the feedback you mentioned) that doesn’t seem to naturally translate into more academic areas in schools. I have often wondered why… Why is it so much harder for most of us to admit that we don’t understand something than to admit we can’t physically do something? And why is it so much easier to approach the physical tasks with more of a growth mindset and belief that practice or training will likely make us get better? I hope that you keep blogging next year and sharing how you incorporate peer feedback into your assessment processes.
Hi Jen (@jgravel),
This is an outstanding reflection of your Cohort 21 journey. Congratulations, on all of your learning and growth throughout the year – you have so much to be proud of! I love that you never stopped iterating on your Action Plan/HMW question and that you were willing to take risks in your classroom to enhance your teaching and students’ learning. It’s exciting that you plan to continue your Action Plan next year by integrating the knowledge you acquired this year into more of your classes. As we often say in Cohort 21, this is the end of the beginning!
Thank you for all of your contributions this year during our F2F sessions and online, you have been a wonderful asset to the Cohort and I know many people have benefitted from your participation.
Looking forward to catching up with you on Friday at our final F2F. See you then!
Cheers,
Nicole
Congratulations Jenn! You’ve come so far in such a short amount of time, it’s inspiring! I love the idea of having students coach each other – you’ve got my head spinning with ideas now after reading your post. Please continue to update us all on your progress in the future using your C21 blog. I look forward to hearing more on Friday!