{"id":57,"date":"2019-01-13T21:27:11","date_gmt":"2019-01-13T21:27:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/cohort21.com\/lisawest\/?p=57"},"modified":"2019-01-18T00:55:40","modified_gmt":"2019-01-18T00:55:40","slug":"fostering-student-self-awareness","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/cohort21.com\/lisawest\/2019\/01\/13\/fostering-student-self-awareness\/","title":{"rendered":"Fostering Student Self-Awareness"},"content":{"rendered":"

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How might we foster student self-awareness by developing communication skills geared at group work?<\/strong><\/p>\n

At the first F2F, I revised my HMW question a number of times as I sought feedback from @ceby<\/a><\/span>, @amaingot<\/a><\/span>, @gnichols<\/a><\/span>, and @edaigle<\/a><\/span>. My early versions of my HMW question were too wordy and didn’t quite target what I was hoping to achieve but I loved @amaingot<\/a><\/span>‘s suggestion to include the word “foster” when wanting to explore self-awareness.<\/p>\n

The definition of foster, according to the Merriam Webster Dictionary, is “to encourage or promote the development of (something, typically something regarded as good).<\/a><\/p>\n

As a Middle School Drama teacher I certainly see myself as a facilitator and wish to “encourage and promote” self-awareness in my students by building empathy, compassion, patience, understanding, and risk-taking. I find that exploring communication skills during group work, particularly, how students reflect on their performance based work and the feedback they offer their peers, has opened up a discussion of self-awareness in a way that is new to both the students and myself.<\/p>\n

My action plan began before I realized I was working on my plan. At the beginning of the year, I asked students to shape their ideal learning journey. I gave them the curriculum expectations and asked them what they might explore in a perfect drama class. I used their feedback to shape the activities we have been working on with a focus on fostering their self-awareness.<\/p>\n

The Grade 8’s enjoyed a risk-taking unit they completed in Grade 7 Drama that had them explore group work through creating the ultimate lip sync battle. Students wanted another shot at the task in Grade 8 with the added challenge of performing a lip sync performance that demonstrates a commitment to character in a limit of 5 classes of rehearsal (they had most of the first term last year). They wanted to challenge themselves to use their time efficiently and to improve how they communicated in a group setting to correct the mistakes they made when faced with a similar task the year before.<\/p>\n

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The opportunity to explore communication during group work to foster self-awareness began when students co-constructed criteria in pairs and then shared their learning with the class. They were able to identify what effective communication would look like, feel like and sound like so I left these criteria up on the wall for each class to refer to as a check throughout the process. Students also set goals for success each class that connected to specific criteria being explored during the lesson. As their exit tickets, students used FlipGrid to orally reflect on whether they met their personal goals and set next steps for success.<\/p>\n

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To promote positive communication during the feedback cycle, I applied my NSRF coaching certification (August 2018) by creating a poster based on NSRF protocols.\u00a0<\/a>\u00a0Students referred to the poster which helped to promote guided and focussed language around how to provide feedback in such a subjective subject.<\/p>\n

I’m currently exploring a variety of strategies and am excited to continue discussions with STARTSole to look at how to continue this learning journey into my Storytelling unit. I have tried to create and model for my students the revision process. The poster, the rubrics, even the lessons, I have sought feedback from my colleagues and students along the way. Have I made mistakes and would I change lessons or my approach in future iterations of the lessons? Absolutely! I’ve ended many classes by having my students and I express our appreciation for something in the lesson. Student’s often reflect on how they’ve valued the feedback from their peers and have appreciated that the drama room is a safe space.<\/p>\n

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I’m in the middle of my action plan and we often have viewing parties in class to watch and celebrate student performances as well as student rehearsals. We’ll listen to what’s being said and also what’s being communicated in body language. The students are constantly revising their approach and what I find most exciting is that they’ve inspired me to do the same!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

  How might we foster student self-awareness by developing communication skills geared at group work? At the first F2F, I revised my HMW question a number of times as I sought feedback from @ceby, @amaingot, @gnichols, and @edaigle. My early versions of my HMW question were too wordy and didn’t quite target what I was … Continue reading “Fostering Student Self-Awareness”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":271,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"wds_primary_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[3,5,4,6,19,21,20],"tags":[17,14,8,10,9,15,13,16,11,18,7,22,12],"class_list":["post-57","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-action-plan","category-classroom-reflections","category-face-2-face-sessions","category-flipped-classroom","category-self-awareness","category-strategies","category-technology","tag-action-plan","tag-artsed","tag-co-construction","tag-communication","tag-criteria","tag-drama","tag-edchat","tag-feedback","tag-innovation","tag-reflection","tag-self-awareness","tag-strategies","tag-technology"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/cohort21.com\/lisawest\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/57","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/cohort21.com\/lisawest\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/cohort21.com\/lisawest\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cohort21.com\/lisawest\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/271"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cohort21.com\/lisawest\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=57"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/cohort21.com\/lisawest\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/57\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":75,"href":"https:\/\/cohort21.com\/lisawest\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/57\/revisions\/75"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/cohort21.com\/lisawest\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=57"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cohort21.com\/lisawest\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=57"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cohort21.com\/lisawest\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=57"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}