Making the Intangibles Tangible

As I was writing this, I came across this quotation via someone on #MTBoS.  Perfect.

"We do not learn from experience, we learn from reflecting on experience." - John Dewey

Last year, I decided to attack an issue that I had felt for years:  I was not doing a good job of getting students to understand what is really important to me in my classroom.  While I could talk a good game about the value of a good question, the importance of making mistakes or the idea that "it's all about the journey and not the destination, "most students focused on the bottom line both in the micro-view ("Is my answer right or wrong?") and in the macro-view ("What is my grade?").  I couldn't blame them, for many reasons.  First, while I was evaluating them in different areas, getting an "A" required correctness, perhaps above all else.  And second, when they left my class at the end of the year in June, the only tangible take-away from the experience was their grade for the year.  They knew this and I knew this -- it is the burden of teaching within a traditional system.

I was particularly inspired by the not-small number of students who brought great things to the classroom each day -- curiosity, enthusiasm, creativity, etc. -- yet weren't necessarily as rewarded through the grade as they might have been.  These are the students who bring classes alive, the type who are easy to write college recommendations for because they add so much to everyone's experience. 

So I decided to add a reflection portfolio to my grade.  I identified 7 things I wanted students to recognize in themselves as we learned together.  For each item, I wrote a few brief questions for them to respond to.  Students would then put their responses into their individual portfolio folder, and put a sticker representing the topic(s) they responded to on a poster I made for the class, so that we could see the progress of the group as a whole.

Here are the graphics that went with my topics.  (Clearly home-made!)  You can click on a topic to see the google doc with the related questions.

Brain Growth:  I want students to understand that mistakes are NECESSARY and WONDERFUL and VALUED.  Over the years, I've learned to make sure that on the first day of the year, I explain how excited I will get when I see a thoughtful, creative mistake.  I can't help myself -- this is when learning happens.  I want students to embrace these moments and realize how important they are.

Pride:  I want students to recognize their accomplishments and take a moment to be proud.  This is often difficult for students (and for most humans.) Don't rest on your laurels, but don't forget to take a moment to pat yourself on the back and reflect.
 

         

Aha!:  These are the moments that remind us why we teach and learn. Taking a moment to reflect on these can only make us more determined to find that feeling again.

Passion: Part I of Angela Duckworth's trio.  Students will sometimes say, "You know, I really enjoyed that homework," surprising themselves.  I want them to pause and reflect, hopefully realizing that there's fun to be had in simply learning something new.  Perhaps if they can identify what about a particular activity or assignment they enjoyed, they can learn a little more about themselves.

Perseverance: Duckworth's Part II.  I have found that students are eager to tell me when they persevered, meaning they know that this is what any teacher wants and is a critical part of being a successful student.  Reflecting on this will encourage it.

Grit: Duckworth's conclusion.  This is the toughest one, because it's the most complicated to understand, and perhaps the most difficult to generate independently.  Grit requires (according to Duckworth's definition) Passion and Perseverance.  You need to find that thing that inspires and drives you, along with a challenge to overcome.  In a sense, this is what we search for in our lives.  If each student can find one moment of Grit in a year, that might be a success.

 Question: In a way, this inspired the entire exercise.  I had a student who did okay grade-wise, but would consistently ask great questions, some of which were perfectly timed and moved us along the path I'd hoped, and others of which would have brought us to some wonderful places that we just didn't have time to explore.  This is my attempt to reward curiosity, and to allow some further exploration beyond what we were doing in class.  It doesn't need to be a full-blown project, just a little research.



My stickers matched the icons above (with the right sized Avery product, easy to make), and I made posters with the images for the walls of the classroom. My class web pages featured my icons prominently.  I was branded!

I told the class that this portfolio was worth 30% of their grade.  I'm thankful to have this kind of freedom in my classroom (although it also may be a sign of my initial slide off the deep end.)  Regardless, I knew that nobody was going to be hammered by a poor portfolio, and it also wasn't possible for a student to live solely  in the "meta-land" of my reflection questions and be successful - they would need to do good work as well.  My goal was to communicate to them that I thought these things were important.

I think that all of the students appreciated and understood what I was trying to teach them, so that was successful.  Some students took it to heart and spent a lot of time reflecting throughout the year.  They told me that they appreciated the opportunity to reflect, and I enjoyed reading what they had to say.  Still, for a good number of students, it remained more of a burden than anything else which was certainly not my goal. 

This year, I'm going to de-emphasize the value of these reflections to the grade.  Overall, that felt counter-productive last year.  I am going to require some to be written.  I haven't settled on a number or frequency yet.  Lastly, I want to allow for electronic submission through Dropbox or some other means.  I have a week and a half to figure that out.

Any tweaks, critiques, comments, whatever would be welcome!  #PushSend