Reflection is very important to the learning process. Not only do we as teachers need to reflect on our own teaching and learning, but our students need to have the opportunity to reflect DURING and after their experience. Reflection can be quite simple. Determine what YOU want to learn from the reflection and what you want your students to discover about their own experiences. Often, as a teacher librarian I will include a question that will help me improve the maker unit for future learners. I have also learned that before we start a new maker unit, we look back at their previous reflection and review so we don't make the same mistakes again. For example, kids often realize that working with your best friends is not always a good idea so this helps refresh their memory of that:).
Sample Reflection Questions
- I Liked
- I Learned
- I Would Change
- I Wish
- What should Mrs. Rosheim do differently next year?
Student Reflection Examples
- I liked, how the fourth graders came to watch
- How much creativity we had to use to make the catapult
- That we got to build it without having to follow instructions
- I liked, how the teacher would come around and help you if you needed it
- I liked, how some teams worked together but if they did not work together the fourth graders saw how that worked out so they wouldn’t make the same mistake
- Trying new things until one sticked
- Working as a team
- The relief when it actually works and all your hard work pays off
- Brainstorming ideas
- I learned, that sometimes even if you do not like your group you just need to work with them and try your best to make everything workout in the end
- I learned, that it may take you a long time too find something that works well but you just have to keep trying hard
- Not everything works like you think it would and not to use giant marbles.
- In order to build a good machine, you have to have good ideas, work together, and probably combine all ideas.
- Even if it doesn't work, that doesn’t mean that you’re a failure, it means you haven’t learned EVERYTHING yet.
- I would change, the rules and say you can’t use tape to make it more of a challenge
- We could keep our work at the end of specials and not take it apart
- I wish, that my team would have worked better together then we did so that we would have had something better to share with the fourth graders
- We had more time to make it fully functional and and bigger
- That we had WAY more time to think, build, and create ideas.
- The world was a better place? Oh wait I wish we had more tape (because lord knows we all needed that stuff.)
- I also wish that we would of had more supplies. I know supplies are limited because there are a lot of groups, but I do wish we had more supplies.
What should Mrs. Rosheim do differently next year?
- Put a limited amount of tape or make it so we can’t put tap on it. Also, we need to have more options on what our Rube Goldberg Machine does, after all, it is our machine.
- Mrs.Rosheim should have a longer checklist of requirements.
- Have more class time to work.