Okay, I must admit, I learned something from Michael Schooler while team teaching the American Studies class. I did learn other somethings, but this was not just a normal something. This was a big something.
Social studies teachers like the facts. As Joe Friday would say, “All we want are the facts, ma’am.” To ensure students know the facts we have them write summaries and outlines. We even give quizzes. I mean, how can students even begin to understand history without knowing all the facts?
Early on in American Studies my teammate, Mr. Schooler, gave the students a reflection assignment. My first reaction, I must admit, was that this was the beginning of that touchy feely English department stuff that is so not social studies. As the first set of reflections came in I could see that the students were thinking deeply about the material and were drawing some great connections between the ideas in the text and their own life experiences.
By the end of the year I was completely sold on this whole reflection thing. It is the linking mechanism that ties the curriculum to each student’s worldview, or life experience. It turns dry curriculum into exciting curriculum. It lights the way to that critical connection between the content and the student.
This year almost every assignment I give includes a reflection. Students are making the connections. They can see how everything they learn does relate to their own lives. This one little extra stretch has made a huge difference in students’ depth of understanding and appreciation. It is an essential key to student engagement. Reflections rock. Thank you, Michael, for showing me the real value of this “touchy feely” learning tool.
Mitch, I'm flattered by this blog even if I cringe a little at being perceived as "touchy feely". I think you have hit on something that connects directly to our SEL focus this year. I believe that it is essential to have a strong understanding of oneself in order to learn most anything. The content that we teach our students can only reach them in a meaningful way if they can place it in the context of their own worldview. And if we encourage self-reflection on a personal level, it is not that far of a stretch when we teach our students metacognition as learners. In the book Disruptive Reading: Why How We Read Matters, Kylene Beers differentiates between students reading to simply extract information and read for the kind of meaningful interaction that we all want. I can loan you a copy of this book if you are interested.
Mitch, I enjoyed reading this blog. This is a great "ah ha" moment for you! In Frosh Wellness we have also found the great value in allowing time for student reflection. It is a beautiful skill for students to attain to be able to relate and apply content from a course to their own life. I agree with Michael that this connects directly to our community SEL focus. Thank you for sharing.
Learning history as isolated, meaningless facts is something that every good history teacher tries to overcome. I have not yet attempted to use reflections in the context you are talking about, Mitch. I normally ask my students to use a reflective process to look at their ways of learning things, but it's not so much about the historical content. I'd like to see some of the questions you are asking your students that engage their reflective process. Could you share a sample question either on this blog or when we eat our next taco salad?
Haha Michael, you beat me to the punch… i was gonna shout out the SEL inclusion too!