The Schoenblog: Student Reflection

Students Reflect on a #GenreGenius #GeniusHour

Wednesday, July 5, 20171:41 PM

Should We Play in High School? Participating in Global School Play Day #GSPD2017

Wednesday, February 1, 20174:56 PM

4 Ways Student Were Surprised By Passion-Based Learning & Research

Monday, January 23, 20176:11 PM

Students Reflect on Blended Discussion

Wednesday, November 9, 20165:59 PM

At the end of every unit of learning this year, I ask my students to self-assess and reflect. I’ve explored different self-assessment protocols and strategies with my students, and am still trying to find out what works best for me and my classes.

At the end of our unit focusing on the graphic novel Maus II by Art Spiegelman and different forms of discussion, students completed a Google Form. This form asked students to assess their work in live class participation, online discussions, and in their projects. They selected a percentage of success and then supported their choices in writing.

In this work, students were asked:

Evaluate your participation in our online discussions as a whole, including the Google Community, Today's Meet, and Twitter. How effectively did you share ideas and participate in online discussion?
In this unit, we blended (mixed) live and online instruction and discussion. How did these online discussions help or hinder your understanding and analysis of the text and our work this week?

Find more about our blended discussions in 3 Tools for Blended Discussion and Using Technology to Enhance Student Voice and Audience.

Below, find some student responses for their reflections to the experience of blended and online discussions.

It wasn't any different than live conversation to be quite honest. It helped me like any regular discussion would and did not hinder my analysis. At least I don't think so.
The online discussions were helpful in that everyone had a voice and everyone could see the many different opinions of classmates. I sometimes felt that they hindered the discussion by moving too quickly or not delving deeper into important questions, as the case sometimes was on Today's Meet.
I didn't necessarily mind using online discussions and tools to work on this project I think they were useful to some people who don't like to talk in front of the class but have something to contribute to the discussions.
It helped me think about specific relationships between characters (i.e. Art and Vladek, Vladek and Anja). Whenever I heard someone saying something interesting I wanted to support their analysis or go against it and give constructive feedback. I learned a lot more about Art's purpose behind the story too.
I feel the online discussion gave those who would normally choose not a speak an opportunity to show their understanding of the reading. (This does not apply to me however.)
I felt like the online discussions helped me because I participated more in those and I could read the answers again in case I didn't understand them the first time.
The online discussions were different than just simply in person discussions. Socratic Seminars are a bit easier for me because I am not a big fan of technology. So online discussions weren't my favorite.
The online discussion helped me understand a lot more. It helped me understand a lot more because i got to see another persons point of view that i haven't thought of, and it made me think.

Read more about our journey in reflection and self-assessment in Student Reflections and Self-Assessment and When Students Self-Assess: Sharing Reflections and Feedback.

As I read through their reflections, I’ve noticed interesting trends in the data. Almost every student’s self-assessment was within 7% of mine. Some scored higher and others lower, but we were close enough for my comfort. Their range of responses were interesting, with a variety of ideas. We intentionally practiced different tools that had difference paces, levels of depth and inquiry, and difficulty. I wanted to push students to engage and participate in new and different ways.

While some students enjoyed the speed of a Today’s Meet chat, others found it overwhelming. Some liked the depth of a Google Community post, but for some it was repetitive. Many ended up writing about similar ideas. Still, most recognized the opportunity that blended discussions give for voice and audience, noting that more students participated more often and more deeply than before. We can always do butter, but right now that’s a win in my book.

How do you promote reflection and metacognition in your classroom? How do students feel about blended and online discussion? Please share your thoughts in the comments or on Twitter @MrSchoenbart.

Failing Forward: Students Reflect on Almost Escaping #BreakoutEDU

Tuesday, October 4, 20164:36 PM

Last week, I facilitated a new kind of #BreakoutEDU experience. One where students succeeded or failed on their own with no help besides the standard hint cards. Unlock, solve, and stumble all on your own merits--and that’s probably the way it should be. But it can be hard to stand by and watch your students struggle to create meaning and find answers. That confusion is a part of the learning progress, though, and one that I want to better address in our future debriefs.

The situation was this: Working with another English teacher and his students, we facilitated two competing games of Time Warp with two Breakout kits. From the very first second, the students were into the game, finding puzzles, solving codes, and working together. It was some of the best and most efficient teamwork I’ve ever seen in a game. When the first team opened the first lockbox, the second team followed by seconds. The timer counted down, the music added intensity, and students pushed forward. Then, with about 5 minutes left, they hit a wall with the last two puzzles. They were so close, though. It was so hard not to nudge and push to help them succeed, but we had decided that failure needs to be a part of learning, too.

We almost broke out! So much fun with Mr. Bach's tenth graders #OssiningPride #BreakoutEDU pic.twitter.com/cJ7KKzusjK
— Adam Schoenbart (@MrSchoenbart) September 29, 2016

In the end, students almost broke out. We took our group picture and did a quick debrief. The classroom teacher, Mr. Bach, followed up with a full debrief the next day. Together, we walked through the second to last lock that stumped them all. But instead of giving away the last lock, which neither team had solved, I told the students that I would come back in a month with another game, they would try again, and this time would earn that last lock and break out.

I want all our students to be able to learn from failure and to grow. These students were so into the game that I worried about their responses to failure and to Breakouts as a whole. So after their class discussion, Mr. Bach asked them to complete a Google Form with two questions:

What is your biggest take aways from your first BreakoutEDU experience?
How do you feel about not succeeding in breaking out and not having the answers in the end?

Let’s see what they said. Below, find excerpts of student responses from their Time Warp Debrief.

#BreakoutEDU Takeaways

Even though I had felt super stressed at the time I was able to get to know my fellow classmates. This experience has taught me the value of teamwork and team building. This use of team building brought out a new side of people allowing them to use their most innovative responses to create a solution to a problem.
My biggest take away from BreakoutEDU is that you can't always just look at things literally, and you have to take time to consider your options and the opinions of others to succeed. At one point my group could not figure out how to open the first lock, and we needed to use [redacted for game spoilers!], but it took us a few minutes to realize that that was the correct approach because the rest of us were set on our own ways.
My biggest take away was learning to work with others and be patient when working with other people. Additionally taking your time plays a big role in being able to accomplish something. Although my group did not open the box we got close and with the use of managing our time and taking our time to focus on the clues, as well as listening to what others had to say or what they were thinking caused us to get close to succeeding.
Organization and communication is key and when there's no organization nor communication things won't get done, and everything gets jumbled up, and then we get stuck on things; we could've had the second to last lock just one of our members didn't speak up and we failed. Critical thinking is another big take away, these puzzles aren't simple and need multiple minds to figure them out and need to use the clues given and offered carefully, and thoroughly examine what is given.
My biggest take away is realizing how different people work together and that the key to success is taking advantage of these differences. An example of this is when one my team mates decided to look up the [redacted for game spoilers!] for there English translation and then relate it to the associated numbers in the English alphabet while others had not.
My biggest take away is realizing how fast people start working together even if they have never spoken to each other in the past. I had a great time trying to solve it. I also learned how much working together really helps solving problems. Some people that I worked with I have never met but when we had to try solve the clues we started working together pretty well in the end.

English 10 thinking critically. Looks like the girls are winning. @MrSchoenbart #breakoutedu pic.twitter.com/hiyXHsFmSG
— Brian Alm (@LearnerAlmOUFSD) September 29, 2016

Reflections on Failure

I felt frustrated because personally I do not like waiting for answers. This type of cliffhanger causes me to want to do this type of activity again. The experience was great and made me learn a lot about how to problem solve, not being able to succeed makes me want to keep working on this type of exercise for future tests.
i feel like it wouldn't really matter since the crate was empty. The whole point was teamwork and not actually solving the puzzle. Due to this is guess they did a good job.
I felt like we should've been able to do if we just took our time and calm down, because our group had the right code but we were rushing and thought we put it in, but i guess we didn't. So next time i'm going to try and tell my group to check everything they do so we don't mess up on something.
The fact that we couldn't figure it out, was frustrating . The time was passing and more intensity came into our group. It was disappointing to not see what was inside the box. it was scary, but at the same time we had fun and we learned to communicate with others.
It made me very frustrated that I was not able to break out, because I had spent all of that time trying to uncover clues and my group had only one lock left. Being that close to finishing and not being given the answer at the end was very frustrating. I'm very used to instant gratification, with being able to look up the answers to virtually all of the questions or problems I may have, but it was frustrating that I was not able to look up the answers and I was often stuck in a place of confusion and uncertainty.
I felt extremely frustrated not being able to break out and not having the answers. I believe that if you start something, you should keep going and trying until you complete it. Our group had come so far in BreakoutEDU, that it was quite disappointing not being able to succeed. I believe that we should've been given some more time, thus will allow the group to really try hard and fortunately breakout. With only two locks remaining, our group had been completely upset, since we had completed so much.
I felt unsatisfied and frustrated not knowing what was in the box, but actually solving the puzzles was very enjoyable. Leaving two locks and not being able to finish was disappointing. Especially having the intense music and a timer. 10/10 would definitely do another breakout.
I'll be honest with you I was a little upset not being able to break out the suspenseful music and the countdown. It was very frustrating. Don't get me wrong it was an amazing experience working with friends using clues but when you don't finish on time you're just like darn where did I go wrong.

Failing Forward

For me, the biggest takeaway is that it’s important for us to help students’ develop growth mindsets so that they can learn from and overcome failure. Each unlocked puzzle is a new opportunity for learning. I want to keep using tools like BreakoutEDU in my classroom and sharing them with other teachers as a coach to help create these real learning experiences.

This class in particular impressed me with their hard work, efficiency, and thoughtful reflections. I’m eager to see how they grow and improve in a few weeks and to incorporate more problem solving into my classes.

How do you help students overcome failure (in BreakoutEDU and in life?). Share your ideas in the comments or on Twitter @MrSchoenbart.

When Students-Self Assess: Sharing Reflections and Feedback

Wednesday, September 21, 20162:45 PM

When students are more involved in monitoring their own learning, learn how to provide constructive feedback, and are given opportunities to grow, the learning is better and more meaningful. That’s the message I’ve been trying to convey to my students this year.

Last week, I wrote about my efforts to move towards more Student Reflection & Self Assessment, sharing the form I used for students to evaluate their progress so far. I explained that while I hoped to learn more about ways to provide effective feedback and change my grading practices, for now I was committed to renegotiating the power of the grade by engaging students in the process.

Now, it’s a week later and my students have completed two reflection forms. And their responses were thoughtful, interesting, and generally accurate. I’m thankful for that. It means that I have a strong foundation to build from in helping students develop their skills, meta-cognition, and self/peer evaluations and feedback.

Let’s take a look at what they said.

Here, I listed our classroom activities and asked students to evaluate their performance. Students were definitely honest here, reporting back fairly accurately.

This pie chart shows the variety in the grades the students argued for. They ranged from 65-100, with an average grade of 91. My sophomores are mostly doing great so far (and it had only been a week or so of school), so this didn’t surprise me.

Then, they were asked to justify their scores. Here are some of their responses:

I believe that my work is good but not great but I really don't think i deserve less than an 80 because my work has been up to task and pretty good if i say so myself.
In all honesty, I know I can do better than what I have shown you so far and I'll be sure to show you what I am capable of.
I believe that i earned that grade because everyday i come prepared and ready to work. I'm always on task and engaging in class discussions and I feel like I was collaborating good with my class-mates on the breakout challenge. Also, on the community, I wrote my responses thoroughly and with a great deal of evidence and I even attached a link with work I did last year relating to out topic.
I participate in class, I'm always here on time I complete my work within the time you give us and during the breakout edu event I helped unlock one of the locks and my summer assignment was on time but the Kahoot was not my best work.
I believe that for every assignment I have done in this class I have done the best I could have possibly done. The responses that I wrote were my best writing and for my summer assignment I constantly was editing and revising it; my mom even read it over to help me fix my mistakes. In class for the pre-assessment I used my knowledge of writing skills that I learned last year and I wrote to the best of my ability. I think I have participated and worked well with my classmates so far in the school year and I feel that I earned a 100 for my classwork so far.
I don't think I did amazing for the King Speech, but I think I proved myself in discussions during class. I really enjoyed the BreakoutEDU and I contributed a whole lot to that, trying to find creative ways to get out of our situation. I even e-mailed Father Vint! Anyways, for the pre-assessment, I found strong evidence and it was even a literary element. I placed second for Kahoot :) I feel like I know how to research very well, which is why I am confident of the work I put on the community. Plus, I think I raise my hand to try and contribute something to discussions, which is why I think I deserve a 98.
Not only do I try hard to think critically about text I'm reading or information I obtain, but I genuinely love finding the deeper meaning of what is initially said. When I am given a longer amount of time to analyze and interpret my work I try my best to perform this task, which has been included in every assignment we have done so far.

These responses made me proud. They made me happy. And they made me hopeful. Sure I want my students to perform well, but I also want them to be able to think and reflect critically. These students showed real thought and reflection throughout, defended their choices with specific evidence, and found meaning in our time together.

When asked about the most meaningful activity of the year, most wrote about #BreakoutEDU, focusing on collaboration and team building. Some wrote about writing and our Google Community, which surprised me, too. Here’s one response to playing Time Warp with #BreakoutEDU: “The most meaningful learning activity was the BreakoutEDU. It helped show me that when learning or doing an assignment, it is important to utilize all of your resources, and it is acceptable - and sometimes necessary! - to ask for help from others. (These were things I already knew, but it helped give me a real life basis for the concepts, and a positive learning experience.)”

For changes in the class, students asked for more discussion, creative writing, and fun learning opportunities. I hope to oblige.

Next Steps

This was an enlightening and powerful exercise for me. I want to do more of it and get better at how we respond to each other’s work and ideas. Tomorrow, I’ll be sorting through my students’ self-evaluations again, this time focusing on their writing and analysis of a Martin Luther King Jr. speech. I’m curious to see how their reflection and thought translates to the academic skills of the English classroom and how I can continue to push students to reflect and grow.

What are your favorite strategies for using student feedback and reflection in the classroom? Share in the comments below or on Twitter.

Student Reflections & Self-Assessments

Wednesday, September 14, 20162:56 PM

What Students Think About #GeniusHour Part 2: Data

Monday, May 30, 20166:25 PM

#GeniusHour: What Students Think

Wednesday, May 25, 20165:00 PM

It seems like I have an idea for a new article on #GeniusHour, #20Time Projects, or passion-based learning every week. I’m constantly reflecting on my challenges and successes this year and find it really helpful to share those thoughts here for reflection and growth.

With that in mind, I plan to share sample projects, discuss ideas for changes for the future, and more. But today, instead of focusing on my words and ideas, I want to focus more explicitly on my students and their ideas.

You all know what I think about #GeniusHour (but if not, be sure to check out some of the articles listed below). But what do my students think? What value did they find in their work? How have they grown as students, learners, and geniuses?

Below, I briefly discuss my students’ reflection process and then share excerpts from their writing. Too often, we hear from the adult stakeholders, and I think it’s essential to make sure our students’ voices are heard, too.

Read some of my recent articles about my students' #GeniusHour work, starting with Redesigning Learning Spaces.

Then, find more of my recent writing on Genius Hour with Sharing Students’ Genius: A #GeniusHour Reflection, Developing Genius: Reflecting on Choice, Passion, and #GeniusHour, Teaching Students to Conduct Action Research, and My Questions About #GeniusHour. For my students’ blogs and work, visit geniushour.aschoenbart.com.

Grading & Reflection

I didn’t grade my students’ #GeniusHour projects. Instead, they evaluated themselves. They completed a 50-point rubric and assigned their scores independently. Here is a screenshot of the rubric:

Then, students continued to reflect in their Reflection Doc. This template was assigned through Google Classroom and asked students about their plans, adaptations, growth, and challenges. I assessed the quality of this reflection in its thoroughness, honesty, and thought, and assigned a 50-point grade to their reflective work. In most cases, I simply doubled the students self-assigned grade because their evaluations were accurate. Many of my students were too hard on themselves, though. A handful were too easy--but just a few.

The metacognitive thought and reflections required for this assignment is essential to the Genius Hour process for me. It’s great for students to learn, research, and create, but it’s in this reflection that I learned the most about their real growth and passion.

What Students Think

In the Reflection Doc, students answered five questions, each with a short paragraph response:

What was the value of Genius Hour for you? Consider the skills you learned and practiced, the research and writing you completed, the knowledge you learned, and the product you created. What did you find most valuable? What did you like or learn from? And what wasn’t valuable? Why?
How did you feel about your presentation? What went well? What could you have done better?
Would you consider your project a success? A failure? Somewhere in between? Consider your work and effort, your proposal, and your product, and then explain your answer.
How did you apply yourself in this project? Did you work to the best of your ability, individually or with peers?
What advice would you have for teachers who are doing Genius Hour projects in the future? What about for students? What would you tell them that would make the project go more smoothly or more successfully?

Below, I’ve excerpted responses from a few different questions. My students were told in advance that their responses would be shared anonymously, and their thoughts appear below without edits.

For you, what was the value of Genius Hour?

Genius Hour was a valuable time to test my abilities. Genius Hour forced me to think outside of the box, and be creative for a school project. I was also able to improve skills that I already knew how to do (annotated bibliography). I think the most valuable part of Genius Hour is letting kids express themselves by allowing them to learn about whatever they want, and as an end product, the results could be anything. There was no right or wrong really. It lets kids feel accomplished. There wasn’t anything really that wasn’t valuable for this project because, a lot of the prep work and research required skills that you’ll need throughout life. Genius Hour helped to improve that.
Genius hour allowed me to develop research skills while still obtaining the freedom to explore a topic I wanted to. I practiced conducting a survey and making something out of my results. There wasn’t anything I specifically found to be unvaluable, because although this work didn’t necessarily prepare us for our english final, it was a great learning experience.
Genius Hour helped me be able to use many different sources and combine them into one meaningful idea. Genius Hour helped my learn how to do effective research and how to properly do annotated bibliography.
Genius hour allowed me to really find an interest and passion for my topic. Through my research and gathering all information to form my final product I was able to gain insight of how others feel about stereotypes.

What advice do you have teachers with Genius Hour?

I would advise teachers to leave it up to the students as much as possible. If they do this, it will allow the students to do projects that they really care about, and then do what they want with them. I think putting guidelines out, and then establishing a due date, and telling them to go out and do their best would be the best way to do this project.
It would have been a bit easier if there weren't as many deadlines other than the final product. Many (myself included), find it easier to work at our own pace as long as we are getting things done.
I think that the project is well run, and I like how the students work independently with only some help.
Advice that I would give to teachers would be to make sure that their students are encouraged and and confident about their work to make sure they are successful with what they do. As for students they should make sure that they know what they are doing, do it to the best of their ability, and be confident and proud of their work.
My advice for teacher that are doing this is that they should keep doing this because this is the only project where you could pick what and how to do it. Students should enjoy this project if they follow everything.
I would tell them to let their students have full creative rights to whatever they want to do because this way the project is more enjoyable for them to complete. In my opinion, when there is a lot of guidelines for a project, less student will end up completing it or completing it correctly. Creativity gives the students the opportunity to explore their interests freely.

What advice do you have students with Genius Hour?

Choose a topic that you are fascinated about, and choose something that you will want to work on for a long time. Don’t go with something that you think will be easy or something that you’ll quickly lose interest in. Then, learn as much as you can about it. Find every article and every video and talk to every person. Then figure out what you’re going to do with it, and do it.
Make sure you don't fall behind on any posts. Your research is most important because it will show the most in the final product. You want to have a big sample size for your survey to get more valued results.
I would tell them to find something that really sparks them and could relate to easily. If it’s to hard to relate to than it’s not going to be fun or worth working for project. Also I would tell them to make sure they plan their time and organize their work. Lastly working with a partner or a group to split up the work would make it much easier when they go to present so they won't feel bombarded with information.
My advice to tell the students to really pick something they would like doing and enjoy learning about it. For the students do not leave everything to last minute and to actually do the work and not slack on it so pick something they really enjoy or actually want to learn because if you pick something you don’t want you are not going to find interest in it.
For the students, I’d say that they should keep an open mind, and not give up on a topic just because it seems silly or they are having trouble coming up with a research question. If they are truly passionate about the topic, then they should keep working at it. That’s the best way to get results, since you always work harder for the things you love.

The comments above are just a handful of the thoughtful and interesting reflections from my students. In particular, their insights on deadlines, pacing, and scheduling hit a chord with me and will lead me to reconsider my planning for next year. I also want to make this type of reflection, self-assessment, and metacognition a more regular part of my classroom moving forward. A project like Genius Hour is amazing for developing student voice with choice and authentic audiences, and for me, this metacognitive reflection clearly displayed students’ passion, growth, and success.

If you're interested in more, it might be interesting to compare these comments to last year's feedback. To see last year's #20Time reflections, read 1st Time #20Time: What My Students Think.

What advice do you or your students have about Genius Hour? About passion-based learning? Share your thoughts or insights from your students in the comments or on Twitter.

Redesigning Learning Spaces: Sharing #GeniusHour Projects

Wednesday, May 11, 20165:38 PM

Self-Assessment & Reflection: The Activity

Student Comments

Conclusions

What do you do to build a love of reading in your class or school? How can we make passion a regular part of the day? How can I improve #GenreGenius? Please share your thoughts in the comments or on Twitter @MrSchoenbart.

What’s the value of play in high school?

For more about play in my classes, check out Everything I Know I Learned from the #MarshmallowChallenge and Ending the School Year with #BreakoutEDU.

What role does play have in your classroom? Why is play valuable for students? Have you participated in #GSPD? Share your thoughts in the comments or on Twitter @MrSchoenbart.

4 Ways Student Were Surprised By Passion-Based Learning & Research

We Learned a Lot

Learning Can Be Personal

Real Research Takes Work

Writing Gets Easier

What Now?

How can I transform my past #GeniusHour plans through passion and grit? Stay tuned, keep reading, and join in our journey. And as always, share your thoughts in the comments or on Twitter @MrSchoenbart.

How do you promote reflection and metacognition in your classroom? How do students feel about blended and online discussion? Please share your thoughts in the comments or on Twitter @MrSchoenbart.

#BreakoutEDU Takeaways

Reflections on Failure

Failing Forward

How do you help students overcome failure (in BreakoutEDU and in life?). Share your ideas in the comments or on Twitter @MrSchoenbart.

Next Steps

What are your favorite strategies for using student feedback and reflection in the classroom? Share in the comments below or on Twitter.

The Reflection Form

Moving Forward

How do you use reflection and self-assessment in your teaching? What suggestions do you have to improve my work-in-progress? Please share in the comments or on Twitter @MrSchoenbart.

The Form

The Data: What Students Think

The Big Picture

What do YOU think about #GeniusHour or passion-based learning? How do you use data for reflection or to drive instruction? Share your thoughts in the comments below or on Twitter.

Grading & Reflection

What Students Think

For you, what was the value of Genius Hour?

What advice do you have teachers with Genius Hour?

What advice do you have students with Genius Hour?

What advice do you or your students have about Genius Hour? About passion-based learning? Share your thoughts or insights from your students in the comments or on Twitter.

New and Improved Classrooms

More #GeniusHour Products

What are your favorite #GeniusHour projects? What are some of the challenges of helping students succeed with passion-based learning?

Schoenblog Search

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How can I transform my past #GeniusHour plans through passion and grit? Stay tuned, keep reading, and join in our journey.

And as always, share your thoughts in the comments or on Twitter @MrSchoenbart.