I wanted my students to begin to do more self reflection and care about their learning. We talk a lot about me not being able to open their brains and force feed them information...we need to soak it in and apply it! Mostly, I'd love that when they leave my room, they have a thirst for knowledge and a yearning to know...and have curiosity. So I decided that we would start doing self reflection, starting out small with something they really enjoy, coloring! I told them I would hold a coloring contest and for them to do their very very best. I asked them, "What would a coloring judge look for?" The kids then came up with their own rubric from that. We talked about staying in the lines, leaving little to no white space, coloring the whole page, and adding lots of color and patterns for interest.
The kids really got into it, and many took theirs home to finish. I'm not sure if I'd choose a smaller piece or not. It might have been better to go small to get more of a finished product and ensure success for all.
Then, I created this bulletin board and hung them all up and asked colleagues of mine to go by and add comments. They were so generous to make sure no picture was left without a comment.
I used a covered a crayon box to make a "comment box" so that passers by could make
a comment right then. In the future, I hope that as people see these reflections, they'll add more comments. :)
There were a lot more who completed the project
but weren't ready for feedback yet.
To determine our class winners, I went to three different people with the pictures in hand and asked them to flip through the pictures quickly to choose the three that stood out right away. Most everyone agreed on the same ones. Two of our winners actually didn't turn them back in. :(
Then I took the class on a mini field trip in the hall to show them the finished product. They were beaming! The conversations that followed were quite intellectual as I read the comments out loud and let them know that the judges had "wishes" for the participants. I asked them what they thought the judges might want? Intuitively, they know. They knew the paper should probably be finished and that it should probably follow the criteria we set up as a class.
All in all, it was a great segue from coloring to personal reflections for our future portfolios in writing and reading. More on this great topic later!
Happy reflection days to you!
