Thread: Help! Survey/reflection activity for last day of school...

The surveys I give at the end of year use focused questions to determine the (perception of) effectiveness of specific teaching strategies used. I make sure the question refer to specific strategies and are rated on how well they helped the student learn. Offer a space for suggestions regarding that specific strategy. I suggest avoiding questions which refer to "likes" or their "feelings". Roger (from the other board) had some very good surveys he used. I do not know if he frequents there anymore.

I have used reflections before with great success. I used them at the private school, however. I don't think the approcach I took at the private school would work with my current students, who would need far more guidance than I gave on this assignment.

The instructions I gave my students were: "In this final reflective writing piece, you will write 2-4 pages detailing areas in which you believe you are improving, what you have learned this semester from this class, and areas in which you believe you need continued work."

I also showed them a sample of a good reflective piece the day before having them write their own reflections. We discussed what made the reflection strong, so that they would have an idea of what I expect.

As I said, I don't think this approach would work if you have students who need a lot of guidance, but advanced students can really do a nice job with this. I prefer the open-ended approach to reflections if your students are mature and advanced enough to handle it, and I think it is very useful for them to think critically about their own progress over the course of the year.

If you want a copy of a good sample reflection, let me know and I'll PM you one.

Mrs. D, I would love a copy. Thank you.

I teach at a public school, but I think it would work with some of my sophomores...some of the others are a bit like your students, from what you've described. Also, I'm looking for something that won't take too long to grade, as grades are due the day after the last day of school!

I have my student write a letter to the students I will be having the next year. That's what I tell them at least. I'm pretty specific about the contents. First, my students will put together their writing notebook showing their years progress, and we talk about the various projects we had this year. Then, they write about the three that were the most meaningful to them, and exactly what they think they learned. I also ask them to describe how my class "works" and that is where I find their reflections on the community we've built and their perception of my "discipline" structure. They are always interesting to read. Sometimes I do forget to give them to the new students the next year, though honestly, the new students are not particulary interested other than the names of last year's students, but the real point is the reflection process for the current students.