What do students think about the material presented in class? What is their reaction to our new topic? What did they learn from it? How did students process the information? Will this information influence students in any way? Is this material food for thought? More often than not, we are left wanting for our student’s take on these‌
‘It is not sufficient simply to have an experience in order to
learn. Without reflecting upon this experience it may quickly be forgotten, or its learning potential lost. It is from the feelings and thoughts emerging from this reflection that generalizations or concepts can be generated. And it is generalizations that allow new situations to be tackled effectively.’ (Gibbs 1988)
This year, after working in PSE on selfmonitoring, self-evaluation, honesty, and effort, I introduced the notion of learning logs to my students. I decided to start working with these logs to help students become more involved with their learning process. Reflect Write
Plan Improve
A learning log is like a regular journal entry. It gives students an opportunity to WRITE their personal take on their day at school and REFLECT on a specific topic discussed: a story, a song, or group debate. A learning log allows students to think about a piece of information on their own and PLAN their next steps to IMPROVE their performance. The result of these moments of self-reflection is sometimes an expression of confusion that can help students discover topics that need more clarification. Therefore, learning logs can be a powerful tool to assess when a student (or a whole group for that matter) needs to go over some specific topic or can move on to another. In year 4 A, we write our learning logs during the last ten or fifteen minutes of the class. We stop working at four o’clock and students know it is time for self-reflection. At first, I provided the kids with a variety of sentence openers that
they were allowed to choose from. This was a model/hint along the right path and a little help with “writer’s block�.
Naturally, some students became immediately involved and some were more reluctant to the
process. As students saw their teachers reacting to suggestions or clarification requests, their outlook on the whole thing changed completely. So much so, that they themselves started reminding me about wrapping up our lessons in time for our learning logs! Mind you, this is not a formal writing piece and therefore there is no grammar or spelling pattern corrected. I believe students feel much more at ease to share their thoughts, feelings and viewpoints if they do not feel they are being “graded”. I do give them some sort of “feedback” for the clarity of their learning log entries, though. I give each entry a tick, a tick minus or tick plus to show how much information I could take from their learning log entry.
Here are some examples of learning logs:
When a learning log requests for help, more information or mentions class material in any way, I make a point in mentioning it to the class and thanking the writer for the helpful learning log. This, I feel, gives the students reassurance that there is a real purpose for their reflection and that taking the time to write a good log can be really fruitful. The students in year 4A completed an anonymous survey , where I asked them what they thought about learning logs and how useful they were to them. Results were very positive and interesting (https://docs.google.com/a/sanandres.esc.edu.ar/forms/d/1FyjEuMu9FJ0TSkNOc1xDykvwUNk9FlpfTobEkTEjBak/viewform)
(https://docs.google.com/a/sanandres.esc.edu.ar/spreadsheet/ccc?key=0AvuMHXDWp4CkdC1WRjlCZEdDSjFnTms0MHN4RThmYUE&us
.
p=drive_web#gid=0)
As part of the wrapping up of this year, my students included one of their best learning log entries in their e-folders as models of successful
self-reflection practices. Here are some their log self-reflections. Lucas S wrote:
Juan G. wrote:
Agus G. wrote:
Fini B. wrote:
Isa E. wrote:
Santino L. wrote:
Lucca Ch. wrote:
Marco G. wrote:
In conclusion, developing skills of reflection enhances the learning experience. The process takes stepping back to analyze an experience from different perspectives, with a view to improving future performances. I can honestly say I am proud of my students’ logs. I believe this has been a fruitful experience and it has shown to be an important tool for ongoing reflection and feedback.