Reflective Routine in Teaching Effectively

 "Teachers who take time daily to reflect on what worked in class and what didn't can better assess areas for improvement and begin to make necessary adjustment" Megan Collins, has taught creative writing at the Greater Hartford Academy of the Arts and Central Connecticut State University. In an article written by her "The Benefits of Developing a Reflective Routine" she gave ideas in developing reflective practice in teaching.

Kristina Rizga * said that the best teachers establish connections with students, by making daily commitment in bringing in well considered, purposeful practices and working child by child. Finding the right mix of practices to be executed on knowing the need of each child is very essential.  In the process of finding out the effort taken by veteran teachers in bringing out the best in their students, she found that issues such as race and culture are involved. Some of the most constructive ideas that has helped teachers inspire even the reserved and reluctant students to grow and learn.

1. Working Child by Child.

Getting to know students involves watching and listening to them speaking and observing how they express themselves in their work according to Pirette McKamey** . Teachers might miss certain students and not see them, not hear them and shut them down. Renee Moore*** recalls a student who excels in Math but was struggling in writing in her English class. She found out that student is active when discussing sports and family thus making the student to write about it.  The student manage to write something more lively and complex without worrying to much about grammar and spelling which she began teaching him later. The student graduated with a high school diploma.

2. Create a guiding Question.

Recognising what didn't work in your class is quite easy. Turning these weakness into reflective questions to improve is very challenging.  Creating guiding questions is one of the way to do this. Develop self observations such as not having enough time to check in with each student during lesson. Ask yourself how to create more moments in a lesson to work one-on-one with students. How you may incorporate more ways to check for understanding? How to provide ways for students to support one another and also how do you connect with student while teaching them. Relate these questions to observations that you have made about your own experience so as to be able to make adjustment to your practice.

3. Partner with a Colleague.

Invite a colleague to join you in this process. Compare your teaching styles as well as your strengths and areas for growth. Engage in thoughtful, honest and focused conversations by sharing your guiding questions. Work together and brainstorm solutions. Share experience such as, similar experience in class, strategies used that are successful or a failure. Develop skills that designs strong lesson plan with precise pacing, rhythm, and clear focus as well as building positive relationships among students. Identify the challenges students were facing and come up with a personilsed plans. Judith Harper**** worked with her colleagues to help boost students public speaking, interviewing and college-essay-writing skills. Rebecca Palacios***** worked with her colleagues to launch a coaching program to help non English speaking parents learn how to support their children's reading skills at home.

These are a few ideas on how to do reflections on your lessons in class daily so that you are able to assess your effectiveness in teaching. From the reflections done you might be able to rectify the mistakes done and to improve your lessons.

Ref: The Benefits of Developing a Reflective Routine, Megan Colins.

*Kristina Rizga, journalist | co-creator + contributor, 'On Teaching’@theatlantic.com

** Pirette McKamey, principal at Mission High School in San Francisco

*** Renee Moore, teaches English at Mississippi Delta Community College.

**** Judith Harper, English teacher at Westwood High School, in Mesa, Arizona.

***** Rebecca Palacios Ph.D. Preschool Educator and Consultant

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