Reflection and Assessment

     This week we read about using Reflection and Assessment in the classroom as a tool for learning.  This class has focused quite a bit on reflection, with the blog being used to further explore the concepts that we are learning in our textbook readings.  I find that reflecting on our readings helps me correlate what I am learning in this class with my personal experience and also with the concepts that I am learning in other teaching classes this semester.  Reflection has been a very useful tool to help me synthesize information and think about how to put effective strategies into place as a future teacher.
     Reflection and assessment is definitely something I will use as a future teacher, both to help students process what they have learned and also to evaluate my own teaching methods.  I like the concept that everyone in the classroom has both the teacher and learner roles.  As teachers we should have a life long love of learning, and we should constantly be evaluating what strategies worked and what didn't to improve our classrooms.  Students can also be leaders in sharing and exploring information, which makes them much more engaged in the classroom.
     In observation hours through another class, I saw a middle school teacher meeting with students who had completed portfolios throughout the year.  In the portfolios, students collected work that they had done, complete with data graphs of grades they had earned and feedback they had been given.  They set goals for what level of writing they wanted to achieve, and had rubrics for what constituted each level of writing in advance.  The data graphs that they kept showed them on an ongoing basis the progress they were making towards those individually set goals.  In the one on one meetings with students, the teacher talked with each student about the process of making the portfolio.  She asked them questions about how they felt about the overall experience, what the biggest challenges were, what they took away from the experience, and any changes they suggested to the process.  In this way, the teacher used the portfolio process to reflect and assess both the student's achievement, and also her own effectiveness with the lessons.  I think this was a great example of what reflection and assessment can do to improve the outcomes for both students and teachers.  Here's a video that I liked on self assessments: