Reading Reflection 10

1. Discussion on the importance of setting aside time for reflection.

Taking time to reflect helps students feel good about their accomplishments while allowing the information time to stick with the students. Setting aside time for reflection helps the students reveal things they may not think about in other situations such as what they learned, how they grew as a result of the project, and what type of information are they are interested in learning in the future.  As well reflection gives the students a chance to reflect on the obstacles they overcame in the project and what they learned about themselves as a result.

2. Discussion on the reason students need to reflect and elaborate.

Reflecting allows the students to look back on the project to see what they learned, what they enjoyed, and how they evolved as students. The reflection anchors the learning while prompting, probing, and encouraging the students to elaborate about their experiences during the project. Good reflections should get the students to elaborate and get them thinking about future projects and where they want to go as learners.

3. Discussion on how schools build tradition and identity.

Schools can begin to establish tradition and identity by building awareness in others. When families and the community become involved you begin to set up a foundation for tradition. As the members of the community begin to notice and value the accomplishments of the students they will bring support to the class making the traditions stronger and giving the school an identity. Once the tradition has been established students will feel like it is a privilege to honor the tradition and will want to showcase their work establishing their identity as a community of learners.

4. Discussion on the importance celebrating a project.

It is important to celebrate learning and build the schools identity as a place where the kids get to learn through the use of projects. One way to celebrate the students work is by displaying it throughout the classroom to give the students a sense of pride in their work. Another way to celebrate is to document the projects you do throughout the year through photos, artifacts, and more. Make these available to the students so that the memories can anchor in the students mind while the teacher gets to also learn about what the students remember and value.

5. Discussion on how concepts in this chapter relate to your topic/project.

These ideas apply to our project and how we will need to get our students to reflect, elaborate, and celebrate throughout the project. At the end of the project the students will present the information they learned about their country and their food choices to their family and friends. Doing so will give the students an opportunity to reflect on their process as well as celebrate the information they learned. As well we plan on combining all of the recipes they discovered into a classroom cookbook so that the students have a collection of their discoveries that they can look back on and be proud of.