Make students think about what they are learning

This article presents good advice on both initiating reflective writing and conversations and ways to assess these reflections. This information could be useful at any grade level, but I bel... See More

This article presents good advice on both initiating reflective writing and conversations and ways to assess these reflections. This information could be useful at any grade level, but I believe the author is addressing secondary. However, as far as starting thoughtful conversations, I think the advice in this article could be used in elementary classes as well, and upper elementary could certainly do some of the reflective writing pieces after completing inquiry labs. I have included reflective writing pieces and conversations for years in my teaching, using some of these methods and others that have seemed to relate to given lessons. I think I will put the sentence starters suggested on a poster in my room this year to encourage groups to ask these questions on their own without prompting to see if it works. Helping students to understand that they can be responsible for their own learning is an ultimate goal of these reflective writing lesson and something I work towards in my science classes.