Reflecting on the Year with Your Students by Judi Fenton

June is a perfect time to get your students to reflect on their year with you. Having the students reflect and assess is a wonderful way to get them to rethink and process the learning that occurred all year. What did they learn? How did they learn it? What do they now know and understand about how they learn? How did they develop socially? How did they do their best work? What did they discover about themselves? These are questions you can explore with students.

June is also the perfect time to assess your teaching. What did you do well with this group of students and how can you adjust your teaching to better serve your group next year?

What follows is a (very generic) sample reflection survey to use you’re your students. Please feel free to adjust it to your liking.

• What did you like best about this class? Why?
• What did you like least about this class? Why?
• What have you noticed this year about your own learning?
• How have you worked best this year (alone, in a group, in a pair, with the whole class) and why do you think this is so?
• What project did you enjoy most? Why?
• What piece of your work are you most proud of? Why?
• What was very challenging for you this year? Why do you think this?

After you collect the completed surveys, share the compiled results with your class. It can generate a great discussion and can be a first step to creating a yearbook of memories about all you did together this year.