Journal 2-3B - Permission Preparation

In preparation for asking for permission from all necessary parties, I need to do a little of my own reflection. This is VERY rough, and is meant to help me organize my thoughts. As I look back at my journal entries, I've been most focused on using reflection as a tool in my classroom. Reflective writing is something that I've had to do as a part of my M.Ed. program, and I found it to be very valuable for my professional growth. It also made my words concrete -if I had written that I would commit to something, then I needed to make that commitment, even if no one was around to know. I also used reflection in an experimental way with my senior class last year, but I'm not sure to make of what I got. Most of the reflections were not reflections, but giant suck-up essays. The students were jumping through a perceived hoop and not really using the reflection in the manner I had intended. This year I had intended to add a little reflection to my curriculum, but not to the extent that I've ended up doing so far. I had thought that I would have the students reflect after every major essay, but I'm having them do it a lot more often. The other problem that's arisen is what to do with these reflections. It's fine that the students are reflecting, but why? This is becoming way more complicated than I thought it would be. (Not whining, just noting...)

My tentative plan is to make reflection woven in to the fabric of every unit so students are more involved with their learning. At the beginning of each unit, I want to do a KWL chart. Then, as the units progress, I want to revisit the KWL chart to make sure students are learning what they indicated they wanted to learn. Additionally, I want to ask students to complete short reflective surveys throughout the unit. Finally, I want to revisit the KWL chart at the end of the unit and ask students to write a short reflection based on what's on their KWL chart and what they actually did.

I'm wondering a number of things. First, how can I get the kids truly involved with what they learn (they're so passive!). Second, will reflecting be the dark mirror that turns them off to English, or the bright mirror that shines the way to self improvement? Third, will doing this lead to writer burn-out in my class - I already require a LOT of writing...how much is too much? Fourth - How much structure are they going to need? Fifth - Is this plan going to make the students more independent learners? For how long? As far as I know, the only other teacher who does reflection is the Journalism teacher - and she does verbal reflections, not written (not invalid, just very different from what I'm doing).

Ideally, if this plan is successful, I will have overhauled how students view learning. By the end of the year, I want students excited about what they're learning to do in my class. I want them doing different things, reading different books, but I want to link the class with a common theme or thread, but still allow for independence when choosing what to read (sometimes) and what to write. I want students invested in their learning in my class AND across their other classes. I want to save the world...one student at a time!! (OK, maybe not that last one, but I was waxing a little too poetic.) I want the kids to leave my class excited about learning and excited about my world (literature and writing), even as they realize that they don't have to be an English teacher to love reading or writing.

Here's how I can gather information. KWL charts (make photocopies, track predictions v. follow-through), reflective writing, personal interviews, surveys, through my lesson plans (ideally, the more independent the students get, the more open my plans will become. Tightly controlled plans mean tightly controlled kids - and I'm pretty tight right now.) and student-student survey and interviews. Maybe I should interview some of my former students and compare their experiences with the experiences this year (student to student interviews?)

My teaching has already begun to change. I've already incorporated a rudimentary survey/reflection portion of my lessons plans. I will need to tighten that up - the surveys and the reflections need to become more formalized - the more professional something looks, the more seriously the students will take it. I also need to loosen up my lesson plans to allow for choice. I can't profess to allow the students free reign and then deny them all choice of reading and writing material! I'll need build time into my existing framework (which means cutting some things) so that students can reflect more thoroughly. I need to model good practices - like reflecting on my own teaching process (make portions of my journal public?). I need to allow students to make suggestions and then I need to follow them...within reason. We're not reading Twilight as a class...but I could bring in excerpts of Dracula and let the Twilight crowd meet the Grandaddy of Vampire Fiction. I'm sure I'll think of other changes as the year progresses, but this is everything I could think of right now.