Sunday, March 20, 2011

Reflection in early childhood classrooms

I found Suzie Boss' article about reflection inspiring. When thinking about reflections with blogging, I wondered how that could be done in an early childhood classroom where students are just starting to develop writing skills. I love the idea that students should be reflecting on their work throughout the process, not just at the end. The thought of audio interviews made me think about an alternative way to capture young children's thoughts instead of just writing them down with paper and pencil, which is what I always do. However, time is always an issue for teachers. Then I thought about how reflections can be recorded on video throughout the process while students are working at tables instead of individually at the end of a project (which would be time consuming). However, like stated in the article, if teachers do not ask specific questions, they will not get specific answers. Answers like "I am having fun" or "I learned a lot" will not get to the root of the learning. Therefore, while recording responses on reflections, teachers can ask specific questions so they do not always get the same responses. Also, asking questions before, during, and after students are working can lead to interesting discoveries that teachers as well as students can look back on and watch the process.

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