Follow effective action with quiet reflection. From that quiet reflection will come even more effective action.

– Peter Drucker

Early in my career, I would spend endless time researching to find the most engaging lessons for my students. I would find ways to connect the real world to the mathematics they were learning. Students were into it most of the time, and on those days I left feeling like I really did that!

But then the test came.

All of the “engagement” that I thought I had often showed up on the test as students who didn’t master the math objectives. In those moments I would try to recall what went wrong. As I recall those times now, I realize that I needed to use reflection as a tool to improve my technique, thus improving how my students were grasping the content.

Webster defines reflection as “consideration of some subject matter, idea, or purpose.” I would spend time thinking about what I did and what my students did, and often the result of my reflection would be to reteach content in the exact way I taught it the first time.

But…if they didn’t get it the first time when I taught it like that, why would I do it again? Yeah, I know.

I was missing two key components to make reflection create effective action: proper analysis of objective student data and the right questions to reflect on.

Student Data

Teachers need to know how students are processing content way before the quiz or test. These type of assessments are summative, they “give a final account of how far a student has gotten, as an endpoint (Boaler, 2016).” We should be collecting some kind of data (aka giving formative assessments) from students everyday. That data collection could come from the following:

• An exit ticket relating to the lesson’s content
• 1-2 reflection questions at the end of class (you can find a great list to tailor as you need here)
• Traffic Lighting
• Data from online software

Gauging the energy in the room and the looks on students’ faces during class give SO much valuable information in the moment, but we need more than that! Objective data from them gives you specific insight into whatever you were sensing. Now that we’ve collected the data, let’s reflect on it.

Reflecting on Student Data

Data from students gives teachers invaluable information to use when planning for the next class. Some questions you might use while reflecting on the data might be:

• What percentage of students mastered today’s learning goals or partially mastered them? Who needs more assistance?
• What might have contributed to students’ understanding the learning goals? How did teacher moves help or discourage mastery?
• What seemed to be the most effective strategies used today? How do you know?
• What might be some strategies to revisit or reteach students who need more assistance?
• Where is your thinking now as compared to before analyzing and reflecting on the data?

By the end of the process, you’ll be clear on where your students stand. You may also begin forming next steps on tomorrow’s class.

Congratulations! You have now reflected on your actions in class and have now created even more reflective action. You’re unstoppable! 😉

Hope this was helpful y’all!