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Ceri Jones: Reflecting on reflecting

Average: 3.3 (8 votes)


Times and places when I can let thoughts and ideas run through my mind, but there's nothing to pin them down. I don't think that's a bad thing, quite the opposite, but it's not great if you want to capture and act on your reflections. And I started to think about how I do that, and how maybe I could do it more efficiently.


My second tool is the lesson summary. This is a system that I've been using for some years with most classes. Basically we, me and the students, take it in turn to write summaries of the classes and share them with the group by email or on a blog. It takes a bit of time to set up, as do all systems and routines, but I think it's worth it. Initially my main aim was to get students to review their classes, to take stock of their learning, to keep personal records of the work they were doing inside and outside class, basically to stop and reflect. But as a by-product I've found they also give me a space for reflecting that's more structured than the washing up. Seeing the classes from the students' point of view is really useful. Summarising an hour and a half, two hours, of work into a few hundred words is also incredibly useful when it's my turn. It really helps me step back into the class, think about the language and the learning rather than the activities, try to highlight the "teachable/learnable" moments and put those into words.



I think I could definitely structure my reflections much more efficiently, and sometimes, when a class poses a particular challenge, then blogging becomes the best tool I know. Having to think through my thoughts clearly enough to be able to put them into words that I'm willing to make public is the best reflection tool I've found. Laying down action plans and areas for informal classroom research in a blog post helps me stick to them. It's a kind of external commitment. And being able to "talk" through the lesson with an imaginary listener/reader is great. But it does take time, and sometimes it just doesn't happen. In which case I always have the kitchen sink, my mini notebooks and my stack of post-its!