Save Your Sanity Before Winter Break with Student Reflection Activities

The few weeks between the end of Thanksgiving break and the start of Winter Break can feel like an eternity. Students begin to get restless with each passing day as they dream of their extended days off of school; however, the majority of teachers are wishing for those days to go by just as quickly. It can be a challenge to keep students engaged and motivated throughout these few weeks and can often lead to losing quite a bit of your sanity in the process. 

Student Self-Reflections: Mid-Year Check

A few year ago, when I first implemented student data folders into my classroom, I knew that before we left for Winter Break that I wanted my students to do some type of mid-year reflection on their progress. It would not only help them to think about their successes, but to also focus on the areas that they still needed to work on during the second half of the school year. The students' self-reflections would not only help them to realize their area of focus, but the reflections would also help give me more insight into my student's thought process on their progress. 

I created a self-reflection guide that focused on three aspects:

• student success stories/memories

• areas for improvement

• setting a long-term goal for the second half of the school year.

Since this was the first time that I was implementing it with my students and given the fact that I gave it to them on a Monday during our last week of school before Winter Break, I was bracing for struggles and how to handle students who did not take the activity seriously. I had my speech already prepared to give to any student who was less than thrilled or didn't seem interested in the self-reflection, but I was pleasantly surprised when I encountered very little resistant during Core 1. Once I explained to students the WHY behind this activity and how it was important to our ongoing growth process, the majority of them eagerly began their self-reflections. This trend continued through the rest of my classes that day.

As I sat down to read the self-reflections from my students, I was amazed at the level of thinking that the majority of them had done. For many students, they had identified the same strengths and weaknesses that I had already identified throughout my daily tracking. I made sure to let them know this in the feedback that I wrote on each reflection. Even though leaving written feedback on the self-reflections took quite a bit of time, I felt that it was necessary to let my students know that I had read their reflections and that I took what they had written seriously. The last thing you want students to feel is that they completed something this important for it to just be tossed aside or filed away.

Getting Feedback from My Students

I was not even halfway through the student self-reflections when I had an idea. If my students did such a great job at self-assessing their own progress and next steps, what else could I learn from them to help myself grow as a classroom teacher? Winter Break was always a time where I would rest and enjoy the holidays with my family, but I'm not ashamed to admit that I would spent a good deal of my time off thinking about school and what I could do differently during the second half of the year. Usually this consisted of me reflecting on what I thought worked and didn't work; however, I never really thought of asking my students' opinions.

After I had finished going through the student reflections, my next task was to create some type of survey or activity that my students could complete to give me feedback about their experiences in my classroom during the first half of the school year. In order to do that, I needed to figure out what information did I want to get from my students. In addition, it needed to be a concise and simple activity like the self-reflections that way it would be easy to keep students engaged. As I brainstormed for the student survey, I settled on these four things being the most important information that my students could give me:

• A favorite lesson (this would allow me to identify trends among student responses and identify what made these lessons a success with students)

• A least favorite lesson (this would allow me to identify trends and identify what caused these lessons to not be popular or favorable with students)

• The specific things that we did in class that students felt helped them to grow and be successful

• The specific things that students felt could be revamped or improved

Just like when my students completed their self-reflections on their own progress, I made sure that I thoroughly explained WHY the Mid-Year Reflections survey was important and how I would use it to help reflect on my own teaching practices. I let my students know that I would be using their advice and responses to help identify those things that worked and that they liked during the first half of the school year and those things that they didn't like or feel like helped them. In addition, I stressed the importance of them being honest and to not be afraid of hurting my feelings. One of the most important aspects of this activity was that I did not require my students to put their names on these activities. I did not want them to feel like I would hold them accountable or become upset with them when they gave me their honest feedback and reactions to my class. Making these surveys anonymous is one of the most important factors in helping this activity be successful for both students and teachers.

To say that this activity was a real eye-opener for me is a complete understatement. Any skepticism that I had on how serious my students would take this activity vanished after glancing through the surveys from my morning classes. Not only did this activity verify some of my own thoughts on what the best moments or things about my class were, but it also gave me valuable insight into some things that I needed to adjust within my classroom instruction. For example, many of my students felt like their opinions were valued in my class and that they felt comfortable with sharing them; however, they didn't feel like they had enough opportunities to discuss their opinions and thoughts with more than their shoulder partner or group partners. Without this activity, I probably would not have even thought to reflect on this aspect of my classroom instruction.

As I was going through all of the student surveys, I took a sheet of paper and created a T-Chart to record the most important information and the repeated things that my students wrote down. By the time I was finished, both sides of my list were filled with helpful and insightful suggestions from my students. During Winter Break when I met with my co-teacher to map out a long range game plan for the second half of the school year, we used that list to help us brainstorm how we could incorporate student ideas into our lessons and what skills or strategies that we needed to continue using. It made things so much easier when we were planning to not only use our own reflections and experiences but also our students' wise words.

 The level of success that we experienced during the second half of the school year by utilizing our students' suggestions and giving them more ownership of their own learning was incredible. Not only did student engagement become less of a problem, but behavior issues decreased and our students experienced gradual but consistent growth. To say that this activity was a game-changer in my classroom is an understatement. It is the main reason that I have incorporated this activity at Winter Break and at the end of the school year.

Take the leap and give your students an opportunity to not only reflect on their own learning and growth, but to also provide you with meaningful feedback about your classroom instruction. I hope that you find as much success with this activity with your students!

Click here to grab your FREE copy!

You will get the following resources in this freebie:

• Student Self-Reflection Activity: Reflecting on my Journey

• Teacher Model for Student Self-Reflection

• Mid-Year Reflections: Student Reflection Survey

• Mid-Year Reflections: Letter to My Teacher

 Don't Miss This Exciting News!

Head on over to Mud and Ink Teaching's blog to read some fabulous advice to save your sanity!

I'd also like to take this opportunity to thank Amanda from Mud and Ink Teaching for allowing me to co-host this amazing blog hop with her!






The 12 Days of December

Don't forget to click here to visit The 12 Days of December Blog Hop website for a chance to read all of the other valuable tips and advice from over 20 Secondary Teacher-Authors.

Secondary ELA Seasonal Blog Hop: The Creative Classroom Shares Tricks & Tips

As an ELA teacher teacher, one of my favorite times of the school year is October. Not only is it the point of the year where you finally feel like you are settled in and have routines finally figured out, but it’s also the time of the year that I get to introduce my students to some of my favorite authors and spooky short stories! While my excitement always grew over thoughts of introducing a new group of students to the works of Edgar Allan Poe, W.W. Jacobs, and Ray Bradbury, a slight nervousness also crept in when I thought about how complex these texts can be for both proficient and struggling readers. What could I do to help bridge the gap and help my students to successfully navigate these stories? 

Searching For the PERFECT Audio Version...Does It Even Exist?

Obviously, I knew that I would incorporate close reading strategies to help my students tackle these stories. In my classroom, our first read was always focused on answering the question “OMG! What happened?!?” so that I could see which students got the gist of the story and which students were struggling to comprehend the big picture. In addition,  the majority of the time we would listen to an audio version of the story during our first read while students had a copy of the text in front of them.  I always tried to find the most interesting audio version that I could because let’s face it no one, including me, wants to listen to a monotone voice tell a story let alone one as thrilling and suspenseful as “The Cask of Amontillado” or “Monkey’s Paw”. 

In September 2013 as I was preparing for my upcoming unit, I was browsing through the audiobooks on iTunes and listened to several previews that bored me to tears. It seemed like my mission to find an engaging audio version for “The Cask of Amontillado” was going to be unsuccessful until I clicked on an audiobook entitled “Nightmares on Congress Street, Part IV” by Rocky Coast Radio Theater. Within seconds of hitting play on the preview button, I knew that I had found a winner! Everything about this recording, from the intense and spooky music to the performance of the actors, was perfect. It’s like the stories that I loved so much had truly come to life. Once I purchased the file, I sat mesmerized as I listened to both “The Cask of Amontillado” and “Monkey’s Paw”. What was even better than how these actors brought these tales to life was the fact that they did not change the source material and make any major deviations from the original text. Talk about an English teacher’s dream come true!

Introduction to Edgar Allan Poe + Rocky Coast Radio Theatre = HUGE Success

I was so excited for the first day of reading “The Cask of Amontillado” and letting my students hear the radio theater audio version of the story for the first time. As it began playing and the mysterious music began playing, my students started looking around and I saw smiles already on some of their faces. By the time that we had got to out first stopping point in the story, I knew that I had found a winner. Each time I asked a question, there were tons of volunteers who wanted to answer my question or ask one of their own. Many of the students kept begging to start the story again. The level of student engagement and enthusiasm was absolutely unbelievable and it remained that way throughout the entire first read of the short story. This trend continued through every class that I taught that day and I could not wait to read through my students’ exit tickets to see their answers to “OMG! What Happened!?!”.  Normally, when I shifted through the exit tickets after a first read, there was a good majority of students who were not only struggling with the big picture, but they had difficulty even piecing together small parts of the story; however, I began to notice that about half of my students were able to give me a general summary of “This guy Montressor was mad at Fortunato and decided to brick him into a wall to get back at him” or “The narrator is crazy because he killed Fortunato just because he was jealous of them”. Even my struggling readers, many of whom were my SPED students, were able to piece certain scenes together and show the smallest glimpse of comprehending this difficult text. My inclusion co-teacher and I were simply amazed by how big of a difference the radio theater audio had made in our student’s comprehension level. The excitement and progress that my students had made on day one continued throughout the entire unit.  

This positive learning experience was an eye-opener to the power of engaging audio versions of literature. I set a goal for myself that no matter how long it may take me or how many different Google searches I had to do that I would do everything I could to find the most entertaining and student friendly audio files that I could. Not only would it help break up the monotony of reading the same story six times a day, but it would also motivate my students into becoming better readers.  You are in luck because I'm about to share links to my favorite audio versions of some amazing short stories.

Here are just a few of my FAVORITE audio versions for some spooky short stories:

• "The Veldt" by Ray Bradbury

• "A Sound of Thunder" by Ray Bradbury

• "The Cask of Amontillado" by Edgar Allan Poe

• "The Monkey's Paw" by W.W. Jacobs

• "The Tell-Tale Heart" by Edgar Allan Poe

• "The Landlady" by Roald Dahl

I hope that these audio versions help transform your short story units and engage your students!

Secondary ELA TPT Halloween SALE

Once you've finished checking out all these awesome blog posts head on over to my TPT store to save 20% off ALL Spooky Short Story resources on October 16th and October 17th! 

Don't forget to check out the other Secondary ELA Teacher-Authors' blog posts to get more tips and tricks to make this Halloween the best year yet!

An InLinkz Link-up

Calming the Year End Chaos Tips for Success

If you are like me, the end of the school year can be a chaotic and energy-draining time period. There are so many things to get done-like paperwork, end of the quarter exams, keeping your students' focused and engaged. It can seem like a circus act to juggle all of these things at once. Sometimes it feels like it will never end, but the light at the end of the tunnel is oh-so close.

The end of the year for me has always been a time for self reflection of what worked and what didn't. This was especially true when I taught Literacy Enrichment, an elective class for students who scored below average on our state ELA assessments. There was no set curriculum so I created EVERYTHING that we did in our class for 6th-8th grade. It was easy for me to determine what I thought was successful or a great lesson, but what about my students' thoughts on the lessons and activities? Sure I had asked for feedback from them here or there, but did I really give them a chance to really reflect on the things that we did and what helped THEM? I sat down that afternoon and created an End of the Year Survey for my students' to complete. (Click here to download a FREE copy of this survey!)

 I had my students complete this activity during one of the last weeks of school and I was amazed at their view on the things we had done and the honest feedback that many of them gave. It was so nice to read about their favorite activities or short stories that we did (it was no surprise to me that Edgar Allan Poe's "The Tell-Tale Heart" and "The Black Cat" were among their favorites.). 

As I sat reading their comments, I began to think about how this would help me shape and revise my curriculum for the next school year. It was then that a light bulb went off in my head. If they were giving me such awesome feedback and advice, what type of advice would they give to future students who would be in their shoes next school year. Let's face it, we can give advice until we run out of things to say, but how powerful would it be for students to be the ones giving that advice on how to survive a new school year. I worked throughout the night developing a writing assignment that would allow my students' to take the life lessons that they had learned during our year together and share these experiences and advice with the future students who would be in my class. 

I introduced the Letter to a Future Student Activity to my classes during the final week of school. At first, they looked at me like I was crazy. Did I really expect them to write multiple paragraphs during the last week of school!?! That all changed once I explained WHY they would be writing these letters and that there was a real life purpose to this assignment. I let them know that my plan was to seal their letters in individual envelopes and that each of my new students would get one of their letters on the first day of the new school year. Even my most reluctant writers worked hard to create a multi-paragraph letter that contains tips, tricks, and helpful hints for making it through that next school year. Many of my students would call me over to check over their letters and give them some feedback. Some even asked if they could type their letters because they didn't want their messy handwriting to stop someone from being able to read their letters. I was so impressed with the level of thoughtfulness and hard work that they put in.

This was absolutely the best end of the year activity that I have ever done. I loved being able to give these letters to each new group of students, especially my new 6th graders who were terrified on that first day of their middle school experience. It helped to calm some nerves and also led to some laughs from the humorous stories that my former students had told in their letters. Below is one of my favorite letters from one of my former students:

Without a doubt involving my students' in these two activities helped give me some valuable feedback and information to use as I worked towards planning a new school year out. It also allowed me to show my students how much I valued their thoughts and opinions. This helped cut down on the normal end of the year behaviors and helped end our year on a positive note. 

I hope that you found these two tips helpful in calming the overwhelming chaos that occurs at the end of the year. The end is oh-so near so make every moment with your students count! You've got this, teachers! I hope that you have a GREAT rest of the school year, whether that be days or weeks left and that you have a restful and relaxing summer vacation! :)

More End of the Year Survival Tips

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The Creative Classroom Leaps into Literature

Here at the Literary League, we’re a group of English teachers who truly love literature (we bet you already figured that part out). Given free time, we can all agree that there’s nothing better than leaping into a good book. But, even as avid readers, we have to admit that those spare minutes tend to be few and far between, especially during the school year, and there are times that we just have to …

• leap into a book recommended by a friend, a colleague, or especially a student, who is anxiously awaiting our review
• leap into a new novel we’re teaching, whether or not we’ve had time to fully prepare a complete unit
• leap into a classic, maybe not one of our favorites, but something we know students need to sit with in order to grow as a reader

For those instances, the Literary League is teaming up to share some of our favorite resources to help you Leap into Literature. These are resources that are not tied to a particular book, but ones that can be used over and over again, both with your favorite novels, as well as with new texts or classic pieces you’re trying to breathe new life into.

A favorite resource I use to engage my students in literature is my Holy Task Cards! 28 Tasks for any Short Story. These task cards offer a variety of ways to get my students interacting with fiction texts. I love that they offer choice and a different approach for students to show their understanding of the story. Not only can students demonstrate mastery of story elements and Common Core standards, but they are also able to write creative writing compositions and create real world projects. 

One of my students' favorite tasks is Task #22- Comic Book, where students are able to turn the short story they have just read into a comic book. This requires students to really understand the setting and important plot points to be able to transform the story off the page. It is always amazing to see how the students bring the words to life through colorful and interesting illustrations. This is a great way to get your artistic students excited about literature.

My personal favorite task is Task #2- Rewrite. This task requires students to rewrite the ending to the story or continue from where the story ended. This works best with stories that have sudden or cliffhanger endings like "The Tell-Tale Heart" by Edgar Allan Poe or "Monkey's Paw" by W.W. Jacobs. It is always so interesting to see what the students think happened to the characters next. The best part is that this assignment requires students to use what they have learned from the text and make inferences on where the story goes.

You can read about other engaging literature resources from the other Literary Leaguers linked up below and also enter in the rafflecopter below for a chance to win them all.

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An InLinkz Link-up

The Literary League 12 Days of Giving Freebie Round`Up & Sale

Thanks so much for the overwhelming response to the 12 Days of Giving hosted by the Literary League!  

To celebrate the season and our favorite fellow teachers (that’s you!), we’re all having a sale in our TpT shops today, Saturday, December 12th and tomorrow, Sunday, December 13th.  That’s right!  Pop over to each of our shops and you’ll find all of our resources at 20% off!

Making Meaning with Melissa

The Creative Classroom

Novelle

Brynn Allison - The Literary Maven

The Perfetto Writing Room

Literary Sherri

Mrs. Spangler in the Middle

The Classroom Sparrow

2 Peas and a Dog

Secondary Sara

Brain Waves Instruction

The Daring English Teacher

Room 213

Oh, and if you haven't entered for a chance to win the Teachers Pay Teacher gift card, you can do so below. Today is the last day to enter!

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Just in case you missed one of the featured freebies, click the links below.

Making Meaning with Melissa - "Thank You, M'am" Mini-Unit - Emergency Sub Plans

The Creative Classroom - Two Column Notes Organizer

Nouvelle - ELA Vocabulary Poster Project Bundle

Brynn Allison - Discuss, Debate, Write:  Texting and Ethics Topics

Perfetto Writing Room - SteadfastTin Soldier

Literary Sherri - Winter Poems - Poetry Analysis

Mrs. Spangler in the Middle - Christmas Zap Game

The Classroom Sparrow - Holiday Essay Outline

2 Peas and a Dog - Christmas Writing Prompts

Brain Waves Instruction - Endof Year Reflection and Infographic

Secondary Sara - New Year's Countdown Writing Prompts

Room 213 - Christmas Coffee House

The Daring English Teacher - WinterThemed Grammar Worksheets

From all of us Literary Leaguers, wishing you and yours the happiest of holidays!

The Literary League Kicks Off 12 Days of Giving for Secondary ELA Teachers

Literary Leaguers are in the holiday spirit and we’re hosting 

12 Days of Giving!

We’re super excited to share some of our favorite freebies (both seasonal and all-year-round resources) with you and give you the chance to win a Teachers Pay Teachers gift certificate!  The 12 Days of Giving runs Tuesday, December 1^st – Saturday, December 12^th.

Here’s how it works…

Day 1 of Giving:  Enter to win the Teachers Pay Teachers gift certificate at any of the participating Literary Leaguers’ blogs.

Days 2-11 of Giving:  Stop by each of these blogs for links to favorite English Language Arts freebies.  Hint:  Follow each of the blogs via email or Bloglovin' so that you don't miss out on the updates. You can even get the Bloglovin' app for your phone and read all your favorite bloggers in one feed!

Day 2 - Room 213 and The Daring English Teacher

Day 3 - Brain Waves Instruction and Secondary Sara

Day 4 - 2 Peas and a Dog and The Classroom Sparrow

Day 5 - Mrs. Spangler in the Middle 

Day 6 - Literary Sherri
Day 7 - The Perfetto Writing Room

Day 8 - The Literary Maven

Day 9 - Novelle

Day 10 - The Creative Classroom

Day 11 - Making Meaning With Melissa

We have a feeling that you’ll love the seasonal and all-year-round resources! 

Day 12 of Giving:  We have something fun in the works for you on the 12^th Day of Giving! Stop back at any of the participating blogs on December 12th to find out what we have in store for you!

Get started...

Enter to win the Teachers Pay Teachers gift certificate below.   The winner will be notified on December 13th.

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