Leveraging Reflection to Build Student Autonomy in the World Language Classroom

Apr 15
4 min read

shared by Amanda Benavidez-Williams

"We do not learn from experience...we learn from reflecting on experience." - John Dewey

Take a moment to think--how often do you incorporate reflection into your classroom?

Why is reflection important?

Reflection increases students' autonomy and control over their learning, and motivates them to learn
Reflection helps students self-assess and self-monitor along the way
Reflection trains students to develop their metacognitive skills
Reflection gives the students opportunity to take ownership of their learning

Take another moment to think--how do you make reflection a habit and not an event?

I have been using reflection portfolios in my classroom for several years. But, I don't consider myself an expert--just another teacher, like you, that wants their students to grow as humans and acquire some Spanish (or whatever language you teach!). These are some ideas that I've learned and incorporated into my teaching practice over the years and I hope they help you, too! An important thing to remember is that we have to build reflection into our routine, in other words, make it a habit. We cannot just decide that students are going to do a portfolio and expect them to know how to reflect. By incorporating reflection at different levels, you will slowly scaffold how to do a thoughtful reflection and when it is time to do a portfolio, your students are ready and able to do the level of reflection that you expect from them.

Regular Formative Reflection

This type of reflection is quick and frequent. It's not graded because it's more of time for students (and you!) to check in on their progress towards the objectives. This type of reflection could focused on the content or it can be an social-emotional check-in.

Fist of 5 - Ask students to show you a "fist of 5" related to the how well they understood the content or how they felt about their work for the day. This gives you some quick insight into their processing so that you can adjust your instruction accordingly.
Quick Quiz - I keep scratch paper in my room, and at the end of a lesson I ask them some T/F questions, or some open-ended questions related to the content. Collect them and look through them quickly during your plan to check on student comprehension. Then, toss them in the recycle bin!
Sentence Starters - Scaffold the reflection for your students by offering them some sentence starters. These can help guide the students to reflect on specific things. Some sentence starters that I use regularly are Something I liked about my writing today... / Something that made me feel confident today was... / One thing I'd like to try next class is... / Something I'm proud of that I tried today is...
The trusty old "Think/Pair/Share" - Ask students to think about this statement: "At the beginning of class I didn't know... / I used to think, but now I think...." Then, have them pair up and share their reflection. To wrap up, ask partners about one of the reflections that was shared with them.

Checkpoint Reflections

This type of reflection I usually do after an assessment. Like the quick formative reflections, these can be focused on content or SEL. This is an opportunity for students to share their experience interacting with the language. It also opens a dialogue between the teacher and the student to give and receive personalized feedback. I often do this by adding some targeted follow up questions.

Reflect on how well they understood the material
Reflect on how they will implement the material
Reflect on what learning strategies worked best for them
Reflect on their abilities, their thoughts, their preferences
Reflect on their goals

I often have my students include these reflections in their portfolios for them to review over time.

Beginning, Middle, and End of Semester

This type of reflections is much deeper, and done over the course of the year (or longer if you retain your students year to year). Like the others, this reflection can ALSO be focused on content and/or SEL. Students can engage in their learning and it allows them to share their experience interacting with the language. It also provides them with opportunity to check their goal progression and modify their golas if needed.

Here is my rough plan for each year

Get your students reflecting on the very first day of class! This will set the tone and the expectation that reflection is an important element in your classroom.

Here are some samples of reflections from my students over the years.