Reflection in Grade 1
Grade 1 is always busy learning new things. Often, we don’t have a chance to take a breath and think about our own learning. This year, in Grade 1 Wells Bangna, we have been focusing on reflection. We make time to reflect on projects and lessons, or even immediately after learning a new skill. However, before we can start to reflect, we need to understand what it means to reflect. Piper explained, “It is like looking in a mirror”. While Prim described reflection as “when you think about something you did”. In Grade 1, we describe reflecting as a way to think about and check what we understand and what we have learned.
How We Reflect
With this knowledge, we consider how we reflect. In Grade 1, we reflect in 3 ways, namely the whole class, small groups and individual reflection. Our teacher often asks, “Who is in the learning pit?” to find out who needs some more time to work through a challenge. The whole class reflects together with the help of questions such as “What did you do well?” or “What do you need to practice more?” or even “What are your goals for next time?”. These questions help us look at the skills we are learning, while having class friends use each other as examples.
Small Group Work
Another way we reflect is in small groups where we focus on what we do during activities. After our small group activities, we talk about what we did well and what we want to change for next time. For example, some groups work very well together, while some groups struggle to take turns. We talk about what happened in the activity and how we can change some things. This helps us become self aware and mindful of what we do. On the other hand, when friends do well, we cheer them on.
Conferring with Out Teacher
Even so, our favorite way of reflecting is when we talk to our teacher individually. Adriana said that she can talk about what she has learned. Nandu likes individual reflection, because he said he can find out what his weaknesses are. We use the SOLO taxonomy to help us use hand gestures, colors and clear words to describe what we can do. We discuss our understanding with our teacher and explain why we think we are on a specific level. It helps build confidence when we talk about our learning. It helps us set goals for ourselves. It also helps our teacher find areas that need extra attention, for instance, our teacher found out that some students were unsure what celebrations meant during the individual reflections and planned a way to reteach the meaning of the word the next day.
Ownership of Our Learning
In conclusion, reflection helps us become responsible for our own learning. It helps us be aware of what we need to focus on and teaches us to set achievable goals for ourselves. It can be hard work and we still need support from each other, but we enjoy it. And lastly, don’t forget how proud we are when we succeed and we know it.
Written by Ms. Sunee Steyn (Grade 1 teacher)