If students are challenged to think, engage, perform, and grow to a level that they have not previously, then they are on the way to being independent, self-regulated, lifelong learners. Self-assessment and reflection are a key part of our classroom environment. Students develop the skill of evaluating their own performance and also articulating what is meaningful in their learning. Whenever I ask what they are proud of it is related to a skill or competency that they have gained. It is clearly linked to their own sense of self. What is also fascinating is when I ask the below question, students do not hesitate to articulate the growth they have gained. I couldn't be prouder for students to make meaningful of their own learning and classroom experience - and this has nothing to do with grades!
Describe how you have demonstrated growth this year? Tell me specifically an area where you challenged yourself to grow as an individual or learner.
"I demonstrated growth by starting to take charge of my learning."
"I have demonstrated growth with the material and content I have provided/ done. At the being of the year I absolutely hated english (was not a fan). But something with you're teaching really made me challenged my self to grow. I been focusing when I write I like and enjoy the material and contact that I write or Show in class. I used to always rush or never put much effort into my essay or work in english . But this year you gave me the opportunities to pick and choice topics and challenged my self. It has influenced me outside of this classroom to make connections to the outer world and to show my learning."
"I have especially grown this year in my deep thinking. I used to rarely think deeply, but this year I have grown to do it more often, which I found has benefited my learning."
"I feel that I demonstrated a lot of growth in the critical thinking area. I was more accustomed to giving textbook answers and such, but over the course of this class I think I was pushed to think more for myself and grew in that way."
"Over the course of this ridiculous year, I can say that my writing ability has gone from atrocious to something relatively above mediocre. Am I satisfied? Probably not, but growth has indeed occurred."
"I grew as a creative thinker. This class has given me the space to have my own thoughts, not get packed with other peoples."
"I attempted to learn and grow from all of the feedback I received. Within my thoughts, I have worked this year to be more open and attempt to see a topic or concept in more ways than my own."
"I believe I grew the most in terms of work ethic, I may not have finished everything as fast as I could; however nearing the end of the year I feel I've become better at identifying and completing what I need to do."
"I really tried to improve in critical thinking this year. I feel I demonstrated this growth with every project. I believe I this growth isn't yet though and probably never will be, but I will get better."
"I am proud of learning how to control my answers: know when to regulate my answers to let others talk or when i should pitch in. This is the first class that has challenged me that way and i think i have improved clearly. I feel i still have highly thought out answers instead of just blurting whatever comes out first. Thank you for helping me with that ms b!"
"My growth this year would be using my brain for my ideas and not searching the topic we were working on to help myself. In this class you showed me how to think for myself and try understanding what we were learning, instead of depending on the internet to help me. This was personally the most challenging for me, but in the end it showed me that i need to think and show my own ideas, rather than expanding off others ideas."