The Day before Vacation . . . a Self-reflection Gallery Walk

The last day before a holiday break is always a tough day for teachers—first, kids don’t want to be in school anyway, and those who are there expect class to be a party; second, often there are absences, so starting something new or completing some final assessment means there will be lots of make-ups once school resumes after the break.

Since self-reflections and self-assessments are an important component in the new lessonunit structures as well as an important “best practice” tool and key to learning, this might be a day for students (and teachers) to do some self-reflection.

Expecting kids to do self-reflection on their own requires some modeling. Giving a broad, open-ended topic (like “what did you like or not like”) is a bit unrealistic for the last day, but making the effort interactive, social, and collaborative, and giving some specific guidelines and topics upon which to reflect might make the activity both beneficial and worthwhile.

Here’s a suggestion:
1. Put kids into small groups (not too large—maybe 4?).
2. Come up with some categories upon which you’d like some reflection and/or feedback. Divide the different assignments, units, activities, aspects you want feedback on, etc. into categories, so each small group can have one or two to discuss as a group and come to some consensus.
3. Give each group a large piece of chart paper and a colored marker. If possible, give each group a different colored marker.
4. Ask each group to write their topic on the top of the paper (or you could already have the topics printed out in large type and they could paste the topic at the top), then the members of the group should brainstorm and write their suggestions, ideas, thoughts on the chart. They should consider what worked, what parts they had trouble with, where their understanding broke down, what they enjoyed the most, etc. Here’s where your modeling of sample responses before the groups begin will really reap benefits.
5. To run the gallery walk, post the reflections around the room. Have the groups move around the room, looking at the ideas, discussing them among their group, and adding their own thoughts to those already on the chart paper. To make orderly progress through the room, give the groups a designated amount of time they can discuss and write, then have all the groups move to the next chart at the same time. Five or six minutes might be enough—you’ll know.

6. Some ground rules:

• Each group has its own “color” marker, so you can see where each group adds to the charts as they discuss.
• Groups must stay on topic AND they must add at least one or two comments to each chart (a short amount of time helps with this).
• Disagreement is okay. Just explain yourself.