Use These Three Reflection Questions To Improve Your Lessons & Up Your Teacher Game.

“It's on the strength of observation and reflection that one finds a way. So we must dig and delve unceasingly.” - Claude Monet

The difference between a good teacher and a great teacher is that great teachers understand the power of critical reflection.

If we want to support our students’ development as lifelong learners, then we have to commit to being lifelong learners ourselves. Reflection helps us stay creative and find meaning in the experiences we live in our classroom. This ability to make meaning through reflection is an essential part of our learning process.

Here are three reflection questions I’ve used to keep learning and growing as a teacher:

?? What did my students learn today?

Learning targets are the foundation of an effective lesson and should be baked into the lesson from start to finish. At any point, my students and I should have a clear idea of the lesson’s purpose. If this purpose wasn’t obvious throughout the lesson’s activities, instruction, and/or assessments, how could I make it more so?

?? How did I set them up for success in that learning?

In order to keep students engaged and motivated in lessons, they have to feel that success is within their reach. The way I present and scaffold learning will play a critical role in ensuring that each student knows that they can be successful. If students became unmotivated in the lesson, how could I have planned or broken down the lesson better?

? How do I know that learning happened?

Just because I leave a lesson feeling great doesn’t mean that learning took place. Throughout the lesson, I want to gather evidence of my students learning so that I can continue to make informed decisions in my teaching. Also, I want to create opportunities for students to self-assess and determine where they are at in their own learning progress. If a lesson ends and there is no evidence that it was effective, how can I bake additional assessment opportunities into that lesson in the future?

Try these reflection questions out for yourself and I promise they will help you generate new ideas for your teaching. If you find yourself thinking “oh shoot” in your reflection, remember what I always say: don’t get mad, get curious!

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