Reflection Paper

Character's diary entries

To begin this lesson, the teacher told the students to close their eyes and picture their favourite book or fairytale character. The children did this quietly and without a word. The teacher then asked them to draw a concept map and to include a list of things that she put on the board. For example: favourite food, where they live, their, friends etc. The children then produced their individual concepts but were encouraged to discuss their thoughts and ideas with their peers. The teacher then asked the students to write a diary entry of that character, written by that character. They were required to include all the elements that the teacher had written on the board. Once the children wrote their diary entries they were given the opportunity to share with the class, their final piece.

Academic engagement

"Any given student will be engaged in different ways in different tasks – at times, even with regard to the same task."

(Making Engagement Central, Chapter 1, Class handout)

The teacher sensed this disengagement and began one on one discussions to get those students minds back on the task she had set the class. This seemed to help these children who set back to work with new-found inspiration. Was it that they didn't understand the task properly that they decided to rebel or give up? In this situation it appeared to be the case.

I also seemed to think if the teacher had a higher level of expectation of her students that it may have lead to higher levels of engagement. The excitement was initially there it just needed to be maintained. An idea may have been to have children share their progress as they went along with the task, the children appeared from other lessons to love this idea of sharing their work. This way the children would work productively and efficiently to have something to show and share with their peers as well as receiving consistent and positive reinforcement to keep them on task.

Self regulation

It appears to me...