When first thinking how to respond to a need in my Spanish classes I decided to implement something that was a regular occurrence in my History, Language Arts and Humanities classes. I would use entrance/exit slips and allow the student to remain anonymous if they preferred. This allowed me to have informal conversations with each student to better support them.
I would respond and pass back the slip to a student if they out their name on the paper or take the anonymous communication into consideration when planning lessons. These conversations are confidential, unless they decide to share their thoughts with others.
In this environment they can let me know of any worries or suggest anything that can improve our class. Being open to suggestions from students is something I have always tried to incorporate in my classroom.
These past 2 school years I have not had my own physical classroom and have subconsciously drifted away from this practice
I used the responses of 27 students from one of my 8th grade classes.
I made these informal conversations as open-ended as I could. I posed the theme of their response to be Spanish class related.
- What is working/not working for you?
- What would you like to see more or less of?
- What, if any, changes need to be made for you to get the most out of our time together?
For a more smooth reflection I separated the responses in 3 different categories
- 26% (7 students) do not seem to like my teaching style or Spanish class at all.
- 48% (13 students) felt the class was either moving too fast or too slow. All agreed more
- 26% (7 students) felt the class was fine just the way it is.
This project has come at a perfect time in my career. In teaching my 3rd subject in almost as many years in the profession has allowed me to take advantage of the opportunity to delve into best practices and respond to received data in the form of student reflections and assessments. It has also reaffirmed that this should be continued throughout my teaching career.