Running head: REFLECTION

Reflection
Jeni Tetamore
OTL502 Learning Theories and Modules of Instruction
Colorado State University Global Campus
Nella B. Anderson, PhD
May 18, 2016

Running head: REFLECTION

Reflection
I had the pleasure of working with a first grade class at a public elementary school. The
teacher was kind enough to allow me to come in and have access to not only her resources, but
her students, and for that I am extremely grateful.
My primary goal was to discover if an Open philosophy and Trivium methodology would
work within a traditional classroom. Of course, I realized it would take far more than a single
lesson to master the skills we were going over, or even have the students be open to the change
in protocols I was introducing. The primary measureable change would be to discover how the
students responded to the method of feedback via self-evaluation.
According to Goodwin and Hubbell feedback should always be growth oriented (2013,
p. 94). They discuss the effects on students who were praised for their intelligence versus their
work ethic in a study conducted by Stanford University, finding that those praised for their
smarts began to develop a fixed mindset believing their aptitude to be something innate and not
developed through effort while those who were praised for their work ethic 90 percent [] not
only were willing to accept challenging tasks but actually enjoyed doing them (2013, pp. 9495). Based on this premise, students first focused on what they felt they did well in the formative
assessment, then made a goal in the Intellectual, Social, and Personal Domains.
The first chart below demonstrates how the students performed during their preassessment. The second graph illustrates the changes or growth after teaching the lesson. Please
note that opinion statements were now being held to a higher expectation beyond like and
didnt like for the second graph, hence the disparity between Emergent and Instructional.

Running head: REFLECTION

While 11 of the 17 students in attendance chose one of the two different graphic
organizers offered, only 3 of those students used them as they are meant to be used. Most
students gravitated toward the OREO organizer, but left the boxes largely empty. Of the 17
students, 7 wrote some kind of independent opinion, although still mostly only in the Emergent
range of writing skills (i.e. not using language beyond like and didnt like, not including
supporting statements or essential information such as title and author, etc.).

Opinion Writing Assignment

18
16
14
12
10
8
6
4
2
0

Emergent

Instructional

Independent

Running head: REFLECTION

Furthermore, the students were given an opportunity to reflect back on their learning two
days later. They could look back at their original goals, at their writing, and choose if they met
one or more of their goals and describe how they accomplished it/them. Moreover, they were
given a new copy of the rubric with an addition, an empty space between each section with a
scale going from Help! to Im Awesome! lined up beneath Emergent, Instructional, and
Advanced. The students were able to decide where they fell within each section of the rubric,
allowing them to determine where they felt they were succeeding and which areas they still
needed assistance.
This exercise had mixed results as none of these students had participated in such a
recounting before. The task was met with some resistance, as it was new and different. However,
the classroom teacher and I aided as many students in groups as we could, while some students
seemed to grasp the concept quickly. They were all very honest with us and themselves, even if
they didnt finish the entire sheet.
Beyond the feedback we gave to them as we completed the formative assessment and the
assignment, the self-evaluation process, even at the first grade level, provides for essential
critical thinking and a growth mindset. As I have quoted before in our Module 3 Discussion,
Sarah Severance states, It is believed that students who possess these skills are better able to
direct their own learning and become more invested in their own education (2012, p. 351).
While first graders may not appreciate or have mastery of these skills now, we must begin
somewhere to build those skills on thinking back and critically thinking about their own
performance. Im very proud of all they accomplished and the work they put into this project.

Running head: REFLECTION

5
References

Severance, S. E. (2012). What are the effects of self-assessment preparation in a middle school
science classroom?. AIP Conference Proceedings, 1413(1), 351. doi:10.1063/1.3680067
Goodwin, B., & Hubbell, E. R. (2013). The 12 touchstones of good teaching: A checklist for
staying focused every day. Alexandria, VA: ASCD