Well it is the end of the first semester and we have finalized our semester 1 reports ready to be mailed home next week. At the end of each semester we have our students write their own report comment based on a template that guides their reflection in the following areas:
- What they have learned
- Their areas of strength
- Their areas for growth
- Their behavior and attitude
- Which IB Learner Profile they feel they have grown in and how this growth occurred
Giving the students the opportunity to participate in this type of reflection provides valuable feedback in a number of areas:
- The student comments are rich, detailed, and very personalized
- The teachers gain valuable insights into their teaching and learning practices from the students' perspective
- The parents are given specific information about their child's learning and behavior from the learner's perspective
- The students engage in authentic reflection that helps to determine where they are now, where they would like to be, and how they are going to get there
It is a very enjoyable experience to read the student comments as they are honest (sometimes brutally so), insightful, thoughtful, and from time to time funny! We don't often take the time to hear from the students and gain their perspective on their learning - providing the opportunity for students to write their report comments is one way that we can make learning and assessment something we do "with" the students rather than something we do "to" them.
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