Reflective Practice

Although it happens mainly behind the scenes and thus may go unnoticed by students,
parents, and even administrators, being able to reflect on ones teaching is perhaps the most
important factor in becoming an effective teacher. In order to improve their methods and
materials, teachers must constantly view themselves and their lessons with a critical eye that is
able to determine what went well and what warrants a change. Getting into this habit and
admitting that no one and nothing in the classroom is perfect then opens the doors for teachers to
begin applying their skills of reflection to the other CAP elements. Thinking about how they can
and why they must make adjustments in these areas then ultimately leads to them becoming
more effective educators.
As a student teacher just starting out, I have had plenty of opportunities to reflect on the
many challenges and rewards of teaching. After every time I gave a lesson, I asked myself what I
would do differently next time, and imagined how much would change if I were teaching the
same book or topic five, or even ten, years into my career. The two artifacts that I chose as a
representation of my reflective practice throughout the semester are tangible examples of this
thought process. The first artifact is a reflection of a specific lesson I did with my Junior College
Preparatory class on Emily Dickinsons poem, I Heard a Fly Buzz When I Died, and the
second artifact is an analysis of data I collected from a poetry writing assessment.
The reflection on one specific lesson demonstrates how I was able to break down and
evaluate myself on each component of a lesson, including the objective, hook or engagement
strategy, main activity, and summary or assessment. I thought critically about whether or not I
achieved the desired goals within each of these categories and if there was any way to improve
upon what I had done for next time. Using this strategy, I could decide the degree to which I

would need to modify this lesson or the materials I used. For instance, based on how this
particular lesson went, I realized I needed to find a better way to engage students and make the
poetry meaningful to their personal lives. I also needed to make adjustments to the way I
structured my activity. Although I would want to keep the general idea of my activity and the
worksheet I had designed, I would divide the work among the groups differently so students
were more focused on one specific task they had to complete in order to contribute to the rest of
the class. Even without having the opportunity to teach this specific lesson a second time, I still
managed to implement these changes in subsequent lessons. For instance, when I next analyzed a
poem with these students, I made sure to connect the themes to their lives and experiences.
Furthermore, whenever assigning group work in my other classes, I made sure that the task
assigned to students was very clear and experimented with giving them more responsibility to
teach their classmates. I could not have made these adjustments without reflecting on what I felt
worked well and what did not work well in previous lessons.
The second artifact for this element is a data analysis project I completed based on
assessments of students writing. The reflection details the process of assessing students early on
in the unit with a poetry writing assignment, re-teaching them the skill of writing about poetry
based on these initial writings, and then assessing them a second time to see if there was any
improvement. The fact that the class score did improve overall was a clear indicator that I needed
to reflect on the reasons behind their progress so I could make sure to implement the effective
strategies in the future. Reflecting on the data and the adjustments I made between the
assessments to re-teach the material, I realized that perhaps the most important change I made
was individualizing my instruction through written and oral feedback and working with students
in a small group setting. This realization, I thought, could extend beyond this particular

assignment to writing in general. Going through this process and reflecting on it led me to the
understanding that feedback is imperative to the writing process, and in the future, I will be sure
to require students to create drafts of essays that I, or their classmates, can review before they
turn in their final product. Again, this artifact shows how reflecting on one particular assignment
can lead to a broader, more general awareness of teaching strategies.
I know that it will be essential that I continue this reflective process, particularly in the
early years of my teaching career. I am a bit apprehensive about keeping up with the practice in
such a formal, tangible way, without having the requirement of writing journals for class.
However, some alternate strategies that I may need to force myself into the habit of maintaining
could include keeping a journal or notes on different lessons that I try as I teach something for
the first time. This way, when I go to teach the material again, I will know what I should keep
and what I need to tweak in order to make my teaching more effective.