If you’re like me, you’re counting the days to the end of the school year. But, before we close the door of our classroom, there is ONE activity that no World Language teacher should skip. This end-of-the-year activity may not sound fun, but, believe me, it’s the activity that has helped me the most to grow as a Spanish teacher.
This end-of-the-year activity is not for your students. I know we’re always looking for ideas we can use with our students, and here are some, but sometimes we need to think about ourselves as World Language teachers. In the end, we are the pilots of our classes.
So, this end-of-the-year activity is for you! Yep! Just for you.
THE MOST POWERFUL END-OF-THE-YEAR ACTIVITY!
What is THIS end-of-the-year activity? It’s a self-reflection activity. I know. You may be thinking “No way”. “This year is gone and done”. At least that’s what my husband would say. But, now is the perfect moment to take 10 minutes to reflect on our year and assess what worked and didn’t work for us.
It’s the clarity we gain doing a self-reflection activity that will allow us to focus on the work that matters to achieve the goals we want.
I did that for the first five years of my career as a teacher. Each year, during my planning week, I would print out a new syllabus with the same rules and content, create a pretty PowerPoint for my lessons, add some fun activities or games, put pretty posters on the walls, and roll again.
I was hoping that the new posters and the new games would change things in my class. But, to my surprise, everything was the same. I couldn’t stay in the target language for more than 5 minutes at a time, a lot of my students were not engaged in class, and I didn’t see much growth in proficiency or cultural competence. After seeing the same results for a few years, I reached my turning point.
THE TURNING POINT
Probably five years into my career, I decided that I had to make some changes. So, I started looking at my class more objectively. I wasn’t judging whether I was a good or a bad teacher. I knew I was a good teacher and that I cared deeply about my students. But, I was aware that what I was doing wasn’t working.
If you want to know more about my journey, check out the Episode with Michelle Olah in the Language Lounge Podcast. This conversation was amazing.
Okay, going back to the blog. At that point, I started to do some type of self-reflection. I did it on post-its on the last day of school. Those post-its helped me a ton to identify what I had to work on.
For me, it wasn’t the relationship with my students. It was the lack of understanding of how students acquire the language. That clarity guided me to look for the resources I needed to make adjustments in my class.
I bought books about Second Language Acquisition, read blogs of other World Language teachers that were incorporating acquisition-driven instruction, listened to Podcasts about SLA, and went to conferences and attended workshops.
It was a lot, but I finally had a compass. I knew what I needed to do so I could have the class I wanted. I wouldn’t have the class that I have today without those reflections. But you know that the journey never really ends, so I keep doing the same reflection every year.
I don’t do it on post-its anymore, but I could. Instead, I’m using this Self-Reflection Guide to help me be very effective with this end-of-the-year activity. In the end, summer is around the corner, and I don’t have the energy to spend a lot of time doing this self-reflection but I know is very important.
THE 4-STEP SELF-REFLECTION
So, how to complete an end-of-the-year self-reflection in no more than 10 minutes. First, don’t overthink it. Second, just do it with the information you have available. Don’t go down the rabbit hole. Keep it simple and follow these four steps.
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Wins: Identify at least 3 wins of the year. The best wins are the ordinary ones. The student that really connected with you, or the day one student was able to say something to you in the target language out of the blue. The letter from a student or parent you received. Just write them down.
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Data: If you’re like me, you don’t like the word “data”, but “data” is important. And, if you don’t have data from assessments, you can use observational data or data from your student’s end-of-the-year survey. Because you do an end-of-the-year survey, right? If not, check out this blog post and scroll down to my bonus activity about this end-of-the-year survey.
Data is more than your assessment results. Use anything available. Remember, don’t overthink it. Just write it down and reflect on it. What is that data telling you?
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Assessment: What worked and didn’t work in your class. I usually focus on my pillars in this section: comprehensibility, connections, and communication. But you can focus on what are the most important aspects of your class, and then based on that, write what worked and didn’t work. Keep it simple!
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Plan and the vision: Last step. Now, identify what you are going to keep, delete, improve, or add to your class. One or two things per category. Less is more. Remember, every year you can focus on a different aspect.
That’s it! Once you finish, you can look into the results of this self-reflection guide, and get a clear vision of what you need to work on. But you don’t need to do that now. You can come back to it once you have spent some time recharging and resting. We need that time. Take it!
Even though shifting to a more comprehensible and communicative driven class has been the best decision as a teacher, the stress and overwhelm of building a new curriculum is undeniable. That’s why I’m so excited to offer this FREE video series training Map Your Ideal Year for your WL Class. Click here and get access to 3 videos and a live session with me to map your next school year. I hope to see you inside!
Grab here this free self-reflection guide to help you complete this activity before the end of the school year. I know it will pay off.
Happy summer!
One Response
Claudia,
Sumamente agradecida por tan hermoso regalo. La prisa con la que nos lleva por delante la vida “digital” nos roba tiempo para reflexionar y valorizar nuestros el resultado de nuestras actividades indiferente si fueron exitosas o les hizo falta algo extra.
No te lo dije antes, un fuerte abrazo a tí y a la familia por la partida de tu papi.
Felicitaciones por tu galardón, bien merecido.
No quiero quitarte más tiempo, te deseo un maravilloso verano.
Cordiales saludos desde Milano,
Emilia