Published: Thursday, 10 March 2022 21:54 | Written by Matthew Hill | Hits: 234
What do you notice? A simple reflection prompt that asks students to observe and reflect on an aspect of a text, a lecture, media content, etc. What was memorable? What was strange? What surprised you?
Write a Memo / Note to an “Absent Student” covering the main points of the class session. This enables students to identify main points of discussion / lecture, and translate them into their own words.
Exam / Major Assignment Journal. This is a LSWA linked to a major assignment; this give students a way to reflect on what they got wrong on an exam or what was flawed / missing in a paper, and work through specific errors or ways to improve.
Generate a list of questions. Here, students can respond to a text, a quote or other aspect of course content, and focus on questions that are raised or that they have regarding it.
Letters to the Author, Narrator, or Character in a Text. Works well with helping students navigate fiction / history, but also could work on scientific / social science articles—giving the students an opportunity to probe a specific aspect / problem of a text.
Create Exam Questions / Word Problems: helps students “flip” the classroom, apply their knowledge to a “real” scenario
Complete / expand / sort a list of concepts or attempt to recognize a pattern: Assists in critical thinking on a given topic; perhaps “kickstarting” their thinking with a partial list or imperfect assessment of a pattern is helpful.
Abstract Writing: Give students an academic article without an abstract (or with abstract removed) and have them compose and share one.
One-Sentence-Summary. Pick a key concept from a class session, and have students summarize it in one sentence.
Headline / Short News Article: Have students write a Headline and short (one or two paragraph) “news” article on what they read or what they experienced in class.
Index card exercise: Provide students with a 3x5 index card; have them paraphrase a key idea or create notes on the card to explain the idea to a friend / classmate / colleague who was not in class. This could also be used to have students come up with an “application” or “real world” situation for something they learned about in class.
Response Journal / Response Papers: Have students log their intellectual and emotional responses to course material– questions, comments, likes/dislikes, points of interest or boredom, frustrations or success.
Framing Documents: Completed before a class discussion and based on a text / reading, these documents help shape the discussion. Students can advocate for what the discussion should focus on, how the discussion should begin, and how perhaps it could be connected to other experiences in the class.
Quote Response: Using a provocative quote on a class text (often intentionally flawed or even mildly inflammatory), have the students respond in a directed way. (i.e., “This quote is wrong because . . . .” or “I somewhat agree with the poster that . . .”) This can lead into a class discussion using the responses as notes and fuel for discourse.
