Student Interviews in the Investigative Art Room

TeachThought Reflective Teacher Blogging Challenge

Day 19: Name three powerful [ways] students can reflect on their learning, then discuss closely which one you use most often.

In my Investigative Art Room of Sherlock Holmes, I have a border listing formative assessments inside magnifying glasses. At any point during the lesson, I may point at one of these magnifying glasses and ask students to do what is listed inside. This works really for me because it is a constant reminder to monitor their learning. It also works really well for my students because they never know what I am going to ask them to do...and they LOVE surprises. Sometimes ;-p

The motto of our class this year is "Magnify Your Learning". These visuals cues are a creative reminder that we aren't just brushing the surface on things we learn. We are going deeper this year into true understanding and connections between the Art Room and their other academic subjects.

Below I have listed my top 3 student reflection strategies:

Identify Critical Information

Exit Slips

Don't mind the water leak from all the rain this year.

Some sample exit sleeps filled out by students after we had our first lesson about Contemporary Artist Diana AlHadid.

Interview

My all time favorite! Students love this one too. Students are strategically paired together and take turns being the interviewer and interviewee. Connections are sealed with this strategy as students are put on the spot to come up with questions and prove their responses. The class enjoys watching students "perform" and many happy laughs are heard 

as students do their best to take on their roles.

Exit Slips in No Time

40 minutes is a short amount of time for any class. And in my art room it seems to be gone in an instant. As soon as we get seated and set up, I feel like it's already time to clean up and line up again. Zoom! Sometimes I feel like these kids are just flying in and out of my room...And don't let the door hit you on the way out!

Seriously though, time is tight. And when you add other things into the mix besides just the art it really puts the pressure on. One simple thing that has really helped with integrating Marzano's Instructional Model into my classroom is the exit slip.



Element 13: What do I typically do to help students reflect on their learning? One strategy suggested for this element is using exit slips at the end of class in an effort to get students to respond to questions about their learning immediately after the teacher is done. Here's how I do it.

I currently use two types of exit slips. One says "Tell me three new things you learned today". The other says "Tell me one thing you liked about class, and one thing you would have liked done to help you understand the lesson".



Depending on the grade I am teaching I mix it up a bit. Obviously I wouldn't have 1st graders write out 3 new things because they would never get it done in time. For them we might write three new words.

Exit slips are a great way to monitor the student's understanding of new knowledge. Try them out in your class. You'd be surprised what some of your students have to say.