 Hey everyone, welcome to Rockin' Reflection in Primary. We are so excited that you are joining us today for this session. We are going to explore how to get your students even started with reflection in primary. And we've got a great panelist with us here today who's gonna share her tips and tricks with you. I'm Angela and I have taught kindergarten for 15 years. And I lead the community team here at CESA. I'm just noticing on this slide right here, this actually won't take you to these slides. That's kind of an old slide bitly link. So I'll try to update that before this goes out to all of you. But just note that you are going to get this recording, the slides sent to you and a certificate if you're watching live right now. For those of you watching via the recording, you also can get a certificate. You just have to listen for a six digit code that we will say in chunks during the session. So make sure you listen to the whole session and you should be all set to go. So today I'm honored to introduce to you Renee White. She is an amazing first grade teacher in North Carolina. And quite honestly, a couple months ago, I noticed Renee talking about her structure for really promoting reflection with her students in her classroom. And I knew it would be something our community of teachers wanted to hear more about, learn more about and really ask Renee all the questions that they might be so inclined to ask. So I invited Renee here to describe her setup for all of us. And I'm actually passing the slides to her right now. So she is going to get this going on her screen. Looks great Renee. So we're all set. Yay. Welcome everybody. I'm excited to be here. And just share a little bit about how my first graders have started to reflect with digital portfolios because we started collecting artifacts in the past four years that I've been using Seesaw and it's been amazing. And this year I decided to step it up a little bit and make them really think about their work a little more and how it relates to their learning and how it progresses through the year. So that's kind of where the idea came from. So we're just going to kind of explain through how it works. It's called Easy as ABC Symbols 1, 2, 3 and we're the Jackson 5 song. It popped in my head one day when my kids were just singing or dancing around the living room with it. And basically it starts with folders because that's the easy way to organize everything in Seesaw is to set up those folders and my kids have folders for every subject area and then I decided, well, let's just make one for portfolios as well. So when they think something's portfolio worthy and they want to reflect on it, they're easily able to access it. And if we wanted then to download it into Google to pass on for previous years, it would be really easy because it's all in one folder. So when we look at specific standards to reflect on, the kids go to just their math folder and choose a piece that they're going to look at and then they also tag it for the portfolio folder. So it ends up in both of their folders. Once folders are set up, this is where the easy ABC 1, 2, 3 thinking came in. I have them start by choosing an artifact and we talked a lot about what an artifact is. It's a good piece of work and the way that I sort of made it easy for my first graders to understand was by using ICANN statements in kid-friendly language to basically name the standard that they should have been learning where it wasn't as confusing. So they could just pick something like I can compose a T number out of 10s and ones or I can show how numbers are built out of 10s and ones and that would be the one that they brought up on their screen to tag for their portfolio and think about a reflection with. So the first part is just making sure that it matches whatever standard you're teaching. The next step was to make sure it really best fit what we were looking at. So we pulled up a lot of different examples at first when I modeled in front of the class and I said, you know, here's many different things that we've done for math. Would it work with this ICANN statement or this standard or would it not? And we had lots of discussions about why it would, why it wouldn't and if they would choose to pick it as one to reflect on or not because some of them even if they fit the standard they decided, well, it really doesn't look like best work. So a lot of it, I just pulled examples from students in years past without their name to keep it anonymous or I made some to have them look at and had a big discussion about, you know, which ones could really work and which ones couldn't that you would want to be part of your portfolio work. Then we took it to the C stage for ABC and that was to make sure it really connects to that standard. So they really looked at all of the work and we again had discussions and they got out little sticky notes and posted on our smart board like yeses and noes. You know, does it show that I understand that two digits of a number represent tens and ones or was it more some other standard that doesn't match that? So this one obviously could have been a yes. Another one over here could have been a yes with their tens and ones down below. They were like, no, that really doesn't work. We wouldn't pick that one. It's not the standard that we're focused on right now. And then came in the actual reflection part once they learned how to pick a good artifact. So we talked a lot about the steps in the reflection piece. And what I had my students do was use that awesome comment bubble underneath your piece in CSR or whatever work they're looking at. Click the comment bubble and type in one sentence that told what the piece of work shows they know. Basically how does it connect to that I can statement or that standard that you're studying? If they didn't wanna type and we started this like the second week of school, first graders are pretty slow with typing. They could talk, text it so it would type for them or they were given the option of typing that little microphone and recording what the piece shows they know with their voice so they were still able to at least give a reflection on their work. And on the slide, you see just a little example of one of my first years this year and it says, this shows I know that numbers are made with 10s and one. So they went right to the simple I can statement to show that it matched what we were studying. Number two, so number one was the no, what does it show I know? Number two is we call it a glow which is really just something great. What do they like about it? What glows about their work? What's something that they think they did really well? So in the same comment with that comment bubble, they'll write a second sentence about, I think that I did really well with this or I think that it shows that I really understand how to do this or I like how I explained this piece of my work. And if they didn't wanna type it, they could again use the microphone and put it in auditorily. At first it was a lot. So I had kids making like three separate comments. What number one shows what I know then they would comment again. Number two was my glow, what I like about it. So we did it kind of in baby steps at first. And this is a little kiddos example. We were still working on writing complete sentences but you can see he said, lining up was his second sentence. So I knew that that was the thing that he really liked about it. And number three is what we called a grow, a way that I can grow. And what it was was just either give me a third sentence under the comment bubble for the artifact or record a third sentence. And again, if they needed to do it in three separate comments in the beginning, I let them. Now we've been doing this for like a quarter and a half and most of them can get it all in in one comment. They type in three sentences or they record three sentences because they're getting used to the routine of how it works. So we talked a lot about what are good quality things that they would be able to put in there for a grow instead of just get better. Something like, I need to put in capital letters and that's what this friend chose to say about his writing or I need to explain how I solve the math problem more. So we really worked a lot on different types of sentences that they could use for things that they liked and things that they could do better because I knew in the beginning of the year I was gonna get things like, because it's great and I could just do better. So we really looked at what could you do better with it or what specifically was a positive thing that you liked about it. Do you have any questions? Wow, I bet there's gonna be lots of questions happening in Renee and I love it. So maybe just like hold yourself on this slide. A couple of questions that I'm going to ask while people are typing in their questions because I know they're thinking about this. I think it might also be helpful to know that Renee is in a year round school. So your itty bitty started with you in what month Renee? We started in July. Right, so yeah, so starting in July and Renee I would also describe as very willing to try new things and also does a phenomenal job of modeling and practicing and breaking things down into easily digestible steps for her students. So some people watching might be thinking, oh my goodness, I don't even know if my third graders could do this or type the comments in. Did you, when you started this Renee and I would imagine even step one is just figuring out which posts to choose, right? Like you're saying ABC. Absolutely. Did you kind of just break it up into that component first and do lots of modeling and practice? I mean, you've talked about it a little bit but can you explain that a little bit more for us? Yeah, for the first couple of days before I let them try their first sentence in the comment bubble, we did a lot of practice with some examples that I had and even in my sample student or my, you know, I set one under my name and our class account just on does it match the ICANN statement for the standard? Would you choose to even take that portfolio folder or not? So we had a lot of discussions and use like I said, little sticky notes for ones that I put up and they'd write yes or no. Yeah. So to kind of get them thinking along the lines of does it match? Does it make sense with what I'm supposed to be learning or is it something totally different? So we did a lot modeling with that and practice whole class. And then when you started having them do, you know the one, two, three, the typing, the reflection part which just side note, I'm so impressed you're having your first graders type. I would totally be like let's record voice but awesome, awesome. You're so brave. I would like to learn a little bit more about that. Did you just start with one aspect or did you just go like we're doing all three right off the bat? I was crazy and I did all three right off the bat. I did, I did all three right off the bat and it was a little bit crazy but I'd say by the third week they got it and they can, I mean, I have a few new friends who are still learning but for the most part that I've had since July, they can do it by themselves. If I did it again, I probably would do like number one this week and then maybe add number two next week and maybe skip it a little more because it was a little bit nuts. Okay, so we've got a couple of great questions coming here. So Karen is wondering is there, and actually before I go into this question I need to give the first three digits of the code for the certificate. Those digits are nine, three, seven and I've got to remember to give the next three digits here and just a bit so keep on listening. She, Karen is wondering is there artifact, is the artifact something they already posted on CESA like an activity or also a general response that they've already completed and I'm just gonna answer that one. It's already in CESA, right Renee? Absolutely, yes. Martha is wondering, would you recommend having like a STEM sentence framed with an ICANN statement ready for them when they first start? I would, yeah. Cause that is something that when I, after I got my office started that's exactly what I was thinking next year when I launch it with a new group of kiddos that I would do that because I think it would be easier for them to have a sentence framed to start off with. Right. So Amy is wondering if you can share a little bit Renee about your thinking behind creating a separate portfolio folder when CESA itself is a portfolio. Can you talk a little bit more about that? Are you hoping that they spend a little bit more time even reflecting what goes into that special folder? Yes, that's kind of where it came from too and our district has been really focused on the fact that things can be a warehouse and hold a lot of work but it's not truly a portfolio of work unless the kids reflect on it and show growth and think about their learning basically. So that's why I set up the portfolio folder. So it's more of their reflective personal piece where they could go back even in fifth grade and be like, whoa, look what I did in first grade without having to look like through 700 entries. Right, right, right. And in Renee's class, they are posting a lot, a lot, a lot. So it might be something even I've seen teachers and I even did this on my own preparing for family conferences, for example, or parent-teacher conferences. I would have a pair down a folder that was specifically to highlight something. So that sounds kind of similar in this situation as well. My next steps. I'm like, I can use this for student conferences because they just have a... Right, right. Karen is wondering, how often do you have them do a reflection piece like this? I've been doing it almost every week. Almost every week on Fridays. So most of them have like a good nine reflections in there already. Got it. And can you just remind us too, when you started doing this with your students, like how many weeks into the school year? I started like week two. Wow, oh my gosh. Renee gets the gold star today, everybody. I was like, okay, what have you learned about? And we talked about it. So here's what we're gonna do. You're gonna tell me what you know about, one thing that you've learned about. And we started with just the, what is it showing? No, kind of as a class and learning it. And then I let them try one and we kind of just built it from the next week three. We kind of threw all of them at all at once. And it was a little bit too much. I probably needed to back step and baby step it a little more, but... Well, but jumping in there is great. I think one of the things that I noticed with my kindergartners, even not using this process that you're describing is even having them just post into CESA but just even record their voice with a sentence stem is really getting them to even start to think or practice that reflection. So it might even be easy just to think of it that way too of if they are taking a picture of the pattern that they created saying, I can create a pattern with three colors or something like that where they actually are verbalizing and taking that moment to think and reflect instead of just adding it. And I think that for many teachers even at this point in the year, it can seem really overwhelming to even just have the students, number one even posting on their own but going to the next level of not only only posting on their own but also reflecting. So I think looking at where your students are and what maybe they've already tried or experienced, thinking about maybe what is the next step you could take to move them along a little bit. Susanna is wondering how much time do you give students to complete the task reflection? At first it took a lot longer, like 35 minutes. But now honestly my whole class can get it done between 10 to 15 minutes. Yeah, they're great. Because they've learned the basic procedures and they know the sentence stems kind of to start off with. And do you Renee, do you as you are helping support them through the documentation process? Are you starting with a list of, oh, I need to have these displayed in this portfolio. Are you working from every single standard or are you choosing a few key ones to really build up multiple examples of or how are you approaching that? That's a great question. I tried to really hit the big overlying ones because I know there's some little substandards. So the big overlying ones, like can I retell a story? Do I recognize characters? And can I describe them in the book? Can I write this type of writing? Can I recognize how numbers are built with 10s and ones? And math, they have a lot more entries because there's just different standards that are spread out a little more. I felt like with ELA there was a couple more overlying ones that we could maybe just revisit a few times during the year. So that's kind of what I've been working on. And then science social studies, very similar. Kind of what's the big overlying purpose of the unit instead of necessarily one specific standard, but how do they all kind of tie together? Like what was the end goal that the student was supposed to learn? Right, right. And Lesheen actually has a related question. How many different content area artifacts do they reflect on weekly? I just picked one. In the beginning I picked, I was like, okay, we're gonna look at math. See if you can get to just your math folder and find one that would fit. And then I picked just reading. But the past two times that I did it, I let the students choose because they'd already done at least one for math, one for reading and one for writing and one for science and one for social studies. So I was like, well, you get to pick. Let's see what you pick. Right, right. Okay, before we go into more questions, I have this second set of digits for the certificate. If you're watching the other recording, those numbers are two, six, four. So Karen has another question. She is wondering once they choose their artifact, how do they write or record the reflection? Can you just review that? Is it just posting the comment? Maybe go back on the slide that kind of shows that because they've already posted to CISA, it could be a situation where they've already, it might already be tied together as a video. So using that comment is the best option. Sorry, caption is the best option. Yeah, that's what I found too, was just click in that little comment bubble way down here underneath the post and then writing their comment in there. So it's still connected to their original artifact, but it's added on as like another thought about it. And if they didn't wanna type it, then they would hit the little microphone and they could record their comment the same way. Yeah, and that's a good, that's actually a really good point too to differentiate. So they can either type a comment or they can record their voice in a comment. So that's also good to notice. If you're feeling scared about your first graders actually typing, Rene is so brave, I love it. So yeah, that's a good thing to point out. And actually on this screen, on this shot right here that she's showing you, you can also see that it's already in, or it's after the fact, but you can see it's tagged with the math and portfolio folders as well. So it's in both of those spots. Okay, so Susanna has a great question. How do you differentiate this assignment? What kind of accommodations can you offer for a student that struggles with executing the assignment? So Susanna, maybe you wanna clarify the post itself, or I'm assuming you're talking about any supports that she offers for students during this reflection aspect. Rene, what was your say to that? I'm hoping she's asking about the reflection aspect. Yeah, I think so, yeah. With that, I gave mine, I didn't print out and type up sentence stems, but I gave them some on whiteboards and had them maybe just verbalize and have a teacher or a TA walk around and help them sort of scribe what they would fill in the sentence stem and talk with them about what they would say. So even if it wasn't matching perfectly what was in the sentence stem, most of those students, I let them record with the audio because they were able to say it faster and easier than typing it or even writing it out with their hand. Yeah, so using that, the option to record the comment instead of typing it. And I think, again, you mentioned the sentence stem, I think is a huge way to support that as well. We use buddies a lot too in the beginning. Like I would let them ask each other, what comes next? What do I share after what I know? And they would remind each other, oh, tell something good. So we worked a lot with buddies and they could pause their comment midway or stop typing and then continued when they remembered what next step was. Excellent, so my questions are completely blank at this point. So if you're hanging out live, you have a couple more minutes to finish up. So if you do have a question, go ahead and type it in the question box. One of the things I often encourage you to do when you're attending these sessions is just to take a moment before you actually exit to be thinking about what action are you going to take after this session to try an aspect of this. So maybe it might be something looking at your students and saying, actually, you know what? My students aren't yet posting on their own. I'm still posting for them. Maybe that's where you're at. Maybe it's thinking about how could you have your students start posting on their own independently? If your students are already posting independently on their own, but maybe they haven't ever recorded even maybe a voice explanation of what's happening in the post or their reflection, maybe that's where you're going to start. If your students are already doing that, maybe you're ready for the next step of, as Renee described, trying to figure out what is a good example of demonstrating my learning related to a specific standard or skill to put in a portfolio. So think about where you're at or maybe you have a different direction that your brain is moving, but kind of take a moment to think through that before you leave today. Can you just go back, maybe really quickly, this would be kind of fun, Renee, you can go back to your A slide and then just quickly go through and just read like the ABC and 123 what it means just to kind of review the overall flow and concept. Could you do that? Absolutely. So yeah, we start easy as ABC, simple as one, two, three. And we start with A for choosing an artifact, something that's already in their warehouse and one of their subject folders that matches, and that's where B comes in, that matches best to one of the standards that we are studying. So not just matches, but matches best and is a good example of their best work and definitely shows connection, which is C to a standard that we've been working on or those ICANN statements in kid-friendly language that match the standard. So A, B and C are really about what are you studying, what in your artifact warehouse matches that 100% and which one's the best example that you could pick to reflect on. And then number one was first show, what is it, what does it show you know? You know, what is the whole point behind your artifact? What knowledge does it show you have as far as understanding the standard? And then number two, the second thing they post is a glow, something good that they really like about their work. And this was the one that we spent a lot of time on and number three, you know, what is a good thing that you can name and be specific, not just, I like it, but I like how I use funding marks. I really like how I showed how I solve the math problem and be very specific in that. And then number three was some way that they could grow, something they could improve upon. So this was another one we spent a lot of time with because instead of just saying, you know, make it better or be neater, which I got a lot of, we've talked about being really specific. If it's writing, you could say, I need to use capital letters or I need to use better spacing. If it's math, you could say, I think I should have explained it a little more or I need to make sure that I draw this out a little clearer, because it's kind of messy and hard to understand. So just being really specific in number two and number three has taken some time and we're still working on it, it's work in progress, but they're getting better. Great, thank you. I love that quick recap, I love it. Final question that was coming in before we scoot out of here today was, do we offer, does CSOM offer any resources or activities for ELL learners and or are there activities in Spanish? So I'm gonna point you, number one, to our CSOM activity library, there are thousands of activities there. You could search that with the keywords maybe ELL or Spanish or just start browsing your grade level. The other thing just to note as well is any content that you can create, you can post in whatever language you choose. You can, you know, that could be something also as well that you explore, but definitely check out our activity library. So thank you everyone for stopping by today and lots of thanks to Renee Renee. You wanna go back to the slide that introduces you so that can see how they could get connected with you. Maybe if they're already on Twitter, they can check you out there or maybe- I do have a Google doc of like the process, ABC123 that I've made. They wanna hit me up on Twitter, I'm more than happy to share it. That would be awesome. So bug Renee, she is welcoming you to do that. So make sure you send her a message there if you're on Twitter. But thank you so much Renee for coming and sharing your ideas and examples. We really, really appreciate it. And I encourage everyone here right now to just take a moment when you leave to fill out a quick survey. We would love your feedback and we will see you next time.