9. Course Reflection & Celebration
Learning Objectives
Final: Potluck, Student Presentations & Celebration of the Semester
- Students should engage in activities to reflect on and celebrate their semester.
Student Learning Outcomes
- Provide at least 2 examples of personal or academic growth from the semester.
Day 1
Warm-up
- Think Pair Share: Have students write their reflection to the question "Finish this sentence: “My most valuable discoveries/rediscoveries in this course include…”, share with another student and then have a larger class discussion.
Potluck Sign-up
- Have students sign up to bring something for the potluck. You might allow students time to discuss and come up with a theme for the food (desserts for an afternoon class) or bringing items that will create a meal together (e.g. one student brings BBQ chicken, another brings buns, another potato salad, etc.). Potluck sign-up.xlsx
"Jeeparty" Preparation
- Have students answer the following questions to give you material for the "fun" category. Jeeparty.ppt
- What is your current career goal?
- Name something about yourself that other students are likely to NOT know
- What is a hobby or something that you like to do?
Course Content Review
- Go through some of the major points in the content in a quiz game format.
Course Assessment
- Have students complete the AAA pre/post assessment as well as the
course evaluation during this week. The
website links are posted at http://aaahub.foliotek.me/postassessment. For easy access to the links, you might post
them as news on your course shell.
Day 2 & 3
Warm-up
- Allow students time to talk about their plans for their Career Research Project Presentation.
Possible Semester Reflection Activities
1. Letter to Self: Ask students to write an email to themselves in the future such as the beginning of their next semester at Aims. https://www.futureme.org/.
2. Letter to a Future Student: Ask students to write a letter to a new student who will be starting college for the first time at Aims next semester sharing what they have learned and their advice for success.
Course/Semester Reflection Questions
You could create slips of paper with a variety of questions and place them in a paper bag that can be given to groups. Have students select a question and then share their thoughts (round robin).
- How has your attitude changed about AAA since the beginning of the semester?
- What will you do differently in the summer or fall? (study habits, time management, in-class participation, attendance)
- Where did you see the most improvement as a learner?
- What are four adjectives to describe this semester for you?
- What AAA assignment did you get the most out of?
- What was the most challenging thing about your first semester?
- What advice would you give students in this class next year?
- What were your greatest successes, and what would you have done differently?
- What are the most important insights you have gained over the course of the semester?
- What
have been your greatest challenges this semester? How did you
overcome these challenges?
- What
is one positive change you have made this semester?
- What good habits have you developed this semester that you will you continue next semester?
- You can probably think of several famous people who are very successful and financially well off despite not having a college education. Some people think attending college is a waste of time and effort. What are your personal beliefs about the value of a college education?
- Have
your goals from the beginning of this semester changed or stayed the same?
Why?
- What
is one thing you learned about yourself in AAA that you didn’t expect to?
- What
is one piece of advice you would give to a brand new AAA student on the
first day of class?
- A friend asks if he/she should take this course. Would you recommend it? What would you say students need to do if they want to do well in the course?
- If you were to take this course again, would you do anything differently? What and why?
- Think about your first semester in college (first course in the major, required general education courses, course work in this major, extracurricular activities—lots of possibilities here). Identify the three most important lessons you learned, say how you learned them, and what those lessons will contribute to your success in subsequent courses and in your chosen profession.
- Which course has been the hardest for you so far? What study strategies did you use that didn’t work? If you were to repeat that course or take another one like it, what other study strategies would you try?
- How quickly do you give up on something? Say it’s a problem. How long do you work on it before you decide you can’t do it? What strategies do you use when you’re stuck? Take a problem on a recent test (or the homework last night) that you couldn’t do and list all the things you tried. If you could ask three questions about the problem (other than how do you solve it), what would you ask?
- Say, for example, you don’t think you’re any good at math, or that you can’t write or draw, what happens when you have to do these things? Does what you believe about yourself as a learner have any effect on how you perform?
- Have you ever learned something you didn’t think you could learn? What? How did you feel once you had learned it?
- What’s the relationship between natural ability and hard work? Can you still learn things for which you don’t think you have much natural ability? Can hard work overcome natural ability deficits?
- If someone asked, “What kind of student are you?” How would you answer? “What kind of student would you like to be?” Could you list three specific things you are doing to become the student you want to be? What would you list?
- You are applying for your dream job. The interviewer says, “I see you’ve taken a course in ____ . What were the most important things you learned in that course?” How would you respond?
- The interview continues. “Students learn lots of content in college. They also have the chance to develop some important skills. What skills have you developed in college? What courses and experiences contributed to that development?” What would you tell the interviewer?
"Jeeparty" Review Game
- Play a jeopardy style game to review content and see how well they know each other. Here is a template that would need to be updated with questions that pertain to what you've covered in class and your students. Some instructors have created more than one round - one on the course content and the other all about the students in the class. Students really enjoy the questions that are about them. Jeeparty.ppt
Warm-up
- Have students get a plate of food and sit in a group.
- Tell them to talk about their finals week and what they are looking forward to doing during the break.
Student Presentations
- Have students sign up for the order on the white board.
- You might grade presentations as students are presentations by typing your comments on the course shell grade book. This will allow students to receive your feedback.
- A nice way to provide students immediate feedback is to have their classmates write a note about what they learned from their presentation, any positive comments and wishes for the future. Collect and staple them. Then, pass them out at the end of class
Final Farewell
- Let your students know how much you've enjoyed teaching them and getting to know them. You might let them know that you will always be their AAA instructor and offer to help if they ever get stuck or struggle in future semesters. Some former AAA instructors have kept in touch with their students emailing them at the start of the next semester.