Reflection and Feedback Examples

Reflection and Feedback Examples

Debra Walter: What's interesting is that Sadie came up with this. And then I'm demonstrating - you know, making a graph for them to measure and then making predictions.

Debbie Roberts: And I look at that, and you know, I'm seeing sort and classify; I'm seeing literacy. I'm wondering, did you think that you would be including all of those teaching and learning objectives in just one activity? Had you planned that that way?

Debra: Well, so this is an activity that I had done maybe a week before. And this child went and wanted to replicate that activity and wanted to do it again, so it's a slightly different group of kids, but it's just a great example of where you introduce something one time and they go back to it, especially when you keep it in the environment. So I'd done a small group with maybe one or two other children, and now it's become almost a large group activity.

Debbie: Look at the engagement there. I mean, they're really staying with that.

Debra: Yeah.

Debbie: Look at that. Totally invested.

Debra: Yeah.

Debbie: Wow.

Debra: And she's counting them, but she's also quantifying, you know?

 [ kids talking on video ]

Debbie: I can see her subitizing there. Were you - I suppose you already knew that she could subitize. I'm just getting to know the kids at this point in this video. Did you know that she could do all that?

Debra: This little girl - this was her spring before kindergarten, so she's got some pretty strong math skills here.

Debbie: Yeah, look at that.

Debra: Which has continued in school, in kindergarten. She says she loves math.

Debbie: That's beautiful.

Debra: So I love to feel like I got to be part of that.

Debbie: Yeah, right? Look at this. Look at the literacy there, too. Look, you said you wanted to learn about modeled writing. You probably didn't know you've been doing it. Look at that.

Debra: Right, right. Yeah. Yeah, this is before I knew what "shared writing" was.

Debbie: Yeah, and yet you're here. You've been doing it all this time.

Julie Gretchen: One of the things we talked about last time was your ITER scores, and you mentioned - what did you talk to me about?

Pam Keenan: Oh, that sometimes we were using the past tense but not always future and past tenses. So we were pretty good at present, but the other ones... So I wanted you to come out today and see how we were doing on that.

Julie: Yeah, so I was able to do some quick tally marks as you were going. Some of the phrases I wrote down, but mostly I was just keeping track of when you were using different tenses, and you're right. So present tense, there was lots. I even stopped tracking it after a while, because that's one we probably don't need to focus on, and then fewer of future and past tense. So that one - it seems like, though, you're more aware of it. You were trying to get them in there, sneak more -

Pam: Sneak them in there. It's hard. I know I still find it difficult with the babies. If they were older and they could talk back, it would seem to be more natural, but it's not as natural talking to a baby about, "Did you go to Texas last week?" And it's kind of like - and they look at you, like, no.

Julie: I don't know. Yeah, so one of the things I actually noted is that it doesn't necessarily have to be past tense like weeks or days ago. So sometimes it's even just as you're doing a play-by-play, which can be really natural with babies, like, "I see you doing this." And even just "Oh, you grabbed that" would be past tense. Though it was just now, but still in the past, using those past tense verbs.

Pam: Oh, that sounds like a great - that would be easy to do.

Julie: Yeah. And then there's also some prepositions you can keep in your mind. So when you're talking with the babies even, some teachers keep a little notepad of - like, I was writing down "you or we will," "we are," "we did," and you can kind of keep those. Are there times of the day that you find it more natural to narrate what they're doing?

Pam: When they're playing. Like, when they're moving around and playing I think is more natural than - especially for - do you want down? Do you want down? Okay. There you go. Okay.

 [ laughter ]

Julie: You got down. Pam: Did you get down?

 [ baby coos ]

Pam: Yeah?

Julie: Mm-hmm.

Pam: Okay, are you going to go play somewhere else now? All right. And there she goes!

Julie: And there she goes. There she went. Perfect.

 [ laughter ]

Julie: So it can come a little more naturally, but just like anything else in your practice, it takes practice. I find it easiest when you're just kind of narrating what they're doing. And like you said, because they can't answer you. So it doesn't necessarily have to be a question, "Do you remember" or "Did you..." you can just kind of state what they are doing or what they have done.

Pam: Okay, that makes sense.

Julie: And then some of them you did frequently, which was great. Like you said, "You found." So when they were digging through toys, you would say, "Oh, you found the ring," or, "Oh, you found the fish."

Pam: And I guess I don't see that always as past tense, but now I see that, after we're talking about it, that that make sense.

Julie: Yeah, absolutely, that counts. So we tend to think, as adults, we think of the past tense as like - especially the longer we get from the past, we tend to think of it way back. But their lives are so short and everything is right in their access, so it really works in the moment to still do. And for the future, we often talk about kids - talk with children about what we're going to do next, and so that's a great opportunity too.

Pam: I was thinking of starting a schedule board that said next - or now and next, so that would be a way to start the future tense, so that they would know what activity was coming next. So that would help me boost that future, then, if we were using that.

Julie: Perfect. Yeah, that's great. And a couple - I heard a couple moments where "I'm going to do this," so you can do it for yourself, also. So not just necessarily what they're doing, but "I'm going to go get this for you."

Pam: Okay. Okay, like, "I'm going to go get your bottle."

Julie: Right, right, right, yeah. So it's narrowing what you're doing in the moment, but also, "Then you're going to eat," right? So it's that next step.

Pam: Okay, perfect.

Julie: Are there any other times when you can think of some hints that might help you like that?

Pam: Well, I like these one hints, and maybe putting them up - like maybe putting the phrases someplace so that we could cue to see them. Like on the cupboard doors or someplace so that we could actually look over there and go, "Oh, I could do that."