What have you learned?

Two years ago, I spoke with my grade school English teacher, who told me that at the end of every school year she asks one specific question:

What have you learned?

In hearing the question, I was immediately transported back to my undergraduate years at Saint Joseph's University. Father Nick Rashford, who was president at the time, frequently invited student leaders to his residence for dinner. Of course, any intelligent college student would jump at the chance to get face time with him and a delicious meal. At the end of every dinner, he would pose one question to the group: What have you learned? Each student would contribute a personal answer. 

He never forced our learning to match up with what he wanted us to learn that evening, but rather what we took away from the discussion and experience. That is one of the Jesuit principles of education: cure personalis or "care for the individual person."

My grade school English teacher receives a myriad of response from her students, just like Father Ashford would receive from the student leaders. At the time of the conversation with my former teacher, I had just started at a new school, so I decided to start this new tradition. At the end of every semester since then, I have asked my students, "What have you learned?"

A year ago, I created this Google Form, which is clear evidence of my love for technology tools within the ELA classroom.

Celebration of Learning

Since I am constantly evolving as an educator, this semester I went one step further. After the students completed this activity, I asked them to prepare a brief "presentation" to share with the rest of the class. I put presentation in quotation marks because I did not define what or how they were to present. At my core, I do not believe that I can tell a student what they should have learned or how they should feel comfortable sharing it, much like Father Rashford. I do believe that I can help them discover and utilize the critical thinking skills that should go into these tasks.

I only asked that the "presentation" show evidence of their learning throughout the semester and that they share it with the rest of the class. For many, publicly sharing anything is a daunting task, let alone something so very personal.

In the future, I plan to market the day as our "Celebration of Learning" and will host it on the last day of class before final exams. Not only does CoL give the class a last few moments to connect as lifelong learners, but it builds confidence during a stressful time. It also reminds the students that I truly care about them as human beings.

"You need evidence!"

Staying aligned with one of my mantras, students (and I!) back channeled to share even more learning during the CoL. Back channeling is new for them (and some keep their Twitter account private), but I LOVE that they took a risk. 

Of course, we had a hashtag: #GVPerEng4. You can discover some of our learning on Twitter. :)