Using Student Surveys to Reflect on the School Year

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It doesn't hurt to revisit older blog posts when they're full of good stuff that you can use today! This one is about how to incorporate student surveys in your end-of-the-year activities as a way for students to reflect and for you to get feedback on how the year went. 

Survey Says...Meaningful Student Reflections on Their Learning, the Classroom, and You!

About this time every school year, I offer my students an opportunity to reflect on the year as a whole using surveys. I created surveys for the subjects I taught--reading, English, spelling, writing, and social studies--as well as one about the classroom atmosphere, one about me as the teacher, and one about them as students. This is one of my favorite end-of-the-year activities. I know how I feel after each lesson, unit, and activity, keeping notes about what worked and what didn't as well as future ideas for tweaking. It's really interesting and helpful, though, to get the perspective of the students.

When I first created the surveys, they were open-ended in nature. I have fine-tuned them in subsequent years to include a mix of open-ended and Likert scale questions to get a better overall picture of students' thoughts.

The questions I ask tie in to one of my goals of teaching, which is to show students how to take responsibility for their own learning. I ask questions about their favorite lessons, activities, books, and assignments that we did, as well as those with which they had trouble. I also ask them how they felt in the class. Were they engaged? Were they challenged? Was material too easy, too hard, or just right? I ask them to list specific strategies, ideas, of facts they learned as well.

I make sure to include the word "BECAUSE" in every one of the open-ended questions. For one thing, it helps explain the first part of the answer. Another reason is that is gets the students used to supporting their opinions with details. I learned early on to structure the questions so that specific answers had to be given. That way, I avoided the "nothing" and "everything" answers.

My surveys are also written to empower the students. I want to show them that I value them and that it's possible for them to help me be a better teacher through their suggestions. In every survey, I ask them to name a specific lesson, topic, or activity that could use improvement and how it could be improved. I also ask them about their experiences with me as their teacher. Am I fair? How do I make them feel? Do they think I care about them as students and people? How do they know if I'm listening to them? If I'm not listening to them?

Survey about having me as a teacher

When presenting this activity, I tell students they should feel free to be honest and that it is not necessary to put their names on the surveys. I also assure them that the surveys will not impact their grades. I stress the importance of being aware that there's always room for improvement. A couple of rules about answers that I give are that students cannot write, "Nothing" or "Everything," and they must answer every question. I allow them as much time as they need to complete the surveys and encourage them to take their time in completing them. Students can use their binders, folders, textbooks, agendas, and anything else that helps them to remember what we've covered during the year. The class completes one survey at a time so that students can be thoughtful in their answers.

Self-survey for students

I read every survey, taking note of repeating themes in the answers. I've been surprised a few times about what has been a favorite and what has been a dud. I even pull a few of particularly positive ones to put in my "When You're Sad" folder. (I read the items in this folder if I've had a bad day!) This activity is so wonderful for teaching students about the importance of reflection, but it is also a great way to be the self-reflective teacher that I need to be so that I can be the best teacher I can be. 

Looking to incorporate student surveys in your classroom? Save some time creating them with these.

How do you get feedback about how the year went from your students? Leave a comment!

Thank You Teachers!

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It's one of the best weeks to be a teacher...Teacher Appreciation Week! Today is National Teacher Day so I want to say "thank you" to all educators for your dedication, creativity, hard work, and flexibility with all of the changes that education goes through every year. I'm proud to be among your ranks!

Over at Teachers Pay Teachers, it's also time for the annual Teacher Appreciation Sale. The sale runs through tomorrow (Wed. 5/7). My Aspire to Inspire store is one of many that has discounted all products by 20%! Even better, TPT is offering a bonus 10% off when you use the code TPTXO. This is just a small way to thank teachers for all that YOU do!

Here are just a few highlighted items on sale from Aspire to Inspire that I hope will help you wrap up the year, which is always a busy time! Click on any of the images for more information about the product.

 

Encourage upper elementary students to thoughtfully reflect on the school year with a variety of creative end-of-the-year activities! These activities are also designed to help you as the teacher see what students thought worked well and could use improvement in years to come. Activities include surveys; letters to incoming students; Create-Your-Own Top 10 Tips poster for incoming students; Make the Grade: A Guide to School Success; Nuggets of Knowledge bulletin board template; Our Favorite Episodes timeline activity.

Maybe you just need something simple to measure students' opinions about classroom environment, class content, likes and dislikes, personal growth--to name a few. These Likert scale & open-ended end-of-the-year surveys have specific questions tailored to each subject and topic. Students will appreciate having their opinions valued, and you will appreciate this useful data as you plan for next year. (These surveys are also included in the Farewell, Fourth Grade, Farewell, Fifth Grade, and See Ya Later, Sixth Grade products as well.)

It's also never too early to think about next year! Enjoy more of your summer and start planning now the first weeks of next year with these back-to-school items. Click on the images for details about what's included in each product.

First Days of Third Grade Back-to-School Bonanza Bundle

First Days of Fourth Grade Back-to-School Bonanza Bundle

First Days of Fifth Grade Back-to-School Bonanza Bundle

First Days of Sixth Grade Back-to-School Bonanza Bundle

Thanks again to all teachers! Enjoy your week!

I'd love to hear from you so please leave a comment. What is your most favorite appreciation gift, event, note, etc. from a student that you've had?

Now Playing at a Classroom Near You...End-of-the-Year Movie

Pin It Now! Pin It Now! When a certain time hits at the end of the year, does it seem like the remaining days just avalanche and all you can do is hold on for dear life till it stops? I always think it would be great to create a year-in-review gift for my students using the tons of photos I've taken during the year, but more often than not, once the end-of-the-year activities roll around, the idea parks itself in Stephen Covey's time management quadrant 3 (important, but not urgent).

I finally got around to doing something with the idea when my colleague introduced me to Windows Movie Maker. (On Macs, it's counterpart is iMovie.) I'm not a pioneer in the field of integrating technology into the classroom, but I do my best to investigate and experiment when I can (quadrant 3). So, yes, this little movie studio program has been around for a while. It's not new thing, and I'm sure there are some similar programs out there, too. Still, it's something I discovered in the past couple of years that was just the thing I needed to put something special together for my students. These free little movie studios on your computer are pretty simple to use. I was self-taught using YouTube videos and search engine results. You basically upload your digital photos, images, and videos into the program, then insert them into movie frames. You arrange them in any order you like. You can also upload music or record narration to accompany your movie. Add some frame transitions, title screen, credits, and necessary text, and voila! You have a little movie for all to enjoy.

This would be a great place to insert an example movie I made for my students, but out of respect for student privacy, it's not possible. I can tell you what's included in mine, though. I started the movie with photos of each student I took from the first day of school, then organized the rest of film according to event or topic. I used photos from field trips, class parties, regular classroom activities, Science Fair, Track & Field Day, and other occasions. Then came one of my favorite parts: choosing the music! My music tastes are frozen in time at around 2003, and I don't think I've tuned into a "today's hits" radio station since that year so I went back to the grooveyard to find some good ones to use. I definitely did a once-over with lyrics to make sure there was nothing inappropriate. The nice part of these movie making programs is that you can edit the length of the music, as well as splice the music if you want to include certain parts of a song. My favorite song I used was "Weird Science" by Oingo Boingo, which corresponded with Science photos! (I know music can be a touchy topic with copyright so you may want to look into legal uses, especially if you plan to do something other than view it in your classroom with your students.) I finished the movie with a "credits" frame that looked just like the credits of a movie with a producer, director, writer, music by, etc. Under "Starring," I listed all my students names.

The students really enjoyed seeing themselves on the big screen. It was a fun way to reflect on the year, and I enjoyed putting it together for them. You don't have to be a particularly tech-savvy teacher, but if you are willing to put in a little effort to learn how, this is a fantastic way to put your digital photos from the year to use.