Research Reflections, Journaling, and Exit Slips

Taking the time to think about the effectiveness and quality of what has been done, what is being done, and what still needs to be done is an essential and natural part of being a lifelong learner. It is, therefore, important to teach students how to successfully reflect upon experiences and evaluate their interactions with resources, events, and themselves throughout the research process. The speed of information access as well as students' automatic acceptance that all information is good information makes the opportunity to digest the moment and contemplate the future in research even more important.

Giving students an occasion every day for self-analysis through the strategies of reflection, journaling, or exit slips provides the chance to personally reflect on what they are doing, what they are thinking, and what still needs to be done. It is an invaluable use of instructional time. Using one of these strategies allows students the necessary practice to look back on their experiences until they are capable of doing this independently and intuitively as an effective and efficient researcher does. These practices provide opportunities for educators to quickly understand individual student researchers, as well as where weaknesses in instruction exist.

Reflections

In a reflection, the educator poses a group of simple questions that require students to write a brief response. Questions can be developed to give students a chance to personally reflect and self analyze what has just been done, what needs to be done, roadblocks, successes, personal thoughts, and feelings. Examples of some questions to include are:

• What did I do today?
• Titles of the resources I used today were...
• What question was I trying to answer? or Research question/s I was working on today were...
• What problem, if any, did I have today? or The biggest problem I had today (with myself, other people, or the research itself) was...
• What was something new I learned? (For example, successfully learning a new research technique, how to use a specific resource, a new resource never used before, something I didn't know about my topic,...)
• What new questions do I now have about my research topic, final product, or a research skill?
• Who were helpful people I encountered today and what they did they do to help me (teacher, student, parent, sibling, library media specialist, etc.)?
• How do I feel about today? or Today I feel --- , because...
• What, specifically, do I need to do next? or What I need to do next... (be specific—for example, name the title of the source that I want to use and the research question I will start my research time using)

Journaling

The educator can use journaling to provide students with an opportunity to reflect on the research day through an age-appropriate paragraph or essay response to an experience-to-self or experience-to-world question, similar to text-to-self and text-to-world questions. Journal prompts appropriate for any project are:

• Pretend you are writing a note to a friend and you include a paragraph about this research project. What would you say?
• Tell how you feel about your abilities throughout this research project. Describe your strengths. Describe your weaknesses. What steps do you need to take to build those weaknesses into strengths?
• Today you were interviewed by another student about your research. You shared what you have learned, facts, and interesting details about your famous person. Describe how you feel about your interview. Explain what you think you did well. What did you forget to talk about and wish you had? On the back of this paper draw a picture of your person doing what you think he/she did best.
• Brainstorm all the ideas you have for your final project. Include possible slogans, materials needed, and other ideas that will make your project unique and stand out.
• Write as if you were taking notes for research. List tips and strategies for effective note-taking. In addition, tell what you have found most interesting so far about your topic.
• Today you worked with key words. Why is it important to keep key words in mind when reading for the answers to research questions?
• How well do you like your questions? How do you think the questions will help you while you become an expert on this topic? Which question do you think is most interesting and why?

Journal prompts can also be written very specifically for a particular project. Examples of project-specific questions are:

• Hero or Biography: Explain one or more ways the person you are researching is similar to you and one or more ways he or she is different.
• Social Concerns: What organizations are you learning about that exist to fight against this problem? What do you propose is a good way to get involved? If you could start your own organization, what would it be about and why? How would it solve problems?
• Indians of North America: Why do you think researching about the ancient Native Americans is important to being an American citizen today?

Exit Slips

The educator can use exit slips if time is limited for reflection. An exit slip can take just the last few moments of research time as students prepare to transition to the next activity or class. An exit slip is a small slip of paper requiring fill-in-the-blank responses:

• The research skill I was taught today was...
• A research skill I already knew and used today was...
• Help! A question I have about my project, my research, the assignment, or today's events is...

Intersperse these fill-in-the-blank responses with questions that require students to circle an emoticon (happy, okay, sad, frustrated) to reflect the day's feelings:

• The skills taught today were helpful:
• My personal effort in class today:
• My classroom teacher and library media specialist were busy today helping students research and stay on task:

Through reflections, journaling, and exit slips, an educator can learn more about his/her students as researchers. These strategies provide structure and guided opportunities for students to record and communicate. Written reflections often help students identify and organize thoughts and build self-confidence for successfully managing today's information needs. An educator might learn that a particular student is doing okay, requires remediation with a particular research technique, is enthusiastic and excited about something learned, or frustrated and feeling discouraged. Written communication can also help an educator manage time for constructive feedback as well as provide a clear assessment tool for knowing where students are and what needs to be reinforced. These strategies can help an educator focus on critical problems and better management of communication with students.

References:

Callison, Daniel, and Leslie Preddy. The Blue Book on Literacy and Instruction for the Information Age. Libraries Unlimited, 2006.