“I Am:” Cultivating Curiosity in Self-Reflection
“I Am:” Cultivating Curiosity in Self-Reflection
By: Katie McDougall, Lower School Division Director
Once a month, all the students in the Lower School gather in JBH for a Lower School Assembly. 4th Grade MC’s run the show, students receive awards for their contributions to the Lower School community, and–my favorite part–students from each grade level, PreK to 4th grade, get up on stage to share about work they’ve been doing in their classrooms. It’s a delightful experience. Our fourth graders have been known to throw in some puns. I often have to help hold the microphone so students can hold up a piece of art or a poster. Even our littlest students use their biggest voices and speak into the microphone, proudly explaining what they’ve been working on. It’s a joyful monthly reminder of the enthusiasm for learning that is cultivated in our classrooms.
Earlier this year, we held our first Lower School Assembly for the year. In the first six weeks of school, we focus intently on building community, learning routines and expectations, and reflecting on our own learning and goals for the year. In keeping with these practices, our theme for this week’s Assembly was “I Am,” and students from each grade level shared their reflections about themselves, their identities, and their learning. We saw self-portraits, heard the stories of students’ names, and heard from students about their “Hopes and Dreams.” The hopes and dreams our students have identified in this classroom work range from “This year, I hope to get better at multiplication,” to “I dream of someday becoming an archaeologist,” to “I want to learn to be a better friend.”
Our students go through this exercise each year, and I am delighted every fall by the window into the minds of our students. But even more than the obvious poignancy of our students striving toward big and important goals, I am touched by our students’ willingness to engage in self-reflection. Self-awareness is a crucially important social and emotional skill, and one that we prioritize at Episcopal Day. But it is also important to know that self-reflection isn’t just a social or emotional skill. It is also foundational to the academic learning that happens in our classrooms, day in and day out.
The metacognition of Episcopal Day students–their ability to think about their thinking–is a unique strength among students I’ve worked with in my career. In formal assignments, like “Hopes and Dreams,” and in informal interactions throughout their days, our students are regularly encouraged to consider their own learning process–to turn their curiosity inward, toward their own thinking, their own learning, and their own needs. This practice is built into our curriculum, our assessments, and our pedagogy. Students might be asked to consider which type of final product will work best for them to show what they know in a social studies project. You’ll see this metacognition assessed on every Lower School report card as one of our Standards of Mathematical Practice: “Explains mathematical thinking.” Common refrain in our classrooms are, “What tools could you use to solve that problem?” and “What’s going to help you do your best work?”
One of the great strengths of a school like Episcopal Day is the extent to which each child can be truly known. The small class sizes and myriad teachers for each child make it virtually impossible for a student to “slip through the cracks,” and I typically think of our faculty’s knowledge of each learner as unmatched. But, as I watch our students reflect on themselves and their learning, I am grateful and proud to realize that, in fact, we, the teachers, come in second place when it comes to knowing our students as learners. As they move through their years in our school, our students themselves surpass us in this knowledge. There is no greater pride for us than watching them become reflective, aware self-advocates, learning how they think and how they learn. We know they will carry this confident self-knowledge and curiosity with them long after they leave Episcopal Day School.