The Master Teacher Blog

A key secret to the success of magicians is their ability to gain, maintain, and manage our attention. They frequently direct our attention to one activity while they perform another one that we fail to notice. They often engage in elaborate stories to provide a context as they set up a trick. They surprise us, shock us, and may even leave us to question our senses.

Obviously, we are not and should not necessarily aspire to be magicians in our classrooms. After all, there is much more to the job of an educator than simply maintaining student engagement. Yet, there are lessons we can learn and strategies we can copy from magicians to set up the learning experiences we plan and better capture and retain the attention of our students. Teaching is neither magic trick nor magic show; we do not have to replicate the performance of—or go to the same performative lengths as—magicians in order to benefit from what they know and use to engage and amaze their audiences. Here are six lessons from magicians and examples of how we might apply them to gain and maintain the attention of our students.

Start with a story. People love stories, especially when they have a compelling narrative, build anticipation, ignite curiosity, or tap emotions. We might tell a story about an experience we had, draw on an interesting narrative from history, share something that happened with a former student (while maintaining their anonymity), or create a story that relates to what students will be learning or doing. We might even choose to leave out a key element or some revealing information that we hold until later in the lesson.

Invite involvement. Asking for volunteers can be a great place to start. Magicians almost always seem to have someone from the audience participate—often unwittingly—in what is about to happen. We might ask students to take a small action such as guessing an outcome or predicting what is going to happen. We could have students participate by creating an image in their mind or painting a mental picture related to the lesson. Students audiences, like audiences for magicians, are more likely to pay attention and remain engaged when they feel that they are part of the activity and contribute to the narrative.

Manufacture a mystery. Mysteries are close relatives to stories, but they invite attention by leaving a question unanswered, stirring up questions and speculation, injecting an element of unpredictability, or building anticipation for a pending solution. Mysteries build tension that is released when the mystery is solved or an answer is revealed. The magic of mysteries to hook and hold attention is that they are filled with wonder, awe, and amazement.

Inject some humor. Humor can be a powerful attention grabber and memory creator. We might relate a humorous example that demonstrates an aspect of what students are going to learn. We can share an entertaining and relevant vignette. We might choose an exaggerated illustration to which students can relate. Or we might recount a self-deprecating experience that students find entertaining and relatable. However, we need to be careful not to embarrass or otherwise leave students feeling uncomfortable.

Stage a surprise. Like mysteries, the power of surprises is often found in the anticipation that precedes the unveiling. We might preview that something is coming, hint that something unusual is about to happen, or warn students that something “unplanned” may lie ahead. The best surprises often reveal a counterintuitive outcome, unveil an unanticipated element, or disclose something shocking and memorable.

Set the scene. We might use sound, lighting, and props to create an environment that invites anticipation and promotes attention. Dramatic or themed music can create interest. Dimmed or focused lights can suggest mystery or direct attention. Posters, puppets, pictures, or other props we employ can create variety and interest in what is about to happen.  

Some of these strategies require thought and perhaps even a moderate amount of preparation and practice. However, the benefits we see in the attention and engagement of our students can be more than worth the effort.

We spend significant time thinking, exploring, planning, and preparing before we begin a new unit of study with our students. During this time, we identify key learning goals and objectives, determine key concepts to present, choose strategies for engaging students and building new skills, select resources and arrange for necessary equipment, decide how we will assess learning, and address other elements that will be key to our instruction and our students’ learning success. However, all this preparation typically happens away from the view and experience of our students.

As professionals, we have a good grasp of what we want to accomplish in any given learning cycle, but our students are largely unaware of what lies ahead until we introduce the unit. Meanwhile, the success of our instruction and the learning of our students depend heavily on their engagement in and commitment to the learning we have planned. If we want our students to be interested and ready to learn, we need to prepare them.

We can start by thinking about what students will want and need to know. They will likely have several questions about what they will be learning, and our responses will likely influence the level of learning engagement and commitment our students will demonstrate as we begin the new teaching and learning cycle. Here are five of the most likely questions our students want us to address.

What are we going to learn—and why is it important, valuable, or useful? Understanding the purpose and utility of what they will be learning can be a significant motivator for students to engage in what lies ahead. Sharing learning goals and objectives can offer clarity and reassurance for students, but, when possible, we also need to connect new learning with non-school-related, “real world” applications. The connection might be with interesting and attractive career possibilities, applications for hobbies and areas of current interest, something they have enjoyed learning in the past, or preparation for an important future challenge, such as state assessments or college entrance exams. The key is to make any connections real and relevant to our learners. Of course, there will be times when sharing a compelling connection or important application may be a stretch. When we face this challenge, we might consider ways to “gamify” the learning or consider other inviting or interesting ways to introduce and engage students that make the experience more enjoyable. Mary Poppins’ advice that “a spoonful of sugar helps the medicine go down” might apply in these circumstances.

What past learning and skills will be important to our success? Now is a good time to help students connect their past learning with future learning. When what we want students to learn next builds on what they have already learned, we may be able to get by with a quick reference and conducting a quick review. However, if significant time has passed, we will likely need to lead a more in-depth review or even do some reteaching to be certain that students are prepared to engage with what comes next.

What activities and strategies will you use to help us be successful? We might preview for students some of the activities we have planned, highlight learning strategies we will teach or reinforce, and review other learning resources available to help students find success. We might discuss the mix of individual and group work we have planned and how these strategies will contribute to what students will be learning. Now also is an opportune time to share our confidence that students will succeed and assure them that we will be ready throughout the teaching and learning cycle to provide support and offer additional tools and options. Our confidence in students and our commitment to have them succeed can provide important reassurance, especially if students anticipate that the learning will be especially challenging.

What have past students found helpful or challenging with what we are going to learn? Students can feel more confident when they learn that previous students, especially students like them, have found success with the new content and skills. We might share stories about the various approaches students found helpful, strategies they employed, and learning paths they found useful. We might also show the work of previous students as exemplars. However, we need to be sure to share multiple artifacts to avoid having students focus too narrowly on a single student’s approach or product. Our goal in responding to this question is to provide reassurance that success is within reach while also reinforcing key criteria and crucial elements to show evidence of learning.

How will my learning be assessed? Students of all ages often find it reassuring to know what type of assessment we plan to use to document their learning. If students know that their learning will be assessed through a demonstration, they are likely to approach their learning differently than if they expect a multi-question, short-answer assessment. Of course, our choice of assessment tool also needs to be guided by the nature of the learning in which students will be engaged. For example, a project-based learning activity may lend itself to a presentation or defense, while learning a set of established processes and procedures might be better assessed by analysis of a case study or demonstration of the best procedure for solving a problem or process for arriving at a solution. We might also discuss grading criteria or rubrics that we plan to apply. While we need to avoid having students focus too heavily on grades, it can be helpful for students to understand what will evaluated and how success will be judged.

We invest considerable time and energy in planning the learning we intend for our students. However, success—for our students and us—is heavily dependent on the investment and commitment of our students. Spending time at the beginning of the teaching and learning cycle to enlist the interest and grow confidence for learning in our students can pay rich dividends.

We all have experienced times when our students seemed to have learned what we expected and may even have performed well on an assessment, only for us to discover weeks and months later than they retained little of what they learned. Consequently, if what we are teaching now requires students to utilize the previous learning, we must reteach it. Obviously, this is not an efficient or effective way to build the knowledge and skills of our students and prepare them for their future.

So why does this happen, and what can we do about it? The problem is not ineffective instruction, nor is it the result of a lack of effort or poor student memories. The problem has its roots in how we use time and space to our and our students’ advantage as they learn.

Consider the typical way skills are introduced and taught in schools. Teachers provide instruction and monitor and correct while the students practice until the skill is mastered or it is time for an assessment before moving to the next unit. Despite how common this approach is, it suffers from two significant liabilities. First, some students need more time and opportunities to fully learn what is intended. Second, teaching skills in a concentrated block too often results in short-term learning followed by significant memory loss once the skill has been assessed.

Learning that is deep and lasting is more often gained through repeated exposure, regular practice, and frequent refreshing over time. We know the downsides of cramming for a test. In many ways, teaching and learning in a concentrated time block is the same; it just takes longer to experience the disappointing results. The good news is that there is a better approach that does not require more resources or effort and that is strongly supported by multiple research studies. The key is to use the time and space we have available in different ways.

We might think of this adjustment to our instruction and our students’ learning as spaced learning, spaced practice, and spaced retrieval. Let’s explore this combination of strategies and how they can support better learning and longer retention of what students learn.

Spaced learning breaks instruction into smaller pieces and spreads the introduction of new content and skills over time. Instead of a week of focused instruction and learning a topic or skill, introduction and exploration occurs over two to three weeks or longer, if needed. As a result, students have time to consolidate and digest new information. They experience less cognitive overload and lower stress. Intervals between learning sessions also often lead to more active engagement and deeper understanding.

Spaced practice occurs in tandem with spaced learning. In brief sessions, students practice what they have learned to refresh and apply it. These spaced practice sessions build students’ competence and confidence, and they reinforce what students have learned and make processes more automatic. These experiences also highlight for students where they have learning gaps or may be confused. As a result, learning barriers can be addressed and corrected before being “papered over” by the next level of learning.

Spaced retrieval follows up and reinforces the learning gained through spaced learning and practice. During brief sessions, possibly at the beginning or end of class, or during transitional periods, students are challenged to recall all that they can about a previously learned topic or skill. The activities may be as simple as making a list or concept map or as challenging as self-quizzing and using past learning to teach a classmate. The experience of recalling past learning has the effect of deepening and extending memory and making the content easier to access in the future.

Interestingly, redistributing how we use time and space for instruction and learning does not mean that we necessarily need more time. The key is to use time and space differently. We do need to rethink the organization of lessons and how we can distribute our instruction and student practice over longer periods of time. But, after a few attempts, the routine and pace become more natural, and the results can make the effort more than worthwhile.

What students believe about themselves and their learning matters. When students make unfounded negative assumptions about their potential, they are likely to give up quickly in the face of struggle, if they are even willing to try. When students assume that the lack of immediate success signals a lack of ability, they risk losing motivation and waning commitment.  

Learning is challenging enough. We should not have students fighting myths and misconceptions about learning that introduce doubts and make the work even more difficult. When we suspect that students are misinformed, are making unfounded assumptions, or hold misconceptions related to their capacity to learn, we need to act. Here are five common misconceptions about intelligence, studying, memory, assessment, and struggle that we need to dispel.  

If you do not recall information or skills learned earlier, you did not learn them. Learning and memory are related, but they are not the same. It is possible to learn and be able to demonstrate a concept or skill and not recall much about it later. The fact is that something was learned, but forgetting is less a reflection on the learning and more on how it was stored in memory. Forgetting information and skills is common when they are not reinforced or used frequently. Known as the forgetting curve, what we learn is easily forgotten unless we review, apply, and retrieve it frequently.  

If you struggle to learn something, you will never be good at it. While each of us has specific areas of interest and finds some things easier to learn than others, research studies show that we can learn almost anything if we use effective strategies, engage in repeated attempts, seek and accept feedback, and persist. Interestingly, the same research studies have found that people vary less in the rate at which they learn than most people think. The difference is found in what people already know and are interested in when they begin the learning process.  

Studying more means that you will learn more. In fact, how long students study is less predictive of what they learn than how they study. When studying, the quality of the strategies students use matters more than how long they spend doing it. As examples, self-quizzing is more effective than highlighting, reading and explaining what was read is more effective than reading the same content multiple times, and spacing study sessions over time is more effective than long, concentrated study sessions.  

Test scores are complete and accurate measures of learning. Tests, by definition, can only evaluate certain things. The number and type of questions asked, the way questions are framed, and the scope of content and skills assessed are just a few of the evaluation elements that can influence how completely learning is captured. Some students do best when questions are specific and draw heavily on memorized content, while other students excel when they can demonstrate, explain, or teach what they have learned. Few tests can measure the full scope of learning. Consequently, excessive dependence on test scores as the sole measure of learning should be avoided.  

If you do not do well in school, you are not smart. There are many reasons why students may struggle in an academic environment that are not necessarily reflections of intelligence. School performance can be influenced by numerous factors, including motivation, personal interests, time management, academic background knowledge, and emotional and psychological maturity. Consider the number of people who do not do well in school but later find exceptional success in business and other aspects of life. The key is to find learning strategies that work and allow intellectual abilities to show through.  

Myths and misconceptions can exert powerful influences on how students see themselves and the concept of learning. What students believe affects the level of motivation they feel, their willingness to persist when they struggle, and even how they see themselves as learners and people. We need to do all that we can to help students develop an informed and accurate picture of what it means to learn and how they can find learning success.  

Our students come to us with varying levels of self-management skills and understanding of the importance of self-regulation. Many students do not have good self-management models in their lives to emulate. For others, school has been a place where students wait to be told what to do, how to do it, when to do it, and what is good enough, so they have not seen the need for or been expected to build a self-management skill set. Nevertheless, building the skills necessary to manage oneself is crucial to school and life success.

The benefits associated with high levels of self-management skills are numerous. Students achieve greater academic success when they are organized and able to identify and work toward important goals. Behavior improves when students learn to self-reflect and make conscious, proactive choices rather than react. Students form better and more lasting relationships when they can regulate their emotions and navigate conflicts. Self-management skills and habits also contribute to improved mental health by enabling students to manage stress, become more resilient, and experience greater agency in life.

Regardless of the presence and strength of the self-management habits and skills our students possess, there are steps we can take and strategies we can employ to help them to become more successful academically, socially, and emotionally. Here are nine research- and experience-tested places to start:

• Coach self-reflection. Reflection is among the most powerful elements for developing the skill of self-management. Without reflection, many otherwise useful strategies may be left untapped. We can help students self-reflect by asking open-ended questions about their experiences, how they might shift their thinking, or changes they might make to their approach to achieve greater success. Having students journal about their experiences can be helpful. Interestingly, having students give advice to each other about challenges and problems they face can often stimulate reflection about their own behavior and choices.
• Teach students to set goals and develop action plans. The SMART (Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant, and Time-bound) goal framework can offer a useful approach to making goals clear and attainable. Goals might relate to academic performance, behavior, or other elements on which students can focus and improve. Some students may also need strategies for breaking large tasks and projects into manageable tasks and steps. As students track their growth and improvement, they become more aware of the connection between their efforts and success and feel greater ownership for outcomes.
• Give students opportunities to make meaningful choices. We need to be certain that the choices we offer matter to students, are legitimate, and are not between clearly attractive and unattractive options. Then, we can coach students to assume ownership for what they have selected; living with a choice that is not optimal can teach an important lesson about decision making. Of course, there are times when revisiting and changing a choice may be justified.
• Teach students to motivate themselves. We often think about motivation as something we attempt to do to students. However, the most powerful form of motivation originates within students themselves. For example, we can help them to find meaning and purpose in their learning. We can encourage them to tap areas of current interest. We can have them focus on their own self-selected goals. Motivation is both a choice and a skill. Learning ways to motivate oneself is a powerful success strategy that can last a lifetime.
• Introduce strategies for recognizing and managing emotions. We can start by giving students the language to describe their emotions. If we are working with young students, we might consider using a feelings chart to help them identify what they are experiencing. As students become more aware of the complexity of their emotions, we can teach calming strategies for managing emotions such as taking a break or practicing breathing techniques.
• Teach the importance of delayed gratification. Some students are naturally better at working toward a reward or waiting for something important or attractive to them. However, delaying gratification is a learnable skill. We can have students practice the subskills associated with delayed gratification such as staying focused, remaining motivated, and demonstrating stamina. We might work with students to create a contract or identify a reward at the end of a task or project. We could have students practice techniques to manage eagerness and anxiousness associated with delayed gratification. Additionally, consider pairing delayed gratification with goal setting and progress monitoring to encourage patience and persistence.
• Praise efforts and progress over talent and innate ability. Our goal in developing self-management is to have students take greater control over themselves and assume greater ownership for their behavior. When we emphasize the talents students possess and the innate ability they demonstrate, we are focusing on elements over which students have limited control. On the other hand, students determine the type and amount of effort they invest, and the progress they achieve is a result of their investment.
• Cultivate resilience. We can remind students that setbacks and failure are opportunities to learn and improve. We can coach students to view challenges as invitations to grow new skills and develop new strategies. Further, more than simply bouncing back, we can teach students that the real goal should be to come back even stronger.
• Be a visible model. It would be a great idea to share with students some of the ways in which we practice self-management. As examples, we might share some of our goals, time-management techniques we practice, routines we follow, and organizational strategies we find useful. We might even talk with students about how we manage stress and control our emotions. Our modeling can offer a powerful example for students to follow.

Self-management skills may not be present in the formal curriculum we are responsible to teach. However, the time we invest in helping students to become skilled self-managers can pay rich dividends in improved behavior, academic progress, and higher levels of confidence.

At some point in our preparation to become teachers, we all probably came across studies showing the power of teacher beliefs and expectations on student learning. “Pygmalion in the Classroom,” the best known of these studies, demonstrated that steps as simple as telling teachers that a selected set of students had the capacity to succeed at higher levels led to remarkably higher performance.

The fact is that what we believe about students drives our expectations, influences our interactions, and effects how well students learn. Of course, this is great news when we perceive our students as having high potential and the ability to succeed with our help. We expect them to do well, we press and support them to excel, and we refuse to accept less than high quality effort and work.

However, the opposite also is true—often to devastating effect. When we are assigned students whose past performance has not been strong, we work in an environment where student achievement historically has been low, or our students come from families that do not have a history of support and successful experience with formal education, it can be easy to fall into the trap of believing that our students are not capable of performing at high levels. We can begin to negatively adjust our expectations, modify our approach, and accept lower levels of effort and learning. Unfortunately, with lower expectations often comes less depth of content, slower pace of instruction and learning, less engaging learning experiences, and more reliance on remediation.

Meanwhile, when we lower our expectations, students respond predictably by lowering their expectations of themselves, lessening the effort they give, and accepting results that reflect lower levels of learning. Sadly, the process can be subtle and gradual, often spread over time. As a result, we may not even realize how our expectations and approaches have changed. Meanwhile, we may hear reinforcing messages that imply that we should not expect more, that the results we are seeing are predictable, and that efforts to shift outcomes are not likely to be worth the effort.

Yet, the truth is that past performance, family history, and other demographic factors do not have to predict the learning potential or performance of students. The good—and bad—news is that we are the key to changing what has been to what could be. Consequently, to change the situation, we need to start with ourselves and what we believe about our learners and learning. Consider these five places to guide your self-reflection:

Assumptions: What assumptions are you making that may limit your perspective on the potential students possess? What would happen if you reversed limiting assumptions and replaced them with the belief that your students have high potential and that you are the one to change their potential into performance? What if you assumed that you are the one to change what has been true in the past to what could be true in the future?

Expectations: How might your expectations change if you saw your students as having exceptional potential that has been ignored or overlooked? How would your approach change if you refused to believe that your students are not capable of learning at high levels? What if you began to treat your students as though they are yet-to-be-discovered gifted learners?

Relationships: How could you encourage your students to see you as the “guide on their side” rather than the person who tells them what they have to do? How might your relationship with students change if they experience you as their success advocate and coach? What if students understood that you see more potential in them than they see in themselves?

Flexibility: How can you demonstrate your commitment to your students finding a way to succeed no matter what? What if you committed to finding what works for your students, regardless of what you need to learn or how flexible you need to be?

Voice: What might happen if you committed to explore your students’ hopes, uncover their strengths, empower them to make significant learning choices, and begin to own their learning? How might your students’ effort and commitment change when they see learning as something that has value to them and is not just something they do to satisfy adults? What if you started listening deeply to students?

Resilience: How can you commit to seeing your students succeed, regardless of how they have performed in the past, their reluctance to believe in themselves, or the distance they still need to travel to experience success? How can you consistently communicate and demonstrate to your students that you will not give up on them? What if you told them that you know that they can do better, and you are committed to helping them to believe and show the world that you and they are right?

Admittedly, there are factors beyond our beliefs, expectations, and advocacy that have an impact on student success. However, none of them pack more power, are more under our control, or hold more long-term potential than our commitment to seeing our students succeed.

The world of education is filled with ideas, strategies, and approaches about how to learn. Unfortunately, many of the most popular learning strategies—while they may generate some learning benefit—do not represent the best approach to learning. Students often rely on mediocre strategies because they seem to work well enough for them, and they are not aware of better, more effective approaches. Consequently, they may be spending more time and exhausting more energy than necessary to learn well enough, rather than experiencing greater learning returns, often gained with less effort and time invested.

This is a good time to inventory the learning practices upon which our students rely to determine whether they are using some of these mediocre strategies and how they might gain the best learning advantages. Here are five common learning approaches that can be transformed into some of the best learning strategies by having students make a few adjustments and tweak their approach.

Common assumption #1: More practice leads to the best performance. Practice builds habits and muscle memory, absolutely, but not all practice is equal. Careless practice and unaddressed errors and confusion can undermine learning and motivation. Practice that leads to the most improvement is focused and purposeful. The highest levels of learning success result from setting challenging goals, seeking and using feedback to adjust, regularly measuring progress, and sustaining focused commitment.

Insight: The best performance results from the best practice.

Common assumption #2: Reading (and rereading) is the best way to build understanding. Repeated exposure to the same content can be marginally helpful. However, rereading, by itself, does not necessarily increase comprehension. The best way to check and build understanding is to follow reading by explaining the content to someone else or writing a summary. Having to clearly explain a new concept can surface areas of uncertainty or confusion. If returning to the text is necessary, students can do it with intentionality and in search of clarity rather than in service of repetition.

Insight: Explaining a concept is the surest and most efficient way to check and build understanding.

Common assumption #3: Longer study sessions lead to the best learning. Spending more time listening, reading, and studying is of limited value once students begin to lose the energy needed to pay attention and process information. The longer students attempt to study, the more they are likely to fight fatigue and loss of focus. Additional content studied during extended sessions becomes difficult to retain.

Insight: Short, focused study followed by reflection builds greater understanding and better memory storage.

Common assumption #4: It is best to study one subject per study session. Students may think that by focusing on a single class or topic, they will retain what they have learned longer. However, multiple research studies have shown that alternating among subjects during study sessions can increase understanding and retention of information. When students switch to a new topic or subject after a moderate study session (twenty to twenty-five minutes), their brains search for connections and seek to categorize the information studied. This approach is known as interleaving.

Insight: Breaking study sessions up and studying more than one subject in shorter sprints is the best approach.

Common assumption #5: Taking notes is the best way build learning recall. While taking notes can be better than nothing, the best learning comes from taking notes strategically and spending time reviewing them. Jotting random statements or trying to capture a transcript of a lesson typically yields limited learning and disjointed recall. On the other hand, capturing key points, organizing an outline that reflects the lesson, and summarizing key concepts can lift learning and support more efficient review and study.

Insight: Taking strategic notes and using them to refresh and self-evaluate understanding is the best way for notetaking to reinforce comprehension and increase recall.

Our students deserve to know and be able to use the most effective learning strategies and approaches we can offer. Taking some time now to inventory and assess with students the strategies they use to study can build confidence and increase the effectiveness of their learning efforts.

As teachers, we want our students to be successful. Obviously. We plan and prepare to help them follow the best, smoothest paths for learning. We worry when they struggle and find themselves tempted to give up. Our hearts ache when our students fail, experience setbacks, and are disappointed. That’s how we should feel.

However, we also need to remember that failure, setbacks, disappointments, and other negative life experiences are inevitable. They are simply a component of living. Experiencing challenging circumstances in relatively low-stakes environments, like school, can help students to develop healthy perspectives, build emotional strength, and gain coping skills necessary for success in life.

As much as we want students to experience joy, have fun while learning, and find immediate success, we also need to be ready to guide students through difficult times. We can remind ourselves and them that these experiences are also part of learning and preparation for what will come later in life. Of course, we also may need to share this perspective with our students’ parents and guardians. They, too, worry when learning and life are challenging for their children.

The truth is that setbacks, struggles, and disappointments can be valuable life and learning experiences for students. While we want to protect them, we also need to support the learning and growth that difficult experiences can generate. Here are eight important outcomes that can result from difficult challenges.

Adversity and struggle can lead students to:

• Build resilience. Facing difficulties, overcoming failure, and bouncing back are key to life success. School can be a place where struggles and failure are experienced in an environment with safety nets, mentors, and second chances. These supports may not always be as readily available later in life.
• Grow confidence. Overcoming difficulties and surviving disappointments can be rewarding and create a sense of accomplishment. When future challenges arise, students who have experienced past successes are more likely to have the confidence that success is again possible.
• Create motivation. When students reflect on past triumphs achieved despite struggles and disappointments, they can find motivation to persist until success arrives. Recollection of past accomplishments during times of struggle can offer strong motivation and the confidence to prevail.
• Develop perspective. When struggle and disappointment are unfamiliar experiences, students can doubt their abilities and question their chances for success. Their doubts and questions readily emerge because the experience is new. However, when struggle is a familiar experience and disappointment has been survived in the past, panic and giving up are not the first options students are likely to consider.
• Grow problem-solving skills. Having experienced adversity in the past can lead students to be more likely to practice critical thinking rather than become paralyzed. They are more likely to search for and explore options and alternatives rather than immediately giving up.
• Build coping skills. When students experience and survive failure, feeling disappointed, or having to find answers when they are not apparent, they can build emotional strength and coping strategies. Discovering self-reliance and practicing independence in times of emotional challenge can instill confidence that the issue or circumstance of the moment will not be permanent. Life will get better and there are actions and attitudes that can carry them through.
• Tolerate risk. When students learn to cope with failure and overcome difficult challenges, they are more likely to take future risks and embrace opportunities that may not promise guaranteed success. Understanding and taking responsible risks can be key to life success and satisfaction.
• Appreciate success. Having experienced failure, lived through setbacks, and struggled to prevail in the face of adversity can make success more meaningful and instill greater pride in accomplishments. When success always comes easy, it may lose its thrill and be taken for granted.

Of course, we want to protect our students from excessive stress and struggle. Yet, we need to be attentive to the learning that can accompany difficult circumstances and challenges. What is most important is that we are here to comfort, coach, and support them and their learning.

“By three methods we learn: first, by reflection, which is noblest; second, by imitation, which is easiest; and third by experience, which is bitterest.” —Confucius

The practice of reflection is unique in that it is applicable to any learning context and with any content or skill. It opens the door to greater insight and deeper understanding. It is equally valuable for the novice learner and most experienced leader.

Reflective thinking helps students to analyze and make sense of what they hear and experience. It can assist them to make connections to prior learning so that they can gain a deeper understanding as they sequence, organize, and catalogue what they learn. Consequently, they become more active learners and are better able to retain what they learn.

Additionally, reflection increases self-awareness, helping students to assess their strengths and areas of weaknesses. Reflection can assist students to develop and test strategies to improve their learning; as a result, they become more critical thinkers and confident learners.

Further, reflection moves new content and skills from being simply what others have provided to learning that students can own. The process of reflective thinking can help students integrate new learning with current skills and insights, making them better able to learn from experience and adapt to new challenges.

The strategies we can use to encourage and coach students to become better reflective thinkers combine several familiar activities with some that are less well known and practiced. Here are nine activities that we can tap to build our students’ reflective thinking skills and habits:

• Reflection prompts and opportunities: We can present students with questions such as, “What did I learn today that I did not know when I woke up this morning?” and “How does what I learned today connect with something I already knew?” As your students become comfortable asking themselves these questions, you can add questions that fit your particular context and students.
• Journaling and blogging: Writing by its nature is a reflective process. Intentionally organizing thoughts, sequencing events, and interpreting experiences are great ways to build understanding and clarify areas of confusion.
• Small-group discussions: Activities such as “think-pair-share” can offer opportunities for students to describe their learning and share their reflections with peers. These can also be good opportunities for students to hear and consider the reflections of others.
• Peer teaching: Peer teaching takes discussions with classmates to another level. When students teach each other what they have learned, they organize and explore their learning at a deeper and more complex level. In addition, they often receive more and better feedback on the clarity and completeness of what they share.  
• Concept mapping: Creating graphic representations of new learning can help students to explore relationships—such as hierarchies, connections, and disconnections—among elements they already know and what they have just learned.
• Creating pictures: Like concept maps, drawing pictures to represent and explain new learning gives students another way to capture their learning and reflect on its significance and implications. Picture drawing has also been shown to significantly increase students’ learning retention.
• Goal setting and tracking: When students set goals, they are better able to focus, track their progress, and reflect on areas where they are making expected growth and where they may be struggling. Goal setting is also a great way to give students greater ownership of their learning.
• Exit tickets: Well-designed exit ticket questions can encourage students to think about their learning struggles and victories. Exit tickets can nudge students to reflect on the strategies they employed, the effort they invested, and the resources they tapped to support their learning.
• Modeling: Our thinking and the processes we use to reflect can provide powerful insights for students to adopt and adapt for their own use. We are the expert learner in the room, and there is much that students can learn from us about how and why we reflect.

Obviously, reflection is a powerful tool. It holds the promise of increasing real-time learning and extending learning retention. Meanwhile, we are helping students to build a skill and habit that will give them the power to chart their own learning journey.