Finishing Up the Research - Student Reflections

Students today finished up the last of their research projects.  I loved the creativity that some of them showed.  I had the students reflect upon the project by asking them what they thought about it and what might they do next time.   I loved reading their answers:

"What I thought of the project is it was the best because we got to pick our own topic, we got to pick how we wanted to make our information and we got to research on our topic. What I would do next time is I would pick the wars because I want to know is who started the war, who won and who was the leaders of the wars."

"I liked the project. It was fun. It also was interesting. Next time I will probably do turtles. Researching the Fire Bellied Toads was great. I got lots of information I did not even know about before. I could not imagine how much new information I would get."

For me, these reflections indicate that they are excited to continue this type of activity and that the choice of choosing was interested them was what made it most engaging.  Personalizing their learning while addressing the new literacies and other Common Core Standards really helped to open up new doors.  Not once did I have to redirect the kids to get back to their research or their topic.  They were consistently engaged in reading, watching, or exploring.