When we developed our curriculum template about five years ago, we knew that we wanted to include student reflection exercises. Why? Reflection is a key component to learning. As John Dewey said, “We don’t learn from experience. We learn from reflecting on experience.”

This week, I created a collection on Reflection. The entire collection is comprised of lesson plans, companions to our multimedia stories, with engaging discussion questions that lead to student reflective writing prompts. Students are asked to draw from their personal experiences as well as what they may be witnessing in their local communities on topics such as poverty, democracy, nature, community, modernization, climate change, and corruption.

For example, in the lesson plan “Learning with Nature,“—a companion to the film Into the Middle of Nowhere, students are asked to respond to a quote from a fourth grader quoted from Richard Louv’s book “Last Child in the Woods." The fourth grader said, “I like to play indoors better ’cause that’s where all the electrical outlets are.” Students are asked to write a letter to this child to convince him to play outdoors, describing their own experiences with nature and technology. Students are asked to reflect on the following question: How does technology influence your daily decisions?

Image from the photo essay, "The Fall of Flint," by Matt Black.