Do a student ‘retro’!

It is critical for middle and high school students to do a postmortem on their work from the previous semester - or what Sam Corcos recently called on the Tim Ferriss Show podcast a “retro”.  (Isn't that a nicer way to say 'postmortem'?) A retroactive or ‘retro’ is a way to step back from a project to celebrate what worked well and understand what changes should be made to do better.

Like many of us in our professional lives, reflecting on and analyzing a past project leads to insights that help us be better not just personally but as part of our team. The same is true for students. They improve by getting feedback - not just in the skills they have as learners but as part of their team - parents, teachers, mentors and classmates.

Here’s my framework for a thorough student retro.

Set aside time and get materials together

To start, I set aside some quiet time to get comfortable with a notebook. In my experience, pencil/pen and paper leads to better thinking than typing.

Writing is thinking

I plan to think and then write for 5-10 minutes on each of the following areas below. If I’m stuck on one area I remind myself that I can always skip around. Sometimes one area will give me insights into a different one.

Assign a score

It’s helpful if I also give myself a ‘grade’. This can help determine which areas for improvement are more important than others. An easy scale is 1 to 5, where 1 is poor and 5 is excellent. I try to avoid giving myself a 3 - this forces me to not be in the ‘middle’ and not make a clear decision.

Consider these 6 core areas

As you think about each of the areas below, remember to highlight areas where you think you’re doing a good job in addition to being honest about where you can improve.

1. Curiosity/engagement - A student that is not engaged is falling asleep in class and complaining about how boring the content is, what a waste of time the class is, etc. An engaged student finds ways to participate in class and to make the material applicable and intriguing to them. Do I find ways to enjoy the material and make it interesting for me? Am I engaged in class when the teacher is presenting? When there is classwork?
2. Time management - How am I using my time outside of class to do classwork? Am I using my time during the school day well? Am I using my time after school efficiently?
3. Assignment completion - Are assignments getting completed on time? Is the work that is turned in the best work that I can do? For work that is optional, is it being attempted or am I treating it as unimportant? Am I only doing the bare minimum or am I pushing myself to demonstrate my best work?
4. Quiz/test preparation - Do I prepare for quizzes and tests? Do I have a process in place that consistently gives me good results? If my quiz or test scores are low, am I using my past performance to find better ways to prepare?
5. Teacher relationships - How is my relationship with my teachers? Do I make an effort to support the flow of the class? Do I make time to interact with them outside of class - during office hours, in the hall, at lunch? Do I demonstrate that I care about my grade and my work in their class?
6. Skills development - Are there specific skills that keep tripping me up in my work for a particular class? Do I need to improve my reading? Are there math skills or facts that I should practice? Are there formulas or processes that I consistently forget and need to memorize?

Decide the one thing

If you’ve followed this process so far, you likely have lots of ideas about things you can improve. But, like everyone, we only have a limited amount of time and energy to make changes.

Decide one thing that you are going to change over the next two weeks. As you review your writing, there is likely something that stands out as more important than all the others. This may also be an action that if you changed just this one thing would make a lot of other pieces a lot better too. Commit to putting this one change into practice every day. In a couple weeks, make a specific time to reassess your progress. You can decide to make your one thing better or to add a next thing.

Get to it!

I hope that you will take a time to encourage your student to use this framework to make significant growth in their learning skills.

Have questions about the process? Or would you like help working through it with your student? Schedule a consultation today by filling out my contact form here.