In 2021, I attended a webinar hosted by the multiculturalclassroom that elevated student reflection and quite literally transformed my practice. During the workshop, Lorena Germán called on educators to intentionally build time into their units for critical student reflection. I had been working for years to transform my curriculum with an equity lens, and I found myself wondering: how could I support my Novice students in thinking more deeply about this kind of content?

That question led me to an important realization. Just because my students did not yet have the language necessary to critically reflect in French did not mean I had to deny them the opportunity to reflect at all. As a result, at the end of each mini-unit in my What Do I Have in Common with a Francophone Person? cultural unit, students complete a short reflection in English as homework.

Here are the prompts I use. Sometimes I assign one; other times, I let students choose. Responses are a few sentences long:

• I thought that… but now I know that… because…
• Something that surprised me was… because…
• Something interesting I learned is… It is interesting to me because…
• Something that resonated with me is… because…

Students keep all seven reflections, one per mini-unit, in a single Google Doc. At the end of the unit, they write a short reflection paper focused on an enduring understanding from the unit. For consistency and alignment across disciplines, I assess this final reflection using the same rubric as their English teacher.

Below, I am sharing several reflections written by my seventh-grade students about Fet Gede and Bilal Hassani. Their words speak to the power of this approach:

While I commit to using the target language at least 90 percent of the time in my classroom, I also want to intentionally create space for Novice learners to reflect in English on what they are learning. This balance not only deepens understanding, it is also a major component of teaching for justice and actively dismantling bias.

I invite you to try creating intentional space for student reflection, even if that reflection happens outside the target language. Start small: one prompt, one mini-unit, one moment of pause. Let me know how it goes!