Open MirrorTalk on a Chromebook, laptop or mobile device. Click “Start” to begin a reflection session.
1. Talk about your work.
MirrorTalk asks a simple starting question every time: “Tell me something you’re working on.” Students could tell it about …
- a project they’re trying to complete
- an essay they need to write
- a lesson they just learned during class
- something they need to remember better
- an experience in their lives they need to process
This isn’t just for students, though. Teachers — any human being, really! — can talk through something they’re working on with MirrorTalk.
My use: I’ve used MirrorTalk many times, telling it about my work with teachers and how I can develop new resources for them.
2. Choose a focus.
After MirrorTalk records what you’ve said, you choose a focus, which may include:
- 4F (facts, findings, feelings, future)
- Self-Authorship (the process of collecting, interpreting, analyzing, and reflecting)
- Collaboration (how you can work together with others to accomplish something)
- Problem Solver (walking the speaker through the problem-solving process)
- Creative Booster (asking questions in different directions to expand your thinking)
My use: I love using the Creative Booster. The variety of questions always elicits responses and thinking that I never expected.
3. Respond to prompts.
Here’s the magic in MirrorTalk (in my opinion, anyway!). It analyzes your “Tell me something you’re working on” response and asks you follow-up questions — prompts — to get you thinking about what you’re learning.
This is HUGE for students.
We want them to revise writing. Ask follow-up questions about things they don’t understand. Reflect on new learnings. But it’s hard for teachers to provide individualized support for that to all of their students.
MirrorTalk walks them through this process — with little to no prep by the teacher.
My use: I’ll respond to prompts at my computer — or I’ll use the mobile app to do some reflection while driving (eyes on the road while I talk, of course!) or while waiting.
4. Analyze student responses.
After the prompts are complete, MirrorTalk analyzes the students’ responses and provides a report, summarizing:
- The lesson (learning gaps and the hidden adaptive lessons that get students and teachers stuck)
- Developing understanding (how the student recalls, constructs meaning, and transforms them into thought)
- Zone of Proximal Development (how challenged students are)
- Mindset (MirrorTalk assesses several dimensions of mindset and gives feedback to improve it)
My use: I’ll look at my analysis to see how MirrorTalk summarizes what I’ve said and to see where I can continue improving my own work.
