Breaking barriers: How Mirror transforms peer reflection in urban Chicago

Ineffective interventions

In Rachel Wiley’s STEM lab at an urban middle school in City of Chicago School District 299, getting students to articulate their thoughts about school or experience outside the classroom has always been a struggle. “In the past – especially in my Google Forms – we would get one-word answers,” Rachel recalls. “Student answers would be, ‘It’s good. It’s nice. It works.’” This reticence wasn’t just happening in the classroom; it permeated throughout the school, creating a constant communication barrier between students and staff.

Before students were introduced to Mirror by Swivl, students who found themselves in caught in a cycle of disciplinary action often received ineffective interventions. As Rachel observed, students would fight for no reason, and when they met with a Counselor or Administrator, these students who are already on the defensive, would clam up or respond with minimal information. 

“These students have hardened exteriors,” Rachel notes, “So traditional face-to-face conversations were rarely productive.” Students felt judged or misunderstood and Administrators didn’t have a clear picture of what happened, leaving both students and staff frustrated and without resolution.

Radically more self-expression

Enter Mirror: a verbal reflection tool that uses AI to revolutionize student engagement. This technology encouraged students in City of Chicago School District 299 to open up in ways they never had before, transforming brief, reluctant responses into thoughtful reflections. Rachel witnessed a remarkable change: “Now when students are reflecting out loud with Mirror, they’re not intimated by the timer on the screen. Defying their one-word answers of the past, they now challenge themselves to fill in the space with more words.” This newfound expressiveness provided Rachel with invaluable insights into her students’ thoughts and experiences.

Students were now engaging in 1-2 minute reflections, a significant increase in communication. Even known gang members, typically the most resistant to opening up, revealed unexpected insights through Mirror’s Dashboard. “These are hard boys talking about their feelings,” Rachel marveled. 

Mirror, being a piece of technology offering unbiased, on-the-spot feedback, allowed students to express themselves freely, without fear of immediate consequences or judgment. This led to surprising revelations like a tough student expressing gratitude for his mom and pride in his math achievements. “I learned this student actually likes school from his reflection, he’s just having a really tough time right now,” Rachel comments, highlighting the unexpected insights gained.

A school-wide approach to conflict resolution

Rachel’s creative setup, placing two students at a time in front of Mirror, has also fostered peer-to-peer dialogue, an area students previously struggled. Rachel notes, “I started doing a collaboration where two students could sit down and talk at the same time, and they loved it.” This approach aligned with the school’s goal of improving student discourse and conflict resolution skills. Students who were once at odds found themselves engaging in constructive conversations, guided by Mirror’s AI-generated prompts.

In just one month, some students’ Understanding Scores doubled, a testament to the tool’s effectiveness. 

The benefits extend beyond the classroom. Rachel shares, “I had Mirror’s AI automatically personalize the reflection questions to the topic of conflict resolution because it’s an ongoing problem in the school.” She also gave students the freedom to do as many Recharge activities after reflecting as they desired (Mirror’s built-in mental and physical exercises that help students eliminate stress). By addressing these issues through Mirror, students began to develop better self-regulation and communication skills outside her class, too.

By providing a safe space for reflection, Mirror has become an invaluable tool in Rachel’s classroom and throughout the school. It’s helping students develop self-expression, emotional intelligence, and conflict resolution skills – essential abilities for success both in and out of school. The technology has bridged the communication gap between students and staff, offering a new way to understand and support students who often struggle to express themselves in traditional settings.

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