Reflecting on Reflective Writing

1. Reflecting on Reflective Writing Kentucky Department of Education 500 Mero Street Frankfort, KY 40601 (502) 564-2106

2. Guiding Questions • What is reflection and what is the purpose of the reflective entry in the Kentucky Writing Portfolio? • What are my literacy experiences and how have they influenced my writing development? • How can I help students reflect well, so that they may be prepared to write an effective entry for the portfolio?

3. Guiding Question • What is reflection and what is the purpose of the reflective entry in the Kentucky Writing Portfolio?

4. Definitions • Reflection—the careful consideration and serious contemplation of past events for the purpose of evaluating or making sense of those past events. • Literacy--In a narrow sense, literacy is the ability of a student to use and understand language through reading and writing. However, the concept of literacy may also be defined very broadly. Literacy is the ability of a student to use language to communicate with others—through reading, writing, speaking, listening, observing and through the use of the combination of these skills.

5. Purpose of the Reflective Entry for the Kentucky Writing Portfolio • The purpose of the reflective entry is for students to analyze and evaluate their growth as writers by considering the influence of literacy experiences. To achieve this purpose, students MUST analyze and evaluate their writing growth.

6. Guiding Question • What are my literacy experiences and how have they influenced my writing development?

7. Activity • Consider your own literacy experiences. We would like you to take about ten minutes to complete a quick write to consider your own literacy experiences and writing development. • How can your writing about your own literacy experiences help you help your students?

8. Guiding Question • How can I help students reflect well, so that they may be prepared to write an effective entry for the portfolio?

9. Strategies to help students with reflection • Students should be writing reflectively often throughout the grade levels and content areas. • Students should use their working folders regularly as a means of writing reflectively. • Teachers may help students use graphic organizers to brainstorm literacy experiences.

10. Another Strategy • Teachers may use questioning techniques to help students reflect on writing development through literacy.

11. Another Strategy • Teachers may use samples to model effective strategies in reflective writing.

12. Sample January 22, 2007 Dear Mrs. Kinningham, Over the past year, I have experienced lots of good lessons in my schoolwork. I have noticed that some of the lessons helped me learn more about reading and writing than others. In order to understand what kind of reader and writer I have become this year, I am writing to let you know how some of my experiences in fourth grade have helped me prepare for your class next year. My fourth grade teacher, Miss Westberry, explained to the class early in the year that “literacy” means reading and writing and how we use language to communicate. I thought that was pretty interesting. One of the best “literacy” experiences I have had this year is preparing an oral book report about the book HOLES to present in front of my class. I learned how to write better, so I could turn a plain old book report into an interesting book review. I then used my book review in my portfolio this year, because I thought it was one of the best pieces I have ever written.

13. Sample • “Now I just needed to figure out how to channel and control these emotions to help get the tone right in my pieces. Though it sounds a little odd to mix the two, I turned to another one of my hobbies to help me; acting. It took a good bit of time, but I learned to, essentially, act as I wrote.”

14. Sample “But even great things can have terrible moments, and sometimes things don’t always work out as you had expected. Not every SNL sketch has been quote-worthy, and not every joke created has been “milk-out-of-your-nose” hysterical. And regardless of who you are or what you’ve created, your work won’t always be a masterpiece. Upon looking through old pieces written throughout my high school career.”

15. Contact Information Kentucky Department of Education Writing Consultants Depeka Croft, elementary Dena Cole, middle school Lee Ann Hager, high school Division of Curriculum: (502) 564-2106

16. References • King, Stephen. On Writing. • Lamott, Anne. Bird by Bird. • Prose, Francine. Reading Like a Writer.