April 15

For writing into the day, we responded to the question: In relation to an English class, what do you think of when you hear the word "reflection"?

The class responded with the following:

• Looking back on work you've done, thinking about it and relating it to yourself or other work you have done
• A way to think about how your writing has grown, how it has improved and how that might help you in the future
• Thinking back about how assignments have changed
• Thinking about your progress
• Thinking about what you've done
• Looking at something you got out of the work you did
• An opportunity to look at what improvements you would make if you could go back an revise more

Megan then gave the following a working definition for this class:

Merriam-Webster Dictionary defines reflection as: “(1) the action of bending or folding back [and] (2) consideration of some subject matter, idea, or purpose¹.” Reflecting in a writing classroom combines these two definitions.

“Reflection is thinking for an extended period by linking recent experiences to earlier ones…The thinking involves looking for commonalities, differences, and interrelations beyond their superficial elements.²” “The act of reflection, therefore, becomes crucial to [students’] education. It serves as the bridge between experiences and learning.^3”

“Meaningful reflection considers three questions:

1. What—what happened?
2. So what—what does it mean? 
3. Now what—what is the next step?⁴” 

We talked about the Final Reflection assignment.  On the last day of class, you will need to put the on your blog:

• In one post, you will imbed the final drafts of the major assignments (see the document "Using Scribd to Post to Your Blog" on Moodle for how you should do this)
• In another post, you will write the final reflection letter

Finally, we used Megan's SI Reflection (http://megansreflection.blogspot.com) as a model for the final reflection and discussed it.

What types of things might you link to or use as examples in your final reflection?

• Blog posts
• Daybook entries
• Comments - instructor comments, comments you've written, comment posted by your inquiry group
• Reflections
• Reading Responses
• Schooling trajectory
• Videos like TedTalks
• Readings
• Classmates' work
• Class discussions
• Papers
• Meetings we have had
• Pictures - daybook entries, peer workshop writing, timeline, questions from discussions

How might you use these models to think about your own reflection?

• Figure out where to start
• Do the reflection sequentially or by topic
• Include a lot of what is going on in your head 
• Choose a topic and support it with the blog

No Homework

Note: All drafts for extra feedback must be email to Megan by midnight tonight.