Turning Backward, Turning Forward:
Reflection in the Writing Classroom
Dr. L. Lennie Irvin
San Antonio College
SAWP Saturday Series Presentation
Nov. 5, 2011
How You Use Reflection
• Briefly describe one reflective assignment you have either
used as a teacher or experienced as a student.
• Then write about why you assign this reflective writing (or
why you think it was assigned). Goals? Purposes?
What the literature says about
reflection
It is important to engage in the metacognitive process of reflection if
you want to change and grow. Metacognition is thinking about
thinking. It empowers you to know what you know and know what you
don’t know. Once you engage in this type of reflection about your own
thinking you can be deliberate and focused in your planning. The
metacognitive process helps us move toward evaluating what we
currently think and move beyond it. … It is an agent for deliberate and
strategic change.
Text from an Instructional Design workshop (2002)
http://pixel.fhda.edu/id/Reflection/reflection_notes.html
Reflection as an agent for change and learning
Reflection as a post-task activity
Defining Reflection
• Synonyms, difficulty defining, imprecise vocabulary:
reasoning, thinking, critical thinking, reviewing,
problem solving, inquiry, reflective judgment,
reflective thinking, critical reflection, reflective
practice
Defining Reflection
Jennifer Moon’s comprehensive definition:
“reflection is a mental process with purpose and/or outcome.
It is applied in situations where material is ill-structured or
uncertain in that it has no obvious solutions, a mental process
that seems to be related to thinking and to learning. It is
suggested that the apparent differences in reflection are not
due to different types of reflection--in other words, to
differences in the process itself, but to the differences in the
way that it is used, applied or guided [different frameworks]”
(5).
from Reflection in Learning and Professional Development (1999).
Charting the Frameworks for Reflection in
the Writing Classroom
Time
Audience
Purpose
Two Frameworks of Reflection in
Composition
Rhetorical Reflection
Curricular Reflection
--writer (or learner)-centered
--reader (or teacher)-centered
--in-task
--post-task
--validity testing
--constructivist
--action/problem-solving
--evaluation/ demonstration
--interpretation
Roots of Curricular Reflection
• Writing Process
movement
• birth of Writing
Workshop
• constructivist views
of learning
• quest for more
authentic (and valid)
means of assessment
Portfolio-Centric Perspective on
Reflection
Characteristics
--performed at the end of the semester upon
completed work
--the open nature of this reflective writing
becomes an “exploration that can teach”
(Yancey, Reflection in 77).
--students construct their own understanding
on their writing and writing experience
--evaluative setting (students participate in
creating the context in which their text would
be read and evaluated)
--reflection enables a “seeing inside”
Promoting Reflection Throughout the
Curriculum
“I liked reflection for what it promised (but often failed) to
add to portfolios, and I understood that for students to
write a reflection-in-presentation that satisfied, they
would have to write more than that single reflective text,
on the quick, at the end of the term. In other words,
reflection would need to be integrated within the
curriculum”(15).
Kathleen Blake Yancey Reflection in the Writing Classroom (1998)
Two Paradigmatic Uses of Reflection in
the Writing Classroom
Portfolio Letters
(what Yancey calls Reflection-in-Presentation)
Draft Letters or Writer’s Memo
--Writing Process statement, Companion Piece, Talk-To,
Talk Back
“The Talk-Backs of reflection-in-action also provided a place where
students may contemplate their writing practices over time, where
they may discern patterns in multiple texts, where in reviewing
these multiple texts they see themselves emerge as writers with
practices and habits that transcend specific texts. Working in the
particular, they mark and map the general.”
(Yancey, Reflection in 59)
Mapping the Framework of
Portfolio-Centric Reflection
Expanding our Perspective on Reflection
Dewey
Schön
Boud
Kolb
John Dewey
reflective thought consists of
“Active, persistent, and careful
consideration of any belief or
supposed form of knowledge in the
light of the grounds that support it,
and the further conclusions to which
it tends” (6).
(1910)
Dewey: Reflection as Systematic
Problem-Solving
Five steps of reflective
inquiry
(i) a felt difficulty;
(ii) its location and definition;
(iii) suggestions of possible
solutions;
(iv) development by reasoning
of the bearings of the
suggestion;
(v) further observation and
experiment leading to its
acceptance or rejection; that is,
the conclusion of belief or
disbelief. (72)
Dewey: The Double-Movement of
Reflection
“There is thus a double
movement in all reflection:
a movement from the given
partial and confused data to
a suggested comprehensive
(or inclusive) entire
situation; and back from
this suggested whole—
which as suggested is a
meaning, and idea—to the
particular facts” (79).
Donald Schön and the Reflective
Practitioner
(1983)
(1987)
The Artistry of Reflection: Schön ’s
pattern of reflective inquiry
Schön : Reflective Conversation
Schön ’s Ladder of Reflection
reflection on
action
• metatheory, thinking about knowledge
• action-past
reflection-inaction
• reflective conversation with situation
• action-present, theory
action
• knowing-in-action
• activity, experience
David Boud and Experiential Learning
David Kolb and Experiential Learning
Kolb’s Experiential Learning Cycle
David Kolb and the
Writing Feedback Loop
Kolb’s Experiential Learning Cycle
Rhetorical Reflection
Rhetorical Reflection is a
form on in-task reflection
upon unfinished work,
written predominantly for
the writer’s own purposes
of self-evaluation, validity
testing, and problemsolving.
Rhetorical Reflection in the Writing
Classroom
Example Writing Review Prompt
In about 300 words, write a brief review of your thinking and
writing process so far in draft 3.1. Do your initial ideas seem
sufficient, or will you need to alter your problem to make it
more interesting and/or significant? Specifically tell us what
help your peer reviewers and instructors' commentary was and
how it might have been improved. Finally, how do you plan to
go about researching for your solution? Much of the strength
of the final draft will depend on good “evidence” derived from
outside sources, as well as a detailed description of your
solution. What is your plan for developing that good
“evidence”? How can you better flesh out your solution?
Example Writing Review Response
After reading over my peer responses, I realized there are a
few things I need to work on. First of all, it seems I need to
clarify my moves more. I did not put enough information
from the quotes to help explain the move. My “for example”
move needed more information from the quotes. The person
reading my draft said that I needed to include a sentence
from the author because at first he did not understand what
the move was. After re-reading my draft I realized that he
was right, because it was a little hard for me to understand
what I was saying. The reader also said that my
“compare/contrast” move was not very clear to him either,
so a few changes need to be made so that it is clearer to the
people reading my draft.
Fitting-in-Bounds: The Dynamic of
Rhetorical Reflection
Examples of the Dynamic of Rhetorical
Reflection
#2: The main advice I received, which I
think is the most crucial, is to clearly
state my thesis [F]. The person
commenting stated “Did you translate
this question into a more formal thesis
statement? If so, I didn't see it. [P]” I had
originally thought I had stated a thesis
somewhere in my paper, but the grader
is usually correct, and as I re-read [F] the
paper I realized there isn’t one [C]. I feel
if I can make a strong, clear, and to the
point thesis [R] my paper will be very
much improved.
Starts with feedback
F = feedback
P = problem
C = coming to know
R = revision goals
Examples of the Dynamic of Rhetorical
Reflection
#4: The person who graded my paper
also commented [F] on how casual my
paper is starting to get. “Try not to
casually insert your reader into an
artificial situation. [P]” He and I [F] both
found [C] myself using “you” too often. I
know the reader is supposed to able to
relate [R] which makes the paper
somewhat difficult to avoid the word
“you” but the person commenting is
write and I will need to edit [R] that into
different words.
Starts with feedback
F = feedback
P = problem
C = coming to know
R = revision goals
Essay Success and The Dimensions of
Rhetorical Reflection
Coding revealed
The person who graded my paper also commented
[reporting feedback] on how casual [identifying problem]
[fitting in bounds] my paper is starting to get. “Try not to
casually insert your reader into an artificial situation.”
[identifying problem] He and I both [double-checking
feedback] found [confirming feedback] myself using
“you” too often. I know [coming to know] the reader is
supposed to be [fitting in bounds] able to relate [essay
success] which makes the paper somewhat difficult to
avoid the word “you” but the person commenting is
write [coming to know] [taking other’s word] and I will
need to [fitting in bounds] edit [revision goal] that into
different words.
The Double-Movement of Rhetorical
Reflection
Essay Success
Suggestions and Implications for Teaching
As we consider the implications of this theory for
teaching writing, I think it is important to remember two
things:
• that learning environments are designed to help
students develop their idea of essay success through
learning materials, activities, models, and clear criteria,
and
• that students possess a flawed and incomplete concept
of essay success which undergoes a process of
construction over time
Suggestions for Teaching
1. Design peer response as the counterpart of rhetorical
reflection
2. Design Writing Review prompts to engage students in
reflective thinking
a. balanced between being open-ended and
directive
b. designed to ask students to notice and evoke
c. explicitly designed to get students to consider
feedback, identify problems, and formulate
revision goals
d. Targeted to engage students in exploring
perplexities and problems and seeking their
resolution
Suggestions for Teaching
3. Make available the key presence of essay success as
students reflect
4. Model and discuss the reflective thinking process
Conclusion
“[Rhetoric is] the art which
seeks to capture in opportune
moments that which is
appropriate and attempts to
suggest that which is possible”
(26)
A Review of Reflection Techniques
Whole Course Reflection
Journals—freewriting or not, open writing
Process Journals—regular writing about writing and writing experience
Writing Log—regular log about the writing and learning in a class
Mid-Term Reflection—Constructive Reflection: How’s it going so far.
Final or Portfolio reflection—Reflection in Presentation.
A Review of Reflection Techniques
Essay Cycle Reflections
Writing Process Statements: detailed description of writing process for an
essay
Draft Letters/Companion Pieces—addressed to reader preparing them to
appreciate the paper
Talk To—believe paper is excellent; doubt that it is horrible; predict teacher’s
view.
Talk Back—student responds to paper feedback from teacher.
Peer Response—this kind of feedback is reflection upon another’s writing
Writing Reviews—between-the-draft self-evaluations and problem-solving
Reflective Essay Assignments—topic requires reflective thinking to write.
Short Bibliography on Reflection
Dewey, John. How We Think. Boston: DC Heath, 1933.Flower, Linda. The Construction of
Negotiated
Meaning: A Social Cognitive Theoryof Writing. Carbondale, IL: Southern Illinois UP, 1994.
King, Patricia M., and Karen Strohm Kitchener. Developing Reflective Judgment. San
Francisco: Jossey-Bass, 1994
Kolb, David A. Experiential Learning: Experience as the Source of Learning and
Development. Cresskill, NJ: Prentice Hall, 1984.
Mezirow, Jack. Transformative Dimensions of Adult Learning. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass,
1991.
Moon, Jennifer A. Reflection in Learning & Professional Development. London: Kogan Page,
1999.
Phelps, Louise Wetherbee. Composition as a Human Science. NY: Oxford UP, 1988.
Qualley, Donna. Turns of Thought: Teaching Composition as Reflexive Inquiry. Portsmouth,
NH: Boynton/Cook, 1997.
Schön, Donald A. Educating the Reflective Practitioner. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass, 1987.
—. The Reflective Practitioner. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass, 1983.
Yancey, Kathleen Blake. Reflection in the Writing Classroom. Logan: Utah State UP, 1998.
PowerPoint for this presentation is available at:
http://www.sanantoniowritingproject.org/Sat3.html