January 8, 2008

Writing Across the Curriculum Tip WI08: Reflective Writing

Filed under: Activity News, Creating Writing Assignments, WAC Tip, Writing Process — at 5:43 pm

Are you ever left class wondering whether or not students understand a course concept or a day’s reading? Would you like students to think about course concepts and readings in a more sustained way? Would you like students to be more conscious about their writing process?

Consider integrating reflective writing activities into your course. Reflective writing can be formal or informal, involve more or less feedback from an instructor, and can be directed to a number of different audiences, though students are focusing their writing on themselves or their ideas in some way. Reflective writing can elicit student responses to complex and multi-layered concepts, as well as encourage students to make connections between theory and practice. It can help you and your students to immediately identify what is working and not working in the course. Below are a few informal and formal reflective writing activities that you can with your students:

  • 5-minute Reflection: Save the last few minutes of class to and ask students to reflect on what made sense about the lecture/discussion and one issue/question that they still have about the material. This will give students an opportunity to take stock of the class, and if you collect their writing, they will give you an sense of how students are responding to instruction.
  • Cover Letters and ‘Debriefing’ Reports: Students often have an excellent sense of how they did on an exam, assignment, or essay, so consider asking them for a short self-reflective response when students finish a big project, exam or essay. This allows students to take an opportunity to think back through their work and learn more about the research and writing process. More formal exercises can ask students to represent themselves and their work as they might in a professional cover letter.
  • Blogs: Online journals give students an opportunity to reflect on their work or readings on the internet. Instructors or fellow classmates can respond to posts, giving feedback or expanding on ideas. Privacy on most blog sites can be set so that students can carefully control who reads their blog, and readership can limited to just the instructor, to other classmates, or can be opened to anyone who has access to the internet.
  • Dialogue with Author: Writing out an imagined dialogue with the author of an assigned text can help students carefully summarize academic arguments and take the often difficult step of positioning their own ideas in relationship to those arguments This assignment can help students move beyond repeating facts and interpreting the text; they attempt to take a position by pointing out textual evidence, making connections, and raising questions about the author’s arguments.

    • For an archive of previous WAC Tips, visit our blog, and while you’re there, take a look at summaries of many other events throughout the University (click on ‘Categories’ for a topical menu): http://cstw.org/WAC/?cat=50. The WAC team would be happy to help you develop writing activities for your class. We can meet with you to discuss possibilities that could fit in your course, or we can come into your class and facilitate a session on reflective writing or any other topic that you are interested in.

    If you are interested in learning more ways of using writing to promote critical thinking, consider joining Chris Manion of WAC and Kathryn Plank of FTAD in a series of discussions of John Bean’s book Engaging Ideas: The Professor’s Guide to Integrating Writing, Critical Thinking, and Active Learning in the Classroom. Visit the FTAD events site for more information and to register: http://ftad.osu.edu/participate/ftad_events/ftad_events.html

    Please also consider attending the four workshops we are sponsoring with FTAD this quarter. We hope that you join our forums for engaging dialogue across diverse disciplines.

  • Motivating Students to Write: Creating Online Venues for Student Work, Wednesday, January 30, 2008 , 3:30 p.m.–5:00 p.m., 300 Younkin Success Center
  • Grammar 101: Effectively Addressing Surface Errors in Student Writing, Wednesday, February 6, 2008, 3:30 p.m.–5:00 p.m., 300 Younkin Success Center
  • Motivating Students to Write II: Writing in the Community and the University, Wednesday, February 13, 2008, 3:30 p.m.–5:00 p.m., 300 Younkin Success Center
  • Responding to International Student Writing, Wednesday, February 27, 2008, 3:30–5:00 p.m., 300 Younkin Success Center

    • As always, if you have questions or need some help, you can contact us by phone (292-9650), e-mail (waccstw@osu.edu), or through our website (http://cstw.osu.edu/wac).

    Have a great quarter,

    The WAC Team

    Dr. Chris Manion, Coordinator
    Kate White
    Kelly Bradbury
    Shannon Thomas
    Lisya Seloni

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