At a glance:
Faculty
support through the May Workshop
Vallance
and reflective discussion
Reflection
during research
Two tools
for reflection
Reflection
at the Writing Center
Reflection
as a capstone to learning
MAY WORKSHOP!
Professors, supportive professional
staff, and instructors: join the May 23-24 workshop to design a writing-enhanced
course in general education or the major. Receive John Bean’s Engaging
Ideas and a $300 stipend at the workshop’s completion. Send application
to: Brad Peters, English, RH 318.
Use This Application Format:
What course do you want to
transform into a writing-enhanced course? What kinds of writing do you
currently include in the course?
How will students benefit
from transforming this course?
How do you expect your department
curriculum to benefit from transforming this course?
Briefly explain what priorities
you have for this course’s transformation in terms of promoting critical
thinking, designing assignments, providing feedback, managing paper load,
assessing students’ written work—or other issues in instruction in writing.
Faculty signature______________
Dept. Chair’s signature_________
College Dean’s signature________
Date________________________
NOTE: Attach a copy of the course’s current syllabus!
Best Practices: Vallance’s Students Reflect on an Assignment (top)
Elizabeth Vallance, a professor
in art education, asks her pre-teaching students in ARTE 463 to do a series
of three “visual-culture image inventories.” She wants them to understand
how writing helps improve their visual thinking skills.
This four-part activity
requires the students first to provide a brief description and second,
to do a clear sketch of an everyday object. Then the students must find
a traditional work of art with which the object can be compared. For example,
they might choose a food display in a supermarket and compare it to a still
life. Finally, the students must invent ideas for activities in a K-12
classroom that would encourage learners to explore the object’s aesthetic
values through the perspectives of art history or criticism.
Vallance’s students write
three different image inventories. Once they have completed the assignments,
Vallance plans a class discussion where the students reflect on what they’ve
learned. She puts the students into small groups and gives them 15 minutes
to prepare. Afterwards, each small group reports out to the class.
Students find that they
formed a habit of looking for and thinking about connections between common
objects and fine art. They state that they developed a more critical eye,
improving their ability to describe and understand artistic composition.
They brainstorm ideas for lesson plans based on the activities their assignment
required. Some even notice the importance of being able to write more articulately
about art, suggesting that writing reinforced their “visual thinking” skills.
Vallance’s students also
propose ways to change the assignment. They’ve suggested, for example,
that the image inventories could include analyses of architecture, tattoos
and body art, billboards and signs, or music videos. They’ve proposed doing
inventories for an extended period, in journals or worksheets.
Current WAC research strongly
indicates that students benefit more from reflecting on their assignments,
but Vallance’s practice implies that professors can gain much, too.
Research and initial write-up by Sheena Williams, Graduate Studies—English.
Teaching Students to Reflect at the Research Stage of Writing (top)
Research should give students practice in analysis and synthesis. But when students gather sources for a written project, they often believe that “facts speak for themselves.” We can help students reflect more analytically and synthetically if we ask them to consider:
If we encourage students
to reflect in such ways earlier in their research—maybe by drafting a literature
review or an annotated bibliography—the quality of their later work often
benefits
Two Tools that Promote Reflection During the Drafting Process (top)
Once students create the
first draft of a paper, faculty can introduce a reflective exercise that
moves students toward active revision. Two tools facilitate the exercise:
a thoughtfully developed rubric and a “demonstration model” of the paper.
Distributing the rubric
reminds students of the assignment’s expectations. The best rubrics convert
the language of the assignment into a set of four to eight criteria. Good
criteria concisely define both format and standards. For example, a good
criterion might tell students: “The methodology section of your paper shows
what approach you are using in your analysis and accurately represents
one of the four methods our textbook discusses.”
Distributing the model of
a good paper helps students understand format, adequate research, documentation,
development, writing style, etc. Often, model papers that exercise different,
but equally valid choices help students make their own choices in producing
the revision. A discussion of a model paper’s attributes allows writers
to review material they’ve studied, so that what they’ve learned in class
and during research gets reinforced. A model paper doesn’t need to be perfect—in
fact, good but underdeveloped drafts can show problems that even accomplished
writers struggle with.
Once students grasp the
assignment’s rubric and have a good model to follow, they can look over
their own drafts more closely. Or students can get into small groups, where
classmates can discuss what further work they must all do.
Afterwards, each student
should write a reflection on their progress. What specifically have they
accomplished in their drafts? What specific changes, deletions, additions,
and so forth must they make, to meet the assignment’s expectations? Two
or three students should read their reflective pieces out loud for others
to hear, so the class learns what kinds of revision tasks await most of
them.
Following this “collective
reflection,” it’s easier for faculty to read through the drafts and use
the rubric to confirm what aspects of each student’s work are strong, okay,
or weak. Faculty can also show students where they have failed to meet
the assignment’s criteria, so students can address their problems before
they receive a final grade.
This kind of reflective
exercise cuts back significantly on the paper load, while it also urges
students to become more proficient at reading their own work.
Writing Tutors Ask: How Can Faculty Make Use of Students’ Reflections on Tutoring? (top)
When students use the Writing
Center, their tutors provide them with feedback forms. The UWC collects
demographic information on the forms, but the forms also help students
reflect on the drafts they’re developing.
At the beginning of a session,
students go through a checklist, indicating what they hope to improve.
The checklist is divided in sections with basic elements that help students
reflect on where they are in the writing process:
This information gives
tutors a sense of the students’ priorities and shows how well students
can assess their own work.
After a session, tutors
ask students to itemize what they’ve discussed. Often, students are surprised
by how much more they’ve covered. Then students briefly explain what changes
they anticipate making in their drafts. This kind of reflection reminds
them to take responsibility for their work.
Faculty can give students
credit for following up on their Writing Center reflections. They can provide
students with further comments. And they can notify Writing Center staff
about other concerns that tutors can help students address.
Written Reflection as a Capstone to Learning (top)
Kathleen Yancy, keynote speaker
at the recent NIU Portfolio Integration Conference, emphasizes the importance
of embedding reflection throughout students’ learning experiences. Written
reflection, especially, prompts students to reveal aspects of their learning
that we can’t otherwise identify or anticipate. One of the most valuable
times to get students to provide written reflection is at the end of a
project or at the end of a course.
To get the maximum response
in such a summative reflection exercise, we can ask students to: