•Works hard.
•Is exciting.
•Attends to the reader.
•Is clear.
•Does not drag writing out.
•Uses descriptive words.
Through this experience, the teachers realized that the questions they
asked might limit students’ responses. They reminded themselves that the
purpose of reflection is threefold:
- To h e l p s t u d e n t s b e c o m e m o r e aw a r e o f t h e i r w r i t i n g — w h a t m a k e s
writing work and what does not.
•To help students take more responsibility for their writing—to know
that writing must be understood by an audience and to learn how to antic-
ipate a reader’s response through self-evaluation.
•To see growth in writing over the school year and to be able to talk
about that growth with students’ parents.
Te a c h e r s e m p h a s i z e d t o s t u d e n t s t h a t t h e p u r p o s e o f r e f l e c t i o n w a s n o t t o
develop a carefully crafted piece of writing, but to develop the capacity for
metacognition.
Sentence Stems
Sentence stems can stimulate reflections. Use them in conferences
(where reflection can be modeled), or put them on a sheet for students
who choose writing to jump-start their reflections. Here are examples of
possible sentence stems:
- I selected this piece of writing because....
•What really surprised me about this piece of writing was.. ..
•When I look at my other pieces of writing, this piece is different
because....
•What makes this piece of writing strong is my use of.. ..
•Here is one example from my writing to show you what I mean.
•What I want to really work on to make my writing better for a
reader is....
232 Learning and Leading with Habits of Mind