Student Choices
Students may prefer simply to describe what is going on in the writ-
ing in their own way. When students set their goals, they will use their
reflections as a basis for directing their learning journey. Students might
collect work throughout the year as part of a portfolio process. Every quar-
ter they can review the work in their collection folders and choose one or
two pieces to enter into their portfolio. When they make those choices,
they can take the opportunity to reflect on the reasons for their choices
and to set goals for their next quarter’s work.
Building the Voices of Reflection
The ultimate intent of teaching reflection is to get students into the habit
of reflecting on their own actions and constructing meaning from those
experiences. When they develop the Habits of Mind related to reflection,
they will hear both an internal and an external voice of reflection.
Internal Voice
The internal voice of reflection is self-knowledge. Self-knowledge
is difficult to describe in detail, but we can define it as both whatand
howwe are thinking. Self-knowledge includes ways of thinking that may
not be visible to us consciously. Given our culture, students have dif-
ficulty realizing that they need to engage in “self-talk.” To help students
develop the internal voice of reflection, they can be asked to do the
following:
•Write a letter to themselves detailing what they learned from an
experience.
•Send themselves a letter of advice, reminding themselves of what
to look out for the next time they do something.
•Interview themselves.
•Make a list of connections they see between their work and others’
work. Include peers’ work along with work that has been studied in the
classroom.
•Record the steps they go through to solve a problem. Guide them
to comment on how useful those steps were.
Learning Through Reflection 233