Post 259: The Importance of Reflection in a Writing Class

Post 259: The Importance of Reflection in a Writing Class

When we study Bloom's Taxonomy, we study different cognitive learning stages. The lowest cognitive stage involves memorization of facts while the highest cognitive stage of learning involves analysis, synthesis and evaluation. 

As a result, when students reflect on what they have learned, they are using higher order thinking skills in which the learner is applying what he is learning from declarative knowledge to procedural knowledge, in layman's terms, he is learning a new skill he can use in his real life.

In a writing class, it is important to add a evaluation/reflection component to your class design to motivate students to reflect upon what they have learned. Typically, I put the reflection component in the last few weeks of my class as my students gradually master the material and take charge of their learning.

Kim Douillard (2002) and Robert Griffith (1997) highlighted the importance of reflection. In their classes, they asked students daily or weekly to reflect on their writing process to develop meaningful writing. Douillard discusses 8 kinds of thinking her students engage in: recounting, observing, general questioning, making comments, evaluation, being aware of their own learning, recognizing new information and adding new information to their existing knowledge.

By having students be aware of their learning and their writing process, students understand better how to overcome their writing block. They become aware of their own insecurities and learn how to overcome  their writing block through reflection and evaluation.

I have mentioned in previous blogs how much I love using the think aloud method where students tell the teacher what they are thinking as they create their paper making the student more aware of their writing process.

As a teacher, I write alongside my students and as I am writing my piece, I tell students what I am thinking. I would say, "I am brainstorming my topic by going over in my head what I already know about the topic." Then, I write down what I already know. Then I say, "Now, I want to look up on the internet more about the topic so I can come up with evidence to back up my claim." So, by informing my students step by step my creative thinking process, this helps them to frame their own thoughts to suit their own writing process.

In conclusion, reflection or mindfulness is a crucial part of the writing process to make students aware of their own creative process to help students write and create sound papers and fun creative stories.