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English 101 Final Reflection: My Growth as a Writer

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Published: Mar 8, 2024

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13 Reflection and Portfolios

The final assignment in your English course will include a reflective essay in which you describe your growth as a writer over the course of the semester. This activity of reflecting on your growth and performance is what is called a metacognitive activity: one in which you think and write about your learning.

Writing a formal reflective essay may be a new thing for you, so this chapter will provide an overview of why we write reflections on our learning and how to approach a reflection assignment.

Student reflection about their thinking is such a crucial part of the learning process. You have come to this course with your own writing goals. Now is a good time to think back on your writing practices with reflective writing, also called metacognitive writing. Reflective writing helps you think through and develop your intentions as a writer. Leveraging reflective writing also creates learning habits that extend to any discipline of learning. It’s a set of procedures that helps you step back from the work you have done and ask a series of questions: Is this really what I wanted to do?  Is this really what I wanted to say? Is this the best way to communicate my intentions? Reflective writing helps you authenticate your intentions and start identifying places where you either hit the target or miss the mark. You may find, also, that when you communicate your struggles, you can ask others for help! Reflective writing helps you trace and articulate the patterns you have developed, and it fosters independence from relying too heavily on an instructor to tell you what you are doing.

Reflective Learning

Reflective thinking is a powerful learning tool. As we have seen throughout this course, proficient readers are reflective readers, constantly stepping back from the learning process to think about their reading. They understand that just as they need to activate prior knowledge at the beginning of a learning task and monitor their progress as they learn, they also need to make time during learning as well as at the end of learning to think about their learning process, to recognize what they have accomplished, how they have accomplished it, and set goals for future learning. This process of “thinking about thinking” is called metacognition. When we think about our thinking—articulating what we now know and how we came to know it—we close the loop in the learning process.

How do we engage in a reflection? Educator Peter Pappas modified Bloom’s Taxonomy of Learning to focus on reflection:

This “taxonomy of reflection” provides a structure for metacognition.  Educator Silvia Rosenthal Tolisano has modified Pappas’s taxonomy into a pyramid and expanded upon his  reflection questions:

By making reflection a key component of our work, students realize that learning is not always about facts and details. Rather, learning is about discovery.

How is reflective writing in the academic setting different from journaling or writing in a diary?

If you write in a diary or a journal, recording your thoughts and feelings about what has happened in your life, you are certainly engaging in the act of reflection. Many of us have some experience with this type of writing. In our diaries, journals, or other informal spaces for speaking – or writing- our mind,  write to ourselves, for ourselves, in a space that will largely remain private.

Your reflection essay for college courses will contain some of those same features:

• The subject of the reflective essay is you and your experiences
• You can generally use the first person in a reflective essay

But writing academic reflections, like the one that is due for the English 100/101 portfolio assignment, is a bit different from journaling or keeping a diary:

What can be gained from metacognitive activities that ask you to reflect on your learning and your performance as a writer?

One of the major goals in any First-Year Writing class is to encourage students’ growth as writers. No one is expected to be a perfect writer at the end of the semester. Your instructor’s hope, however, is that after 16 weeks of reading, writing, and revising several major essays, you are more confident, capable, and aware of yourself as a writer than you were at the beginning of the semester. Reflecting on the process that you go through as you write – even if your writing is not perfect – can help you to identify the behaviors, strategies, and resources that have helped you to be successful or that could support your future success. In short, reflecting on how you write (or how you have written during a particular semester) can be quite powerful in helping you to identify areas where you have grown and areas where you still have room for more growth.

How can I write a reflective essay?

As with any essay, a reflective essay should come with its own assignment sheet. On that assignment sheet, you should be able to identify what the purpose of the reflective essay is and what the scope of the reflection needs to be. Some key elements of the reflective essay that the assignment sheet should answer are:

• What, exactly, the scope of the reflection is. Are you reflecting on one lesson, one assignment, or the whole semester?
• Do you have detailed guidelines, resources, or reference documents for your reflections that must be met?
• Is there a particular structure for the reflection?
• Should the reflection include any outside resources?

If you are struggling to find the answers to these questions, ask your professor!

Another wonderful resource for writing a reflective essay comes from  Writing Commons , in the article  “Writing an Academic Reflection Essay” . This article offers great information about the following:

• What it means to be “academic” or “critical” and at the same time personal and reflective
• How you can achieve focus in a reflective essay
• What “evidence” is in a reflective essay

Prior Learning

Fast and well-traveled roads may make for a quicker trip, but they also miss the nuance and beauty of the scenic route. For some, the long way around is just worth it. The adventures, mishaps, connections, and coincidences that happen along the way are a teacher like no other.

If this sounds familiar to you when you think about your journey in education, then this textbook is for you. Let’s take another look at those years of experiential learning along the scenic route: your work, travel, volunteering, community involvement, entrepreneurship, and whatever else you’ve explored while not in the traditional classroom setting.

Let’s reconsider that experience as Prior Learning, and dig in to see what you’ve learned on the way.

The portfolio is composed of an assortment of documents and artifacts demonstrating previous college-level learning.

• Examines your personal motivations and educational goals in the context of learning and how you will achieve them.
• This portion should address each course objective found on the course syllabus, and demonstrate that you have mastered the objectives. Showcase how your learning applies to the objectives for a specific course.
• You will need to supply documentation to support the narrative.
• Documentation is as individual as the learner, and it may include items such as sample work products, training certificates, workplace evaluations, letters of recommendation, and/or photographs.

The Educational Narrative is asking for a very specific thing from you so that your reviewers can understand the learning you’ve done and relate it to the course you’re challenging.

What is that thing it’s asking for?

A story . Several stories, actually.

The word Narrative means “story,” of course, so this component is asking you to tell the story of your learning. To tell that story, you’ll need to have several examples that clearly demonstrate your expertise with the course’s subject matter. And these examples need to be  specific . Here’s why:

In creative writing, teachers often say that the universe is in the specific. The more detailed the description, the better the reader can visualize the characters and scene. Take, for example, this line:

We got dressed up and went to the concert.

Who are they? What’d they wear? How old were they? What kind of concert was it? Who was playing? None of that is apparent, so every reader sees something different.

But what if that line was written like:

We teased our hair to the ceilings, doused it in White Rain, snapped on spandex and pleather. We tore out of the suburbs, left a mile-long streak of rubber on our way to go see Twisted Sister at CBGB’s.

Now can you see it? From the first description, it could’ve also easily been a black-tie evening at the Philharmonic, or a 7th Grade Band Concert, or… It’s the specifics that make the example come alive.

That’s  your task in the Educational Narrative.

Though, of course, you’ll be writing about your class experiences and not an 80s hair band (unless you are drawing connections from when you were a member of an 80s hair band…).

ATTRIBUTIONS

• Content Adapted from Excelsior Online Writing Lab (OWL). (2020).  Excelsior College. Retrieved from https://owl.excelsior.edu/ licensed under a  Creative Commons Attribution-4.0 International License .
• Content Adapted from Composition II. Authored by : Alexis McMillan-Clifton.  Provided by : Tacoma Community College.  Located at :  http://www.tacomacc.edu .
• Reflection.  Authored by : Daryl Smith O’Hare.  Provided by : Chadron State College.  Project : Kaleidoscope Open Course Initiative.  License :  CC BY: Attribution
• Image of woman against wall.  Authored by : VisualAge.  Located at :  https://flic.kr/p/CScnK .  License :  CC BY-NC-ND: Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives
• Content Adapted from Composition II.  Authored by : Elisabeth Ellington, Ph.D..  Provided by : Chadron State College.  Located at :  http://www.csc.edu/ .  Project : Kaleidoscope Open Course Initiative.  License :  CC BY: Attribution
• Image of Taxonomy.  Authored by : Peter Pappas.  Located at :  http://www.peterpappas.com/images/2011/08/taxonomy-of-reflection.png .  Project : Copy/Paste.  License :  CC BY-NC: Attribution-NonCommercial
• Content Adapted from   A Guide to Rhetoric, Genre, and Success in First-Year Writing  by Emilie Zickel is licensed under a  Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License ,
• Image of pyramid.  Authored by : Silvia Rosenthal Tolisano.  Located at :  http://langwitches.org/blog/2011/06/20/reflectu00adreflectingu00adreflection/ .  License :  CC BY-NC-SA: Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike
• Content Adapted from Prior Learning Portfolio Development  by Baker Lawley is licensed under a  Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License , except where otherwise noted.

English 101: Journey Into Open Copyright © 2021 by Christine Jones is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License , except where otherwise noted.

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ENG 101: Choose Your Own Adventure

Final Portfolio and Reflection

As an individual whose English is not her first language, English has never been easy for me, especially in writing. As I was reading the course description after enrolling in English 101: “ Choose Your Own Adventure ” I came across the word “Rhetorical.” I attempted to pronounce it, but unfortunately, I could not. My friend who was sitting next to me laughed really hard, then said, “Why are you enrolling in this class if you can’t even pronounce the most significant word in the class.” I quickly replied, “I just want to fulfil the GER Requirements.” Even now, I still can not perfectly pronounce the word. However, the pronunciation of the word is nothing other than just syllables and vowels coming out of the mouth. What is more powerful and meaningful is the meaning that it holds, which I came realize through multiple class assignments. Additionally, this class was more than “just to fulfil the GER Requirement.” I have impressively and surprisingly improved my writing skills more than I expected. Now, I can proudly admit that the course outcomes were achieved, which highly contributed to my writing skills. The outcomes for English 101 were as follow: Outcome 1, Rhetorical Composition. Students compose texts in multiple genres, using multiple modes with attention to rhetorical situations. Outcome 2: Critical Thinking and Reading Resulting in Writing. As they undertake scholarly inquiry and produce their own arguments, students summarize, analyze, synthesize, and evaluate the ideas of others. Outcome 3: Writing as Process. Students understand and practice writing as a process, recursively implementing strategies of research, drafting, revision, editing, and reflection.

       Throughout the semester each assignment was designed to meet one or more of these outcomes. I improved skills in organizing and developing my writings while being aware of the audience. I learned how to express my freedom of writing. And most importantly, this portfolio does not only include my best works, but also my mistakes. And through these mistakes is where I learned the growth in my writing, and understood that writing is a process.

        At the beginning of this semester, I spent more time complaining than working, even with a 150-word assignment. I perceived myself as a poor writer. However, as days went by, the continuous complaints and the feeling of being a poor writer vanished. After learning ways to develop ideas and organizing them before I start writing, which helped me to save time, and made my works understandably and excellently written. Before I would just write start writing without thinking about audiences or the purpose.

       Outcome 1 for this course was Rhetorical Composition. This was achieved through several projects including Hacker-Name Bio-mythography, Place Analysis, and the Storium Project. The pattern that this class followed was very effective. I used what I learned from previous assignment to carry on to the next one.

       For instance, the Hacker Name Bio-Mythography seemed quite easy and irrelevant to the course until I started working on it and realized how important it was for me as a writer and as a person. Creating my hacker name was very interesting because it made me think about the fact that there are always audience, and as crazy as it might sound, I sometimes would forget that they will be any audience. The idea of being aware of the audience turned the “quite easy” assignment to difficult assignment. In this assignment, we were asked to create a hacker name that will make us express our opinions freely. I started asking myself  “Who am I?” “Who reads what I write?” and “how can I satisfy their needs?” After thinking of these questions, I created my hacker name to be I_AM_ME. After I developed this person, and became aware of the audience. It became easier for me to write. Thus, I learned that developing ideas before I start writing helps me a lot. Moving on to the next assignment of Place Analysis, I wrote about my first time at six flags. In this assignment, I described the place, my emotions, and people that were there.

       With development and audience awareness skills gained from the Hacker Name assignment, and the descriptions of emotions and setting developed from the Place Analysis. I was able to write the Storium Scenes. However, at first this was not easy because I had to create characters, describe their feelings, and maintain their characters throughout while describing their new developed personalities. But, I did this by collaborating with my team.

       The second outcome for this course was: Critical Thinking and Reading Resulting in Writing. This was achieved through various assignments, but most influentially through Style Guide Four.

       I always tell my friends that “English is confusing.” Because there are so many English language rules that makes no sense, things like the proper pronunciation of “Arkansas” and “Kansas.” Finally, in Style Guide 4, I was given the opportunity to respectfully disagree with one of the most commonly known grammar rule of capitalization. I have never felt free of sharing my thoughts until this assignment. In this style guide, I developed the freedom and confidence in my writing. I always thought that every English grammar rule should be respected and everyone should follow them. Here, I felt the confidence and freedom in me while criticizing other people’s work and my works. I learned that freedom and confidence are essentials to effectively deliver your message.

       Since the beginning of the semester until very recently, the most feedbacks I received from the professor and others were suggesting that I improve my thesis statement and organizing the paper accordingly. These feedbacks were very useful, and indeed contributed to my writing process. From thesis statements like , “ The main argument found in this article is that due to multiple reasons encountered by teenagers such as drug abuses, poverty, suicide, sexual abuses, juvenile delinquency, antisocial acts and alike. Adolescents are negatively affected by these ongoing issues, which limits the use of their capabilities to maximum.”( Annotated Bibliography ), to “The passage was well displayed through the use of pathos and imagery that insisted in illustrating character development.” ( Style Guide, 1 ) to “In this essay, I will be illustrating the use of hyperbole in creating image and ideas, as well as evoking emotions.”( Style Guide, 3)

       I can confidently admit the growth in organizing and developing my paper according to my thesis statement. In the first thesis, I broke one idea into two sentences. In the second thesis, I did not fully follow this statement throughout my essay. In the third statement, I organized my essay by following my thesis.

       Although, I thought that the third thesis statement was perfect. I still received feedback from my professor that the phrase “In this essay..” is more applicable with longer papers. I still witnessed improvements from the first to the third statement. Most importantly, I never stop learning ways to improve my writing skills, because according to the third outcome, “ Writing as Process: Students understand and practice writing as a process, recursively implementing strategies of research, drafting, revision, editing, and reflection.”

       I look forward to continue the writing process while I apply every knowledge I have gained from this class to succeed, not only in written and orally communications, but also how I show myself in public with the audience awareness skill learned. As many successful people like to say, ”Started from the bottom, now we here.” Now, this statement applies at me as well.