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[|What Librarians Make] =**Reflections**= __ Reflection Guidelines __

Reflection has been characterized by Dewey as “the reconstruction or reorganization of experience” in order to bring new meaning to that experience or learning. By examining your experience and applying the learning, you can impact the future to learn and grow. Many of us are asked to “reflect” on what we have learned, but purposeful reflection is not usually a directed process. There are many ways to reflect, but the following process has been helpful in developing more meaningful and useful reflection. When you are reflecting consider these questions: (a) What did you learn through reading the assigned reading and can you make a connection between your life and what you have read or learned? (b) What do you now know or what can you now do that you didn't know or were not yet able to do before? How does this make you feel? Are you concerned about any of the things you observed or experienced? (c) Based on your experiences, what will you do in the future to make use of your learnings. For example, will you, in some way, behave differently? Will you do further readings? Are there things you will observe more closely or in a different way? How will this impact your teaching or students. = You will use a three-part format: = 1. Description. Briefly describe your experiences (class activities, reading assignment, your school or job experiences). Do this in a descriptive rather than a judgmental way (merely record events without editorializing or agreeing or disagreeing). Make connections. 2. Impact. Tell what you have learned (or confirm what you had already believed, or how what you have learned differs from what you believed). How do you feel about what you learned? 3. Intent. Make a statement about what you intend to do as a result of your learnings and feelings. BE SPECIFIC! Phrase this in a personal and positive way ("what I will do is . . ." rather than "what I won't do is . . .").

Good reflection has three elements: recollection, analysis and interpretation, and proposed action. Put another way, reflection involves description, impact, and intent. Description simply involves recalling your experiences such as class activities, textbook readings, and school involvement. These experiences provide the basis for the impact and intent sections. You can write the description in paragraph form or simply list all the experiences related to the topic under consideration. It is helpful to make connections from your readings and learnings to real life experiences. The experiences named in the description are considered and analyzed in the impact portion of your response. You comment on what you learned from each experience (or combination of experiences), what was confirmed or disproved, and how you feel about what you have learned. The way to examine the impact an event has had on you is proposed by Surbeck et al. (1991). You can respond through reaction, elaboration, and contemplation. When merely reacting, you comment on your feelings (positive or negative) towards a class activity, reading, or school experience. You might, for example, react with a personal concern about an event or with delighted surprise. When elaborating, you compare your reactions with other classes, classrooms, or experiences. You may for instance, refer to a general principle, a theory, or a moral or philosophical position. When contemplating, you can focus on constructive personal insights or on problems or difficulties. You might focus on education and schooling issues, teaching methods, future goals, attitudes or views. Another focus might be on social issues, ethical matters or moral concerns. The most important aspect of your reflection likely is the intent. It involves interpreting the impact and building the bridge to action. Intent involves planning. It is what you intend to do as a result of what you have learned. Your intent should include how and when you will do what you want to do. Without a good intent, description and impact may go nowhere. As you gain more experience with reflecting on teaching, you will develop a framework for judging what should be added to your vision of yourself as a teacher. As you gain experience with reflective writing, the intent will become easier.

__ Examples at The Three Levels __

1. Reacting (limited depth) __Description__: We had a guest speaker today who spoke on children's literature. __Impact:__ I was inspired by our speaker. Her enthusiasm for children's literature is exciting. I share the excitement. I love the idea of incorporating literature and textbooks to give a creative, exciting science curriculum. __Intent:__ I plan to find books and literature to make my science curriculum more exciting.

2. Reacting and Elaborating (more depth) __Description:__ We had a guest speaker in today who spoke on children's literature. __Impact:__ I was inspired by our speaker. Her enthusiasm for children's literature is exciting. I share that excitement. I love the idea of incorporating literature and textbooks to give a creative, exciting science curriculum. I think that we, as teachers, must do a better job of introducing students to good literature. Limiting ourselves to the readers we had as students can be stifling. As we learned in my language methods class, many of the stories in these basal readers were chosen or written specifically for their readability, not for the quality of the writing of the characters. Integrating these good stories into science (and other areas) will also allow me to cover more subjects. __Intent:__ I plan to search out quality literature I can use in a science context and expose my students to good writing. My students won't be limited to the prescribed readability levels. I want them to read books they love. I plan to begin evaluating books on how well they will work in science and other subjects.

3. Reading, Elaborating, and Contemplating (even more depth) __Description:__ We had a guest speaker in today who spoke on children's literature. __Impact:__ I was inspired by our speaker. Her enthusiasm for children's literature is exciting. I share that excitement. I love the idea of incorporating literature and textbooks to give a creative, exciting science curriculum. I think that we, as teachers, must do a better job of introducing students to good literature. Limiting ourselves to the readers we had as students can be stifling. As we learned in my language methods class, many of the stories in these basal readers were chosen or written specifically for their readability, not for the quality of the writing of the characters. Integrating these good stories into science (and other areas) will also allow me to cover more subjects Of course, a problem I might have is finding the money to buy the books. School funding is tight these days. If I end up in a school where the principal wants me to use a basal reader I might have a dilemma. Do I do what I believe right, or do I do what I am told to do? __Intent:__ I plan to search out quality literature and expose my students to good writing. My students won't be limited to the prescribed readability levels. I want them to read books they love. I plan to begin evaluating books on how well they will work in science and other subjects. If funding is too tight, I'll have to buy some of my own, or have a popcorn sale, or whatever. I will need to speak to my principal about my plans, though. He or she may take some convincing. Maybe I can start slowly and use the basal reader but supplement it with quality literature then begin to move children's literature into science and other subjects.

Reference

Surbek, E., Eunhye, P., & Moyer, J. (1991). Assessing reflective responses in journals. Education Leadership, March, 25-27.

Rubric for Journal Reflections


 * 3 || 2 || 1 || 0 ||
 * Reflections were characterized primarily as very reflective (i.e., “reacting, elaborating, and contemplating"). || Reflections were characterized primarily as reflective (i.e., “reacting and elaborating”). || Reflections were characterized primarily by description and limited depth of reflection (i.e., “reacting"). || Student failed to turn in reflection and/or did not use assigned format. ||

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