Personal Reflective Writing. Higher Personal Reflective Writing.

Why? It will be your first of two writing folio pieces that together will make up 20% of your final mark for Higher English. This is an excellent opportunity to improve your chances of gaining a good grade in Higher English.!!! Personal Reflective Writing also forms part of the Writing NAB In Unit One, Language. You will have to do one other piece of writing in a different genre.

Criteria Your piece of writing must be over 650 words long. It must be produced in “controlled conditions”. This means you must have a copy of the plan, first draft and final version. This will show your teacher that you have worked on the piece by yourself.

Criteria continued… A reflective essay will aim to interest or give pleasure to the reader, rather than simply convey information. It will usually be about a single idea, insight or experience. It must include reflection as a developed aspect of the essay. You should be contemplative, taking the reader through your thought process as you work out what the topic or issue has meant to you.

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CONTENT What do we mean by reflection? When we reflect on something, either positive or negative that has happened to us, we are probably trying to work out the answers to some of these questions: Why did that happen? How did my behaviour affect what was happening at the time or the people around me? Am I pleased or disappointed by the way I behaved? If this were to happen again, what would I change about my behaviour? What would I be happy to do again?

What have I learnt about life? What do I realise now that I didn’t realise before? What have I learnt about myself? What have I learnt about other people and how they behave sometimes? How have my attitudes and ideas changed and how will this affect me in the future?

Examples Perhaps the easiest way to understand the idea of reflection is to look at some examples. In your group, read the piece “Look What I learnt in School.” (Candidate 28, Jan 2006) Use the Performance Criteria worksheet to mark the essay and decide whether it is a pass or fail. Write any comments in your jotter. I will be asking you for reason for your opinion.

Now, repeat this process for the piece entitled “The Academy Now, repeat this process for the piece entitled “The Academy.” (Candidate 29, Jan 2006) Again, note down your comments in your jotter. Having read both examples, it should be clear which is the more successful and what we mean by reflection.

Possible Topics There are so many! The important thing to remember is that is should be about something that has happened to you, or is important to you. If you are going to do this well, you need to really think about what you want to write about and what the experience or subject has meant to you. Have a look at the list of topics you have been given. You may wish to use one of these, or they might help you to think of another idea.

Structure There are several ways to structure a Personal Reflective essay. The most important thing is that you are confident that your essay has enough reflection. The following structure is a suggestion but if you have any doubts at all about how well you can do this, it has worked very successfully in the past.

General Reflection Describe your experience. Personal Experience Personal Experience Personal Experience

Death of grandmother. I was 12. Unaffected; weren’t close Death of grandmother. I was 12. Unaffected; weren’t close. Description of realising she’d died.Funeral. Went back to normal. Mr and Mrs Rutherford. Met in park. Visit. Listen Help out s’times.

Mr and Mrs Rutherford. Met in park. Visit. Listen Help out s’times. Death of grandmother. I was 12. Unaffected; weren’t close. Description of realising she’d died.Funeral. Went back to normal. Mr and Mrs Rutherford. Met in park. Visit. Listen Help out s’times. Made me think about how we (I) behave toward older people. Too busy; can’t be bothered; forget. How do I want to change my behaviour? Made me think about my relationship with my own grandparents. Wished I’d go to know them better. What could I have learnt about my family? About their lives? Maybe we could have got on well? Listening to stories about their lives, especially the war, realised how different life was; much harder. Can understand why older people seem so appalled by modern life. Elderly people don’t feel old. They feel the same underneath and don’t recognise themselves. Dislike and feel frustrated by the way they are treated.

Possible topics for general reflection The purpose of education/ The opportunities that my generation had, but also the pressure to find out “what we really want to do in life”/ The commercialisation of music/ Late capitalism/ University fees / Possible opportunities for personal reflection At University, chance to go to London to work for Sony, decided not to go and decided to go into teaching instead. Meant 2 more years hard work at Uni and knowing that I wouldn’t earn so much money. Description of event or experience Made me reflect on my relationship with my girlfriend (now wife) about how she was prepared to come with me to London despite not wanting to leave Glasgow. So decision didn’t only affect me. Realised that as a promoter and working for a record label I was becoming something I didn’t like. I was fake and pretending to be something that I wasn’t . Telling lies to try to sell the events that I was promoting. Made me think about what I wanted to be and do in life. Realised that I wanted to work with people and try to make a small difference. Job satisfaction over money. Thought about what kind of person I was. Made me think about the future, marriage and children and where I wanted to raise them

Mr and Mrs Rutherford. Met in park. Visit. Listen Help out s’times. How we speak about older people. Stereotypes? News stories? Dictionary definition. What we think about when we thing about the elderly. Death of grandmother. I was 12. Unaffected; weren’t close. Description of realising she’d died.Funeral. Went back to normal. Mr and Mrs Rutherford. Met in park. Visit. Listen Help out s’times. Made me think about how we (I) behave toward older people. Too busy; can’t be bothered; forget. How do I want to change my behaviour? Made me think about my relationship with my own grandparents. Wished I’d got to know them better. What could I have learnt about my family? About their live? Maybe we could have got on well? Listening to stories about their lives, especially the war, realised how different life was; much harder. Can understand why older people seem so appalled by modern life. Elderly people don’t feel old. They feel the same underneath and don’t recognise themselves. Dislike and feel frustrated by the way they are treated.

Summary Start off by thinking about an experience/incident or subject that is important to you. Fill in the middle section of your “rocket” Think about why it is so important. Try to complete the bottom boxes on personal reflection. Use the questions to help you. Then, think about your general reflection.

General Reflection Your teacher will ask you to work in a group. You will be asked to write down as many abstract nouns as you can think off. Love Hate Anger… You have three minutes.

General Reflection – Task 2 You will be working in groups. You will be given a flipchart with an abstract noun written in the centre. Each group will have a different word. You will have 3minutes to write as many ideas about the word as you can on the sheet. These ideas could be: words; song titles or lyrics; news stories; book titles; adverts from television; storylines from programmes or films; quotations… After three minutes, pass your sheet on to the next groups and they will add to your ideas. We will continue to do this until every group has had a chance to add to each flipchart.

Planning Before you start, read a final example of a successful reflective essay, “Blyscan” On a sheet of A4 paper, start thinking about the plan for your essay. Try to follow the model you have been shown. Use the topic lists and the reflective questions to help you develop your thoughts. What Do We Mean by Reflection.doc

Expression Having completed your plan, you should now be ready to start writing. Before you do, you should consider the criteria for expression. Hooks:\Int 2 Middle school\reflective\Openings.doc You will read two short pieces before you start. “The Mount Florida Medical Centre” “Anita and Me”