Metacognitive Reflective Writing: Reflection on Writing Experiences

Step 1: Reflect

One of our main course goals in this class is for you to be able to transfer the writing skills you learn here to future writing situations (no matter if they are academic, professional, or personal). Thinking and writing about your writing experiences - what we call "metacognitive reflective writing" - is essential to making your learning “stick” so you can use it again in the future. As a reminder, the course-based reflective writing assignments help you: Identify and set goals. Make sense of and grow from learning experiences. Use what you’ve learned in the past to inform and guide your future learning.

Step 1: Reflect Look back and think critically about all the writing you have done throughout the course, and especially about the process of completing the first project.

Step 2: Brainstorm Brainstorm ideas for your reflection, keeping in mind that roughly half of your reflection should be spent on both Looking Back and Looking Forward. Use the following questions to help you generate (invent) ideas. Choose the questions that resonate with you; you do not need to cover all of the questions but you should have a fairly equal balance between the two categories. Looking Back Looking Forward What did you learn about yourself as a writer during the work of the second project? What were you most challenged by during the work of the second project? What new strategies or processes did you try during the work of the second project? How did those risks work out? How did you incorporate visuals or use technology to compose for your project? What new media did you try? How did it go? What kind of feedback did you receive from your reviewers? Any surprises? How did you incorporate feedback into your revision? How does the feedback align with how you see yourself as a writer? What are you especially proud of in respect to your work on the second project? Why? How has your vision of yourself and your relationship to writing changed since this course began? How did you approach languaging in Project 2? Did you consider your own biases and assumptions or those of your audience? What new approaches to or attitudes about writing will you adopt in the future? What growth/strengths are you proud of? What skills are you still working on? Why? What skills and habits practiced in this course will transfer or have already transferred to other composing situations, and why? What lingering questions do you have about writing? How will you see yourself as a writer/composer going forward, and how will that impact your experiences? What types of texts will you write in the academic, professional, social, and civic areas of your life? What are your new goals for yourself as a writer beyond this course?

Step 3: Compose Compose an integrated narrative about what you learned about yourself as a writer during the work of the second project and in the course overall. Do not simply answer the questions above ; use the questions as a brainstorming and planning tool to help you dig deep as you process this learning experience for yourself and prepare a detailed written reflection for others. Organize your ideas in a way that helps your reader understand