Reflective Journals

What Is It?

Reflective journals are notebooks that students use when writing about and reflecting on their thoughts. Reflecting on thoughts, ideas, feelings, and their own learning encourages the development of critical thinking skills by helping students self-evaluate and sort what they know from what they don't know. The process of examining one's own thoughts and feelings is particularly helpful for students who are learning new concepts or beginning to grapple with complex issues that go beyond right and wrong answers.

Why Is It Important?

Reflective journals allow students to practice their writing skills in an open-ended format that encourages the same thought process that is used in analytical writing.  As students continue to distinguish what they know from what they need to reevaluate or relearn, they begin to translate discoveries they have made about their own learning into plans for improvement. Reflective Journaling also allows the teacher to have the opportunity to see how and what the student is thinking.  Journals become a useful assessment tool that gives teachers additional insight into how students value their own learning and progress.

The questions in the first column are vague and may lead children to respond with egocentric or superficial facts and feelings, while the questions in the second column ask them to explore assumptions and values. Good journaling questions will help students develop critical-thinking skills and expand, analyze, or defend ideas.

It is important that journaling become a regularly scheduled activity. As with any other writing form, reflective journaling takes time and practice. Creating a routine for journaling will give students an opportunity to anticipate and prepare for other writing activities.

Encourage students to reread and revise previous entries as well as any they have just written. Help them observe the progression of their thoughts and understanding by letting them rewrite or comment on earlier entries. This exercise will help students appreciate their own learning and the process they have gone through to arrive at an understanding of concepts and knowledge. When journals are not formally assessed, students are free to experiment without fear of outside evaluation. Open assignments, or having students choose topics to write about, can allow students to express ideas in new forms and contexts. Encourage students to extend, defend, debate, and question their own ideas. 

If you do assess the journals, give students feedback on what they have written. It may not always be possible to comment on each entry, so try using stickers to recognize what students have written. A smiley face sticker can give positive feedback while a star can be used to signify good ideas or thinking.

Management

Students should keep their reflective journals in a folder or spiral or bound notebook. This allows students to review what they have written and monitor their own reflective process and thoughts throughout the school year. Establish a system for identifying each entry in the journal, and create a shared understanding concerning the time frame allowed for journal writing. Some students will want to have time to reflect before they begin to write. Others will need to know when journal time is about to end. A timer may be used to warn and then signal the end of the reflection time.

Depending on the grade level of your students, you may want to keep the journals in a place that is easily accessible. Students should know where to find their journals and understand that they need to be returned to this area. You may want to establish a clear procedure for the distribution and collection of journals. Older students may want to keep their reflections between themselves and the teacher, and it may be more appropriate to have students keep track of the journals individually.

Science Journal Example?

Students can reflect on a new topic or concept and develop questions whose answers make the concepts clearer and more understandable. 

For example, while students are learning about the laws of motion, have them reflect on their learning and write questions such as "How can I find the force of an object?" and "What is an example of each law of motion?"

Source: https://www.teachervision.com/writing/reflective-journals