ENGLISH TEXTUAL CONCEPTS AND PROCESSES: REFLECTING

WHAT IT IS

In reflecting, students think about what they have learned, how they have learned, what they feel about the learning. They draw conclusions about their own learning processes and the value of their learning.

Reflecting involves understanding one’s own personal capacities and processes and fosters a problem exploring disposition; this encourages student curiosity leading to a recursive process of experimentation in the belief that there can be more than one possible solution.

WHY IT IS IMPORTANT

Reflecting on one’s own learning process develops a student’s capacity of learning how to learn, a foundation for living and working. Knowing how one responds to verbal and visual texts and why one does so in particular ways is an important skill for an engaged and critical citizenry.

Through reflecting a student can develop knowledge of their own learning style and the development of a range of learning skills such as collaborative skills, independent investigation, monitoring one’s own progress or evaluating one’s own learning. 

NESA STAGE 6 INFO

The thought process by which students develop an understanding and appreciation of their own learning. This process draws on both cognitive and affective experience.

Evaluative language

• Positive or negative language that judges the worth of something. It includes language to express feelings and opinions, to make judgements about aspects of people such as their behaviour, and to assess the quality of objects such as literary works. (NESA Glossary)

  • • Language choices that convey positive or negative ideas:

    • Emotional reactions, or feelings, of a person (or character)

    • Judgements, with moral overtones, of a person’s behaviour

    • Appreciation of things or objects such as texts or artworks, or states of affairs or characteristics of people

How to write reflectively - modality

Consider modality: a term we use to describe the words in English which express degrees or graduations of certainty, frequency or obligation.

Gradations in evaluations

Language of appreciation

Reaction: an assessment or evaluation of the emotional impact of the text, or thing or phenomenon

Riveting, engrossing, compelling, engaging

tedious, offensive, unpleasant, uninteresting

Composition: an assessment or evaluation of the effectiveness or otherwise of the construction or form of a text, thing or phenomenon

Logical, intricate, incisive, coherent, unified

redictable, illogical, incoherent, simplistic, inconsistent, convolution, obscure

Valuation: an assessment or evaluation of the worth or the significance of the text, thing or phenomenon.

Significant, substantial, considerable, profound, memorable

insignificant, insubstantial, trivial, inconsequential, overrated

Language of comparison

An important way to evaluate omissions, strengths and weaknesses in arguments or evidence is by creating comparisons and contrasts.

EG: however, alternatively, in contrast, ...

Concessions

Concession is a very powerful resource for acknowledging the views of others without giving those views very much power.

Concessions are often expressed in phrases or clauses which begin with words like; while, although, despite, even though, in spite of.

Whether reflecting on an experience, on your own learning, or both, you will need to make sure you include description, analysis and outcomes or action.

Reflective writing v Critical analysis

How to deepen disclosure

Reflective writing only needs a brief description or summary, followed by a more sustained analysis in the form of disclosure. This analysis often comes out of looking at your description or summary, and then asking ‘how?’ and ‘why?’

The following questions help you analyse your experience. These are the types of questions you can ask when writing your own disclosures:

• What were you thinking at the time?

• How were you feeling at the time?

• How have you felt about it since then?

• What was positive and negative, effective and not effective?

• What texts influenced your learning or writing?

• Why did these text influence your learning or writing?

• Are there things that challenged your understanding or interpretation of this experience?

• How else could you interpret the situation?

• What else could you have done?

• What did you learn from this experience?

• Did the experience affirm or challenge your existing understandings?

• How will this new knowledge guide future actions?

• How can you implement lessons drawn from this experience into your future learning?

Blueback is a novel written by Tim Winton and originally published in 1997 by Penguin Books. The cover blurb suggests that the story is a “… deceptively simple allegory about a boy …” who grows up on the coast. Blueback is aimed at a young teen audience, but is easily enjoyed by older readers. This excerpt, found on page five of the 2009 edition, is an excellent example of how Winton effectively uses language to create vivid images.

I find the early images in the book are compelling and immediately draw the reader into Abel Jackson’s world. The actual words and sentence structure are quite simple, yet the combination of alliteration and onomatopoeia in ‘cold crash’ add to the action. Each paragraph designates another stage in the action, but I particularly like the third paragraph with its use of simple adjectives and verbs that create a specific atmosphere of anticipation. Examples include ‘nervous’ and ‘trembled’. I can relate to the joy of swimming through the use of the simile in the final line ‘like a bird’.

I have enjoyed reading and re-reading this novel as the writing has a fresh feel each time I live in Abel’s world. I am reminded of the way that even simple language techniques can be used to engage the reader. In my writing, I will try to include adjectives that set a precise scene. I’m also aiming to include different sentence beginnings and a flowing structure.