CAS reflection Explanations & Tips

FOCUS: designating one Learning Outcome for each reflection

Focus on one Learning Outcome per reflection. Each reflection should deal with the specific goal that you established when you first submitted your write-up for each experience. Ideally, you include the bulleted descriptor that helped you set the goal. See the drop-down menu under each Learning Outcome, e.g. the one for LO #5: collaboration:

When you try to tackle more than one Learning Outcome at a time, you often ramble, moving away from offering insight about meeting or not meeting your specific goal. Even worse, candidates often fail to reflect on the descriptors for each Learning Outcome (see dropdown menu under "Learning Outcomes" above). Try to tackle how you achieved or didn’t achieve that one specific goal that you set for yourself. The reflections are the reason why we have you set goals in the first place. Without them, reflections are almost always vapid, vague, and very boring. Don't be boring. Use that focus and designate one Learning Outcome per reflection. 

HOW TO: Adding a reflection in ManageBac

Open up ManageBac, click on the experience you want to write about, click on the "Add Reflections & Evdience" button and either write a 3-paragraph reflection or record an audio or video reflection or upload a picture, video, PDF, file, etc. as evidence (does not count toward your written or oral reflection).

FORMAT: How do I organize them?

Please use the 3-paragraph format so that you focus these reflections: 1st paragraph = action (3-5 sentences), 2nd paragraph = reflection itself (5-10 sentences), 3rd paragraph = synthesis (3-5 sentences). Read more about this format and use the template available to the right. 

Seniors often tell me that when they stopped thinking about how other people may read these reflections (read: Mr. Booz), they opened up; they were a bit more true, more honest; and they engaged in a bit more introspection. Many are often funnier to boot. In short, they reflected and didn't restate or explain their experiences. They thought about their growth and explored their successes and failures. See that? Their failures. Focus on what set you back rather than flaunting your wins. Be open to both the good and the bad.

You need to connect your ideas to the Learning Outcomes and think about the five stages of all CAS experiences: 1. Investigation, 2. Preparation, 3. Action, 4. Reflection, 5. Demonstration. These stages are no linear, meaning that you don't move one from investigation once you start acting. In fact, much like teachers investigate their methods after teaching a lesson and plan accordingly for subsequent lessons, you will also move from investigating to preparing back to investigation to action and back to preparation rather often. Reflection comes before, during, and after your experiences where you demonstrate how you are meeting or not meeting the Learning Outcomes. Often, the best reflections explore struggles and failure and not merely the successes.

FORMAT: How long are reflections and what should reflections look like? 

Many of you have asked just what a reflection should look like. I include a template above for you to use as you create your first written reflections. We only accept reflections that follow this three-paragraph format:

• ACTION: (3-5 sentences)

  • What did I do and what was my goal?

  • What do you perceive, or see, hear, etc. and notice?

Rather obvious, this 1st paragraph deals with what you did. 

• REFLECTION: (5-10 sentences) 

  • What effect did this experience have on me and did I reach my goal?

  • How you feel being involved?

  • What do you think and feel about the activity itself?

  • What does the activity mean to you?

  • What value does the activity have?

Focus on analysis and not action, or what you did. Based on the 2017 CAS guide, we want to remain open-ended. We do not mean or want reflection to be forced. While we do require that you complete some form of written reflection from time to time, written reflection is not the only form that these considerations of your goals can take. Try others: film or record your ideas or express your ideas through “a dialogue, a poem, a comic strip, a dramatic performance, a letter, a photograph, a dance, a blog, or other forms of expression” (2015 CAS guide). You do need to connect your ideas to the Learning Outcomes and think about the five stages of all CAS experiences: 1. Investigation, 2. Preparation, 3. Action, 4. Reflection, 5. Demonstration.

Some students use the prompts ManageBac provides to begin their reflections. Ideally, reflections should focus more on how your mindset may have changed rather than what you did. Some students use the template below, offering three short but distinct paragraphs: one for description, one for analysis of the goal, and one for outcomes. Reflection brings light to what we do. Shine that light on yourself.

• SYNTHESIS: (3-5 sentences) 

  • How does this experience help me in any other area of my life?

  • What did you learn from this activity, and how might you extrapolate from this to apply any lesson to your life more generally?

How did your experience shape who you are? We break up the strongest reflections into three (3) areas: action, or what you did; reflection, or how you think about your experience; and synthesis, or how you may use your experience to help yourself in other experiences or situations, both as a student and a person. For example, how does your work on the cross-country team make you a better sister? How does your tutoring help you as a leader in the ukulele club? Heck, how does your time in an honor society help you find a significant other? Try to move away from abstractions. Instead of explaining that your tutoring helps you understand the subject you are working in better, try stretching yourself by linking your tutoring to your role in a specific club or your role on your sports team.

FORMAT: Do they all have to be written?

We want to remain open-ended based on the 2017 CAS guide. We do not want you to force your reflection. However, we do want you to think about how you engaged and not just log that you engaged. We do require that you complete some form of reflection with words, i.e. your own evaluation of your experience: write a 3-paragraph reaction to an experience or film or record your ideas. Many candidates record a few video or audio reflections and then upload them to YouTube. I don't tend to listen to reflections that are more than three (3) minutes long due to time. After all, the class of 2023 had more than 3500 pieces or evidence and reflection! You need a balance of media, so try your hand at a few types but don't rely on any one (1) type, i.e. upload all audio reflections.

EVIDENCE

While ManageBac includes anything candidates upload as reflection (see bottom left-hand corner in ManageBac), IB sees reflection and evidence slightly differently. IB and GCM want to see you add pictures, PDFs, records, practice plans, recipes, etc. so that you create a sort of CAS scrapbook for your experiences over the entire 18-month journey. Beyond the more traditional reflections, add evidence and express your ideas through “a dialogue, a poem, a comic strip, a dramatic performance, a letter, a photograph, a dance, a blog, or other forms of expression” (2015 CAS guide). I have added a few below, but you may click here to find even more.

NUMBER: How many reflections should I have?

There is no number, but you need something every month of school to earn the Golden Trophy. Ideally, you have something before, during, and after all of your experience, i.e. 3 reflections per experience. However, there is no hard and fast rule. If you list an organized sport or a CAS project, we are looking for more reflection. IB does not want one-offs, or short experiences that last a day or so, so I rarely approve those experiences, but if you are tutoring for 3-4 different organizations, then what do you think? I agree: 3-4 reflections for the organizations you list. There is no number of reflections per week, but if you want to earn the 10% A toward your TOK grade, then you need something every month. Skip and month, and you can earn the green flag but may be hindering your chances of earning the golden trophy and the 10% A toward your TOK grade.

TIMING: reflections and the 5 stages

The basic premise is that you start reflecting (stage 4) about your investigation, planning, and action (stages 1-3) in order to demonstrate (stage 5) a chosen Learning Outcome. You can always reflect, whether you are just starting to think about an experience or in the planning stages. The strongest series of reflections arise from engaging in the process before, during, and after you act:

• Before you even begin the doing portion of an experience: What kind of a plan or proposal can you offer on ManageBac. What about your goals? How did you come up with them? Are they feasible, attainable? How will you approach the experience? What do you have to do to prepare? Think ahead.

• During the action itself, or the actual doing portion of your experience: What came of your preparation? How did you succeed? Even better, how did you fail? Often, we think of only our successes, but our failures shape us far more, both in our response to problems we face and our thinking about future experiences. 

• And finally after you have completed the experience where you really offer a logical connection to the Learning Outcome chosen: The whole concept of demonstration, the 5th aspect of the 5 stages (investigation, planning, action, reflection, demonstration), is that you show how you have achieved a certain Learning Outcome. How did you face challenges? How did your understanding of collaboration change? What is your growth and what does it look like? Etc. 

The idea is that through reflection, you will hone in on the skills and ideas that you hope to learn, gain, and sharpen by being involved. Again, the word reflect means to turn the light back on something, so shine that light on your investigation and planning or the act of doing what you are doing. Just reflect: whether through writing, recording your voice, or recording a video. 

Reflection does not mean that you express yourself after you have completed an experience/project. However, I will not approve an experience if you complete all of your reflections in one go, i.e. in one day. 

To what end? College essays

These reflections are ostensibly freewrites on your goals that you can turn into college essays. We allow seniors to use their actual college essays, but you should focus on the action paragraph as an anecdote that grounds the reflection. Then, think of them as practice (and actual) college essays. Lots of people participate in sport or band or clubs. Most students spend too long on explaining what they did: boooooorrrrrriiiing. Instead, focus on how you growing and changing and failing and succeeding and learning through these experiences. Game on. 

Additionally, you can always choose to use college essay prompts to knock out two tasks with one piece, i.e. use your CAS experiences to respond to a college essay prompt that you will submit for the Common Application or the Coalition Application or whatever schools you are applying to. Work smarter, not harder.

To what end? The CAS interviews and the final meeting

Over the course of 18 months, candidates should meet with the CAS coordinator at least three (3) times: once during the junior year to establish experiences, set goals, and come up with a project; once during the beginning of the senior year to review reflections, develop the senior-year project, and refine experiences; and for a final and third time during the spring semester of the senior year to conduct the CAS exit interview where coordinator and candidate discuss the impact of CAS over the course of the previous 18 months. 

What more could these candidates have done?

In October 2019, I took a licensed IB CAS workshop with Steve Money, who has taught all over the world and runs CAS workshops for candidates and teachers alike. One of his most beneficial activities was to look for key learning points in students' reflections. Check out the document below, my submission for that assignment. Key points to consider:

• Where are candidates tying what they did to their Learning Outcomes? Their goals?

• How are students considering the changes in their understanding of these Learning Outcomes?

RESOURCES

• "Creative Ways to Encourage Deeper Student Reflection in CAS" by Sara Diaz Gonzalez, International School of Bologna Teacher and CAS Coordinator, 13 March 2020.