Reflective Writing - continued

People use learning journals:

• to help connect to their learning.
• to help cement learning or remember what they learned.
• to express feelings on their performance in a course.
• to make connections between current and past learning.
• to express what they wonder about for the future.

An example of reflective writing for a social studies lesson on parliamentary procedure:

“It’s odd watching the politicians argue with each other during Question Period. I don’t think young kids should see that, because it might encourage them to not respect the government. I was really interested in how even though the opposition kept addressing questions to the Premier, he never actually answered; it was always one of the other ministers. It sort of made me think of those American courtroom dramas where the witness is pleading the 5th.”

The example references the lesson on parliamentary procedure, shares something the writer learned or discovered, and makes a connection to another topic.

The criteria for logs or journals may differ from course to course, but the essence is the same: How does this learning affect you, the learner? And, has your opinion changed? If so, how?