Higher

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Higher

• Personal Reflective Writing.

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Why?

• It will be your first of two writing folio pieces
  that together will make up 20 of your final mark
  for Higher English.
• This is an excellent opportunity to improve your
  chances of gaining a good grade in Higher
  English.!!!
• Personal Reflective Writing also forms part of
  the Writing NAB In Unit One, Language.
• You will have to do one other piece of writing in
  a different genre.

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Criteria

• Your piece of writing must be over 650 words
  long.
• It must be produced in controlled conditions.
• This means you must have a copy of the plan,
  first draft and final version. This will show
  your teacher that you have worked on the piece by
  yourself.

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Criteria continued

• A reflective essay will aim to interest or give
  pleasure to the reader, rather than simply convey
  information. It will usually be about a single
  idea, insight or experience. It must include
  reflection as a developed aspect of the essay.
  You should be contemplative, taking the reader
  through your thought process as you work out what
  the topic or issue has meant to you.

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• h\Higher\personal reflective\Performance
  Criteria - pupil friendly.doc

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CONTENTWhat do we mean by reflection?

• When we reflect on something, either positive or
  negative that has happened to us, we are probably
  trying to work out the answers to some of these
  questions
• Why did that happen?
• How did my behaviour affect what was happening at
  the time or the people around me?
• Am I pleased or disappointed by the way I
  behaved?
• If this were to happen again, what would I change
  about my behaviour? What would I be happy to do
  again?

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• What have I learnt about life?
• What do I realise now that I didnt realise
  before?
• What have I learnt about myself?
• What have I learnt about other people and how
  they behave sometimes?
• How have my attitudes and ideas changed and how
  will this affect me in the future?

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Examples

• Perhaps the easiest way to understand the idea of
  reflection is to look at some examples.
• In your group, read the piece Look What I
  learnt in School. (Candidate 28, Jan 2006)
• Use the Performance Criteria worksheet to mark
  the essay and decide whether it is a pass or
  fail.
• Write any comments in your jotter.
• I will be asking you for reason for your opinion.

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• Now, repeat this process for the piece entitled
  The Academy. (Candidate 29, Jan 2006)
• Again, note down your comments in your jotter.
• Having read both examples, it should be clear
  which is the more successful and what we mean by
  reflection.

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Possible Topics

• There are so many!
• The important thing to remember is that is should
  be about something that has happened to you, or
  is important to you.
• If you are going to do this well, you need to
  really think about what you want to write about
  and what the experience or subject has meant to
  you.
• Have a look at the list of topics you have been
  given. You may wish to use one of these, or they
  might help you to think of another idea.

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Structure

• There are several ways to structure a Personal
  Reflective essay. The most important thing is
  that you are confident that your essay has enough
  reflection.
• The following structure is a suggestion but if
  you have any doubts at all about how well you can
  do this, it has worked very successfully in the
  past.

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General Reflection
Describe your experience.
Personal Experience
Personal Experience
Personal Experience
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Death of grandmother. I was 12. Unaffected
werent close. Description of realising shed
died.Funeral. Went back to normal. Mr and Mrs
Rutherford. Met in park. Visit. Listen Help out
stimes.
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Death of grandmother. I was 12. Unaffected
werent close. Description of realising shed
died.Funeral. Went back to normal. Mr and Mrs
Rutherford. Met in park. Visit. Listen Help out
stimes.
Made me think about how we (I) behave toward
older people. Too busy cant be bothered
forget. How do I want to change my behaviour?
Made me think about my relationship with my own
grandparents. Wished Id go to know them better.
What could I have learnt about my family? About
their lives? Maybe we could have got on well?
Listening to stories about their lives,
especially the war, realised how different life
was much harder. Can understand why older people
seem so appalled by modern life.
Elderly people dont feel old. They feel the same
underneath and dont recognise themselves.
Dislike and feel frustrated by the way they are
treated.
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Possible topics for general reflection
The purpose of education/ The opportunities that
my generation had, but also the pressure to find
out what we really want to do in life/ The
commercialisation of music/ Late capitalism/
University fees /
Possible opportunities for personal reflection
At University, chance to go to London to work for
Sony, decided not to go and decided to go into
teaching instead. Meant 2 more years hard work at
Uni and knowing that I wouldnt earn so much
money.
Description of event or experience
Made me reflect on my relationship with my
girlfriend (now wife) about how she was prepared
to come with me to London despite not wanting to
leave Glasgow. So decision didnt only affect me.
Realised that as a promoter and working for a
record label I was becoming something I didnt
like. I was fake and pretending to be something
that I wasnt . Telling lies to try to sell the
events that I was promoting.
Made me think about what I wanted to be and do in
life. Realised that I wanted to work with people
and try to make a small difference. Job
satisfaction over money. Thought about what kind
of person I was.
Made me think about the future, marriage and
children and where I wanted to raise them
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How we speak about older people. Stereotypes?
News stories? Dictionary definition. What we
think about when we thing about the elderly.
Death of grandmother. I was 12. Unaffected
werent close. Description of realising shed
died.Funeral. Went back to normal. Mr and Mrs
Rutherford. Met in park. Visit. Listen Help out
stimes.
Made me think about how we (I) behave toward
older people. Too busy cant be bothered
forget. How do I want to change my behaviour?
Made me think about my relationship with my own
grandparents. Wished Id got to know them better.
What could I have learnt about my family? About
their live? Maybe we could have got on well?
Listening to stories about their lives,
especially the war, realised how different life
was much harder. Can understand why older people
seem so appalled by modern life.
Elderly people dont feel old. They feel the same
underneath and dont recognise themselves.
Dislike and feel frustrated by the way they are
treated.
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Summary

• Start off by thinking about an experience/incident
  or subject that is important to you. Fill in the
  middle section of your rocket
• Think about why it is so important. Try to
  complete the bottom boxes on personal reflection.
  Use the questions to help you.
• Then, think about your general reflection.

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General Reflection

• Your teacher will ask you to work in a group.
• You will be asked to write down as many abstract
  nouns as you can think off.
• Love
• Hate
• Anger
• You have three minutes.

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General Reflection Task 2

• You will be working in groups.
• You will be given a flipchart with an abstract
  noun written in the centre.
• Each group will have a different word.
• You will have 3minutes to write as many ideas
  about the word as you can on the sheet. These
  ideas could be words song titles or lyrics
  news stories book titles adverts from
  television storylines from programmes or films
  quotations
• After three minutes, pass your sheet on to the
  next groups and they will add to your ideas.
• We will continue to do this until every group has
  had a chance to add to each flipchart.

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Planning

• Before you start, read a final example of a
  successful reflective essay, Blyscan
• On a sheet of A4 paper, start thinking about the
  plan for your essay.
• Try to follow the model you have been shown.
• Use the topic lists and the reflective questions
  to help you develop your thoughts.
• What Do We Mean by Reflection.doc

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Expression

• Having completed your plan, you should now be
  ready to start writing. Before you do, you should
  consider the criteria for expression.
• Hooks\Int 2 Middle school\reflective\Openings.doc
  
• You will read two short pieces before you start.
• The Mount Florida Medical Centre
• Anita and Me

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