Learn

Have you ever overreacted to a situation or said something in the heat of the moment that you didn’t mean?  Then afterwards, perhaps you thought to yourself, “Man, I wish I could have a ‘do over’?”  Perhaps you wish you had reacted differently?  Said something differently?  Once you have had some time to think, you might feel that it could have gone differently or better.

The same can be said of writing.  After submitting an assignment, do you ever wish for a “do over” so you can tweak your work and make it better? 

The process of self-reflection is an important one.  By identifying your strengths and struggles on work you have done in the past, you increase your chances for greater success on work you do in the future. 

Now that Unit 1 of your course is complete, take some time to review the work you have done and the feedback you have received from your teacher. 

As you reflect on your work in the first unit, ask yourself the following questions.  You don’t have to write anything at this point.  Just reflect.

• Did you receive the marks that you expected? 
  
  
• Did the feedback from your teacher match your own thoughts about the assignments?
  
  
• What are some of the strengths in your writing? These could be essential skills such as the following:

•    organizing ideas
  
  
•    supporting ideas with evidence or examples
  
  
•    developing ideas to show insight into a topic
  
  
•    using creativity
  
  
•    managing matters of choice (sentence variety, word choice, and stylistic choices)
  
  
•    applying appropriate matters of correctness (sentence structure, spelling, grammar, capitalization, and punctuation)
  
  

• What are some of the weaknesses or struggles you see in your writing?  (See the list above for ideas.)  How does your list of concerns compare to the concerns identified by your teacher?