by Melinda Wilson, Department of English
One of the most beneficial features of reflective writing is its allowance for flexibility. Most semesters, my CEL students engage in four different reflective writing assignments that allow them to express concerns, anxieties, failures, triumphs, and lingering questions, all while practicing the writing skill sets covered in our First Year Composition course. These assignments are typically low stakes, meaning that, while they are graded, they are not weighted as heavily as formal writing assignments, which gives students the necessary freedom to explore their experiences in an honest and genuine fashion and without the constraints of more formal writing.
The first reflection is really a pre-reflection assignment, in which students are asked to explore their expectations for their work with our community partners before that work has actually begun. Often, students are nervous to begin their service learning, as they are unsure what to expect. This assignment provides them a much needed opportunity to alleviate some of those fears and anxieties prior to beginning their work with the community partner.
The second reflection asks students to use the skills they learn regarding personal and narrative writing to tell the story of their first service learning experience of the semester. They incorporate narrative elements such as descriptive writing, sensory detail, plot structure, character and dialogue to engage their readers and reflect on their first service learning opportunity.
The third reflection has students practice their researching skills, as they must locate an academic article from a peer-reviewed journal in the library’s databases that somehow connects to the issue on which their service learning is centered. This assignment is particularly important, as it allows students to enhance their research writing skill sets including responding to research articles, integrating and analyzing quoted material, as well as paraphrasing and citing sources.
Finally, the last reflection provides a return to the purely reflective model in which students are able to reflect on the whole of their semester’s service learning work and the relationship they were able to develop with the partner community. Students revisit the concerns they had at the start of the semester and consider how they met these challenges. They also explore how their participation in the work of our community partner contributes to the overall richness of their college experience.
Coupled with in-class discussion of their service learning experiences, these reflective writing assignments reinforce the writing lessons from the semester as well as afford the students plentiful low-stakes writing opportunities.
