Reading and Reflective Journaling

Developing your reflective voice is an important aspect of becoming an excellent teacher.  Reflection requires careful study, adequate time, and propositional thinking about yourself, your professional growth, and your actions as a teacher.

As you read, take notes or highlight as seems best for you, but also pay attention to emerging questions, feelings, or issues – and jot these down.  These are often indicators of areas for potential growth.

Next, write your reflective response to the issue, question, or feelings. You may use a variety of strategies to achieve the goal of further developing your “teacher self”, but most often should seek to have 3 elements in your response:

· Describe (the problem, issue, idea, situation you wish to discuss)

· Analyze (using ideas from class, readings, your experiences, other sources)

· Personal Response (telling what you value, what you will do, what principles will guide you…  [this is the “so what does this tell me?” part]

Note: Reflective writings should be double-spaced, a minimum of 2+ pages.  Bring reflective writings to class, as they will often be used in discussion/group work.