Reflection as a Writer
School: Pittsburgh Public School
City/State: Pittsburgh, PA
Grade(s): 8
Format(s): Essay
Subject(s): English Language Arts
Type(s): Argument/Opinion
Writing Assignment Description
This end-of-year written reflection was created by a female student as a final class assignment, reflecting on her work as a writer across the course of the year.
This piece was brought to the attend of Models of Excellence founders in 1990 by teacher Kathy Howard from Pittsburgh, who was working with the Harvard Project Zero Arts Propel portfolio project.
How This Writing Can Be Useful
- Reflection that is in itself a compelling piece of writing: a narrative told as an engaging story with a complicit relationship with the reader (e.g. personal, familiar notes to the reader – “All right…” “Oh, well…”
- Playful, humorous, self-deprecating, creative in its voice; keeps the formal, clear, sequential structure of the essay while being informal in its tone.
- Sophisticated in analytical perspective, ideas and understanding
- Powerful variety of sentence structure and use of vocabulary
- Explanation of the process of writing critique in the classroom is powerful, beautiful, poetic (e.g., “It was easy to that a piece was good but now we had to give the specific latitude and longitude of the good parts”)
- Ending is a moving eulogy to a rich classroom
Common Core State Standards
| Standard | Long Term Learning Target |
|---|---|
| W.8.1 |
|
| W.8.4 |
|