Reflection in the Writing Classroom

Utah State University DigitalCommons@USU

All USU Press Publications USU Press

1998

Reflection in the ritingW Classroom

Kathleen Blake Yancey University of North Carolina, Charlotte

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Reflection in the Writing Classroom

KATHLEEN BLAKE YANCEY University ofNorth Carolina, Charlotte

UTAH STATE UNIVERSITY PRESS Logan, Utah 1998 Utah State University Press Logan, Utah 84322-7800

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98 99 00 01 02 543 2

Library ofCongress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Yancey, Kathleen Blake Reflection in the writing classroom / Kathleen Blake Yancey. p. em. Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN 0-87421-238-3 (pbk.) 1. English language-Rhetoric-Study and teaching. 2. Report writing-Study and teaching. 3. Reflection (Philosophy) I. Title. PE1404.Y36 1998 808'.042'07-dc21 97-45395 CIP CONTENTS

PREFACE VI

ONE On Reflection

TWO Reflection-in-Action 23

THREE Constructive Reflection 49

FOUR Reflection-in-Presentation 69

FIVE Reflective Reading, Reflective Responding 97

SIX Reflection and the Writing Course 125

SEVEN Reflection and Assessment 145

EIGHT Literacy and the Curriculum 169

NINE Reflective Texts, Reflective Writers 185

WORKS CITED 207

INDEX 213 PREFACE

THIS VOLUME GREW OUT OF A FOCUSED INQUIRY: WHAT CONVERSATIONS, I wanted to ask, could we have around texts in order to foster reflective habits of mind? What you'll read in the following pages constitutes my attempt at an extended answer. Because it is a book-length vol ume, I've taken the luxury of thinking about this question in multi ple ways: theoretically, pragmatically, and-I hope-reflectively. I've located my responses to this focused inquiry within my own practice, to be sure, but I've tried both to theorize that practice and to make it visible so that others can read themselves into this story as well. Ultimately, as I hope is apparent, I'm as interested in the questions raised in the process of inquiry as I am in the answers we construct. They are foundation and means of reflection, both. More specifically, what I've done here is to re-theorize Donald Schon's theory of reflection for use in the writing classroom, and in that process to think about how we might use reflection as a mode of helping students develop as writers. I've written this volume, then, because I think through reflection we can change both the teaching and learning of writing. What I also do here is show how we might begin making some ofthose changes, and suggest some ofwhat we teachers and students-could learn if we understood the writing classroom as a reflective practicum, as a new kind of writing class room, one where students are writers, reflection is woven into the curriculum, and practice becomes art. I was fortunate in having the support of many at my institution, the University of North Carolina at Charlotte. In particular, I want to thank the University, the Faculty Grants Committee, and Dean Schley Lyons for an academic leave to support this work. Preface vii

There are several people whose contributions to this project I'd like to acknowledge. Michael Spooner, my editor and friend: (again) thanks. Also: Irwin Weiser and Afhild Ingberg, for reading sympa thetic