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Guidelines for Reflection

Reflective Journal Guidelines

As soon as you begin an Extended Learning Opportunity, you should begin keeping a reflective journal. This will help you stay organized, keep track of your progress, document what you learn, and reflect on your experience. It will demonstrate the process you experienced on your ELO journey and reflect your learning style.

Note: it is difficult to create guidelines that will work for all types of ELOs, so please consider these guidelines as suggestions only; you are required to keep a reflective journal, but you are encouraged to adapt it to your individual needs.

The following ideas may be helpful:

  1. Use a notebook, binder, or create a document online and set up a multi-column format. Stay organized from the very beginning of your project and plan to make an entry every time you work on your ELO. Your documentation should include
    • The date
    • What you did
    • What you learned
    • Whether this had a positive or negative impact on your thinking; whether it was helpful; whether it was frustrating. The learning process is not always a smooth one, and we learn from good experiences as well as challenges.
  2. Your documentation may not always be recorded in words. Drawings, diagrams, sketches, photographs, and graphic organizers may be helpful to your studies. In some cases, these types of recordings can help to document the sequence of your process.
  3. Use a separate section of your notebook or binder, or create a different document online to record notes from your research and reading. Never copy directly from any source; always record what you have learned in your own words and document the source. Please see the research guidelines on the ELO web page for information on what information you need to properly give credit to your sources. If you are going to quote directly from a source, do so using quotation marks, and record the page number. If you are writing a research paper or creating a presentation, this section of your reflective journal will be very useful.
  4. Share your reflective journal with others to get feedback. Bring it with you to conferences and meetings. Your teachers will be interested in your progress.
  5. It might be helpful to keep track of the time you spend on your ELO. Your credit will be based on your mastery of competencies, but it would be interesting to be able to document the amount of time you spend on your project.
  6. Please see the rubric that will be used to assess your reflection and discuss it with your teachers. It describes very clear expectations for your project. 
  7. At the end of your ELO, we will ask you to summarize your reflections into a 1-2 page paper. This will ensure that whatever you include in your reflections can remain confidential, unless you choose to share it with the panel at your presentation.