reflection essay coffin week 8

7/23/2019 Reflection Essay Coffin Week 8

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Running Head: REFLECTION ESSAY 1

Reflection Essay

Daniel Coffin

Concordia University, Nebraska

Submitted in partial fulfillment of

the requirements for EDUC 6

December !6th, "!#



REFLECTION ESSAY 2

$ had thou%ht, before startin% this class, that there &asn't really anythin% $ needed

to learn about &ritin%( Surely there &ere thin%s $ could learn, if $ sa& fit, but $ fi%ured $

&rote &ell enou%h for a humble middle)school teacher of readin% and &ritin%, and there

&ere more pressin% avenues of intellectual and professional %ro&th to pursue( *o& to

teach &ritin%, for instance( $'m very comfortable teachin% readin%, from decodin% to

fluency to comprehension, but very uneasy teachin% &ritin%( $ kne& ho& to do it, but not

ho& to teach it( $ think no& this is lar%ely because $ never thou%ht of those t&o acts )

&ritin% and instructin% others ho& to &rite ) as related( Noticin% and dra&in% on that

connection &ill, $ believe, lead me to more intrinsically valuable and authentic &ritin%

instruction for my students(

$ &rite lar%ely by instinct( $ %enerally have a va%ue purpose for &ritin% in mind

&hen $ sit do&n to &ork, but $ don't al&ays kno& ho& $'m %oin% to %et from a blank pa%e

to the point at &hich that purpose is fulfilled( $ don't even necessarily kno& ahead of

time &hen that purpose &ill be fulfilled( $ fi%ure it out on the &ay( Stran%ely enou%h, $

don't drive like this( $ have an irrational fear of %ettin% lost in a stran%e city( +o fi%ure( $t

feels like a cardinal sin to admit to as a teacher of readin% and &ritin%, but $ have

decided that $ loathe outlinin%( $t feels to me like &asted time( Sometimes $ need to start

&ritin% in order to fi%ure out &hat $ &ant to say( $ understand that outlinin% &orks, and

&hy it &orks, but $ dislike it all the same( $ think that this realiation has a lot to do &ith

&hy $ en-oy the daily -ournal &ritin% $ have my class do( $ &ill likely rephrase my

directions and modelin% for students in the future to more e.plicitly sho& students ho&

daily free&rites can enable &riters to try out ideas and make a more informed decision

as to &hich &ritin% pro-ect to develop(



REFLECTION ESSAY 3

/hen $ &rite, meanderin% my &ay from point 0 to point 1, $ may leave some

2rabbit trails3 in my first draft, some ideas that $ pursue for a para%raph or t&o but

ultimately abandon that don't really tie into the throu%hline of the &ritin% piece, &hich $

&ill later trim out( Some of these $ don't mind cuttin%( Some of these $ love and it pains

me to %et rid of them( 4hese ones $ save in a file for reuse or additional development(

$n my first essay, for instance, $ had t&o &hole para%raphs about me comin%

home, eatin% a favorite snack, and un&indin% at the end of the day( $ included it

because the inclusion of those very specific details made the &ritin% come alive for me

5that &as someone $ actually did almost everyday after school, but in rereadin% the

piece, these details collectively took up a lot of space &ithout really contributin% to the

development of my theme or advancin% my narrative( So, reluctantly, $ cut them out( $

didn't like it at first, but upon rereadin% and thinkin%, $ realied my &ritin% flo&ed more

naturally &ithout those &ords( 4here &as nothin% &ron% &ith them per se, but &hen

considered as part of a &hole, they &ere unnecessary( 4his &as sort of a revelation to

me7 &ritin% doesn't have to be 2bad3 or 2&ron%3 to be improved throu%h revision and

editin%( Sometimes 2ok3 or 2%ood3 &ritin% can be made stron%er, &hich is a realiation

$'d like to pass on to my students, especially my more proficient ones, &ho are very la.

about their editin% precisely because they are so %ood(

0nother interestin% realiation is that $ find it hard to proofread my o&n &ork( $

think of myself as someone &ho cares about 2%ettin% it ri%ht3 and presentin% quality

&ork, and yet, in my second essay, $ &as so proud of ho& my essay concluded that $

ne%lected to notice that at no point did $ state a thesis for my &ork( $ %ot around to

presentin% and supportin% an ar%ument eventually, but as a classmate pointed out, the



REFLECTION ESSAY 4

lack of a thesis statement si%nificantly &eakened &hat should have been a pretty %ood

essay( 4his realiation has influenced my teachin% because, honestly 5and a%ain, $'m

ashamed to be admittin% this, $ hate peer revie&( $t takes forever, my student often end

up bein% brutal to each other or completely ineffective because they don't kno& &hat to

look for( $t is, in short, incredibly time)consumin% and frustratin%, &ith a lot of false starts(

4hat said, my e.perience has sho&n ho& effective it can be &hen one &orks &ithin a

learnin% community of trust, respect, and achievement( $ -ust need to &ork on fosterin%

that community(

None of these realiations are earth)shatterin% in their enormity( 8aybe they are

thin%s $ overlooked because they are small 5the alternative, of course, bein% that $ am a

moron( $ am struck, ho&ever, by the fact that $ came to them throu%h reflectin% upon

my o&n &ork as a &riter( 20uthenticity3 is one of the %reat educational bu&ords of the

!st century, almost universally praised and hardly ever illustrated &ith e.amples( $

have often thou%ht that teacher don't do inauthentic thin%s because they prefer them,

they do them because they don't kno& &hat else to do( No& $ realie $ have the

e.amples $ have been &aitin% for &ithin my o&n e.perience( /hat could be more

authentic in &ritin% instruction than modellin% for my students then thin%s that $, also a

student, do to achieve success9

reflection essay coffin week 8

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