Reflective writing

Reflective writing

Learn how to write a reflective text about a learning experience.

Do the preparation task first. Then read the text and tips and do the exercises.

Preparation

Reading text

In January I spent three weeks volunteering as an English teacher in my town. I've been thinking about becoming an English teacher for a while so it was a good opportunity to see what it's like. The students had all just arrived to start a new life in the UK and they had a range of levels from beginner to intermediate. They came from a variety of countries and had very different backgrounds and experiences.

For me, the most important thing was the relationship with the students. I was nervous at first and did not feel confident about speaking in front of people. However, I found it easy to build good relationships with the students as a class and as individuals and I soon relaxed with them. It was a challenge to encourage the lower-level students to speak in English, but at least they understood a lot more at the end of the course.

At first, planning lessons took a really long time and I was not happy with the results. Classes seemed to be too difficult for some students and too easy for others, who finished quickly and got bored. I found it was better to teach without a course book, adapting materials I found online to suit their needs. I learned to take extra activities for students who finished early and that was much better.

I still need to continue improving my lesson planning. I would like more ideas for teaching mixed-ability groups and I want to plan the whole course better next time. That way students have a focus for each lesson and a sense of progress and of what they've covered. I'm also going to put more confident students with beginners when they work in pairs so conversation activities give everyone more chance to speak and students can help each other.

Overall, it was a really positive experience and I learned a lot. I've decided that I would like to become an English teacher in the future.

Tips

  1. Reflective writing is more personal than other types of academic writing. You can use the first person (I ... , My ... , etc.) and explain how you felt.
  2. Think about the experience in detail. Explain what went well and what was challenging, and say what you learned in the process.
  3. Use a structure:
    • Short introduction to the situation
    • Evaluate the most important things about the experience, including solutions to problems
    • Say what you would do differently next time
    • Say what you learned overall.
  4. Keep the focus on your learning process and what you will do better in future.

Discussion

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Average: 4.3 (28 votes)

Submitted by Mand on Fri, 04/09/2020 - 03:20

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Since I decided that I want to study abroad I've been a lot of challenges days as I was at a lower level in English but I think that I'm improving now and my last test level I got a B1! However, every day I have to discover new ways to study, new ways to practice my speaking, writing, listening and reading and it has been difficult, but I can feel the difference day by day. Is not easy being your own teacher and see where you are making issues so the whole learning process is slower than with a teacher and the speaking part is the most difficult since I'm ashamed to talk with other people

Submitted by IKEDA on Thu, 03/09/2020 - 09:55

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My latest challenge to learn something was building the team for a big project. I could understand that it's hard to go along with just theory.

Submitted by senes19 on Sat, 15/08/2020 - 12:58

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For me, German was the most hardest challenging. It looks like English but it has many different structure. For example, the verb creates second position of sentence. To use right grammar entails many knowledge. And all rules has exceptionals. We can say exceptions are rulers. And when you improve your knowledge, you may use some word. It is going to reduce long of sentences. But I hope it'll her better every day :)

Submitted by DRAC.JAHA on Fri, 14/08/2020 - 11:26

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Hello everybody i am new here
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Submitted by Hennadii on Fri, 14/08/2020 - 09:55

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Actually, I'm in the middle of quite a challenging task right now. Some time ago I decided to change my profession. I this case I need to get new knowledge so I'm studying coding. I've never worked with any kind of programming stuff so it was hard at first and, honestly, it's still hard enough. I have to learn a lot and the different and difficult material and get some practical experience. I'm also learning two languages: English and Polish. And if English I'm learning quite long by now, Język Polski still looks very unfamiliar.

Submitted by Ayano on Mon, 10/08/2020 - 14:58

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 In August last year, I went to Korea about for three weeks to study Korean. When I was high school student, I was interested in Korean culture or language, so I decided to go to Korea. It was the first time to go abroad and I felt nervous or fear but Korean students who were showing me around were very kind, so I could have a good time.  I was quite nervous in the first week because I took classes with my friends, but there were some people that I don’t know. So, I was ashamed to talk in front of them. In addition, I’ve never taken classes of Korean in all Korean. However, my teacher was extremely kind and gentle. What is more, the teacher told us that he wants us to say something even if you don’t have correct answer. I found it is important for students to say something to teacher because teachers want some response.  It has been going the time and I got used to answer or to say something. By doing that, I felt fun more against studying Korean. Therefore, if I take a chance like this again, I try to want to communicate with teachers from at first.

Submitted by Nanako Suzuki on Thu, 06/08/2020 - 05:57

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From this July, I have started studying business, especially online business by self-education. Because my dream is to make a lot of money from my online business and take care of my parents, who have been so kind to me.There are only a handful of people in my country who can make millions in annual income, but I think it's possible to do that with an online business. What kind of online business is it, I think it's an information dissemination business. I will transmit the knowledge you know through the Internet to those who want it. For example, if someone would like to know how to develop a habit, I'll provide value to them by posting online how to develop a habit. It's efficient because once it's out there on the internet, I don't have to explain it over and over again to each person, and most importantly, I think it's great to provide value to people and make them happy. I haven't even started learning about online business yet, so I don't have any income, and online business isn't a quick money-making business. It's hard work because I have to study and gather knowledge every day, but it's a great way to live my life.

Submitted by Vinicius Alves on Wed, 05/08/2020 - 01:21

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I cannot give a opinion over how was my English learning process, because I'm still learning, actually I'm a English student, though let me try to talk a bit about my experience as a English learner until now. I began in 2015 since it has been so hard, I had pretty goods moments and a lot of not good moments. One journy has diferents ways to follow, and so many times I chosen the wrong one, unfortunataly... i had had gave up but since this year I have return to the right way... I don't want to stop anymore!

Submitted by Glenda T on Sun, 28/06/2020 - 07:04

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My last challenging learning experience was about do publicity for a small proyect whith my family. My cousing have a business of gift for special ocations. I study graphyc desing, so I decided do the plublicity. The advertising posters was very nice, but I think that I could do better it. I never have done a work like this, in this you have that think like the customer you want to reach, but it's some complicate. Finally, you dosen't know, if the costumer likes it or not your work and if it's feasible for the business. I practiced a lot doing this and also, learn some things about marketinag and publicity.
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Submitted by OlaIELTS on Sun, 03/05/2020 - 13:50

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My last challenging learning experience is about event management and decoration.