1. Reflective Writing A self portrait of me as a writer and learner

2. Guiding Question • What is reflection and what is the purpose of the reflective entry in the Kentucky Writing Portfolio?

3. Definitions • Reflection is carefully considering and seriously thinking about past events to try to make sense of those past events. • Literacy is the ability to use language to communicate with others through reading, writing, speaking, listening, observing or a combination of these skills.

4. Purpose of the Reflective Entry for the Kentucky Writing Portfolio The purpose of the reflective entry is: • To reflect on your growth as writers by considering the influence of literacy experiences. • To achieve this purpose, you MUST analyze and evaluate your writing growth.

5. Reflecting on yourself as a writer • Read the following excerpts from Speaking of Poets: Interviews with Poets Who Write for Children and Young Adults by Jeffrey S. Copeland • Notice how each author discusses • how they write • what they know about themselves as writers • what they do as writers

6. Arnold Adoff: “I am very much a believer in rewriting; writing is rather a small part of what I do. The heat, the excitement, and the joy of scribbling is the writing, and that is only the very beginning of the process. I can do as many as seventy-five drafts of a single poem. Typical for me is nineteen or twenty drafts.” • Eloise Greenfield: “Family has always been very important to me personally. When I write, it always finds its way into my work…Wherever people are willing to care about each other, support each other, and there is give and take, we have a family. I do like to write about that a lot because it does exist. That is very important to me.” • Karla Kuskin: “I always start writing poetry longhand with a pen, and I generally use a striped pad of paper. But, I jot down things on anything; on the back of a envelope, on scrap paper. I scribble verses or a rhyme or an image that goes through my head that I don’t want to let go. I’ve got a zillion tiny pieces of paper all over the place that I’m afraid to throw out. They may come to nothing, but I have to keep them just to same.”

7. Guiding Question • What are my literacy experiences and how have they influenced my writing development?

8. Activity • Consider your own literacy experiences. We would like you to take about ten minutes to complete a quick write to consider your own literacy experiences and writing development.

9. Activity • Use your writing folder to compare your earlier writing with present writings • Identify three ways that you have improved as a writer