The following question is from The Reflective Journal by Barbara Bassot, Part 2, Theme 2.4 Reflective writing – how do I start?
“Now try doing one of Bolton’s (2010) ‘six minute writes.’ Be sure to time yourself and to write freely. What are your reactions to this? For example, was it easier than you thought? Too short a time or too long? And so on. Now check your writing against the two lists of points made in Theme 2.1. Does your writing fulfill the criteria for being described as reflective?”
The Writing
OK, here we go. I am sitting on the couch in the middle of coronavirus quarantine. Frank (my dog) is nestled right by my side unless he sees or hears something outside that he feels compelled to watch and bark at. It’s cozy, but he likes to squeeze in, so I don’t really have full use of my left arm (at least I am right-handed :). Evan, my older son, is currently down the hall in his room practicing the trumpet. The music is beautiful, but also quite strident. We’ll see how that affects the tone of my writing. 🙂 I also may be interrupted at any moment by Evan or my younger son, Andrew, as both are quarantining at home with me doing remote school. We’ve all been doing remote school for some time now – I think this is week 7. Today is the first day that I have been back to my blog. When I looked back over the dates of previous entries, I can see that I stopped writing here at the end of February/early March. That is right around the time when our world changed forever. I headed off to a Spring Break mini-vacation with my sons in early March. By Wednesday, March 11th, Penn State and institutions around the country were making the move to emergency remote learning in the wake of the coronavirus epidemic.
The Reaction
OK, that was enjoyable, in the sense that I could literally just sit down and write whatever was in my head. I really enjoyed that experience. It felt very liberating, which is a nice change in our locked-down, quarantined state. 🙂 I will say that six minutes went by extremely quickly. I was surprised to hear the timer going off. I was just getting into my thoughts, and I could have easily continued.
I do think that the writing I did met the criteria for reflective writing in the following ways:
- Written in first-person
- Generally more personal than academic
- Helpful for evaluating your own experiences
- Focused on my thoughts, feelings, assumptions
- A form of self-supervision
- Honest and spontaneous
- Subjective
- A record of my thoughts and experiences
- An investment of time
In addition, reflective writing is not:
- Simply a description
- Written in the third person
- Calculated
- Objective
- Something that can be rushed
- Simply about planning what you will do next time
Looking back at my writing, it may have been more of a description than anything. Had I continued, I think I would have gotten into more of my reactions to the current situation. But in 6 minutes, that’s what I got!
“Now try…moving on to Stage 2 (Bolton, 2010) by writing a story of a recent experience you have had. If this does not come easily to you, imagine you are talking to a friend at the end of a busy day and what you would say. When you finish writing, think about what you feel you have learned from this.”
The Writing
For the last six weeks, I have woken up every day, gotten dressed, eaten breakfast, and commuted the 10 seconds it takes to walk to my kitchen table and turn on my laptop computer. All person-to-person interactions have taken place online – in Zoom, Slack, or email. The only human beings I have shared a physical space with have been members of my family and the few masked strangers I have encountered on limited excursions outside to obtain food or needed household items. Despite that potential barrier to interaction and the development of new relationships, I have actually gotten to know many members of the Smeal community with whom I had not had previous interaction. This was expanded even further on Friday afternoon. On Friday, our college unveiled a new Microsoft team dedicated to communication around a host of less formal topics. The idea is to provide community gathering spaces around a variety of topics of community interest. By the end of the day on Friday, I had shared a photo of my dog wearing sunglasses, as well as two recipes. I “liked,” “loved,” and commented on many other people’s posts as well. I found that I was having interactions that were novel – with people I had not spoken to before in person, and around topics that I had not discussed before with colleagues. I enjoyed the new connections. What I will find interesting is seeing how these connections made in virtual space may translate to a return to face-to-face interactions. Do we bring different personas to the online world than to the physical one? Do those connections make the “jump?”
The Reaction
Writing from a story-based vantage point felt very comfortable. I don’t know if my “story” followed typical story elements. But I wrote from a first-person, anecdotal voice. We are constantly telling ourselves stories. Taking those thoughts, ideas, and reactions that live in our heads and transferring them to something more tangible is very effective for self-examination!
Bassot, B. (2016). The reflective journal. Palgrave Macmillan.
Bolton, G. (2010). Reflective practice: Writing and professional development, 3rd ed. London: SAGE Publications, Ltd.