Reflective Summaries

Description

The Reflective Summary Performance Task Guide structures a process through which students engage in evaluating, analyzing, and responding to texts.
Reflective summaries are powerful learning tools for two reasons: they provide the opportunity for students to practice metacognition, and they challenge students to succinctly synthesize the content of a medium with which they have engaged — a litmus test for depth of understanding. At the college level, reflective summaries are common assignments that help professors gauge students’ engagement with the material, their ability to identify and convey main ideas, and their level of critical analysis. The Reflective Summaries Performance Task Guide embeds key strategies to help students learn to pose questions for reflection, identify and summarize main ideas, make predictions, and explore key connections, including text-to-text, text-to-self, and text-to-world.

Opportunities for Student Choice

Students can choose the text selections they will reflect on, within certain parameters, for each type of reflection. They are allowed to choose several comprehension strategies from a menu of possible options.

Authentic Task

There are several authentic tasks that include the skills involved in writing a reflective summary, such as memoirs and essays in which authors write about their engagement with a particular important text, as well as book reviews. Reflection is also an important part of self-evaluation, which is expected across many contexts, including both school and work.

Opportunities for Exhibition to an Audience

Students can publish and share their portfolios with others who are reading the target text, and can select how wide an audience they want. For example, they can share in the class library, in the school library, or online. They might also share on book review sites such as Amazon.

Grade Level Exemplars/Models

Elementary School:

Middle School:

High School:

Expert:

My Life in Middlemarch by Rebecca Mead: http://www.nytimes.com/2014/01/26/books/review/rebecca-meads-my-life-in-...

Why I Read by Wendy Lesser: http://www.nytimes.com/2014/01/26/books/review/why-i-read-by-wendy-lesse...

Downloadable Resources

Explore Reflective Writing_Reflective

What is a reflective summary and in what contexts do people write them?

Develop a clear enough understanding of the characteristics and uses of a reflective summary to be able to explain your understanding to others.

Common Core Standards

CCRA.R.10

Time To Complete

1-2 hours

Reflective Summaries Performance Tasks Rubric

What are the expectations for this performance task?

Each performance task has a single-point rubric, which lays out the expectations for college-and career-ready performance. This type of rubric allows teachers to provide specific, focused feedback without limiting students’ creativity or putting a ceiling on their...

Summarize_Reflective

How can I use summarizing to better understand and remember what I read?

Learn to retell the major events/points of a text succinctly and in the order in which they appeared.

Common Core Standards

CCRA.R.1
CCRA.R.10

Time To Complete

4-6 hours

Identify Theme_Reflective

How can I find the theme(s) of a text?

Learn to identify the primary theme(s) of a piece of text.

Common Core Standards

CCRA.R.1
CCRA.R.10
CCRA.R.2

Time To Complete

4-6 hours

Question_Reflective

How can I use questioning to better understand and attend to what I read?

Learn to ask authentic and guiding questions about a text.

Common Core Standards

CCRA.R.1
CCRA.R.10

Time To Complete

4-6 hours

Connect Text-To-Self_Reflective

How can I use text-to-self connections to better understand and engage with what I read?

Learn to make connections between what you are reading and your own experiences.

Common Core Standards Assessed: CCRA.RL.10

Common Core Standards

CCRA.R.1

Time To Complete

4-6 hours

Connect Text-To-Text_Reflective

How can I find connections between and within texts in order to deepen my understanding of what I read?

Learn to make connections within a text and between texts in order to deepen your understanding of what you read.

Common Core Standards

CCRA.R.1
CCRA.R.10
CCRA.R.3

Time To Complete

4-6 hours

Connect Text-To-World_Reflective

How can I make connections between what I read and what I know about the world?

Learn to make connections between your reading and your knowledge of the world in order to understand your reading more deeply.

Common Core Standards

CCRA.R.1
CCRA.R.10

Time To Complete

4-6 hours

Predict_Reflective

How can I use predicting to better understand what I read and to stay more engaged?

Learn to make logical predictions about the content of your reading.

Common Core Standards

CCRA.R.1
CCRA.R.10

Time To Complete

4-6 hours

Reflect on Learning Process_Reflective

How can I reflect megacognitively on my process of understanding text?

Learn to reflect on your own learning process, so that you will be more knowledgeable about how you learn, and better equipped to shape and maximize your learning.

Common Core Standards

CCRA.R.1
CCRA.R.10

Time To Complete

8-10 Hours