Second Step Lessons 10 & 11 Reflective Writing Assignment
To mark the end of our Second Step lessons on Problem Solving Action Steps and Making Amends, you get to choose your own reflective writing activity. The four options are below. Once you figure out which one suits you best, circle the prompt name and text.
Brainstorm about a situation that you would like to focus on for the reflective writing assignment. You may want to write a very brief summary of the event before you start writing as well as jot down what you learned (or wish you had learned) from the situation. Also consider some of the guiding questions and tips to help make your writing more detailed and vivid for your audience.
You will write your 1st draft in your history spiral. Remember that this is a multi-paragraph composition. You will get an opportunity, this week, to type your narrative into the Vantage online writing portfolio. This will give you an opportunity to revise your work to make it the best that it can be.
Learning From Experience
We learn many things from experience. Think about an experience that you had that taught you an important lesson. What was the experience? Use clear and detailed explanations to tell what happened. Identify who was involved and your inner thoughts and feelings throughout the experience. Feel free to include dialogue, if you like, to help you bring the experience to life for your audience. What lesson did you learn from this experience? How would things have been different had you known the lesson beforehand AND/OR how will things be different for you in the future as a result of the experience?
Write a narrative in your history spiral about the experience you had and the important lesson you learned from it.
**Be sure to discuss problem-solving techniques or action steps that you used or could have used to get the best outcome.
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Conflict in School
Think about a time in which you got into a conflict at school. Was it with a friend, an enemy, or even a teacher? Write a multi-paragraph essay in which you explain the circumstances of the conflict, the climax of the conflict, and the resolution. Be sure to include specific details to support your response. Include your inner thoughts and feelings you had throughout the conflict. What lesson did you learn from the experience AND/OR what lasting impact do you think the conflict will have on you?
**Be sure,within your writing, to discuss problem-solving techniques or action steps that you used or could have used to get a better outcome.
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Acts of Kindness
Responding with kindness rather than punishment when someone tries to hurt you can sometimes bring about good results. Think about how an act of kindness can bring about good results and write a narrative about a time when you responded to someone who hurt your feelings with an act of kindness rather than punishment. If no such situation has ever happened to you, create a similar situation in which someone responded to a hurtful situation with an act of kindness rather than punishment to get the best result. Use clear, specific, and detailed explanations to describe what led to the situation, what happened, how the people involved responded, and the final outcome. Include your (or your character’s) inner thoughts and feelings throughout the experience.
**Be sure to discuss problem-solving techniques or action steps that you (or your character) used or could have used to get the best outcome.
Anger Management
After your lesson on anger management and problem solving, think of a time when you were very angry. What event or situation made you angry? Is there anything you would have changed about the way you handled your anger?
In a well-developed essay, use clear and specific details to describe an event that made you angry including what led to the incident and who was involved.Use your five senses to explain what you saw, heard, and how you were feeling at the time. As you are writing, think about the suggestions for managing anger that we learned about in our Second Step lessons. If you appliedany of those strategies, how did using anger management strategies help the situation? If you did not use any anger management strategies, how did that affect the final outcome of the situation? What did you learn from the situation? Be sure to include facts, details, and examples for support.
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Guiding questions to consider and use to help you make your writing complete
- Consider why your experience happened and possibly include it somewhere in your story.
- Be sure to think about what you learned from the experience or how the experience impacted your life or may impact your future.
- If it was a negative experience or outcome, what things could you do to help ensure a more positive outcome in the future?
- How did the experience make you feel? Include those feelings within your narrative as a way to make your experience more real and relatable to your audience.
Tips For Bringing Your Narrative Writing Alive
- Explain what happened using details about the setting (time and place of the action) and the characters/people involved. Be descriptive so your audience can better “see” the when, where, what, and who of your story in their imagination.
- Use figurative language to give your writing more excitement and to help your audience relate to and understand your experience better. Writing that your friend’s comment made you feel sad and hollow inside is a much more powerful expression than saying your friend’s comment made you feel bad.
- Reread the writing prompt carefully and put a check mark on this assignment paper above each of the questions and topics that the prompt instructs you to address. This will help you be sure to address everything and get a higher score.
- Indent five spaces at the beginning of each paragraph and only press enter/return at the very end of a paragraph.
- Every time a new person speaks, you must start a new paragraph and indent five spaces.
- Each time there is a major change in setting or main topic or even major action, start a new paragraph. You should have multiple paragraphs, not one big long paragraph.
- Space once after each punctuation except for a colon (:). Always space twice after a colon.
- All sentences begin with a capital letter (no numbers) and end with punctuation.