Writing · Writing: Planning, Drafting, Revising and Publishing

Reflecting as a Writer: Strategies, Interconnected Skills and Your Portfolio

4.1 4.2 4.3About 65 minutes

Learning goals

I can describe the strategies I use before, during and after writing and explain which help me most.
I can identify my strengths and areas for improvement with specific evidence and set concrete next steps.
I can explain how my listening, speaking, reading, viewing and representing skills help me write.
I can select varied portfolio pieces that show significant growth and explain my choices.

Words to know

metacognition
Thinking about your own thinking and learning strategies.

reflection
Looking back at your work and process to understand what worked and what to change.

strategy
A deliberate method you use to complete a task, such as outlining or reading aloud.

interconnected skills
The ways listening, speaking, reading, viewing and representing support each other and writing.

portfolio
A selection of your work chosen to show variety, growth and competence.

reflection note
A short explanation of why a portfolio piece was chosen and what it shows.

next step
A specific, doable action to improve your writing.

Getting better on purpose

Two students write the same number of essays this year. One improves a lot; the other stays about the same. The difference is often not talent. It is reflection: the first student looks back at each piece, figures out what worked and what did not, and changes something next time.

The last overall expectation in the Writing strand asks you to reflect on your strengths, your areas for improvement and the strategies that help you most. In this lesson you will practise metacognition (thinking about your own thinking), connect your writing to your other language skills, and build a writing portfolio that shows your growth.

Remember from Grade 9

In Grade 9 you reflected on each stage of the creative process, used metacognition and started a portfolio. In Grade 10 you will choose portfolio pieces that show significant advances in your growth and explain your choices in more depth.

1. Metacognition: before, during and after

To describe your strategies, you first have to notice them. After a writing task, ask:

Before writing: How did I decode the prompt, generate ideas, research and plan? Did my outline help?
During writing: Did I follow my plan? Where did I get stuck, and what did I do about it (freewrite, talk it out, skip ahead)?
After writing: How did I revise? Which feedback helped? Which proofreading pass found the most errors?

Then decide: Which strategy helped most? Which will I change? And name specific next steps. Write better is not a step. Spend 10 minutes on a reverse outline before every final draft is.

The dashed arrow is the important one: what you learn after one piece feeds the planning of the next.

Vague reflection	Specific reflection
I think my essay went well.	My thesis was arguable and my evidence came from three different parts of the story, which my teacher praised.
I need to work on grammar.	I made four comma splices; next time I will do a separate proofreading pass for them.
Planning helped.	Making a point-by-point outline kept my comparison balanced, so I will use it for the next compare essay.
I'll try harder.	I will start the next essay two days earlier so I have time to read it aloud after a break.

Specific reflections name the evidence, the strategy and a concrete next step.

2. Interconnected skills: how other strands help you write

Writing does not grow by itself. Expectation 4.2 asks you to identify skills you have in listening, speaking, reading, viewing and representing and explain how they help you write.

Reading gives you models: you notice how authors open stories, vary sentences and use evidence, then try it yourself.
Listening to discussions, podcasts and feedback helps you hear rhythm, catch other perspectives and understand what confused your reader.
Speaking lets you test ideas aloud before writing (as in the idea sprint and dinner-table debate activities).
Viewing media teaches you layout, design and how images and words work together, which helps with graphic forms and publishing.
Representing ideas visually (mind maps, outlines, storyboards, diagrams) helps you organize before drafting.

Writing sits at the centre, but every other strand of the course feeds into it. Name a specific skill on each spoke when you reflect.

3. Your writing portfolio

A portfolio is a selection of your writing that shows your growth and competence. It is not everything you wrote. Expectation 4.3 asks you to choose a variety of types of writing that show significant advances and explain your choices.

Choosing pieces:

A variety of forms: for example, a literary essay, an opinion piece, a news report or review, a creative piece, a graphic text.
At least one before-and-after pair (a first draft and its revision) to show how you revise.
Pieces that show a breakthrough: your first arguable thesis, your first story with dialogue that worked, your first essay with no comma splices.
Possibly one piece you are proud of for personal reasons.

Explaining your choices: write a short reflection note (often 100 to 200 words) for each piece: What is it? Why did I choose it? What does it show about my growth? What strategy made the difference? What would I do differently now?

Worked example

Let's write a portfolio reflection note

Write a reflection note for this portfolio pair: a first draft and final version of a literary essay on "Notes on the Fridge." The first draft's thesis was The story is about a parent and teen who leave notes; the final thesis answers what, how and why. The teacher's comment on the draft said More analysis, less summary.

Identify the piece and the reason for choosing it: I chose my literary essay on "Notes on the Fridge" because the difference between the first draft and the final version shows the biggest change in my writing this term.
Name the advance, with evidence: My first thesis only described the story. My final thesis makes an arguable claim about how the notes as a motif suggest that small acts of communication hold families together.
Name the strategy that made the difference: Using the what-how-why thesis frame and highlighting my analysis in one colour and evidence in another showed me that my draft was mostly plot summary. I cut two paragraphs of summary and added close reading of single words like "Ok." and "Yes."
Connect to other skills (4.2): Discussing the ending in a small group helped me notice the paradox of the shortest note, which became my third body paragraph.
Set a specific next step: Next, I want to make my transitions between paragraphs stronger by echoing a key idea instead of starting with words like "Secondly."

A 150-word note that names the piece, the specific growth, the strategy that caused it, a connection to another language skill and a concrete next goal.

Hands-on activity

Build your portfolio

You need: a folder (paper or digital), your writing from this course (or from Grade 9 English if you are just starting Grade 10), and a family member.

Gather all your pieces. Sort them by form.
Choose 4 to 6 pieces that together show variety and growth, including at least one draft-and-revision pair.
Write a reflection note for each piece using the five steps in the example.
Write a one-page writer's statement: your three biggest strengths, two areas you are working on, the strategies that help you most (before, during and after writing), and how reading, listening, speaking, viewing or representing helped.
Present your portfolio to a family member in 5 minutes. Ask them which piece shows the most growth and why.

What to look for: variety of forms, reasons tied to specific evidence in the writing, strategies named precisely, and next steps that are concrete and doable.

Just for fun

Some writers keep every draft forever, just in case. Their computers have folders named Essay_FINAL, Essay_FINAL2, Essay_REALLYFINAL and Essay_FINAL_THIS_ONE. Portfolio tip: name your versions v1, v2, v3.

Your turn

What is metacognition?

Make this reflection specific: My essay was okay but I need to improve.

Name one way reading helps you as a writer.

Why include a draft-and-revision pair in a portfolio?

Name one strategy you might use before writing and one after.

How can speaking help you write?

More practice: warm-up

What are the three stages to reflect on?

Is a portfolio every piece you wrote?

Name the five language skills (other than writing) in expectation 4.2.

What should a reflection note explain?

Is Try harder a specific next step?

More practice: on your own

Write a specific next step for a writer whose teacher wrote Watch your tense shifts on three essays.

Explain how viewing a well-designed infographic could help your next informational report.

Choose 5 pieces for a varied portfolio from this list and explain one choice: literary essay draft 1, literary essay final, two journal entries, a news report, an opinion essay, a short story, a grammar worksheet, an infographic.

A student says their greatest strength is writing good. Rewrite this as a specific strength statement with evidence.

Why is it useful to reflect on the strategy you found least helpful?

Challenge

Write a 150-word writer's statement about yourself as a Grade 10 writer, including two strengths with evidence, one area for growth, two strategies that help most and one connection to another language skill.

Compare two pieces of your writing from different times (or imagine two pieces: an early essay with a summary thesis and a later one with an analytical thesis). Explain what significant advance means using these examples.

Explain how reflection connects to every other part of the writing process you studied in this unit.

Check your understanding

Quiz

Which reflection is most specific?

A writing portfolio should contain:

Which is an example of an interconnected skill helping writing?

Metacognition means:

Why include a first draft beside its final version?

Which is a concrete next step?

For parents and teachers

Big idea: Overall expectation 4 asks students to reflect on their strengths, areas for improvement and most helpful strategies (4.1), explain how listening, speaking, reading, viewing and representing help their writing (4.2), and select portfolio pieces that show significant advances with reasons (4.3).

How to help: look through your teen's portfolio with them and ask Which piece shows the most growth? What did you do differently? Praise specific strategies (your outline really organized this), not just results. Keep drafts; they are evidence of growth.

Common difficulties: vague reflections (it went well); choosing only the highest-mark pieces instead of those that show growth; forgetting to explain why a piece was chosen; next steps that are not actions.