As you know, or should, I'm interested in making the marking process as open and as participatory as I possibly can. I have to make my own judgement, of course, based on 35 years of experience -- but I do not want that judgement to be a mystery if I can help it. So I'm explaining here, as best I can, how I read the learning reflections, and inviting you to read them in the same way, and to revise your own to become a better demonstration of your own learning.

The first thing I do is go through and delete comments on the nature or conduct of the course, which don't in fact detail any learning on the part of the writer. I understand, of course, that in many cases these are a way to get started writing, but usually they can be edited out once you've got rolling. I also delete comments on how good or bad the course or the program is, or how the structure afforded, or didn't afford, learning -- and where the comment isn't connected to a particular new understanding or ability or piece of knowledge.

The first step in evaluating your own learning reflection is this: make a copy of it for yourself, open your editor, and do what I've done above. Just mark and delete everything that matches what I've just described.

Then I go through and look for references to specifics -- to particular events, readings, statements, activities. I also look for any reference to a specific learning -- some particular thing the writer now can do, or knows, or understands, or sees the connection between. I especially look for places where those two are connected: where a particular event, for instance, gives rise to a specific new understanding. And then, in each case, I look for evidence that that new understanding actually exists, rather than merely being stated. In the first stages of this process I usually don't find many.

Go through your own reflection and highlight (perhaps by marking and puttting into boldface) sentences or passages in which you see any of the above.

Because this is specifically focused on English, I also look first for connections with the stated goals of English 1006 -- in some cases people may quote these, and in some they may describe learning that fits one of the categories.

Go through your own reflection and put anything you see that refers specifically to one of the stated goals in italics.

Finally, I read what's left and look for places where learning is mentioned but not exemplified -- for instance, "I know where to find things in the library," or "I understand more about how writers can inject 'spin' into their texts," or "I understand how important it is to have others read my writing and respond to it," and I sigh, because in almost every case a "for example" would have made a reflection which was merely enthusiastic into one which was convincing.

Finally, go through your reflection looking for those places, and add that "for example." In other words, where you can, exemplify the general learning you said had happened. If you can't, take it out.

Now you have a reflection which comes rather closer than your first one to making a strong case for your learning. Run a spell checker on it. Save it.