Types of
Reflective Journals
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Key phrase journal |
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Students are asked to integrate an
identified list of terms and key phrases
into their journal entries as they
describe and discuss their community
service activities. Students may be
asked to underline or highlight the key
phrases in order to identify their use.
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Double-entry journal |
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For this journal, students use a spiral
notebook. On the left side of the
journal students describe their service
experiences, personal thoughts, and
reactions to their service activities.
On the right side of the journal, they
discuss how the first set of entries
relates to key concepts, class
presentations, and readings. Students
may be asked to draw arrows indicating
the relationships between their personal
experiences and the formal course
content.
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Critical incident
journal |
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Students focus on a specific event that
occurred at the service site. Students
are then asked to respond to prompts
designed to explore their thoughts,
reactions, future action, and
information from the course that might
be relevant to the incident. For
example:
Describe an incident or situation
that created a dilemma for you
because you did not know how to act
or what to say.
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Why was it such a confusing
event?
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How did you, or others around
the event, feel about it?
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What did you do, or what was the
first thing that you considered
doing?
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List three actions that you
might have taken, and evaluate
each one.
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How does this course material
relate to this issue, help you
analyze the choices and suggest
a course of action that might be
advisable?
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Three-part journal |
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Students are asked to respond to three
separate issues in each of their journal
entries:
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Describe what happened in the
service experience, including
what you accomplished, some of
the events that puzzled or
confused you, interactions you
had, decisions you made, and
plans you developed.
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Analyze how the course content
relates to the service
experience, including key
concepts that can be used to
understand events and guide
future behavior.
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Apply the course materials and
the service experience to you
and your personal life,
including your goals, values,
attitudes, beliefs, and
philosophy.
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Directed writings |
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Students are asked to consider how a
particular aspect of course content from
the readings or class presentations,
including theories, concepts, quotes,
statistics, and research findings,
relate to their service experiences.
Students write a journal entry based on
key issues encountered at the service
site.
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Adapted from
Bringle, R.G. and Hatcher, J.A.
Reflection in Service-Learning: Making Meaning of
Experience. Educational Horizons. Summer 1999.
179-185.
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