BlogLearnHow to Write an Effective Year 11 English Reflection Statement 

How to Write an Effective Year 11 English Reflection Statement 

Year 11 Reflection Statement - featured image

No clue how to write an amazing reflection statement for Year 11 HSC English?

Fear not! This article will break down the process of writing one, hopefully removing some of the confusion around what can be quite a vague piece of writing.

So, let’s jump right in!

What is a Reflection Statement?
What should you be writing about?
How do you structure a Reflection Statement?

What is a Reflection Statement?

A reflection statement is a statement written by students, discussing their process for producing a particular assessment task.

It isn’t a simple recap of what you did to complete the task, but a self-assessment on what you did, how and why you did it, what you did well, and what you could improve on.

It is an assessment task that was previously only reserved for Extension English students.

Now Year 11 English students will most likely to have to write reflection statements in the Common Module: Reading to Write.

However, in Year 12, you will have to write a reflective statement for Module C: The Craft of Writing.

If you’re looking for some help in writing a reflective statement, check out our article on it!

What should you be writing about?

Check out the video below to get a general idea before we jump in!

You ultimately want to demonstrate TWO things to your marker:

  1. A well-thought out process of composition in creating your text — i.e. being able to pinpoint exactly why you did what you did and explain this in depth.
  2. A deep personal awareness of your strengths, weaknesses and overall development as a learner. What are you good at? What are you not so good at? What did you learn from doing this task? What skills were you able to hone?

Your purpose in writing a reflection statement is, as the name implies, to reflect!

Do not confuse this with the strictly argumentative purpose of writing an essay. While some argument may serve your reflection statement well, markers will also be looking for your own personal insight and observations about yourself as a composer, responder and learner.

But, first:

The most important part of writing a Year 11 reflection statement is to read your assessment and marking criteria carefully!

The assessment criteria will tell you absolutely everything you’re being assessed on for the main assessment task and the reflection statement.

The marking criteria will tell you exactly how your teacher will mark your work. This will include the criteria for achieving a mark in each Band.

The marking criteria can act as a checklist to make sure you’ve done everything you need to do to get a Band 6.

An effective reflection statement also answers three questions:

While the specifics of your reflection statement may differ slightly depending on your school and on your teacher, it should ultimately be answering these three questions in its analysis not only of your decisions as a composer but also your progress as a learner.

Year 11 Reflection Statement - Questions

How do you structure a Reflection Statement?

As you would structure any piece of extended writing; with an introduction, body and conclusion!

While this may seem reminiscent of the typical essay structure you’re probably used to, the reflection statement differs slightly.

As mentioned earlier, your purpose is not necessarily as argumentative as the purpose of an essay.

Each of your three sections should contain the following:

SectionsContent
Introduction- Introduce what you will be reflecting on and the overarching points to be discussed in the reflection. If you’re incorporating an argument about your skills as a composer/student (recommended), now is the time to introduce it.

- Don't forget to introduce your texts and composers!
Body- Pick 3-4 key points to focus on in your reflection.

- The feed-up, feed-back, feed-forward model mentioned earlier provides a straightforward “template” through which you can structure you reflection statement.

- Alternatively, you may wish to select 3-4 key aspects of the text to be discussed (such as key ideas) and use these to structure your body paragraphs. Within each paragraph, you should still be mindful of feed-up, feed-back, feed-forward.

- Whether you are reflecting on a text studied in class or a text you have created yourself, each body paragraph should nonetheless aim to contain a minimum of three textual examples, analysed not necessarily for their meaning within the text but rather in terms of your abilities and skills as a learner.
Conclusion- As is the convention in any other piece of extended writing - the conclusion is the place to sum everything up! Remind the reader of your key points and arguments before they finish reading.

- You may even wish to incorporate some feed-forward into your conclusion as a nice indication of your future trajectory.

Okay, so how long should your piece be?

This will vary depending on a couple of factors:

  • The assessment task being written about
  • The level of English you’re taking (Advanced or Extension)
  • What your marking criteria says!

Reflection statements in Year 11 will generally be between 300 and 800 words, likely hanging around the 400-word mark. However, for English Extension 2, your piece is 1500 words long.

And that wraps up our guide on how to write the ultimate Year 11 Reflection Statement. Good luck!

On the hunt for other Year 11 English resources?

Check out our articles and guides below:

Looking for a tutor to help you ace your Year 11 Reflection Statement?

We pride ourselves on our inspirational HSC English coaches and mentors!

We offer tutoring and mentoring for Years K-12 in a variety of subjects, with personalised lessons conducted one-on-one in your home or at one of our state of the art campuses in Hornsby or the Hills! Want to ace your multimodal assessment? Our comprehensive 1-1 tutoring in Bankstown can help you meet your Band 6 goal!

To find out more and get started with an inspirational tutor and mentor get in touch today! 

Give us a ring on 1300 267 888, email us at [email protected] or check us out on TikTok!

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