Beginning today, you will have to keep a learning log on your personal blog/web site. It is not a completely private journal for no one else to read, though. For more personal entries, I would ask that you use your Personal Journals. This page will be a space where you self-reflect for others to see what you are gaining as time goes by.
Here, check this out.
What is a Learning Log ?
Learning logs are a simple and straightforward way to help you integrate content, process, and personal feelings. Learning logs operate from the stance that we can learn from writing. I would like you to make entries in your Learning Logs during the last five minutes of class or after each completed week of class. The message here is that short, frequent bursts of writing are more productive over time than are infrequent, longer assignments.
What is its purpose ?
There are many crossovers into content areas other than those associated with reading and writing when it comes to what they are good for. Properly understood and used, your Learning Logs can become a vehicle for exchange among your parents, teachers, and selves – most importantly yourselves.
How do you do it ?
There will be a great deal of overlap between portfolios and learning logs. In fact, both Personal Journals and Learning Logs could possibly provide artifacts for your student portfolios. The most valuable result of a Learning Log is that as you write to learn, you also learn to recognize your own and other’s good work. Both Learning Logs and Personal Journals assist the learning process. While your Personal Journal can be free flowing, and subjective relying on opinion and personal experience, a Learning Log is concise, objective, factual and impersonal in tone.
Your Learning Logs can include problem-solving entries from mathematics or science, observations from lab experiments, questions about lectures or readings, lists of books you have read or would like to read and howework assignments.
How can you adapt it ? Many ways. Here are only a few suggestions . . .
- Writing about Mathematics
- Students write an explanation to another student of how to do a math problem. They should include the why of the solution as well as the how.
- Writing about Science
- Writing about Art
- Writing about History
- Students place themselves in a historical period or event and write about it from the point of view of someone who is there. In their responses, students focus on the what, where, why, how, when, and what if. Or students write a dialogue between themselves and a historical personage, focusing on the same details.
- Focused Writing
- Focused writing is an excellent way to begin a collaborative session. Students write non-stop for five minutes on a specific topic they are studying. The purpose is for students to find out what they know about the topic, to explore new ideas, and to find out what they need to learn about the topic. Source
Remember, you do not have to write long drawn out entries. Your goal is to reflect on what was discussed, to reflect on the way you learn.
You can use the questions at the bottom of this page to guide your entries. You do not have to answer all of them for each entry. That would be insane, YIKES! Use the questions as starting points if you will. Write what you learn.
The whole purpose of this page is to reflect on your learning experiences.
- evaluate how personal perspectives are influenced by society, cultural differences, and historical issues.
- appraise changes in yourself throughout the learning process
- evaluate personal circumstances and background that shape interaction between yourself and other things (books, movies, stories, songs, people).
That’s right. Write what you learn. Do not write about what you learn . . . Write What You Learn. Do not write about metaphors, write metaphors. Do not write about the theme. Write the theme. Get that? Use what you have a grasp on to express what you know. Use metaphors to show you know what they are, how they work, how they can be used, etc. That’s the trick. If you can use it (what you’ve learned), then put it to practice (prove it).
Here are some questions for you to use in how you relfect.
- What did I learn today?
- What puzzled me?
- What did I find interesting?
- What questions do I have about what I learned?
- What was the point of today’s lesson?
- What connections did I make to previous ideas of lessons?
- What am I proud of accomplishing today?
- What did I enjoy, dislike, accomplish?
- in class today
- in the discussions
- How did I learn from the discussion or time in class? (by listening, being open-minded, etc.)
- How was my performance in other’s discussion(s)?
- How did I feel about the responses I got to my discussion questions? Were my feelings valid? Or should I take a look at my emotional reaction(s) so that I might grow?
Now, go, get set up.
Go to your website, and follow these instructions:
- Click WRITE.
- Click PAGE.
- Click in the field to enter a “Title” – Call the page “Learning Log”
- Click in the field to enter the description of the “Page” – Write a short description. You can use what I have written for this assignment to come up with how you would describe the page for your visitors.
Reflect.
Learn.
Grow.
Change.
