Search This Blog

Thursday, November 22, 2012

Entry 12: Reflecting on Student Learning Objects from the Syllabus


Throughout the semester, a requirement of LTED 618 was to keep a weekly blog journal where we reflected upon the learned material as well as any new understandings and misunderstandings of the class. Through keeping this blog entry, it helped us adhere to the Student Learning Objectives found on page 1 of the class syllabus. The blog entries had us transact with the text to further develop our understandings of the material as well as a course. We were able to question and answer our understandings. The weekly questions we responded to helped guide our understandings of the material. In the following paragraphs, I will go through and respond to each of the Student Learning Objectives.

 “Students will gain knowledge and competency with regards to the variety of genres that readers and writers use to communicate.” Objective one was followed through in our weekly entries because we often reflected upon the genres in our weekly writing. Many of entries talk about wither my new understandings of the genres or how I am using them in my classroom. Having to write about them also allowed me to assess what I knew about the genres and what I still needed to know.

“Students will gain knowledge and competency with regards to the role of purpose and audience in writing and reading and the rhetorical voices used to address the desired purpose(s) and audience(s).” Objective two was followed in our weekly writings because we always had to remember who are audience is. While this is a weekly blog entry, it was an informal entry where we wrote to ourselves. Our voice and purpose were set to write to a specific audience, and that of our professor. The end of the semester project, our multi genre projects, also taught us voice, purpose, and audience. In those pieces we have to vary our audience, purpose and our voice. Each piece requires us to use different purposes and audiences. When writing I have to stay focused on the idea that I may not be writing as myself and the audience is not the same as it was for the last piece.

“Students will gain knowledge and competency with regards to the historical and contemporary theoretical models of reading and writing, including new literacy theories of reading and writing.” The third objective was evident throughout the course. In the beginning of the blog entries, we focused on the models of reading and writing. We had to understand what writing was before we started learning about the various genres. One important idea I took from the blog entries is when I reassessed my views on revising and editing. I realized that they are two separate stages and processes.

“Students will gain knowledge and competency with regards to the relationship between the writing and reading processes.” This relationship was known before I started writing the weekly blog entries. This concept has been stressed since I took LTED 600 where we learn that oral and written languages are both forms of literacy. Through this course however, I learned more of the relation between writing and reading process. Students will become more engaged as readers if they are better writers. Even through my blog entries I became a better writer and reader. The more I wrote, the more I read. Writing required me to transact with the text for further understandings.

“Students will gain knowledge and competency with regards to the role of metacognition in writing proficiency and reading comprehension.” I am not exactly sure how writing in the blog entries helped me become more aware of metacognition of writing proficiency and reading comprehension. What the blog entries did though was allow me to become more aware of teaching students different types of writing and when to use these types of writings. Graphic organizers are essential for writing and it is important to teach students how and hewn to use them.

“Students will gain knowledge and competency with regards to the types of reading and writing assignments that are developmentally appropriate for learners, including digital reading and writing assignments.” The class in general taught me about the types of reading and writing assessments that are appropriate for leanings. While reading Hicks (2009) I learned of the digital reading and writing assignments I could assign for my students. Due to Hicks (2009) I created writing assessments that were similar to what he had written about. In my second entry I reflected on digital writing and explored my understandings of it as well as what Hicks wrote about it. I like the idea of digital writing, especially using blog entries as a form of expression. While I did not like always having to write the blog entries, especially lengthy ones, it allowed me to reassess what I knew and what I wanted to know. Perhaps in the future if I teach in a school that assigns homework and my student population has access to computers outside of school, I would consider have weekly blog entries for homework.


“Students will gain knowledge and competency with regards to the role of writing assessment and evaluation in determining student writing proficiency and reading comprehension.” I don’t really remember writing too much about writing assessment to determine student writing proficiency and reading comprehension. I do remember writing about assessment in the beginning of the blog entries. Looking back on my blog entries, entry 6 focused on assessing writing, when we went over Rubistar in class. Through this blog entry I wrote about different forms of assessment and when we should use them. I do not recall focusing too much on connecting assessment to writing proficiency and reading comprehension. What my assessment entry was about was when and how to assess students. To me informal assessment is more important as it allows the students to get valuable feedback without the stress of having their rough drafts graded. Assessments are meant to be meaningful so we should tell students in advance when we are collecting a piece of writing to be assessed.

1 comment:

  1. Thanks Katie for making an effort to respond to each of the learning outcomes specifically, it really helped your reader to understand how you see what learning benefits you achieved through the completion of this assignment.

    ReplyDelete