ASSESSMENT #1!

Having finished almost 25% of the school year already, it is time for the students to respond to the class so far. As a class, we have read three novels, written many journals, had many discussions, written newspaper articles, written personal narratives, and learned how to write in HTML and how to make web pages! That's not bad for two months of work!

The objective of this assignment is for you to provide honest, thoughtful, reflective information concerning YOUR view of events in class so far. As teachers, we are limited in our view of the class and of the material covered. We try to do it all, but it's impossible for us to be truly successful without considering the views of our students. Therefore, this meta-cognitive assignment exists.

Directions: Answer the questions below as thoughtfully, honestly, and completely as possible. Where possible, clearly explain your point through examples and elaborations.

  1. How do you feel concerning the pace of the course so far? Some students have mentioned they feel as if they've done more in this marking period than all of their previous years. Is this a good thing? Why or why not?

    2.  

    Well, I do feel we are moving along really quickly in this class, possibly more in this marking period than certain other classes had done in a certain year, as some classes move kinda slow, and just talk a lot. Sometimes the pace gets allitle annoying, as it seems one dosen't have enough time, but overall (so far) it hasn't been exactly a bad thing. We actually get things accomplished, which is allways good, and to this point with the exception of the vocab words, its (the stuff we do) been interesting.

  2. There was a fairly rigid calendar of activities and assignments; did you feel this structure helped you? Why or why not? How did you feel about the way classroom time was organized? (Friday was discussion day; Monday was journal day, etc)

    3. I think the rigid calander thing is a good thing, especially when it cycles, like the discussion, then journal thing. This is because one knows what is coming, and usually at least dosent have surprises. The calendar thing is allways good, as one can check to see when something is due. However, if the actual assignments dont match in due dates etc, with the stuff on the calendar it just messes things up, so that should usually be avoided.

     

  3. What did you think of the books we selected for reading throughout this unit?

    4. So far I have havent trully "abhored" any book we have read. Catcher in the rye wasnt my favorite book in terms of actual enjoyment, but it was interesting. Huck I liked a bit better, and I actually liked Hobbit allot. I think scince we have all been doing first person books and about nothing else for about 4 years now, its nice to get away from that. Its not so repetitive that way. Overall I like em' but lets get away from first person if it is at all possible.

     

  4. How do you feel about the digital portfolios? Did you find it more or less difficult than you expected? Why do you think that is?

    5. Well, personally this has been allot easier than I expected it to be. I thought that it would be terribly hard, but after about five minutes of Html I changed my mind, and ofcourse now I have my own website at home. Thats fun. I actually learned something that I'm using, which is allways fun. I think its easy, cause its easy. Its not that hard even if you don't know computers.

     

  5. If you were to be given the opportunity to work with your teacher on updating and revising this project, what would you change? And why would you change it?
  6. Given the same circumstance, what would you fight to maintain? Why?

    7. There isnt much that I would change on this project. But there is one thing that comes to mind. The vocab. Now, I'm not objecting to lose the vocab all together in fact, I liked writing the cliffhanger thing, and I think it will be cool to continue someone elses story, and see how they continue mine. I also learned the words. (only the a-ones) However, honestly, the book itself and its annoying and time consuming questions is not what helped me learn. I learned them because I had to. The questions etc. in no way helped me. I think it would be better to do vocab learning them atleast Mr. Percivlalles way. However I like your quizzes better than his. ALLOT more fun. As for what I would "fight" to protect, definitley the internet thing, and the books too.

     

  7. What do you think your teachers could have done to help you learn more from this unit?

    8. To learn more from this unit one thing I could think of is to take a tiny bit more time on some of the projects like the news story thing and the saturday post, if thats what it was called. We build up to it but then we don't do much with it. Really, thats the only thing I can think of to help us learn more in this class.

     

  8. What would you do differently, knowing what you now know, if we were to do a lesson similar to this in the future?

    9. If I could do this quarter over I wouldn't do much diffrently because I'm doing well, or atleast I assume I am. However, I would start the vocab earlier as its the biggest pain in the neck in the world if you leave it to the last minute.

     

  9. If you were asked by a neutral person about this unit, and you weren't in a good mood but not in a bad one either, and the weather outside was fair and partly cloudy, what would you say? What criteria would you use to make this statement?

    If I was to critique this unit so far I would say it is a good one, though not perfect. There are several things I would grade it on. First off, there is the part that to the teacher is most important: How much is learned. Well, as long as one considers reading books and remembering them learning, I've learned allot. I've also, ofcourse, learned the HTML. Now, that brings us to the second part of the criteria: Will we ever possibly even maybye use any of this?: To this I atleast can say yes cause I already have my own really funky site at LOBSTER WORLD!Ok, now that I'm done advertising that on to third criteria. Is it too hard or too easy? Well its definitley not to easy, and so far its not to hard or busy, although sometimes it walks a fine line on that. And lastly: Is the class fun? As far as school can be fun, this class is. Its not allways "Oh, yes! It's English time!" but its fun enough to live with.

    10.  

  10. Tell us anything else that's on your mind concerning this project, even if it is reiteration of a pervious thought.

    The HTML is good. My life is better with Html. I'm very glad I learned it. So far I have nothing to curse about, (although I wouldn't curse even if I did) although even though its not gonna happen there MUST be some better way to lean the Vocabulary. Thats about all I have to say and.......

 

YOUR WELCOME!