COURSE REFLECTIVE JOURNAL

PURPOSE: This assignment is to help you note, connect and interpret your own learning. The aim of the assignment is to enable you to map, interpret and question your own development into becoming a teacher.

SOME KEY QUESTIONS TO CONSIDER:

1) What happened in this week's class?

2) What happens to my assumptions regarding teaching after engaging in this week's class?

3) Where, as I read the reading set for this week did I get stuck, did I resist the message being offered?

4) How do the comments from my peers, from my instructors, make me aware of alternative ideas I might consider or I tend to forget when teaching?

Note the journal is not simply a re-writing of your notes from class. The journal, referring to your notes and memories, is a way for you to interpret and understand your own learning.

EXPECTATIONS

You are expected to write one side (approx. 200 words) once a week about the class you have just experienced and the related readings. The entry should be written in full sentences in first or third person. Each entry can be typed or hand-written and can include diagrams or extracts taken from other sources.

REQUIREMENTS

Entries in your reflective journal should:

• be a minimum of one page per week, handed in at the beginning of each class
• include written comments on each of the following:

- course readings (textbooks and articles assigned)

- activities and discussions in campus-based course

- field experiences

• include your thoughts, ideas and questions in addition to notes recording interesting ideas, lesson plans, management strategies, etc.

Although the reflective journal entries are not expected to be polished writing, they should be coherent and well thought-out. The journal entries, with permission from you, may be shared with the course instructors and possibly with peers and cooperating teachers.

The course instructor will read and comment on these entries and return them by the next class. In the second to last class in the course you will hand in, with your completed eight journal entries, a final read-back entry for the whole term. An important focus for this read-back will be to read over every entry and comment on what seems to be a recurring theme to what you have learned in the course.

GRADING

This assignment is credit/non-credit. You must complete the eight entries with a final read-back to get credit for this assignment.