Journal
On my first day at school I was roaming round the place looking for the English class. I had no idea where to go at all. Then, after much walking around and asking, I made it to English class. When class started and Mr. R began talking about the ELSR’s and how we were going to use them for the whole year. I was totally confused once again and felt out of place because I didn’t know what he was talking about, like a polar bear in the Sahara desert. Then after the next few classes, I figured out what the ELSR’s were and what they meant and was trying to complete them to the best of my ability. Here is what I thought I have been. I think I have been an effective communicator because I demonstrated the skills of effective collaboration. In more detail, I tried to talk to people I didn’t know and tried to make friends with everyone and worked well with most people. I also listened considerately and asked questions to facilitate understanding and to achieve insight. In other words, when I wasn’t sure what a chapter meant in the book, I asked people and the teacher to help me understand it better. I also participated in conversations more. When we were in our class talking about the chapter we read, I spoke about what I thought and answered questions the teacher asked. Being an effective communicator also helped me complete my project by asking questions on what I didn’t know how to do and took a creative risk by doing what usually everyone would not do, like a music project.
Being an effective communicator can also lead to being an involved citizen. This means using your skill of an effective communicator and improves the lives of others. This would’ve helped me to finish the project because I would ask questions to facilitate better understanding of my project. This helped me in class because I would ask questions when I didn’t understand anything.
What if I didn’t just sit down in class and keep quiet? What would’ve happened? I think I would’ve had more friends because I was confident in myself. What if I actively participated actively in class? I think I would’ve earned more points for my participation grade. This reminded me of the time when I actively participated in class and I felt good because I was able to share my thoughts and improve the lives of others academically. Next time I could change my speaking by talking louder when answering and asking questions in class. If were to grade myself for effective communicating skills I would give myself a B.
I think I have also been an involved citizen by demonstrating responsible and active decision making. This means to manage time and making decisions wisely. This could have helped me with the book because instead of procrastinating when reading a chapter in the book, The Lord of the Flies and I could have read it immediately and would have had time to do other homework. This helped me in class because this helped me to choose whether to talk or nor in class and to make wise choices.
Being an involved citizen can also lead to being an academic achiever. This means choosing electives that would help me academically, like newspaper or a foreign language. This ESLR also helped me by using the electives to help me to read and understand the book properly, and it helped me to finish the project by using the skills I learned in my elective to put it to good use and to use it on the project to get a higher grade.
We could compare an involved citizen to an academic achiever because it means choosing the right electives that would help me academically.
What if I chose the right electives the first time? What would have happened? I think I wouldn’t have wasted time. This reminds me of the time when I chose the wrong electives and wasted time. I could change my decision making strategies by consulting a friend or teacher or family member first to see if I should make that decision. If I were to grade myself for being an involved citizen, I would give my self an A-.
I also hit being an academic achiever because I demonstrated the ability to work both independently and collaboratively. To me this means the way you interact with your peers and how you manage your time wisely when doing an individual and group project and not to procrastinate. One mistake I made while trying to achieve this ESLR was that I didn’t really help much and didn’t want to cooperate so now I realize this mistake and will improve myself by being more active in helping others and taking responsibility in doing my part in a project. This helped me I the project because I didn’t waste too much time and worked hard to produce the result I wanted. This helped me in finishing the book because if read on time, I wouldn’t slow the class down and we would be able to finish the chapter with ease. This helped me in class because I learned to be more cooperative when in class doing an assignment.
We could compare an academic achiever to a self-directed learner because I could take risks in developing untried ideas and this would improve my grade. This helped me finish the book by using different resources to understand the book more, like using a dictionary when confused instead of asking the teacher. This also helped me finish the project because instead of doing a poster like almost everyone else, I chose to do a music related project and took a creative risk. Although I may not have gotten the desired marks, I will still try to improve and get a higher grade.
Because most of the time I am lazy to work, what if I didn’t waste time and just studied harder? What would have happened? I would have positively gotten better grades for sure because I think the more you study, the better grades you get. What if I used better learning strategies? Would that change anything? I think it would have improved the way I studied more. I could improve in my studying skills by focusing more when it comes to class and use strategies that would improve my grade and if were to grade myself for my studying skills, I would give myself a B-.
I have also hit the ESLR of being a self-directed learner. This means to identify my needs and to apply the appropriate learning strategies. To me this could mean to correct mistakes and not to repeat them again. One of my mistakes was that I didn’t realize my mistakes the first time so now I try to be more independent when recognizing mistakes. This helped me finish the book because I changed my reading strategies and used better reading strategies and would have read better. This also helped me finish the project because I checked the project for any mistakes and then corrected them. This helped me in class because when I made a mistake in my class work, I corrected them as soon as possible.
I could compare being a self-directed learner to being a critical thinker. Critical thinking would allow you to realize mistakes more efficiently and independently. This could be possible when you finish a test and you are checking it but only have a few minutes left. I could use my critical thinking skills to check for mistakes and correct them efficiently.
What if I didn’t make any mistake because I studied hard? I think it would’ve been much better. What if I used effective learning strategies in the first place? I think I would have gotten better grades. I could change my learning strategies by studying harder next time so I wouldn’t get mistakes so I wouldn’t have to correct anything. But, people make mistakes and it’s good to make mistakes when you can learn from them and not repeat them again. I would say I am doing quite well in this ESLR but I still need some progress, and if I were to grade myself for my self-directed learning skills, I would give myself a B.
Last but not least, I have also tried to be a critical thinker. This means to solve problems using a variety of strategies. To me this means when something doesn’t work try another way of solving the problem. For example, when you are doing a math equation but you can’t seem to get the answer, you could use another way of solving it. One of my mistakes was that I stuck to the same old strategies and got the same old results so next time I plan to use other ways of studying. I might be taking a risk by trying something new, but this is also part of becoming a self-directed learner. This could’ve helped me finish the book by using different ways to read the book more proficiently. This could’ve helped me finish the project because I could use a different way of doing the project and instead of doing it a few days before it was due, I could have done it earlier and this would have saved much more time. This could have helped me in class because if I had some working or student problem in class I could use different ways of solving it.
Compare being a critical thinker to every other ESLR. To do every other ESLR you need to be critical thinking right? If you didn’t think hard enough or deep enough then you wouldn’t find out the answers to many hard problems. You wouldn’t be able to be a self-directed learner because to identify our needs take a lot of critical thinking. You wouldn’t be able to be an involved citizen because you needed to think critically if you wanted to make responsible and active decision making. You wouldn’t be able to be an academic achiever because to assess, evaluate and adjust work to maintain high standards needs critical thinking. You wouldn’t be able be an effective communicator because you need to think critically if you wanted to listen respectfully and ask questions to facilitate understanding and achieving insight. From the above you can clearly see that critical thinking is needed in every ESLR. In fact, every ESLR depends on each other to be able to achieve each one the best.
Moving on to a next idea, what if I didn’t modify my strategies when I was doing poorly? What would’ve happened? I think I would have done much worse. I could adjust my way of thinking by thinking more cautiously and responsibly and making decisions wisely. If I were to grade myself for my critical thinking skills I would give myself an A.
Overall, after reading all this, I will tell you how I wrote this journal. For instance, I narrowed the topic into three things: what the ELSR’s meant synthesis and grading me.
I organized it according to the ELSR’s, starting from being an effective communicator to being a critical thinker.
Then I put voice in, which was appropriate for the audience. For example, in the first paragraph of my journal, I put the simile ‘like a polar bear in the Sahara desert’.
I have used word choice as well since I didn’t use the same word more than five times. For example: Carefully cautious
Change modify
Because since
Definitely positively
Efficiently proficiently
For sentence fluency, I used independent clauses and dependant clauses properly. For example, the sentence ‘it is good to make mistakes, if you do not repeat them’ is a mixture of a dependant clause and an independent clause separated by a coordinating conjunction. So, on the whole this was how my journal was written and this was what I learned so far and I hope to learn more.[
Filed under: Reflective journal
