Assessment assessment

Final Unit Assessment!

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. I completely agree with these students in that this course has a very fast pace that can be extremely demanding. I feel as if I learned more in this month than almost all of last year, so for this whole year I wouldn't be surprised if I double or triple my English knowledge. I don't nessecarily figure this is a bad thing because as or societies knowledge pace gets more rappid, or way of learning should also increase.

     

  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. The whole structure of the class in or discussion of the books was a very good way to keep the class on track. I liked that alot. The very rigid calender on the other hand was maybe not as good. When we were lectured or taught a lesson you allowed one maybe two days in which to learn a big topic. Unfortunatly not everyone learns at the same pace and there was really no time for explanation. In the future you may not want to dictate the amount of time it'll take for someone to learn something.

     

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

    4. I liked the books we read so far. They all had their individual parts that were fun. The Hobbit was really cool that it introduced a new type of writing, the very fantasy type. I extremely liked Catcher In The Rye by J.D. Salinger because it really talked about life and kind of made me think differently. The Adventures of Huck Finn by Mark Twain helped me understand how to analyze an author's motives because Twain portrays a good vs. evil level underneath the story. So in whole they were all good books to read.

     

  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. I found it less difficiult than I expected. My first day in the computer lab was overwhelming as everyone seemed to know exactly what they were doing, but i caught on fairly rappidly. Soon there after I found that it wasn't very difficult to learn. In fact I'm very glad I had the opportunity to learn how to write web pages because I'm sure it'll be a useful skill.

     

  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. I would spend more time on my journals because I feel they could be much better. I had to rush to complete many of them so they aren't as quality as they should be.
  6. Given the same circumstance, what would you fight to maintain? Why?

    7. I would definately fight to maintain my homepage and the general design of my sight because I feel it gives the whole project more life. I could have just the bottom line of documents with links back and fourth between them but that doesn't let me show individuality or show that I have gained any knowledge from learning html.

     

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

    8. Maybe spending a little more time analyzing the books would have helped me to understand the connection in all the books. I really think we've moved a little to fast for everyone to have gained evrything from the unit.

     

  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. I would have switched in to class sooner so I didn't have to play catch up all semester but I would have taken the reading more seriously because I often had to rush to finish the book at like two in the morning so I didn't get the whole experiance.

     

  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?

    10. I would say that its pretty cool. Learning about computers and everything was real fun, and reading all those books wasn't as bad as I thought. I would tell people to take it really seriously or else they'll fall behind. I cna say this because coming in late was bad but slacking on journals and then typing three of them the day before its due is not easy.

     

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

I thought it was pretty cool. It was a lot of work but it wasn't bad. It was a lot of fun learning how to write stuff for the internet and reading all those books will come in handy, one day.

 

Thanks!