One of the assignments for my Civil Rights Movement class is a student journal. I first started experimenting with student journals in my EFL classes. I found it was an excellent way for students to reflect on their learning, reinforce new vocabulary, and set their own goals. By reflecting on their learning I found the students took ownership of their learning, it was also an excellent way for the students to send me feedback.
I created a google drive folder and shared the folder with my students, after every class they create a google doc in the folder and answer the following questions:
I created a google drive folder and shared the folder with my students, after every class they create a google doc in the folder and answer the following questions:
- What did we do in class?
- What did you learn?
- Did you enjoy the class? Why/Why not?
- How was your performance?
- What would you do differently?
It is an excellent tool because students can communicate with me through their journal entries, this way I can get instant feedback from the students regarding the lessons, I can also find out if students are struggling, what they found interesting and what they would like to do in the future. It is much more useful than checking my student evaluations at the end of the semester.
I decided to use the journals in my history class because I want to get as much information about my teaching ability in preparation for taking my PGCE.