For the Students of Laura Anschicks:
Keeping a Learning Journal
A Learning Journal kept for a class
or for yourself has several purposes:
a) It engages the mind more elaborately
than casual thought alone, involving us as thinkers in dialogue
with ourselves.
b) It clarifies thinking because we
write it down where ideas can be seen, shaped, added to, edited
in ways we lose track of in our minds alone.
c) It leaves visible evidence of where
our minds have been.
d) It exercises our skills at articulating
thought quickly, flexibly because it is supposed to be spontaneous
and informal.
e) It provides a non-judgmental place
to try out ideas and writing techniques for stating those ideas.
What a Journal Does
For
Thought
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| What it does not do |
WHAT
IT DOES |
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a)
It is not a diary
b) It is not a list of your
day's activities
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a)
It is a tool for reflecting, thinking, and articulating.
b) It is a place to record
your perspective on different topics.
c) It becomes a place
to create that perspective.
d) It is a place to process
readings and consider their application to life.
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For
Writing
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| What
it does not do |
WHAT
IT DOES |
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a) It will not camouflage
haste and rambling.
b) It cannot substitute for
poor study habits and sloppy thinking.
c) It won't replace editing
and development on polished essays.
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a) It is a place
to practice writing.
b) It challenges us to
expand on our ideas--that is, it teaches development.
c) It is a place to experiment
with ideas and writing.
d) It helps the writer
to "loosen up," stay flexible.
e) It builds confidence.
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THE BOTTOM LINE:
What does the teacher want anyway???
1)
Entries reflecting approximately 1-1/2
hour's work per week (one long entry,
3 30-minute ones, or 5 or 6 short ones). You will have to experiment
to see what time format will work best for you. I strongly recommend
that you not wait to begin until the 2nd week before class!
2) Topics should all focus upon some aspect of the course you
are in. The subject possibilities are quite broad, and suggestions
will be made in your syllabus and in class. See ideas listed
below for general guidelines:
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a. Respond to readings.
What points strike you
in some way? Have you learned new information? Have you acquired
new perspectives? Do you have questions? Do you agree or disagree
with some point? What do you like or dislike? What holds your
interest or fails to (and why)? How does the reading stimulate
your thinking? Can you apply it to anything in life outside this
program?
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b. Use course or
personal reading as a model.
Practice seeing the world
from the author's perspective -- how does this expand your own
thinking and responses?
Note characteristics of
the author's style that you admire, and attempt to model them
in a practice writing of your own. Note characteristics you do
not admire and rewrite a section in the way you wish it
had been written. (Good out-of-class models can be found readily
in the newspaper, especially on editorial pages or in special
features such as articles of Bob Green and others and in sections
such as "Tempo" and "Sports" in the Tribune.
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c. Experiment with
the rhetorical mode under discussion in class.
Or perhaps write about
what you cannot fit into the assigned essays but wish to say
anyway!
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d. Practice brainstorming,
clustering, freewriting as steps
in the writing process of your assigned papers. See which has
possibilities for you and in what circumstances.
Write about what worked
in your writing process and what did not.
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e. React to the
writing assignments and what you
found easy or difficult, interesting or boring. |
f. React to ideas
discussed in class or in accompanying
films or labs or field excursions. |
In all entries, the
goal is to develop your ideas in such a way that someone else
can experience what you experienced.
Or such that you yourself can re-live your experience five years
from now when you probably will have forgotten all about it.
To do this, you will want to draw upon all you have encountered
in writing classes and in your own reading: use of sensory impressions,
concrete language, images, explanation, analysis, reader anticipation,
etc.
And finally, RELAX. This is supposed
to be fun !!??!!
Go out there and PLAY!!!!!!!!!!!!!
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