Learning+Journal

A learning journal is a chance for you to summarise and reflect upon your learning. You should complete this after every lesson but don’t get carried away and think you must write epic accounts of the entire lesson. A short paragraph that summarises the three key aspects you learnt is going to be more useful, both for your teacher and yourself than pages of detailed descriptions. Please focus on what you have learnt rather than what activities you completed in the lesson, otherwise your journal is not much use to anyone! To really develop a deeper understanding you should also aim to include how this lesson can be applied to your learning so far. This journal is also a chance to feedback any concerns or areas you did not understand. Your teacher will check these regularly and can use this to inform their planning to help you understand better. And remember, if you did not understand something then chances are others in the class also did not understand so do not be afraid to express your worries of a particular topic or lesson. So remember the three key areas you should be including in your journal:
 * 1) What did I learn this lesson?
 * 2) What did I struggle to understand?
 * 3) How can I apply this lesson to my learning so far?

To help you with your journal writing here is a good example and a bad example of a learning journal: Bad Example: Today in lesson I watched an extract from Gattaca and wrote a paragraph about characters. I thought the film was a bit boring and I didn’t really get it. Why is this bad?? The student focuses only on what they DID in lesson, rather than what they learnt. They have tried to express that they did not understand the film, but the point is so general that the teacher cannot help to support and aid their understanding. Good Example: Today in lesson we learnt about Propp’s theory and applied this to the film Gattaca. I learnt that Jerome conformed to the role of the ‘prince’ because he is the central protagonist and Irene conforms to the role of the ‘princess’ as she is the oppositional character. However we decided they probably subverted the traditions through their dress code and cold relationship at the beginning of the film. Today’s lesson has shown me that Propp’s theory can be applied to many other sci-fi films, like War of the Worlds and Men in Black. The only part of the lesson I was a bit confused on was the storyline of Gattaca, as it seemed a bit complex and the clip we watched was only very brief. The student has shown the teacher that they’ve understood the theory really well. They have also successfully applied it to the film and practised using their key terms. Their feedback also allows the teacher to see that they need to teach the storyline of the film in more detail or reconsider the length of clip they show students.

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