Midterm Summary

Hannah M. Herrera

March 18, 2008

LLSS 315

            There are four major strands of work: communication, technology, research, and collaboration.  I feel that these have been established in this semester so far through several ways.  Communication is done every time we meet for class, each time an e-mail is sent out, and each time that we do our book club meetings.  The most enjoyable communication by far has been sharing our chataquas and doing the book clubs.  I have learned so much about Nikki and about the different perspectives and lives of each person in the class through these forms of communication.  Technology is used through building our web sites (which I’ve never done before besides Myspace) and putting our weekly scribes on the main page.  Also, e-mail is a form of technology that has been very helpful for me.  It’s a great way to combine communication with technology.  Research has been used through the text we are reading alongside the instruction in class.  This has helped clarify some of the more technical terms throughout the class as well as back-up much of the activity that occurs within the classroom.  Collaboration has been stranded throughout the class so far.  Each time the class gathers, we are all communicating ideas and brainstorming with one another.  A great deal of collaboration goes on outside of class as the students each talk about what is due and ideas about what we are going to do with the assignment given to us. 

            There are five dimensions of learning: confidence and independence, knowledge of content, skills and strategies, use of prior and emerging experience, and reflectiveness (critical awareness).  I have seen a great deal of confidence and independence grow in each of the students in our class since the semester has begun.  The communication throughout each class period combined with flexibility in the assignments and self-monitoring have created a sense of empowerment and independence within our classroom community.  I think allowing each of us to complete the readings relatively at our own pace as well as flexibility with the chataqua has allowed for a feeling of confidence to occur.  Knowledge of content is shown through our presentation of the chataquas, class discussion, and the vocabulary listed on our web sites.  All of these things help to reinforce the content explained in our text.  Skills and strategies are practiced as we work with the children and brainstorm on ways to help bring the creativity out of each student.  The use of prior knowledge and experience has been mostly seen through the person chataquas.  We were able to learn a new idea through using experiences from our lives.  The reflectiveness has been mostly done through the weekly scribes, the book clubs, and through this midterm.