Week Journal 3 (February 19 2016)

FS3-1B students' persuasive essay:

I-pads and online resources should replace textbooks

(Indent!) We live in a world where we use technology everyday, why not take the advantage from it and start using it for schoolwork instead of using tons of paper for textbooks. I-pads are a quality device and should be used at school as textbooks and notebooks.

(Indent!) They are chopping down trees to make textbooks and papers that at one point we will throw away. If more students start using I-pads then after time the amount of trees that they chop per year will decrease, which is good for the environment.

(Indent!) It is also more easier because if you have all your books saved in an I-pad, you won’t need to carry a heavy bag everyday to school and notebooks take lots of space. Also books can be very expensive on the I-pads it might be a bit more affordable and easier to find.

(Indent!) The only negative part is that they might use it to cheat or to talk to each other instead of reading or doing schoolwork. But--> However, that can easily be fixed by turning off the Wi-Fi when it’s not needed so that they won’t be able to chat during class, only when the teacher allows it she/he can turn the Wi-Fi back on.

(Indent!) Yet--> Nevertheless, I still think that replacing textbooks with I-pads is a really good idea and should be a thing right now at schools. Carrying heavy books around can be avoided by using I-pads and you can E-mail your teachers your assignments right away after you’re done. And--> Also, it might be easier for the teachers to grade it afterwards and send it back so that you know what was wrong or what needs to be fixed.

Significant Situation 
I teach English 102: composition, which is to say I teach the students how to write essays. During this week the students wrote a persuasive essay. I teach the students how to outline their essays and then I correct them after they've e-mailed them to me. Above is an example of my corrections in red of a students' persuasive essay.

Reflection

I chose to correct the students' homework individually and via e-mail, because each student of the FS department has a different level of English. This is because some of them come from HAVO, MAVO, EPB (a type of VWO on Aruba) and this causes each first-year class to have varying levels of English. I chose to correct them individually so that each student gets enough attention from me in order to develop their English language skills. I chose to do this via e-mail so that the students could always save their essay with my feedback and see their development as the weeks passed. In my opinion, it's always best to look back and see how far a student has gotten; this helps their motivation when one realizes that there has been progress in their English language skills.

The effect of this way of correcting is that the students are able to clearly see their progress and they are able to revise their mistakes.

My students said that this was clearly helping them, because they save all the essays with the corrections and when there's a test they go through their own essays in order to see what they need to do, what they should avoid writing, and how the essay should look like.

This was important to me, because I want to help the students to better their English skills, to help them be motivated, and to shape their own learning processes with regards to the choices they make (write essays, revise the essays individually and independently).

My conclusions are that I am a pedagogical teacher, because I work on creating a supporting learning environment in order for the students to be able to develop their English language skills by working individually and independently on their essays .



My learning aim for next week is:
-To develop a lesson focusing on grammar quizzes and writing an argumentative essay