Final Unit Assessment!

Having finished almost 25% of the school year already, it is time for the students to respond to the class so far. As a class, we have read three novels, written many journals, had many discussions, written newspaper articles, written personal narratives, and learned how to write in HTML and how to make web pages! That's not bad for two months of work!

The objective of this assignment is for you to provide honest, thoughtful, reflective information concerning YOUR view of events in class so far. As teachers, we are limited in our view of the class and of the material covered. We try to do it all, but it's impossible for us to be truly successful without considering the views of our students. Therefore, this meta-cognitive assignment exists.

Directions: Answer the questions below as thoughtfully, honestly, and completely as possible. Where possible, clearly explain your point through examples and elaborations.

  1. How do you feel concerning the pace of the course so far? Some students have mentioned they feel as if they've done more in this marking period than all of their previous years. Is this a good thing? Why or why not?

    2. The pace of this class if fairly face-paced, but last year it was too, so I'm pretty used to it. It is very stressful at times to think about all that work that's waiting for me at home, but it's not anything I can't accomplish. It's not a bad thing that everything's so face-paced because we get so much done and we learn a lot.

     

  2. There was a fairly rigid calendar of activities and assignments; did you feel this structure helped you? Why or why not? How did you feel about the way classroom time was organized? (Friday was discussion day; Monday was journal day, etc)

    3. To tell the truth, I don't really care if we have a rigid calander of activities and events or just go by random chaos. Either way work gets done, and I don't really care which way we do it. It doesn't help or make anything worse either way we do it. Friday being discussion day though, is a good idea because it really helps me write my journal entries.

     

  3. What did you think of the books we selected for reading throughout this unit?

    4. I really enjoyed reading Catcher in the Rye and Huck Finn because they both stimulated a lot of thought and you had to read between the lines to fully understand the book. They were both rich and deep in meaning and very interesting. I hated reading The Hobbit because I thought it was directed towards third graders instead of our reading level. I went babysitting and I read to the kids, they enjoyed it a lot more than I ever did.

     

  4. How do you feel about the digital portfolios? Did you find it more or less difficult than you expected? Why do you think that is?

    5. I'm always so worried about not being able to finish my webpage, so I have to work extra hard at it. I find it interesting and it's something new, but it's difficult. All those tags you have to learn and memorize, it's very hard. Going into this, I had no idea it was going to be like this, I didn't really know what to think, but I didn't think there'd be so many tags. I guess once you get used to it, it's not hard at all, but I'm not there yet.

     

  5. If you were to be given the opportunity to work with your teacher on updating and revising this project, what would you change? And why would you change it?
  6. Given the same circumstance, what would you fight to maintain? Why?

    7. I don't think I would change that much, because I like being in the computer lab, because it's basically a free for all and you can do whatever you want to, excpet still get the assignments done. I think though, you should write out all the tags, for backgrounds, pics, whatever and that will make it so much easier.

     

  7. What do you think your teachers could have done to help you learn more from this unit?

    8. Above

     

  8. What would you do differently, knowing what you now know, if we were to do a lesson similar to this in the future?

    9. I wouldn't do anything differently excpet get started on my webpage sooner. The problem is I can't do it at home because everything changes, so I have to go after school and do it. Yeah, that's what should be changed. Get rid of all the Macs and replace them all with PCs.

     

  9. If you were asked by a neutral person about this unit, and you weren't in a good mood but not in a bad one either, and the weather outside was fair and partly cloudy, what would you say? What criteria would you use to make this statement?

    10. I would say "Guess what? I'm making this webpage thing for English class and it's pretty cool because it's something I've never done before and it's really interesting and I think my webpage is really cool." Webpages are like watching TV, except you have control of what to watch, and all the pictures and backgrounds just make it that much more interesing.

     

  10. Tell us anything else that's on your mind concerning this project, even if it is reiteration of a pervious thought.

I don't know about other people, but I like it.

 

Thanks!