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?
~I think we are moving extremely fast. I would rather spend more time on an individual topic than move so quickly and cover more. All the books we read have blended together in my head and I don't think this whole vocabulary thing actually helped me to learn the words. I would much rather work on these in class and have homework that is based on the class work instead of doing a separate project in and out of school.
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)
~Having a steady calander was helpful because I would always know when things were due or when to expect discussion. It helped me balance the work I was doing and prioritize it, but it also allowed us enough flexability so that we could have an extra day to work on our web pages or something that required more work.
3.What did you think of the books we selected for reading throughout this unit?
~I enjoyed reading The Hobbit and Catcher in the Rye, but I didn't care for The Adventures of Huck Finn. It was difficult to read because it was very slow reading and I used up a lot of my free time trying to finish the book. The dialects were also hard to understand and the book didn't seem very exciting because I had already seen the movie. The other two books, however, were fun to read. The Hobbit was extremely creative so I didn't mind reading it. Catcher in the Rye was easy to relate to because the main character was my age. It was also easy to visualise so that made it enjoyable to read as well.
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?
~I think the digital portfolios are worthwhile projects. At first I wasn't too excited about them, but they've turned out to be interesting. I don't think it's very difficult because the html is actually very simple. It's just very time consuming to have to add all the html to the pages or to set it up so that all the links actually connect to where they're supposed to. It was a little bit confusing when I tried to work on it at home because the PC and MACs have different settings. I've figured them out for the most part though.
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?
~I would probably suggest that we don't overlap the projects. It is very confusing to work on one project in school, then go home and work on something completely different. Then on top of this, we are expected to continue the school project out of school. It is very overwhelming and I would suggest we focus on one project at a time.
6.Given the same circumstance, what would you fight to maintain? Why?
~I would probably suggest that we keep the projects that we are doing because they have been valuable as well as interesting. Again, I would just suggest that we go about completely these projects differently.
7.What do you think your teachers could have done to help you learn more from this unit?
~I think I would have learned more from this unit if we had done more in class. We devoted so much class time to the web pages, and I think it would have been better to discuss our novels or go over vocabulary during these times.
8.What would you do differently, knowing what you now know, if we were to do a lesson similar to this in the future?
~I would definitely budget my time better. I spent many Thursday afternoons catching up on a novel. I also let the vocabulary sit for a while because I didn't realize how much work it was. I would definitely try to keep more on top of things instead of letting them slide.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?
~I would tell this nuetral person that the unit consisted of a tremendous amount of work. Just by listing all the things we've done, the person would believe me. I would also tell them that you learn a lot from this unit because it covers so many different topics.
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 think there's anything else on my mind concerning this project because I want to get outside. It's a nice weekend.