Siena College, Quezon City

ENGLISH 7 PERFORMANCE TASK 3rd QUARTER My Journal of Study Journeys Dear Parents and beloved students, Blessed be God Forever! I have come up with a way to further on the reinforcement of the grammatical concepts learned inside our English Classroom and that is through JOURNAL WRITING, a method of reflective writing which is proven effective in enhancing your childs skills in W ritten English Communication. Studies, such as those done by researchers like Connor-Greene (2000), Boud (2001), and Graham and Perin (2007) have ultimately pointed out to the effectiveness of JournalWriting as a means of improving general English Communication Skills, after conducting studies on learners ranging from adolescents to adult learners. Specifically, the Journal-Writing project has the following rationale: RATIONALE 1) Students are explorers in their own right they discover their own way to achieving success in learning that is the main purpose why this project was created for the explorers to keep track of their learning experiences with the hopes that they would find something meaningful and worthwhile. 2) Students reflect on and value their own learning experience as learners of the current time, it is the skill of critical reflection that enables the students to learn more and maximize the resources available in the classroom. As early as now, it is highly encouraged that learners be able to expound on their views as a primary step to enhanced learning. 3) Students are able to open up and communicate while some students may openly voice out their concerns during class time, or with the teacher after dismissal, some students never do this opens up a door of opportunity for those students, who might be finding it difficult to approach the instructor through verbal means. PROCEDURES 1) Students write, write, write! Students write a one full page reflection paper with the following specifications: a. Font and Font Size: Garamond, size 12 (just like this font) b. Margins: 1 inch-margin on all-sides c. Spacing: double-spaced d. Bond Paper size: LETTER (8.5 x 11 inches) 2) Students make a digital compilation together with a printed output. Students, at the end of the quarter, are required to submit both a soft copy of their journals and a digitized compilation in a Compact Disc (CD). The CD should be labeled with the students name and section. The digitized copy ensures that journals are preserved in case of loss of the paper output or any other unfortunate event. 3) Students write about their English Classroom Experience. Not about anything else though. Students only reflect on their learning for the day or session, and as such, will produce a journal entry per meeting. If it so happens that the session for that day is a double-period (two sessions in one day), the student has to produce two journals. To help the student, here are some guide questions that can be answered in the journal entry: a. What new concept/concepts, terms, and definitions have I learned? b. Where did I find difficulty in understanding the lesson? Was I able to overcome that difficulty? c. What was the over-all impact of the lesson to me? d. Are there any other additional information about the topic which were not tackled in class that I found out somewhere and am willing to share? e. Are there any important and lesson-related questions I wish to ask the instructor?
Boud, D. (2001). Using journal writing to enhance reflective practice. In English, L. M. and Gillen, M.A. (Eds.) Promoting Journal Writing in Adult Education. New Directions in Adult and ContinuingEducation No. 90. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass, 9-18. Connor-Greene, P.A. (2000). Making Connections: Evaluating the Effectiveness of Journal Writing in Enhancing Student Learning, Teaching of Psychology, DOI:10.1207/S15328023TOP2701_10 Graham, S. & Perin, D. (2007). A Meta-Analysis of Writing Instruction for Adolescent Students. Journal of Educational Psychology. DOI: 10.1037/0022-0663.99.3.445

4) Students submit on time, all the time! Of course, in any activity, punctuality is key. As previously stated, students are required to submit a journal entry the day following a session. (for example: if the meeting is on Monday, then students have to submit on Tuesday, or Wednesday, depending on when the next meeting is scheduled). All journals must be STAMPED or SIGNED by the teacher. Every Friday, a compilation of four journals must be submitted by the students (no folders, no envelopes; just staple the papers and submit). These will be returned on the first meeting of the following week. There would be no make-up submissions for the journals. A student may not submit a journal entry in case of his or her absence during that session. Deadline for the final compilation (written and CD) will be announced on a later date. 5) Students are graded for their journals. The weekly journal compilations will be graded with a maximum of 20 points based on the following: a. Completeness of daily entries (3 points) i. As previously stated, students produce a journal after every session, to be submitted the following day. In case of a double period, two journals must be submitted the following day. Every Friday, students are expected to submit a stapled compilation of their journals. If a student is absent for the day, he or she may not submit a journal for that session/s, provided that he or she puts a note that he or she is absent. This will not be taken against his or her grade. Other arrangements may be made inside the classroom for purposes of clarification. b. Grammatical Correctness (5 points) i. Conventions on Subject Verb Agreement and Pronoun Antecedent Agreement must be observed. ii. Proper punctuation, capitalization and other vital elements must be observed. c. Content (10 points) i. Relevance to the topic must be followed. A set of guide questions are stated above to make journal writing easier. ii. Opinions are highly valued, though in case of ideas taken from another source, that source must be acknowledged. d. Punctuality of Submission (2 points) i. Deadlines are to be strictly followed; no ifs, no buts. This is to be included in the Performance aspect of their grading system. 6) Students submit their own journals. This is a culture that also has to be inculcated in our students the value of submitting self-made outputs. Students are expected to submit their own work and in the event that it is found out that a student or students submit a work that was copied or taken illegally from another source, the student gets a grade of 0 for the entire project and is subject to disciplinary action by the Prefect of Discipline. Of course, this project will never be accomplished without your fullest support. Dear parents, your cooperation would mean a lot to the success of this project, for your invaluable assistance is of great help for the students to flesh out those ideas. Students, your cooperation would mean religiously submitting and following the deadlines. While it may seem difficult at first, I assure you that you will feel a sense of victory after accomplishing this task. So, never be afraid to take that journey, and it begins with your agreement in affixing your signatures below: MR. JAYSON DONOR ZABALA English 7 Teacher jayson_zabala@dlsu.ph Name of Student/Signature: __________________/________________ Section: ______________________ Name of Parent or Guardian/Signature: _______________________/____________ Date: _________________________ Page | 2