Advanced Class Journal Page

Advanced Class Journal Form

This page contains has a form that members of my advanced class can fill out as a journal. There are several ideas behind this. Journals are often used to give learners the chance to use their English for a real communicative purpose and to write in a "non-threatening" environment where they will not get negative feedback in terms of being corrected. These factors should improve their fluency. As the "genre" is quite informal they give a chance to write something which is different from many of the "usual" opportunities for writing (at least in Hong Kong). Journals are also often aimed at helping students to reflect on their own learning and so become more effective learners by better understanding their learning process, their needs and wants, as well as strengths and weaknesses. In addition to these aims (some of which are not so important for my class) I am very interested in getting some feedback about my lessons and in balancing the likes and dislikes (in terms of lesson content) of the group. This is often much easier with small groups and is one of the real advantages of tutoring.

With all that in mind, here are some questions for you to think about when you're writing:

Last Lesson

What did we do last lesson? What did you like or dislike? Why? What did you feel was most, or least, useful? Why? On reflection, do you have any problems or queries that weren't dealt with? When you look at the vocabulary record do you have any questions? Have you done your homework (!!!)? Why not???!

Other Lessons

Do you have any suggestions for future lessons? Are there things that you want to cover that we're not doing? Do you want more or less of something?

Your Learning

How is your learning going? Do you have questions about techniques or processes? What kind of problems do you encounter when using English? How might you deal with these? Do you want any advice?