Bring it on yellow book-Bridget Grant

Being in this workshop has helped me notice many concepts we talked about in 331! Lots of the students in my internship workshop use computers and are moving in and out of the English 130 website and different resources. One student used PowerPoint on his MacBook to create a diagram of his literacies and he’s going to add it to his blog! I found that really interesting since he felt ownership over the blog site and other applications he was able to add another aspect to his blog. I think it will add an easy to interpret visual as to the types of literacies they use and his whole class would be able to utilize it! One student uses her phone in class and one other student uses a notebook and pencil. The instructor utilizes the white board and expo marker and the students love seeing their words and ideas written on the board. The class was very vocal this week and more excited to talk about their experiences with literacy. I think Ken Robinson was correct in saying people’s educational experiences resonate deeply with them and they’re excited to share about it! Blogs seem like such a great way to engage students because they’re less formal and give students a feeling of ownership over their assignment. Also since it’s digital, they’re able to participate in a community. BTW a student in workshop noticed these things about the class commenting on how the jumbo class, although it’s large, it’s still engaging because he’s asked to contribute and although he’s learning from a professor he’s also participating in a community with his peers. I was stoked he was getting so much out of this class! I think as students once we realize we’re apart of a community of practice and we’re contributing to the learning environment we are excited to be contributors and producers. Roles and responsibilities aren’t forced but they’re fulfilled somehow. The idea that students are more in tune to “doing” instead of “receiving” (page 33) seems like such a common sense idea, yet we so often have lecture hall settings that make us cry tears of boredom.

The comparison LLP makes to children apprenticing adults made a lot of sense to me when thinking of these concepts (page 32). It’s easier for me to take a broad group and then narrow my scope from there. The students in English 130 classes are apart of English 130 and attempting to master a course by participating in assignments and contributing. Example blogs set a tone for what students should be attempting to achieve. The roles of students are not confined to a traditional classroom space. They’re able to take on the role of blogger, class spokesman, quiet observer or the representative. I’m sure there’s many more however in my workshop these are the positions I’ve seen students be excited about.

Basically this chapter is considering every type of learning practice as relevant and discussing how to use this ideology to effectively cultivate a situated learning environment. (page 35) I’m still having a hard time figuring out the definition of situated learning and would love to talk about that!