The first stage in the Learning Record consists of supplying some initial information: an interview, and a reflective essay. Taken together, the interview and reflection form a benchmark. They document your history as a learner up to the beginning of this term, as seen both by someone else (the interview) and yourself (the reflective essay). Later, you'll be asked to reflect on how you've changed over the course of the term. The initial information will form your basis for comparison.
Conducting the Interview
Conduct an interview with someone who has known you for a long time. Please select a person who has known you for at least five years. It can be one of your parents, a long-time friend, an aunt or uncle, or basically anyone who has known you for a long time. Over the phone is fine. The interview should focus on the person's impressions of your development as a reader, writer, and thinker. Since this is a computer course, some background on your interest in computers would be good. The interview will probably take 30-45 minutes.
In your Learning Record, fill in the first name of the person (NO last names, please), the person's relationship to you (e.g. "parent" or "friend" or "teacher" or whatever) and the date you did the interview.
Summarize the interview briefly - make it no more than one page long. Half a page is fine. I recommend typing it up in a word processor and pasting it after it's done (more on this below). That way you have a copy of your own in case the server gets hit by a meteor or something.
Here is an example interview from a completed Learning Record. The names and potentially identifying details have been changed.
| Interviewee: | Zeus |
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| Relationship to you: | Father |
| Interview Date: | September 9, 2007 |
| Interview: | Athena began reading at the age of five and progressed at a pretty average rate with other kids her age. Since the age of three up through about the age of ten, I would take her and her brother to the library about once a week to check out books. While he checked out books to actually read, she would check out books that she found aesthetically interesting which was the first indication of a visual approach to learning. She tended to read books that were in a series such as the Boxcar Children or Goosebumps whereas today the focus is either on historical fiction or nonfiction. Her writing was always pretty average until she hit the 7th grade, went to a new school, and was under the instruction of a teacher who really helped to develop her technical skills. In high school, she began taking English AP classes which helped develop an impromptu approach to writing and helped her hone her style which she still needs to develop. I find her best writing comes through email when she is extremely angry. That's when the most colorful language is used. As a thinker, she has always thought the stranger, the better. Most of the weird and strange information she found would come from books she would pick out (not me) on topics such as rare animals of the world which she would then try to share with everyone she met and influence them to be equally as fascinated. She still does this. In terms of technology, Athena always enjoyed computer games but never anything more complicated than that. It seems she finds peace in the creative and liberal arts which require a more expressive, individual style of thinking. She was always equally excellent in math but it was never her passion and the sciences are subjects that never wanted to develop past the rudiments for her. |
The interview focuses on the student's past development as a learner, as seen by her parent.
Personal Reflection
Reflect on your own development with respect to reading, writing, speaking, and listening. Again, make this no more than one page. Again, I recommend typing this up off-line and pasting it in.
Here is a sample reflective essay from the same Learning Record.
| Essay: |
I spent a majority of my childhood drawing pictures, sometimes nearly all day. Reading came easily for me, but most of my time was spent comprehending the story from the pictures alone. I enjoyed books but for what seemed like the wrong reasons. It took reading several years, until I was in college, for my interest in books to take a pivotal turn. I became more interested in reading after years of television numbed me. I found interest in nonfiction especially world history and more specifically Russian and English regal history. It was sad it came so late in life, but I felt it liberated me and gave me a whole new awareness concerning the world around me and the human condition. I neither enjoy nor hate writing and have never been bad or good at it. I felt like I grasped somewhat of a style while in high school but have always been awful when it comes to vocabulary and grammar. In college, it's been difficult to gain an decent opinion of my writing with some professors commending my writing to the gods whereas some have told me I need some serious help. Something I've also discovered over the course of college is how my listening skills have improved dramatically. I've always been such an avid daydreamer, but over the course of my university career, I have found a way to control it and my interest in classes and their content has consequentially increased. I still find, however, that it is not the best way for me to learn. I still need to write it down and repeat it in order for anything to stick. Reflections on speaking. Hmmm. After having the highest-pitched voice in your class for the early part of your life, it's hard to get past the fear even today. But really, this area is my weakest and always has been. I'm not too great expressing myself verbally and am not the most eloquent speaker. I have difficulty articulating myself and usually don't speak formally unless every word is planned out in my head. This, however, does not cause a conflict in language classes. From my first ever Spanish class in junior high, I've loved languages, although I speak none fluently, because they give me and everyone else a chance to start over. Unless you study a language for a long time, everyone is essentially and the same level, leaving room for embarrassing mistakes. |
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In this reflective essay, the student presents her own impression of her recent history as a learner. It does not particularly matter that she does not address the same things as her parent did in the interview; in fact, the essay is stronger because does not just restate what the interview said. Together, this interview and essay give a clear idea of where the student is coming from.
Submitting the Interview and Reflection
Once you have completed the interview and the essay, you need to submit them. Thus:
- Log into your Learning Record. (If you have trouble, contact me.)
- Click "Initial Information" in the menu on the right.
- Fill in the fields. Again, it would be best to do your writing offline and paste it in so that you have a back-up. There will be a live preview showing what you have entered. Pressing enter makes a line break; you can also use the <em></em> and <strong></strong> HTML tags, which indicate emphasis and strength of the statement. (That is, <em> makes the text italic, and <strong> makes it bold.)
- You may click "Save" at any time to save your progress thus far. You can continue editing your work after saving. I recommend doing it often.
- When you are done, click Submit. Be sure to double-check your work before submitting, as you will not be able to edit it after it has been submitted.
Privacy Preferences
Lastly, please click "Privacy Preferences" at the bottom of the menu on the right. Read the privacy policy; it lays out how the information in your Learning Record can be used, when, and by whom. At the bottom of the page, you will be asked "Can this Learning Record be used for scholarly research and publication, with identifying details removed?" You can answer either yes or no; the default is no. If you want to allow this kind of use, please change the answer to "yes" and click Save. If you do not want to allow it, you're done with this part. You can change your mind about your privacy preferences at any point during the term.