Things we know for sure - Hall response

8. Informal writing is an effective way to learn course content. Teachers need not

choose writing over content, or vice versa.

I completely agree with this concept. The more writing a person does in a classroom, formal or not, the better they become as writers, and the more informal writing a person does the more comfortable and confident they become in their own writing style and voice. Thus, using informal writing as a tool to learn/extend/appreciate course content does double duty of building writers up and teaching the information in a way that students can approach from a place of ease and understanding. Quick writes and free writing on topics can lead to discoveries and bursts of understanding in the same way that teaching math in a variety of methods can eventually connect with students of different learning styles, but has the added benefit of giving students space to be creative, opinionated and as verbose as they’re willing to be or feel like being in the moment without judging their use of words specifically.

Reflection on Lessons (1)

Last thursday, our group had the opportunity to teach a lesson about the book we've been reading for books club, A Note Slipped Under the Door. I really appreciated working in this group, because everyone was very professional and contributed to our discussion and planning both for the presentation and activity. That being said, i don't know for sure that we had an equal amount of contributions to the work. It's tough to say, especially when you consider that from the outside perspective it may look like the women in our group did much of the work, having lead the entire presentation prior to the activity. I did feel however that our activity was a success and that the other members of the class that participated got something out of it, which is a huge relief.
The second group to present was one of the Readicide groups (i believe the purple group). I felt like i got a lot of information about their book and had a firm grasp on what it was about, but that their activity was a bit lackluster. That may be a bit of bias showing though, because our prior activity was much more active and forced the class to engage. Comparatively, the second group's activity definitely required more communication between individuals to be able to discuss the differences between the 'one pager' review style and the use of multiple choice questions, which i do appreciate, because though out my primary and secondary school years, everything was multiple choice with the exception of GATE classes and honors courses, which feels really fortunate for me and unfortunate for students who didn't have the opportunity to take those courses.