Collaborative Learning

*In your past classroom experiences, do you feel that collaborative learning has been a benefit or a burden to your educational experience?*

In my past experiences, I feel that I have truly benefited from collaborative learning. I enjoyed having the opportunity to work with other students in order to solve a given problem. I also feel that working together with my peers allowed me to feel less anxiety about a given task. Not only did I feel less stressed by this idea, but it was also helpful for me to hear others' views on the situation at hand.

As an aspiring teacher, I learn best by explaining things to others. It has always been helpful to me to explain my ideas aloud, and then to receive feedback from my peers. As Bruffee mentions in Collaborative Learning and the "Conversation of Mankind," I feel that peer criticism can be very beneficial to both the writer and the reader as well. While partaking in peer criticism, the writer benefits by receiving an outsiders' opinion and the reader benefits by having the opportunity to be exposed to a different perspective, style, or technique.

Because I am in the field of elementary education, I have been exposed to many different forms of collaborative learning which I feel are extremely beneficial to students' learning experiences. I believe that through collaborative learning, students benefit not only intellectually, but socially as well. This style of learning can allow students to progress their social and communication skills while also allowing them to learn from others' points of view. Overall, I feel that collaborative learning is a valuable technique that should be present, in some way, in every classroom.

The Writing Process

*In "Teaching Writing as a Process Not Product," Murray states that the writing process can be divided into three stages: prewriting, writing and rewriting. In our text, Williams states that the stages of the composing process are prewriting, planning, drafting, revising, editing, and publishing. Throughout your educational experience were you exposed to either or both of these methods while learning to write?*

In my educational experience, I was exposed to both of these methods of the writing process. When I was in elementary school, I remember going through a very similar process to the six step method in our text. A major part of this process was the peer review/editing portion which was followed by a conference with the teacher. I feel that this method gave me an important foundation for the process of writing a paper. Through this method, I was able to not only plan out, draft and revise my paper, but also able to get feedback from my peers and teacher. I feel this part of the process was the most beneficial to me as a writer because I was able to receive constructive criticism that made suggestions for my errors but also reinforced the good aspects of my paper. Once the editing process was complete, we usually went through a "publishing" process where we neatly wrote out our stories and then attached cover pages and binded them together. Looking back, I feel that this entire process (which carried on from my 3rd-5th grade years), made me feel like I was a true writer and gave me confidence in my writing abilities in general.

Once I moved on to middle and high school, I feel like the process became shorter and the editing portion was up to the writer. Although this didn't effect me as much because I was a fairly strong writer, I could see how much it effected many of my peers. Many of them were not bad writers, but just needed the reassurance and encouragement from someone else and perhaps a few grammar adjustments here and there. I can see the reasoning behind the publishing portion of the process being removed for time purposes; however, I feel that the editing and revising portion are vital to the writing process.