Internet Academy Resources

Learning Log

What is a Learning Log?

It’s a place where you write with a purpose about what you are learning in a class – any class. Some purposes for writing in a Learning Log might be to

• Think about and use reading strategies you may be using.
• Reflect on what you are reading and learning.
• Reflect on what works and doesn’t work for you as a learner.
• Figure out how to simplify complex material.
• Discover what’s really giving you trouble and why.
• Understand a difficult concept by writing about exactly what you do and don’t understand.
• Identify and list the questions you need answered about something in a class.
• Keep track of your progress toward understanding a difficult concept.
• Summarize and paraphrase reading assignments to check understanding .
• Connect what you don’t know to what you already know.
• Prepare for tests.
• Help you with writing assignments.
• Identify what kind of help you need.

At the Internet Academy, a Learning Log might be

• A continuing Word document that you send to your teacher on a schedule.
• A collection of assignments, like a Problem of the Week.
• Assignments built into your classes.
• Or…whatever form your teacher decides would work best for the class you are in.

How will a Learning Log help me read better?

Effective readers don’t only turn letters and words into ideas (decode). They also think about what they are decoding. Reading effectively combines decoding and thinking.

While reading, an effective reader sets aside a part of his or her mind to:

• Connect other information with what is being read.
  "This reminds me of what the teacher said yesterday about orders of operation. Let’s see, that was…"
• Compare and contrast what is being read.
  "OK, so a simile is like a metaphor, except that it uses "like" or "as" and a metaphor doesn’t."
• Follow and pay attention to the patterns the writer has set up.
  "The topic sentence of this paragraph says that the writer will discuss four important points about mole and molecular structure. Here’s the first one and it is…"
• Monitor understanding.
  "Whoops! I didn’t get that! Let’s see if I can break it down. First…"
• Record the pleasures and successes of reading.
  "What a cool idea! I never thought of it that way before. If that’s so, then…"

A Learning Log helps you think consciously about what you are reading and learning.

What does a Learning Log look like?

A learning log might take many different forms. It might be a combination of daily journal, other reading strategies, such as Venn Diagrams or SQ3R, and techniques that work in a particular class or subject. Your teacher will tell you how he or she wants it set up for the class you are in.

Here’s a Learning Log entry that might have been written for an English class.

Assignment from the teacher:

Reflect on why it’s important to know the difference between there, their, and they’re. Write a plan for learning and remembering how to use them correctly.

I really have to figure out the difference between there, their, and they’re. They all sound the same and to me they even look the same. I can’t see what the big deal is, but I sure am losing points on my essays. And all my teachers are pushing it. If I get one more note from any teacher about their, there, and they’re, I’m going to scream!!! OK, what am I going to do? I need a plan.

1. I will open the link my Social Studies teacher told me about and I will do the exercises and practice tests there.
2. Then I will list what I know.
3. Then I will list what I still don’t know. I will know this from the questions I missed.
4. Then I will do that practice paragraph my English teacher sent me.
5. I will also grammar check everything I send in. My teacher said that it won’t catch everything but I think it will help.
6. I will underline every there, they’re, and their I write and check them against the rules at the grammar link. Hopefully, I will remember some of those rules.

Here’s a Learning Log entry that might have been written by a student reading an American Government textbook.

No assignment from the teacher.

The student is writing while reading because he or she has discovered that it helps. These are notes that lay out basic ideas found it what the student is reading.

Yikes, I knew this was going to be hard. OK, let’s do the purposes of government.

1. To keep a group of states or people together. "To Form a More Perfect Union." Our Constitution was written partly because the Articles of Confederation were so weak.
2. "To Establish Justice." What’s justice? Reasonable, fair, impartial laws and courts. Also laws and the courts must treat everyone equally.
3. To keep the peace. "To Insure Domestic Tranquility." This is done through laws, police, custom, and sometimes a militia, such as the National Guard.
4. A nation has to defend itself against foreign enemies. "To Provide for the Common Defense." This means to fund and support an effective military.
5. "To Promote the General Welfare." This means everything else, such as building roads, keeping records, moving the mail, establishing a bureau of weights and standards, and thousands of other things.
6. "To Secure the Blessings of Liberty." This means that everyone has to work together to make sure that no one takes over, hurts other people, or treats citizens differently. Also, that the Constitution and Bill of Rights are followed.