What are Learning Logs ?

Learning logs are a simple and straightforward way to help students integrate content, process, and personal feelings. Learning logs operate from the stance that students learn from writing rather than writing what they have learned. The common application is to have students make entries in their logs during the last five minutes of class or after each completed week of class. The message here is that short, frequent bursts of writing are more productive over time than are infrequent, longer assignments.

What is its purpose?

Learning logs are most commonly used in assessing literacy but there are many crossovers into content areas other than those associated with reading and writing. Properly understood and used, learning logs become a vehicle for exchange among parents, teachers, and students.

How do I do it?

There is some overlap between portfolios and learning logs, in fact, both journals and learning logs frequently provide artifacts for the student portfolio. The most valuable result of learning logs is that as students write to learn, they also learn to recognize their own and other’s good work. Both learning logs and journals assist the learning process. Journals are free flowing , subjective relying on opinion and personal experience. Learning logs are concise, objective factual and impersonal in tone.

Logs can include problem-solving entries from mathematics or science, observations from lab experiments, questions about lectures or readings, lists of books students have read or would like to red and howework assignments.

The following questions could be used to guide students in making thoughtful entries in their learning logs:

• What did I do in class today?
• What did I learn?
• What did I find interesting?
• What questions do I have about what I learned?
• What was the point of today's lesson?
• What connections did I make to previous ideas of lessons?

How can I adapt it?

• Writing about Mathematics
  Students write an explanation to another student of how to do a math problem. They should include the why of the solution as well as the how.

• Writing about History
  Students place themselves in a historical period or event and write about it from the point of view of someone who is there. In their responses, students focus on the what, where, why, how, when, and what if. Or students write a dialogue between themselves and a historical personage, focusing on the same details.

• Focused Writing
  Focused writing is an excellent way to begin a collaborative session. Students write non-stop for five minutes on a specific topic they are studying. The purpose is for students to find out what they know about the topic, to explore new ideas, and to find out what they need to learn about the topic.

Assessment & Evaluation Considerations

• Assessment conference can be three to five minutes long depending on the size of the class and the length of the activity period.
• To see as many students as possible during a class, either reduce the amount of time for each conference or increase the project activity time.
• If students are working in a cooperative group, a teacher can meet with the entire group thus decreasing the average per-student conference time.