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Reflective Journal

Objective: To enable students to maintain Reflective Journals relating to their learning on the topic 'Life Cycle of a Frog'.
During the entire process of observing the transformation of the collected tadpoles into frogs the students will maintain a blog describing and reflecting on what they learnt during each session/phase regarding the topic 'Life Cycle of a Frog'. The blogs will include details on the following.
 * How they set up an online blog.
 * Activities they did as a class/individuals learning about the frog life cycle. Students will also be encouraged to use correct scientific terminology of elements to the Frog Life Cycle. (e.g. embryo, pulmonary respiration etc).
 * Interesting facts they found about the frog life cycle and new words/terminology they learnt. Students will research the meanings of new terminology and maintain a 'glossary' to be included at the end of their blogs.
 * What they liked/disliked most about each of the activities (relating to the learning areas of Science, Maths and Arts)
 * How they created their final group presentation.

Evaluation:

 * Peer review - In pairs, students review and provide constructive feedback regarding each others' blog.

Extension Activities:

 * Based on the weekly blogs, students can write a summary/essay of how they progressed through the project.

Technologies Used:

 * Computers
 * The Internet - Blog

Teacher Tips:

 * Encourage students to update their blog regularly in order to monitor their progress
 * Discuss about the the value of maintaining blogs
 * Encourage peer interaction by incorporating peer reviews where students can give constructive feedback regarding each others' blogs
 * Assess students' journals before they are published online to ensure appropriate netiquette is observed, grammer, presentation etc.

Examples:
Sample - Blog: Week 1



Australian Curriculum Links:
Language for Interaction:
 * Understand that social interactions influence the way people engage with ideas and respond to others for example when exploring and clarifying the ideas of others, summarising their own views and reporting them to a larger group. (ACELA1488)
 * Understand differences between the language of opinion and feeling and the language of factual reporting or recording (ACELA1489)

Texts Structure and Organization:
 * Understand how texts vary in complexity and technicality depending on the approach to the topic, the purpose and the intended audience. (ACELA1490)
 * Identify features of online texts that enhance readability including text, navigation, links, graphics and layout (ACELA1793)

Expressing and Developing Ideas:
 * Understand that the meaning of sentences can be enriched through the use of noun groups/phrases and verb groups/phrases and prepositional phrases (ACELA1493)
 * Understand how adverb groups/phrases and prepositional phrases work in different ways to provide circumstantial details about an activity (ACELA1495)

Interacting with Others:
 * Interpret ideas and information in spoken texts and listen for key points in order to carry out tasks and use information to share and extend ideas and information (ACELY1687)
 * Use interaction skills such as acknowledging another’s point of view and linking students’ response to the topic, using familiar and new vocabulary and a range of vocal effects such as tone, pace, pitch and volume to speak clearly and coherently (ACELY1688)
 * Plan, rehearse and deliver presentations incorporating learned content and taking into account the particular purposes and audiences (ACELY1689)

Creating Texts:
 * Plan, draft and publish imaginative, informative and persuasive texts containing key information and supporting details for a widening range of audiences, demonstrating increasing control over text structures and language features (ACELY1694)
 * Reread and edit for meaning by adding, deleting or moving words or word groups to improve content and structure (ACELY1695)
 * Write using clearly-formed joined letters, and develop increased fluency and automaticity (ACELY1696)
 * Use a range of software including word processing programs to construct, edit and publish written text, and select, edit and place visual, print and audio elements (ACELY1697)

References:
Australian Curriculum Assessment and Reporting Authority. (2011). Retrieved from [] on 7th May 2012.

Baxter, J. (2005). Happy to Use Computer Software. Retrieved from [] on 7th May 2012.