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Wednesday, November 12, 2014

Focused Group Discussion of Elements of ES1102

In a subgroup of your blogging group, discuss and then list in the comments section here the main positive takeaways and negative aspects of the following elements of our course:

1) writing multiple drafts of essays (developing writing through process)
2) maintaining an eportfolio
3a) getting feedback from a tutor and peers, and b) giving feedback
4) writing both a reader response and a problem-solution essay
5) working in groups
6) other main course takeaways

Be sure to add to your post just the first names of the members of your group.

Thank you for sharing your honest opinions.

10 comments:

Louis Chew said...

1. Tedious process of doing the multiple draft - step by step process of improving.
Time consuming, it is beneficial as we can improve the draft.
Some people would not care much about the first draft as they know that they are going to do the second draft
2. Actually build up portfolio from the start.
we don’t really need to write just post.
Sometimes you would not comment, just post only.
3. (a)Getting feedback- learn from different people – different people different perspective- varying of opinions.
Sometimes tutors and peers comment would conflict. not sure if your comments are correct.
(b) know the points you have to take note of. Notice all common mistakes that the others make and ensure you would commit them also. sometimes you read other people essay might not be understandable , try to ensure you write it more understandably.
4. Problem solution – common ,applicable to everyday reader response as a pre-preparation for essay. Different perspective of reader response.
5. Fun. Interaction, more motivated to work, but less efficiency. learn to work with different people – different experiences.
6. Citations in the right format


by Albert, Louis ,Shu Ning ,Haien

Sean said...

From Angie, Kaiyao, Maeve & Sean

This are our feedback for the course.

(1)
Constant improving of drafts (+)
The more you write, the more you make sense of your essay (+)
Time consuming (-)


(2)
Convenient, and anyone can see your writing. It serves as an excellent organizer (+)
Concerns of privacy, such as your work being duplicated (-)


(3)
Different insights and perspective (+)
Learning from mistakes you are unaware of (+)
You have to be critical of the feedback you receive or provide (-)

(4)
it is easy to come up with your own ideas and brainstorm (+)
Learn how to generate a proper thesis (+)
Lack of ideas would impede learning (-)

(5)
Sometimes lack of roles (-)
Tend to digress (-)
Conflicts (-)
Ideas from different people (+)
Less workload (+)

(6)
The course has allowed me to meet more people (+)
Its value adding because the knowledge and skill learnt in ES1102 is transferable to other aspects of education (+)
The class teaches you to focus and be concise (+)
Learning really takes place because we do not focus solely on the grading component (+)

Its not module credited BOOHOO (-)
Its quite a burden to attend two classes in a week (-)

Unknown said...
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Unknown said...
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Unknown said...

1) writing Multiple draft
- Time consuming
- Improve our writing skills
- improve on our arguments

2) maintaining an portfolio
- will put in more effort in writing because we know that it will read by others
-
3a) getting feedback from tutor and peers
- through receiving feedbacks we are able to realise our mistakes
- learn to give constructive feedback
- not detailed comments

4) writing both reader response and a problem-solution essay
- through the reader response we learnt the skills of summarising and paraphrasing which are important skills we can apply when we write our problem solution essay
- However, the reader response is more about our own evaluation whereas the problem solution essay require in-depth research to find evidence to support our essays.

5) working in groups
- we learn teamwork and
- learn form each other mistakes
- we are able to be expose to various opinions, ideas and perspective

6) main take aways
- making more new friends
- improvement in writing and presentation skills
- expose us to reality
-critical thinking
-constructive feedback
-self evaluation (e.g editing skills)
-writing skills (e.g. thesis statement and organisation skills)


Lyndsey, Ying Hui, Kai Teng and Jessica:)

hihi said...

Calvin, Ivy, Loo Yong
1) GOOD!! We feel that it is very helpful, but sometimes it can be quite tiring especially during period when there are lots of assignments due.
2) VERY VERY GOOD!! it allows us to share our ideas and also makes it easier for us to give and gain feedbacks from each other.
3a) VERY GOOD ALSO!! Allow us to improve as we go on!
3b) AS GOOD AS 3A! helping others to learn, but we benefit from it too!
4) The reader response helps us to evaluate the points of the author and better understand the situation. Problem-solution helps us to recognise a key problem in our society and do research on how to solve the problem
5) VERY GOOD!! because we get to adapt to different working style and also learn from each other. By working in groups in class, it improves the overall participation and also makes the class more interesting and fun
6) I feel that the presentation should have a certain weightage in the course so that students will take it more seriously.

Unknown said...

1) Writing multiple drafts of essays
a. Positive
i. Can see the improvement from drafts to drafts
ii. Give us a chance to improve our essays
b. Negative
i. Time consuming
2) Maintaining an e-portfolio
a. Positive
i. Can see the gradual improvement and track our progress over time
ii. Platform to know your peers better through reading their posts
b. Negative
i. Needs consistent effort
3) a) Getting feedback from tutor and peers and b) giving feedback
a. Positive
i. Enhances interaction with others (helps in building bonds with classmates)
ii. Able to understand others’ flow of thought better
iii. Freedom of expression
b. Negative
i. Forced comments give no added value and are sometimes non-constructive
4) Writing both a reader response and a problem-solution essay
a. Positive
i. Allows us to know the difference between the two types of writing
5) Working in groups
a. Positive
i. Widens social network through interactions
ii. “Chopsticks together hard to break” – allows for combined effort
iii. Pillar of support
b. Negative
i. Some are harder to get along with
6) Other main course takeaways
a. Positive
i. allows us to hone our presentation skills
ii. Improved editing skills
iii. APA citations
iv. Non-credit bearing does not mean that the course is useless?? / effort-less

by Benjamin, Jie Wei, Zhi Kang

daine said...

1/4) writing multiple drafts: very repetitive and troublesome, takes up alot of time; but it can help to improve our writing and develop a thought process

2) maintaining an eportfolio: environmentally-friendly, reduced risk of losing things, can keep track of the past assignments, good for lazy people who don't want to physically write; but can get distracted by things online easily (social media etc)

3) refer to "joanes1102.blogspot.com.sg", "javierchiew.blogpsot.sg" and "eruditewhispers.blogspot.com" ;D


5) Working in groups: it's good cos it helps in mutual motivation, increase social interaction and make friends. but sometimes can get distracting if we end up chit-chatting

6) other takeaways: despite apprehensions towards how this course isn't credited and may seem to be a waste of time, it's actually quite useful due to the writing and citation skills we have learned

- Joan, Javier, Daine

purplecarrot said...

1.
Negative: Time-consuming
Positive: Helped us to improve our essays based on the comments given. We can compare our current draft to our previous draft to see the improvements that we have made

2.
Negative:Nil
Positive:We do not have to worry about losing our work. They will be saved permanently unless we deliberately delete our blog.

3.
Negative: Generalised feedback as we are not professionals
Positive: It enables us to improve. We are able to retrieve information from the internet. However, the internet is not able to provide us with constructive feedback.

5.
Negative: Working in groups can sometimes reduce the efficiency of the discussion. Hence the effectiveness is also reduced.
Positive:
Encourage interaction, force you to make friends. Therefore, enhancing one's social interactive skill and the ability to work in teams.

6.
Other main takeaways:
[Presentation]
Positive: Enhance public speaking skills
Slide designing skills

Yechan, Jie Ling, Nordiyanah

Unknown said...

1) writing multiple drafts of essays (developing writing through process)
It is beneficial and relevant as it allows us to improve our academic writing in our course of study. After every draft, we are able to see our own progress, such as grammar, organization and language used. We are also more knowledgeable of the issue of global divide after extensive researches made to improve the credibility of our reader response and problem-solution essay.
2) maintaining an eportfolio
It shows our progress and because it is accessible, we can always look back to our older posts and see the improvement that we have made throughout this course.
3a) getting feedback from a tutor and peers, and b) giving feedback. It improves our way of writing through constructive feedbacks and it highlights the mistakes that we are oblivious to. It allows us to have a clearer idea of the strengths that a good essay should possess. Giving feedbacks boost our confidence to express our opinions and perspective.
4) writing both a reader response and a problem-solution essay
Reader response: We are not exposed to writing a reader response and hence this gives us a head start on this type of writing.Problem-solution essay: It allows us to think critically the problem in our society and in different communities. It encouraged us to read different articles and make use of a variety of credible sources to strengthen the credibility of our essay.

5) working in groups
We are exposed to different perspectives and it allows to learn to accept different opinions. It allows us to learn more interactively and motivates each other to improve on our work. In pairs and groups, we learn to summarize, paraphrase and conceptualize important content which is beneficial to essay writing.

6) other main course takeaways
The presentation we had to do at the end of the semester prepares us for future career needs.

Xenia, Wei Siang, Adila