Learning Log Entry #12 :)

Keeping a learning log this semester helped me to meet the objective of this course. My blog, as I have referred to all semester, has been my place for my thoughts, ideas, and new understandings. I have relied on my blog when I was confused to think through certain topics or areas I was struggling with. The most important thing my blog did was teach me about voice in writing. I have always been confused about what this meant, through my blogs I finally understood what it is and why it is so crucial to effective writing. I have enjoyed writing my blog each week-it felt like a free space to write. I never felt confined in this space by specific rules, requirements, or limitations that are usually place on writing assignments.

Each week, I would sit down to compose my blog and sometimes the ideas would flow out of me and sometimes I would struggle to find the right words to convey my thinking, but I was always thinking through my writing. I was asking questions and answering them as I wrote, truly using my blog to interrogate my own thinking as a writer and reader. Writing the blog each week gave me a focus for my reading. I was always searching for just the right thing to write about as I completed the readings for each week’s class. I was always on the hunt to find a topic for my blog, and this kept me thinking all the time about writing, teaching writing, the importance of writing, and the connections between reading and writing. 

Using a blog as forum for my thinking helped me to understand the genres readers and writers use to communicate. In my last blog, I discussed how my understanding of each genre has changed because of this course. Using the blog to think through each genre allowed me to analyze and reflect on my development as a writer and reader. My blog supported my understandings because I was able to put my thoughts into writing, to reflect back on. Writing my thoughts helped me clarify my thinking.    

The nature of the blog helped me to reach object 2, the role of purpose and audience in writing and reading and the rhetorical voices used to address the desired purpose and audience. My blog helped me identify the purpose of our readings and discussions, as I would try to find an appropriate topic for each week’s blog. Audience also became very important in writing my blog. Because our blogs are actually on the internet for anyone to read and view, I became more aware of my thoughts and words as I wrote. As I stated earlier, my blog helped me to understand voice in writing. I think this occurred because of the audience I was writing for, I wanted people to truly understand my humor and personality as well as understand my thoughts and ideas in each blog.

Throughout each blog, there is evidence of my thinking as I write. I am questioning myself and asking new questions based on the original questions. Not all of my questions were answered in my blogs, but the thinking I was going through was apparent. The hardest thing sometimes was to leave questions open and not formulate the perfect response. Sometimes my questions were rhetorical in nature and could not be answered because there is not enough information or not enough time has gone by to find a specific answer. Composing in this way made me a more proficient and skilled writer because I was stretching my perceptions and thinking from my initial responses to a topic to find more insight, meaningful understandings and connections.

I also have a deeper understanding of the connections between reading and writing. As Tompkins (2008) discussed in each chapter, students should first be introduced to a genre through reading and analyzing examples and then asked to write in the genre. I also learned about the connection between reading and writing when reading Eckhoff’s (1983) study and Furr’s (2003) article. Although each presents different topics, they both describe the connection between reading and writing. My understanding of this relationship became more substantial during each post for my blog. The interpretive approach I used to compose each blog reaffirmed what I what read, discussed, or thought about each week. Putting my thoughts about reading into writing made me realize the importance of not only thinking through my reading to compose but using my writing to clarify my own thoughts about the readings.  

Eckhoff, B. (1983).  How reading affects children’s writing.  Language Arts, 60(5), 607-616.

Furr, D. (2003). Struggling readers get hooked on writing.  The Reading Teacher, 56(6), 518-525.