You will be writing at least one observation per week, but you would benefit from writing as many observations as possible. The more observations you write, the more evidence you will be able to draw from when compiling your LRO. Observations are 1-3 sentence snapshots of your learning process. You should think of your learning as a scientific experiment - these 1-3 sentence chunks will be an observation of that experiment. You can address some of the following during observations (this list is not exhaustive):

-What strategies/activities are working well for you.
-What strategies/activities are not working for you.
-How you approached an assignment.
-Something you notice during class discussion.
-Learning strategies that you discover during the semester.

Here's an example of a Part A from one of my previous classes.

Part A.1:

While I was younger I used to sit and watch my mom doing her homework and pretend that I too was busy at work. My mom has a psychology and English degree, while going to school she constantly was writing different papers for her classes. As a child is was also “practicing” her English skills on me, continuously correcting my speaking. Since I was surrounded by English I began writing at an early age, my mom encouraged me to do so. I would write short stories, they were simple and always ended in “They lived happily ever after…” The point is it was still writing.

I feel that of all people, the one who showed me how to write should be the one who knows it best, my mother. When we began talking about my writing she broke it up by grades. She started with kinder-4th, 5th-6th, 7th-8th, high school, and then finally present day. My mother agreed with me that in the beginning my writing was simple; I used easy to read diction, and did not hold any sort of writing style. I wrote just to finish the story. She told me I had cute ideas but there were a lot of errors in my passages. The main problem in my writing at that age, and she says it is understandable was my grammar. I had not yet learned the usage of a semi-colon, proper usage of a hyphen, or even a comma. I would take these things and just stick them wherever I thought would be good. During fifth grade and sixth she said this where I really began to show a passion for writing. I now had learned how to use proper marks and could write more smoothly. She said that I was able to come up with more detailed prompts on my own and could write about them more easily. During these years she said I would fall off the subject and drift off a little bit. In seventh and eighth grade she said she really enjoyed seeing what I was writing for my classes or on my own. My mother says these grade levels are where I showed huge progress in my writing. I now could stay on subject, write using different marks, and wrote much more complex.
When we began talking about high school she was able to begin telling me more, she says it is easier to remember it in detail since it seems just like yesterday. She reminded me of at teacher that I had when I was a freshman, Mr. Fontenot. Mr. Fontenot really enjoyed my writing and was constantly helping develop my writing skills. While in this class, she said my writing took a whole new level. She continued by saying she remembers him giving me an assignment to write a 5,000 word story about Edgar Allan Poe. In this assignment I had to take one of his stories and change the ending. My mother says that I took this assignment extremely seriously and worked on it every minute of the day until it was due. Once it was done, and read it to her, she was amazed. This is when she noticed that I now had my own personal writing style; she also said I now was comfortable with my writing. She explained to me that it was apparent that I was now confident to write and I was no longer holding back. My writing in her opinion continued to get better each year. The next thing she brought up was my junior year. This was an important year because I did a lot of writing for my college admission essays and had so many different topics to write, some more difficult then others. In these essays she said that I continued to show that I knew how to write using appropriate diction, was able to organize my sentences, and it came together to form a pretty well put together essay.

Since I do not see my mother everyday I emailed her a couple of short essays that I have written this year. The two sample papers came from my critical thinking class. Once she had read them she called and we continued where we had left off. My mother started by saying “Is this your writing?” I was confused of course it was my writing. She laughed and began to explain why she said that. She told me that my writing had changed so much that it was hard to tell I had written them. She pointed out how now I wrote in a way that she was not use to seeing me write. I no longer was writing in the 5 paragraph format, I was using larger words, and organizing my sentences in a more complex way. She told me my writing had gone from a child’s level to an adult level. I was now a college student and it was apparent. My mother said that the reason for this was probably all the reading I had begun doing. She included that my writing could have been at this level earlier if I had read more throughout my life. I was never one to pick up books and read to just read. Now that I was forced to read more my writing was showing a major improvement. My mother finished this interview by saying that overall my writing is very well put together and easy to read. Of course there are improvements needed, just as in everything else. She told me to continue to work on grammar, watch switching from first to third person, and keep on working on my diction. My writing can do nothing but progress.

Part A.2

Pulling out samples of my old writing and looking at them today was really odd. I really am amazed about how much my writing has truly changed. Like my mother had said, when I was younger my writing was simple. The sentences consisted of four maybe five words. I would run together sentence after sentence. It is funny; I have no idea what I was thinking. I think once I did go to high school and attend some advance placement courses my writing progressed to a new level. I was finally able to stay on topic and my writing actually made since, it was a good change. As my mother said Mr. Fontenot helped me with developing my writing skills. However, I also feel that an 11th grade teacher, Mrs. Turpin continued to help me. This teacher was the type everyone was afraid of; this was because she was critical. She was strict with our writing and graded harder then any teacher I had ever had. This was a huge challenge for me; I was used to getting straight A’s. I received my first B+ in this class and was told that my writing was good but did need work. She told me I needed to increase my vocabulary and work on my writing structure. The next semester I worked extremely hard, and this time my writing improved and it showed. This is the first time that I felt confident about my writing. As time progressed I concentrated more on my writing and the way it was put together. Once I started college I knew that it would only get better. I was put in a critical thinking seminar for TIP, at first I did not think I would learn anything, but I was wrong. This class was the best thing that could have happened to me. This class was run strictly on discussion. It was up to the class to continue the topic. I developed communication skills, argumentation, and continued to progress in my writing. While in this class I saw my writing change from one level to other. This level is where I am today, I think I write well. I do see that I need improvement in grammar and my writing structure. I would also like to work on my speaking skills and be able to speak without hesitation. I feel at this point I know the basics, can write and speak at a pretty high level, and look forward to progressing to an even higher one.

You will do a Part B: Analysis at both the midterm and final.In Part B, you discuss your work and classroom activities in terms of the course strands and the dimensions of learning. In this section, you will:

-make interpretations and come to some conclusions about your own learning in the course

-highlight areas in which you have developed and consider how your work illustrates that development

-prepare an analysis at the midterm and at the end of the term

Why is this important?
By analyzing your work you will be able to see how learning occurs over a period of time, and how your own work illustrates what you have learned.

You will do a Part C: Evaluation at both the midterm and final. In Part C, your tasks will be to:

-evaluate your progress and development by specifically matching your work with the appropriate grade criteria

-suggest future steps for development

-provide your instructor with suggestions

Why is this important?
When looking critically at the work you have selected to include in your Learning Record and estimate a grade based on that work, you are focusing on the positive aspects of your experience in the course: what you have learned, what you have succeeding in doing, and what surprised you about your learning process.