Reflection

                Keeping a vocabulary journal throughout the entire course of the semester was a new and different experience for me.  I recall keeping journals while completing reading texts and assignments in the past but not to the same extent as the VSS vocabulary blog.  The first difference I noticed was the questions I was required to answer throughout the journaling process.  The VSS blog forced my interpretations to prompt and revolve around new words, their definitions, and their purpose.  The specific journaling made me more aware and focused of the actual words in the text and how well I understood the content surrounding them.

                I feel that I benefited a lot as a word learner this semester through the process of keeping a vocabulary journal.  I attained new knowledge and perspective of multiple vocabulary words by simply answering the questions in the blog for each word.  Often when I read a textbook or informational text, I come across words I am unfamiliar with.  I will admit that I do not always take the time to try to define the new word and/or put the new term into my own words.  Taking the time to create definitions improved my awareness of new vocabulary and ultimately expanded my knowledge of the reading.  I sometimes chose words I was already familiar with but never really had a clear definition that went along with it.  Through the journaling prompts, I was still able to further my development and understanding of new words in the reading.

                The VSS vocabulary blog assisted in my own ability to read-to-learn because it held me accountable for my reading process for the course material.  In most graduate level course textbooks and articles, I would simply read to get through the information.  The process of stopping at new terms and vocabulary required me to really stop and think about the information on the page.  This reading-to-learn process leads into writing-to-learn because I was then required to turn my new understanding into written form in the blog.  I was displaying and expressing my new understanding of terms and information through my writing. 

                The VSS vocabulary blog is something that I do not think I will continue updating or creating in my own time while reading.  I feel that I will take away the prompting questions from the blog though.  Even though I will not be answering the questions online in blog form, just simply taking the time to answer the questions on just a post note or sideline notes in the margins of the text will still benefit my comprehension.  I will definitely consider this task as a possible project for future students.  I truly think they will enjoy and learn a lot through both the process of the VSS vocabulary journal along with taking the vocabulary quizzes in the same manner we did. 

                The experience I had with the vocabulary quizzes turned my view of them to a more positive light.  My initial thought of holding students accountable for the spelling and definitions of numerous vocabulary terms is something all students, including myself, dread in the classroom.  I feel that the manner the terms were selected and defined is a way that students will truly benefit from.

                I feel like I learned a lot during the vocabulary quizzes during the semester.  Having the terms that were to be used for the vocabulary quizzes be made by the class had an extremely positive result in my mind.  This made the learning more personal and motivating because I had a say in what word I want to know.  Another great advantage of selecting the vocabulary terms ourselves was that it promoted confidence in succeeding on the quiz itself.  Every single person in class was guaranteed to get at least one questions correct even if they did not study because it was her word and definition from her blog. 

                Overall, the VSS vocabulary blog and vocabulary quizzes were a great experience that benefited my learning in many ways.  Although the VSS vocabulary blog was time consuming, I do feel like I gained a lot from the process and the content learned over the semester.  The time was needed to truly grasp certain concepts of vocabulary terms and expressing the newly learned words through quizzes was a simple way to demonstrate our understanding.