UWS BA ePDPs – Page 253 – Personal Development Plans of BA(Hons) students of education

01.12.16

General Log Literacy and Numeracy Log Sustainable Development Task Sustainable Development – School Map

Sustainable Development Placement Task

During your eight serial days, you should spend the equivalent of three days gathering this information, by observing, speaking to class teachers and other colleagues, interacting with learners, reading school policies, and any other appropriate activities. The tasks will be … Continue reading →

Mapping of school grounds/area.

The school is surrounded by flats, shops and main roads and is constantly surrounded by cars and traffic. The school grounds are not massive however; there is enough space for children to play during intervals. There is no greenery either in the school grounds or around it eg. No grass, trees or garden areas. Inside the school there are spacious classrooms, a small canteen which is also used as the gym hall and small offices for the head and depute head teacher, office staff, janitor and resource room.

Evidence of existing engagement with sustainable education within the school such as garden area, recycling bins, litter picking ‘wardens’, bird boxes, and so on.

The school is an eco-school and has an eco committee in which many pupils participate in. The school also focuses on recycling. Furthermore, within the classroom pupils have different roles each day, such as the ‘light monitor’ – who’s responsibility it is to ensure all the lights and projectors are off when nobody is in the class. There are also litter picking wardens during break and lunchtime so the playground is kept tidy.

Consideration of actual play space for children and its suitability.

The school grounds are sufficient for play and even have various fun and colourful designs painted on the playground for children. There are also benches around the playground.

Discussion with children on these aspects of sustainable education.

After discussing with some of the pupils in my class, I have learned that they are extremely keen to look after their environment with a strong focus on recycling – the children feel strongly on this subject and are always asking questions relating to it such as asking the teacher to go and recycle their bottles etc. The children are also very aware of the importance on saving electricity – and like taking on the role of ‘light monitor’.

Personal response to ‘Room’

Personal response to Room Throughout my life, I have always been a keen reader. Since around the age of six I was visiting my local library and would work my way through 3-4 books every week, even if I … Continue reading →

Personal response to Room

Throughout my life, I have always been a keen reader. Since around the age of six I was visiting my local library and would work my way through 3-4 books every week, even if I wasn’t properly reading them, so yes, I have always loved reading from a very young age and still do now.

I read to for pleasure when I find the time to read and when I do find the time to read for pleasure, I tend to read crime and thriller books along with mystery and fantasy books such as: The Lovely Bones, Gone Girl, Harry Potter and The Girl on the Train etc. I love reading these sort of texts/genres as I feel part of the story and I feel drawn in to the book. I also like reading these type of fiction texts as I like to see how different authors describe situations, characters and scenes in the book.

As part of my university work, I had the opportunity to read the book ‘Room’ by Emma Donoghue. I found the book very interesting and intriguing to read. I also enjoyed the book as these are the type of books I like to read with mystery and suspense in them throughout the story. I also enjoyed the book as it gave me a better insight of how some children learn and develop and how some children struggle to develop within certain situations such as neglect and lack of interaction with people and language variations. I also enjoyed the book as it highlighted the importance of interaction with children and how important it is that children need to be involved with different situations and activities, not just confined to a minimal amount of activity and limited interaction within the classroom and outside of the classroom.

I would recommend ‘Room’ to others as I think the book is very interesting and makes you want to keep reading by the nature of the story. I think that other people should read the book as it gives an insight of children’s language development in an informal way that is an accurate perception.

When reading ‘Room’, the language of the book challenged my own language skills as Jack’s language is very disjointed in the book and there are unusual language patterns. This challenged me as I have never read a book like this before. I also felt challenged when reading the book because of the darkness to the story which was quite disturbing in some ways. However, reading ‘Room’ has improved my reading skills in the sense that I feel more confident engaging with texts that are not considered normal or contain normal language patterns that may be harder to understand at first.

Reading ‘Room’ has encouraged me to read other novels of this nature as I found the book very interesting and relevant to the course I am studying. Although I do read novels already, I have never read a book like this before and thoroughly enjoyed reading the book. I will definitely be reading more books like this in future.

I only ever considered academic reading to be textbooks and journals, I never realised that these kinds of books would help with my learning at university. ‘Room’ was a very effective and useful text to engage with when learning about language acquisition and development as the book showed both sides of language development in the sense of positive and negative. For example, the book shows the negative side of language development if children are not exposed to a wide range of language and interaction. This is shown by using disjointed language. The positive aspect of language acquisition and development is then shown through Jack’s positive language development after he leaves ‘Room’. This is useful as it shows the challenges that some children may face/the different situations children are in at home which could impact on their development both inside and outside the classroom. The book also helps us to realise as future teacher’s that there may be other reasons why children are not grasping things within our classroom.

Personal Response to ‘Room’

Personal Response to ‘Room’ During our introductory lecture of Literacy of Understanding we were informed that we had a novel- ‘Room’. I dreaded the prospect of reading this novel as the last time that read a novel was during my study of Higher English. But since reading ‘Room’ this has completely changed my outlook and … Continue reading Personal Response to ‘Room’ →

Personal Response to ‘Room’

During our introductory lecture of Literacy of Understanding we were informed that we had a novel- ‘Room’. I dreaded the prospect of reading this novel as the last time that read a novel was during my study of Higher English. But since reading ‘Room’ this has completely changed my outlook and attitude towards reading. When I was little my parents would always read to me and this influenced my habits of being a reader until my mid-teens.

I doubtlessly stopped reading for pleasure in fifth year of school as I had other priorities of studying for my Highers. Before then during my younger teens I was an avid reader and found contentment in reading by discovering new cultures and gathering a greater understanding of the current world in which we live in, but also the past world. During this time, I did find fulfilment in reading novels, my particular genres varied, I went through stages when I liked horror fiction, girl fiction and fantasy fiction. Sometimes if I got interested in a subject topic I studied at school this would influence my reading choices. For instance, during second year History I studied American Civil Rights therefore during this period I read the ‘The Secret Life of Bees’ and ‘The Help’. Reading books related to school I was able to gain a further understanding and knowledge. Reflecting back, I believe if I kept reading novels I would have more creative writing flare and a more styled style of writing, but intimating the authors that I read.

Presently I prefer to read current and in date texts such as newspapers and magazines. I am increasingly inclined to read broadsheet newspapers such as ‘The Times’, ‘The Herald’ and The Guardian’. The writing methodology of the editors influence my writing style, but at time their lexicon and language can be complex to understand.

Why do I not choose to read fiction presently? That was a question that I pondered about. Why I do not choose to read is partially all excuses- I don’t have any time to read, I don’t find reading enjoying, I cannot find any fiction that standouts.

However, since reading ‘Room’, in which I enjoyed reading has changed my view on reading. The initial pages of ‘Room’ did not interest me in the slightest but as the novel developed I became intrigue by the plot especially when Ma and Jack where planning their escape from ‘Room’ and understand how they would adjust to life on the outside. ‘Room’ is definitely a book that I would recommend to read, as I found it profoundly moving and conveys a world being locked away from society and the bond of mother and son.

Reading ‘Room’ has highlighted the importance to myself that I have to read more breath of fictions and I should not just read the first few pages and get discourage if I am not fond of the plot or characters. Reading a scope fictions allows you to gain a better understanding of the world and varying situations that humans find themselves in.

Undoubtfully it has changed my view on using novels for academic reading, reading ‘Room’ reinforced the aspects of language development present in young children and their tendencies as young speakers, as Jack language highlighted the development of his and shows that situations can impair facets of language.

Reflections On My Own Reading and Personal Response To ‘Room’ by Emma Donoghue

Personally I am not a big reader. The most I have ever read is the Hunger Games Trilogy and that was only because I was too impatient to wait for the last film to come out. I usually only read when I am really bored or the book has a really good plot line. When … Continue reading Reflections On My Own Reading and Personal Response To ‘Room’ by Emma Donoghue →

Personally I am not a big reader. The most I have ever read is the Hunger Games Trilogy and that was only because I was too impatient to wait for the last film to come out. I usually only read when I am really bored or the book has a really good plot line. When I was younger I really enjoyed reading Michael Morpurgo as his stories were based around the world wars, a topic which really interests me. This area of interest encouraged me to then go and read another few books by different authors based on the world wars.

At first, when being asked to read ‘Room’ by Emma Donoghue , I did not really want to read it as it looked a little bit boring and not like a book I would have usually read. However, I had to read it in order to keep up with my studies, so I did. In the beginning of the book, I found it really challenging to read as it was taken from the perspective of a five year old boy, who’s language was highly developed in some places and diminished in others. Donoghue writes from the perspective of Jack – a five year old boy who has only ever been exposed to the room that he has stayed in all his life and the television that is in this room. As Jack is only five his language hasn’t fully developed yet and so it felt like I was reading a script of what a five year old had spoken instead of a story being told.

Nevertheless, I really enjoyed this book once I got into it. The story was really gripping and it made me want to keep reading with every turn of the page. I never knew where the story would go next and so didn’t want to put the book down. There were points in the book where I wasn’t sure how the author was going to carry on the story as I felt there was nowhere else to go. However, Donoghue expanded the story, not just stopping once they escaped from the room, she continued on and showed how Jack and Ma’s life went on after it and the struggles they faced in a day to day life.

Personally, I feel that ‘Room’ has significantly developed my reading skills as it has allowed me to read from a perspective which I never have before (that of a five year olds). I have spoken to many five year olds and read many of their stories however having to read a novel entirely based on ones thoughts was a really new experience. I found this novel challenging at first however found it rather enjoyable as the book progressed as it allowed me to really get into the mind set of that particular child and see the world how he saw it. By reading this book, it has allowed me to understand that all children see the world differently and different factors and home environments transfer into what a child’s language development is like.

I really enjoyed reading ‘Room’ however, in my opinion it hasn’t made me want to go an read another book straight away. Nevertheless, now that I have read this book I am now more open to reading one which is similar so that I can gain a greater knowledge of the way a child can see and take in the world.

Personal Response to ‘Room’ by Emma Donoghue

For years now I have greatly enjoyed reading both fiction and non-fiction books, with fiction being my favourite. I used to be an avid reader sometimes going through several books a month, nowadays however I find that I don’t read as much as I would like to, probably because I don’t have enough time and because I’ve read most of the books in my house, several times. As I said, fictional books are my preferred choice of reading, with the Harry Potter series being my absolute favourite and The Maze Runner Series coming in second. Although I prefer fictional books I do quite like to read non-fictional books too, I like how they are based on fact and open your understanding on certain topics that you have some previous knowledge on or have no understanding of at all. Reading non-fictional books can also widen your search for topic work in a classroom as you could be inspired to choose a topic that you ordinarily wouldn’t have chosen either because you didn’t know enough about it or didn’t know anything at all about it. Most of the fictional books I read are chosen because they are based on events that would be extremely unlikely to happen in real-life (e.g. Harry Potter), however some fictional books are based on real-life events but have a twist or are developed from true stories. ‘Room’ by Emma Donoghue falls in to latter category, a fictional book inspired by a true story. This book was particularly fascinating as the story line was gripping and really interesting. I really liked how it was all written from Jack’s point of view although this did make it quite hard to read and understand in places because of the language he used. Also, I liked how you got a good setting of what it was like before Jack was born and how Joy ended up in room. I would definitely recommend this book to someone else, even if they have already seen the film, because you get more information in the book than you do from the film as you hear all of Jack’s thoughts which you don’t get from the movie. One aspect of the way ‘Room’ that was challenging for me was the way it was written from Jack’s point of view, because he’s only five the language that he used and the way that some of his words were jumbled up or he had the wrong word for certain things was a little confusing. This meant that when reading the book, it took a little while to into the way in which he spoke, so sometimes I would have to go back and re-read parts again because I hadn’t understood the first time. I think ‘Room’ has developed my reading skills as it has given me the opportunity to read a book that is unconventionally written in a way that I’ve never seen before (written from a child’s point of view). This book has inspired me to read more books that are like it, more grown-up and loosely based on true stories. ‘Room’ was very useful when it came to understanding language acquisition and development as it allowed you to see in context what the certain aspects of language development/acquisition are, for example, over-generalisation.

Personal Response to ‘Room’

Reading for pleasure is something which I can only do if I have become extremely engaged in a novel within the first few chapters. Luckily, I was gripped to ‘Room’ from the very beginning. When read for pleasure, I have always read fiction books; usually those which have a thrilling or particularly emotional story-line. I … Continue reading Personal Response to ‘Room’

Personal Response to ‘Room’

Personal Response to ‘Room’ I do not particularly read very often, but when I do I struggle to put the book down. I enjoy reading fictional books that are similar to ‘Room’, because I like the thriller-like storyline that is told. I enjoyed reading ‘Room’ although I faced challenges at some points. When I … Continue reading Personal Response to ‘Room’ →

Personal Response to ‘Room’

I do not particularly read very often, but when I do I struggle to put the book down. I enjoy reading fictional books that are similar to ‘Room’, because I like the thriller-like storyline that is told. I enjoyed reading ‘Room’ although I faced challenges at some points. When I first began to read the novel I found myself getting very confused with Jack’s language. For example, “Ma leans out of Bed to switch on Lamp, he makes everything light up whoosh.” At first, I thought that the ‘he’ that was being referred to was a man that was in the room with Jack, who he gave the nickname ‘Ma’. I also found that I was not able to skim my eyes over the text in order to read it that little bit quicker because of the language that was used to convey the character of Jack. At times I found myself having to read over the same sentences a few times to be able to make sense of it. I think that it is very clever in the way that it has been written from the perspective of Jack and used the same language that he would. It is written in the way in which a 5 year old boy would speak, and even more so, the way in which Jack speaks as we know he lacks some knowledge and understanding of word order and other grammatical rules. I had not previously considered how a fictional book could have been used in academic study. Reading ‘Room’ has greatly increased my understanding of language acquisition and language development. I am aware that some of Jack’s language would be the same as any other 5 year olds language, however I am also aware that in order for language to develop and keep growing, you have to interact with lots of people and lots of different things in the world. I have definitely recommended to others who have the same reading interests as me to have a go at reading this novel as I informed them how much I enjoyed it. I feel that reading this novel has developed my reading skills because I had to have patience to read it, I was not able to glance over the words on the page. I was required to carefully read it thoroughly in order to fully understand the story that was being told. It has encouraged me to read other novels and get back in to reading as I feel very relaxed when I sit down to read a book, and reading more and more will help me to further develop my reading and language skills.

A Personal Response to “Room”

I first read Emma Donoghue’s Room last December, after it was recommended by a friend. Room is typical of one of the genre of books I usually tend to read, along the lines of Jodi Picoult and Martina Cole. I also really enjoy dramatic autobiographies and memoirs such as Angela’s Ashes, Call the Midwife and …

Continue reading “A Personal Response to “Room””