Action Plan and Learning

¶ … workshop, the feelings that were created during the same, an evaluation of what was good or not good, an analysis of the marking criteria and a conclusion/action plan that ties up the loose ends and good points mentioned above. While it is possible to not glean the relevant points and important details of a workshop or other learning vehicle, the points to be taken from this particular learning opportunity were hard to miss.

Before getting into the minutia of what was learned and why it was so effective, it should first be defined and summarized what reflection is and how it is relevant when it comes to study skills and the like. Indeed, it is entirely possible to become so enraptured and engrossed in classwork and the other common activities of school life while at the same time not gaining and keeping the proper perspective about the process, what could be learned, what should be learned and what perhaps was missed along the way. Indeed, reflecting and reviewing what happened is a good way to figure out what went well, what did not go so well and thus being able to make adjustments based on the lessons learned. As learned via this assignment and the works of Bulman and Gibbs, there are plenty of lessons to that can and should be internalized and applied to future learning opportunities.

There was obviously nothing inherently complicated about the marking workshop. However, the way and manner in which it was presented allowed for the author of this report to feel great joy and pleasure due to the substance and amount of learning that was clearly underway. Overall, there was a great amount of good and not really any bad to speak of. This is not to say that the workshop was not errorless and flawless. However, it was very productive and there was certainly not a lot of wasted motion or other issues to be seen. Given that, the overall evaluation of the workshop reveals a number of high marks and good things to say.

As far as how the author of this report would analyze and assess the workshop, the one lesson that rises above the rest is the ability to assess and evaluate the quality of writing that is completed. Creating and keeping such a focus on the quality and density of the writing under review, whether it one's own or someone else's, is important because it adds to the totality of the perception and reaction that can be garnered from reviewing a work. This is not to say that anyone with faulty grammar should be considered obtuse. On the contrary, it is just one indication of the writer and their acumen and the context of why the writing might not be up to snuff matters a great deal. An ESL/ELL student having poor English grammar just indicates that a person is still learning English. On the other hand, a story on an important news website like the New York Times or CNN having bad grammar would be a bad sign indeed as the writer (and the editor, at a minimum) is obviously not doing their job very well, at least in that instance (Hesse, 2013).

However, the primary focus of marking and review and how this all dovetails with academic skills and studying should be introspective and on one's self. Indeed, this does not mean that someone should be harsh or punitive about one's own abilities. On the contrary, just as others should be constructive and reasonable with their feedback, self-directed feedback should be the same way. People should be honest with themselves about their writing quality. At the same time, people should not allow this self-directed feedback to discourage them. It should always be about getting better and learning lessons rather than simply finding faults in one's self. Obviously, whether a mistake made in writing is just a random error or if it's something that is truly due to lack of knowledge, the writer of a work needs to find out where their mechanics and knowledge base is lacking and fill the void or incorrect information with the proper and correct information. Time management was also part of the learning and should also be used properly.