Our Decisions Have an Impact
The first theme in the fourth grade, “Who we are”, focuses on decisions and how they impact and influence our lives. Through a daily journal, the students were able to reflect on decisions that were made, and realize that each decision they made mattered. Whereas some decisions may seem small or insignificant, students learned that they all had some type of impact on their daily lives. Moving forward, students will hopefully become more reflective, and grow from past experiences.
Here are some student work samples of reflective writing as part of their summative assessment task:
The purpose of doing this assignment was to tell us that the decisions we make can affect and change our lives, too. If you make the right decisions, it can make your life bright and nice. But if you accidentally made a bad choice, it can lead to suffering and pain.
The assignment took twenty minutes each day, and we did this assignment for eight days. We needed to make decisions no matter how bad or good they were to write this assignment. We also needed to suffer the consequences for all the decisions we made. Good and bad make differences.
This experience taught me that we need to make decisions that leads us into the road of the bright side, and not the road that’s worse than you thought it would be. I made decisions that were bad, so I suffered, but when I made the right decisions, I didn’t suffer.
This unit influenced me to make the right decisions, and it influenced me to not make silly choices, and now I’m happy and good.
---- 4211 Victor Chen 陳建恩
For our summative assessment, the purpose of this assignment was to let us know what decisions we make will influence who we are and who we will become.
We needed to do this assignment every day. We had to write I see, I think, I wonder, about my decisions, and will it have any impact on my future? This assignment took us eight days.
This experience has taught me we need to think before we make decisions. It changed me by making me a more careful person. For example, I will plan a schedule for play time and time for homework so that I don’t need to go to bed late.
This unit has influenced me to be a more careful person. In the future, I probably will make less mistakes.
--- 4221 Joyce Lee 李沐憙
The purpose of writing this assignment is so when I grow up, I will know what to do, and when I do bad things I would reflect on them.
I think we did this assignment for nine days. We needed to do this assignment every day using a “see, think, wonder”, our decision and why it will impact our future. By doing this assignment, we know what we want to do when we grow up.
This experience has made me reflect on my life, and it changed me because now when I see trash on the floor, I will pick it up. So when I grow up and see trash, I will pick it up, and other people would say I’m good.
This unit will influence my future because now when I do bad things, I will reflect on them. It will impact my future decisions, because I will do things the good way.
--- 4122 Yumu Wang 王宥云
The purpose of the assignment for our summative assessment about the first unit – it was like a diary. It could help us make our own decisions, and reflect on the decisions and choices we made. This assignment could also help us to become a thinker, because during the decision part, we needed to think hard.
The assignment began on September 25th, and ended on October 6th. We needed to think of some decisions we made and describe and write about them. We needed to write a “See, Think, Wonder”, what decision we made and how it will impact our future. Sometimes, it was hard to think of something, but sometimes it was easy.
This assignment led me to understand the decisions we make everyday will impact and influence my future decisions. The experience changed me because it helped me review the things and decisions we do or make every day. It taught me to use my brain to think quickly. I learned that we need to make good decisions, not bad decisions. If we’re making decisions, we need to think if it is right or wrong.
This unit can influence my future because the more decisions we make, the more experience we have. I learned that if we want to make decisions, we need to think hard if the decision is good or bad. It can impact my decisions in the future.
--- 4104 Ethan Wang 王意愷
Our core book for this semester, “The Magic Paintbrush”, connected well with our first theme. Through the characters’ words and actions, the students were able to better understand each of the main characters, and see how their pasts have influenced and shaped the people they have become.
Because of this, students were able to realize how the characters’ decisions have directly, or indirectly, impacted their future.
