English Final Exam

Throughout the year, we’ve discussed and learnt about many pieces of information that will help us throughout our lives. We’ve covered everything from themes to ESLR’s and done a few reflective journals. From all the work we’ve done, I’ve definitely shown some personal growth. These include my confidence, group work, and computer programs. Furthermore, I’ve clarified and learnt more about the ESLR’s. I also feel that during this class I’ve been an Effective Communicator and a Self-Directed Learner.

This school year I’ve become more confident. By going through the Drama exploratory, I’ve been required to humiliate myself. I had to perform my appearances for the class and eventually an audience. My partner and I also had to write a script for a short scene and we’d rehearse it just about everyday after the initial writing of the script was done. Additionally, I felt that the poetry unit helped boost my confidence since I didn’t think that I could write poetry very well and I wasn’t comfortable sharing my ideas in such an artistic and figurative way. These have tested me and pushed me outside my “comfort zone”. I also feel that during this year, I’ve excelled in my group work. In our Anne Frank project, I had to work with people that weren’t exactly my friends. Additionally, we had arguments and disagreements about aspects of the project. What made it even worse was that one of group members refused to do any work. These are all valid problems that could come up in work life. Another project that took our collaborative skills to the next level was the International Teen Life Project. In the project, we had to work with students from three other schools around the world. Although we’d never met these students face to face, we still had to work with them. All of us were in groups of six and we had to communicate by ourselves to get the project done. We had to use email, instant messaging, blogs, wikispaces, and voice calls over the internet to send our ideas and feedback to other students. Because the other school were in a different time zone, it was hard to set up voice calls and instant messaging. This meant that we had to usually use email, our blogs, or the wikispace and these would take about a day to get a reply. Yet again this is another scenario that may come up in our adult lives. Finally, I felt that I learnt more about a computer program called GarageBand. During our Tempest podcast, we used this application to string together recordings and sounds to reenact the book in modern English and Shakespeare’s text. Before doing this project I didn’t really know how to use GarageBand, but instead simply clicked around and experimented. However, after getting a basic tutorial of the program and doing the project with it, I’m a much more coherent user.

In addition to demonstrating personal growth, I feel that I was also an Effective Communicator. I demonstrated my creative talents to convey ideas during the poetry unit and book. Instead of merely writing an essay to describe my ideas, I wrapped them up in inventive and descriptive layers. The reader now had to not only read the poems, but also decrypt and peel away the captivating part of it to get the core, which is what I’m trying to verbalize in the poem. During the International Teen Life Project, I demonstrated the skills of effective collaboration. I did this by working with others that I’d never met or seen. I also incorporated technology as a tool for communication since we had to use an array of new technology to talk to each other. These included mainly blogs, emails, and wikispaces. I also incorporated technology as a tool for communication in the Anne Frank project. This is because my group and I created a movie to communicate Anne’s hopeful message of peace to the world. We did this by inserting pictures, words, music, and sound effects together to fashion a movie that was appealing, but also simulated what Anne Frank when through and sent out her message.

Lastly, I feel that I was a Self-Directed Learner. When I designed the poetry book, I demonstrated competency in goal setting, time management, and organizational skills. I would set myself goals such as trying to get all the required poems done by a certain date. I also showed time management and organizational skills. This is because I planned out what I was going to do and didn’t go off task when working on the book. In addition, I didn’t misuse time or leave my book to the last minute and have to stay up all night before the due date working on it. During the scavenger hunt for the Tempest, I felt that I took creative risks in developing untried ideas. One section of the scavenger hunt was to look for objects that symbolized themes of the book such as mercy, revenge, and harmony. I did this and I also made some of the objects out of Lego. To finish, I feel that I monitored, adjusted, and documented work in progress when doing my reflective journals. The reason for this assumption is that I’d continually alter my journals to develop them. Moreover, I would save different drafts so that I could go back to a later version if I didn’t like the changes that I’d made.

In conclusion, I’ve done a lot in English this year. I’ve learnt valuable pieces of information such as the reflective process, poetry, and the ESLR’s. Although I haven’t talked about themes in this essay, we’ve also discussed many of them in class. The questions that we’ve asked and the themes could keep you pondering forever. However, I feel that the most important of everything I’ve done this year is my personal growth. This is what will shape me to the person I’ll be in the future and the skills I will possess.

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Bloom’s Taxonomy and ESLR Journal (Quarter 3)

During English class in the third quarter of this school year, my classmates and I studied and wrote poetry, and we worked on an assignment known as the Teen Life Project. This project included four different schools in Snow Lake (Canada), Cartegena (Columbia), Broadway (Virginia) and us here in Kuala Lumpur. This is a project in which you work with others from around the world and hasn’t been preformed before in this school. The project is about global issues that teenagers such as ourselves are concerned about. I found it to be a valuable experience and it gives us a chance to experience life in the real world where you work with people you may never see. In addition, all of us have created our own poetry book containing our poems from the quarter and most of us have attended a poetry night. At the poetry night, we read our poems and parents got to take a look at the books we created. In the paragraphs to follow, I will discuss each ESLR, identifying one feature that I did and didn’t do for most of them. Then I will use those aspects of each ESLR and go through the six main sections of Bloom’s Taxonomy. To put it briefly, I will use Bloom’s Taxonomy to illustrate my understanding of the ESLRs.

During my English class this past quarter, I was a Self-Directed Learner because I accepted responsibility for my own learning. Being responsible for my education and doing my work voluntarily without being asked or nagged is my personal definition of this skill. Being responsible includes self-checking my poems and self-editing each one. Equally important, this means that I am prepared for class each day by completing work such as homework. I feel that I accepted responsibility for my own learning when I went over poems I had written to make it sound better. I also spent time on each poem to make sure that it was done to my full ability. Moreover, I always had rough drafts of poems and information for my Teen Life Project whenever it was required. Although this is true, I never went above what was asked of me when it came to the Teen Life Project; I’d only do what is required. I believe that by accepting responsibility for my own learning, I am also helping myself to continually assess, evaluate, and adjust work to maintain high standards. This is because if I self-edit my work, I am changing it to improve it and make it of higher quality. Next time, I could enhance this skill by being more involved in the Teen Life Project and spending more of my spare time on it. By doing this I would have been trying to help myself learn and understand more about my Teen Life Project topic, poverty. Therefore, I did really well, but not perfectly with accepting responsibility for my own learning. I’ve done everything required of me, but not anything above that.

However, there were some aspects of the Self-Directed Learner ESLR that I didn’t demonstrate in the previous quarter. One of these is taking creative risks in developing untried ideas. This means that I attempt to do something out of the ordinary; I take a risk that may not pay off. A time when I didn’t do this was when I was working on my poetry book. Personally, I think that I didn’t really work too far outside the box. I mainly added some illustrations, photographs, and some dried plants. I could have demonstrated my creative talents to convey ideas by taking a few pictures and using Adobe Photoshop to mix them together. By doing this I could have created a new image for my book that couldn’t be taken with a camera. I could have also made some pages glow-in-the-dark and maybe make it 3-D by creating pop-ups on some pages. I could take more creative risks in the future by adding the extra features to my poetry that I described above. If I had done these, I would have taken a few creative risks. Overall, I did quite horribly on taking creative risks; I would consider it one of my weaknesses. The reason for this is I always do very common pieces of work that don’t usually catch people’s attention.

So far this year, I have also been an Academic Achiever since I continually assess, evaluate, and adjust work to maintain high standards. Revising and going over work a few times to make sure that it is the finest quality work that you can do is what this means to me. When we were writing poetry, I displayed this aspect of Academic Achiever. I would usually do a rough draft of my poem in class. Later, I’d take it home and type it up neatly. I’d also revise and edit it by changing some words to better convey meaning and rearranging some lines. Finally, I’d get someone else, my teacher, to look it over so that I can get an opinion that isn’t my own. With that last view, I made a more or less final draft. I feel that I am also monitoring, adjusting, and documenting work in progress. The reason why I feel this way is because by always reviewing your work and making it your best, you’re also adjusting it. Additionally, you’ll probably keep all your drafts, therefore learning from areas you could do better on so that you don’t have to wait till the final draft. I believe that I could have revised and corrected some of my poems further to make them better. If I had done this I would have continually assessed, evaluated, and adjusted my work to main high standards far better. On the whole, I did pretty good, but not great with this skill because I checked and tidied up my work quite a bit, but not to my full abilities.

On the other hand, I wasn’t an Academic Achiever because I didn’t access information from a variety of sources. In a more straightforward definition, this means that I accumulate information from a number of different places. I didn’t display this skill because during the poetry unit and the Teen Life Project, I only found information from the internet and other people. For instance, when I learnt about figurative language and different types of poetry, it was my teacher, Mr. R that was teaching. I didn’t refer to books or the internet at all. However, during the Teen Life project, I only looked at information on my topic, poverty, that was on the internet. I believe that if I had accessed information from a variety of sources by retrieving information from the internet, people, books, and documentaries, I would have also been a Critical Thinker. By acquiring information from various sources, I’m also processing and analyzing it. Thus, the precise aspect of Critical Thinker that I would have hit would have been gathering, analyzing, and processing information from a variety of sources. I feel that I could have retrieved knowledge from a larger array of areas. The reason for this is over the course of the whole quarter, I’d only learnt from the internet and other people. However, I could have still gotten information from books, documentaries and other places. If I had done this then I would have accessed information from a variety of sources better. In the future, I could try to use at least three or four different sources each quarter. I did satisfactory on this part of Academic Achiever because I didn’t collect information from all the places available to me, but I did get it from a few of those places.

In addition to these ESLRs I have also been an Effective Communicator. Whenever I understand and convey written, oral, and visual information using appropriate media, I’m being an Effective Communicator. Understanding the above information that is given to you by others is another way of saying this. However, just as importantly, I am also meant to successfully communicate that information to them. During the Teen Life Project, the poetry unit, and the poetry night, I did this. In the Teen Life Project my teammates and I shared written information about our topic, poverty, with each other. I also gave them a picture that I had taken of poverty. During the poetry unit and night, we worked on talking with a clear loud voice at a paced speed. In class, we’d stand on a chair in the front of the room and read one of our poems aloud. To me, this was fairly terrifying activity since I don’t enjoy public speaking. As I’d step upon the plastic chair and rise above everyone else, I felt the nerve wrecking tingle. My desire to stand normally could not be fulfilled. We had to read our poems slowly with pronunciation while projecting our voice throughout the room. Having to stand up so high with my classmates eyes glued to me was just as dreadful as having to present a project and I found the whole thing quite intimidating. Additionally, I listened to many of the poems written by my peers and tried to comprehend them. I’d try to decrypt the literal meaning hidden behind the many figurative layers. By doing this I was conveying and understand oral messages. If I performed this skill, I am also demonstrating the skills of effective collaboration. This is because understanding and conveying different messages is crucial in group activities. To perfect this skill, I could try to get some visual information and understand what it’s trying to say since I haven’t done that yet. All in all, I think that I did fairly well on this since I performed most of the skills listed above, but all of them.

Although I have been an acceptable Effective Communicator, I wasn’t a perfect one because I didn’t fully demonstrate the skills of effective collaboration. This is saying that when I work in groups, I balance my contribution of ideas with the amount of time I sit back and listen to others. Additionally, this means that I should take the lead sometimes while giving others a turn as well. I didn’t really do this when we were working on our Teen Life Project. My opinions and ideas were rarely given; most of the time, I just left it up to others. All I did was what was asked of me and I didn’t really take any initiative. I think that if I had displayed this skill I would have also demonstrated the ability to work both independently and collaboratively. This is part of being an Academic Achiever. The reason for this is that by participating well in group activities I am working collaboratively, which is a part of both skills. In the long run, I feel that to grow in the skill of demonstrating effective collaboration, I could set a target to take control a bit more and give more of my ideas and opinions. In general, I did quite poorly on this aspect of being an Effective Communicator. The reason for this assumption is that I handed out ideas like a stingy inventor when performing group activities.

Second lastly, I have been a Critical Thinker in English class since I built meaning and understanding using prior knowledge and new information. Expanding your understanding by using old knowledge such as experiences and previous work in addition to new information from school or research is what I believe this to mean. I used new knowledge when I was taught poetry and figurative language. Furthermore, I received new information from the internet when I was researching poverty for my Teen Life Project. However, in addition to finding new information, I did use a bit of my past work and knowledge to help me. For example, I used what I knew about poetry from elementary school and the ballads I’d written in seventh grade. I had already learnt a bit about end rhymes and haikus. I believe that by demonstrating this skill, I’m also continually assessing, evaluating, and adjusting work to maintain high standards. This is because by looking back on old work and learning to do better next time, it’s like I’m improving work that I’ve already done. Next time, to advance in this skill, I will keep my notes and pieces of work from previous classes and use them. For example, I could look over them to remind me of important information and mistakes I made in earlier years so that I learn from my past experiences. Overall, I think I did acceptable because I got new information on poetry and the information I found on the internet about poverty. However, I barely used any old information to help me out over the last quarter.

Finally, I have been an Involved Citizen since I interact respectfully with people of diverse cultures. To me this means that I don’t insult people because of their culture, and I respect everyone. Additionally, I work together with them and I treat them as I would treat any other person. I demonstrated this during our Teen Life Projects when we were working with people from a few different places around the globe. I was never ignorant of their race or culture, and I didn’t criticize or insult them just because their point of view was different from mine. In my mind they were also all equals with the same rights. By interacting respectfully with people of diverse cultures, I think that I’m also demonstrating awareness and respect for the rights of others. This is because I don’t favor some of my group members over others. Instead all are given the same freedom to do as they wish. In the future, to interact more respectfully with people of diverse cultures, I could ask others about their culture and way of living. By doing this, I would get to understand others better and what their life is like. So, instead of just treating others respectfully, I would get a sense of what it’s like to be in their shoes. Generally, I think that I did really well since I never disrespected anyone. However, I can still improve to better understand others.

Since I’ve gone through this entire process three times now, I find it much easier to comprehend. The whole idea of ESLRs and Bloom’s Taxonomy is much simpler now and not so much of a bizarre Einstein theory. While this is true, it still took me quite some time and thought to churn out this journal and look back on the past few weeks. Although this is a very tedious process, it helps me see which parts of the ESLRs I’m doing and which parts I still need to work on.

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Anne Frank Project Write-Up

For our (Ah Ihn, Jed, and I) project we had to design and create a commercial or short film spreading Anne’s hopeful message of peace. For a more detailed explanation of our project please visit this website.

General Questions

How are symbols, images, and sounds and other conventions used in visual media?
Symbols, images, sounds, and other conventions are used in visual media to increase the emotional feelings in the audience. These include making them cry, feel jubilant, or utterly irritated. Conventions are usually used together in synchronization. They will work together to express an overall mood. By using these conventions as a collection, they can create overwhelming feelings which will cause the visual part of the experience to be fully successful.

What are the ways in which image-makers carefully construct meaning?
Image-makers carefully construct meaning by using symbols, images, sounds, and other conventions in harmony. Image makers will only combine conventions of the same emotion together. For example, they won’t mix a happy picture with a sad song. Image-makers will also use text to enforce the meaning of the visual.

How are techniques used in visual media to influence or appeal to a particular audience?
Many different techniques can be used in visual media to influence or appeal to a particular audience. For instance, if you’re trying to create an eye catching movie, you’d use happy and loud music with bright pictures. Also, common symbols might be used such as the dove to show that the movie is about peace.

Bloom’s Taxonomy

Knowledge – Describe the symbols, images, and sounds you used to complete your projecta
In our short presentation, we used many symbols. We used the Star of David, the Swastika, and the earth surrounded by barb wire. We also used clouds with a sun coming out and a swing with a person pushing two other people. Finally, we also used a butterfly, a meadow, and the tattoo from the concentration camp. The images that we used were of Anne’s family’s life before the war began. We also used pictures of their hiding place and the cattle cars. Finally, we used pictures of their concentration camps, the gravestone of Anne and Morgot, and a meadow. The sound effects we used were birds, screams, trains, guns, and creaks. We also used songs There She Goes by Six Pence None the Richer, Suddenly I See by KT Tunstall, and Where is the Love by Black Eyed Peas. The other convention that we used was text. We mostly used quotes from Anne’s diary that are the most meaningful and significant.

Comprehension – Discuss how these symbols, images, and sounds carefully construct meaning
We used the Star of David to show how the Jews were labeled by the Nazis. The Star of David also represents the number seven, the six points and the middle. To the Jews, the number seven had religion connections. For instance, the six days of creation plus the seven days of rest. The Jews also had seven spirits of god, and the Jewish Menorah has seven oil lamps. We used the Swastika because it shows that the Nazis were involved and civilized since they had their own symbol. The picture of the earth surrounded by barbwire shows that more or less the entire planet being involved in the war and the constriction of the Jews. We used the sun symbol to show the hope that the Jews had of returning to their normal lives. This shows hope because it shows the sun emerging from behind the clouds as if there is newfound hope. It also shows that no matter what, there will always be that one person like Anne who is always hopeful. We used the swing symbol to show the freedom that was finally returned to the Jews after the war and the peace that was restored. Furthermore, this shows the teamwork of others around the world to help the Jews in the war since the middle person is pushing the other two. The butterfly symbolizes the beauty of the world and nature. The meadow symbolizes freedom and independence. The tattoo from the concentration camps showed the Jews that they’ll never leave the camp. It also showed the Jews that they had been marked with which slaves are branded. The pictures before the war show how cheerful people were before the destruction such as the picture of Anne with all of her friends. The pictures of the train and concentration camps show what hardships had to be taken on by the Jews. An example of such a picture is the photograph of all of the Jews that have already died. The creaking of the door was used is meant to symbolize the opening of the war and the capture of the people at the secret annex. The trains and screaming sounds show the transportation used and the chaos that occurred. The bird sound shows the freedom and joy of nature. The first song is a happy song since it shows the wonderful life before the war. The second song’s lyrics tell about Anne. “And everything around her is a silver pool of light. The people who surround her feel the benefit of it.” These show Anne’s jubilant personality and how it is passed to others. The last song describes the war. “People killing people dying. Children hurtin you hear them crying. Can you practice what you preach? Would you turn the other cheek? Father Father Father help us. Send some guidance from above. Nations dropping bombs. Chemical gases filling lungs of little ones. With ongoing suffering. As the youth die young.” These lines truly show the war and what was done during those few atrocious years. Finally, the quotes that we used from the book were meant to teach people of Anne’s high spirited and positive personality.

Application – Explain how these symbols, images, and sounds will influence or appeal to your audience.
These symbols, images, and sounds should cause the audience to become sad, angry, and happy. They should be sad because of all the killing that has occurred only 67 years ago. Additionally, the pictures of the concentration camps and tattoo should remind people of all the inhumane events that have occurred. The music will also add to this effect. However, some people might be angry instead of sad. This depends on the audience since some will be sorry for the Jews whereas others might be furious with the Nazis. The audience should be happy at the beginning and towards the end. The reason for this is because at the start, it shows the terrific times that the Jews had before the war. Towards the end, it shows the freedom that was returned to the Jews after the liberation of the camps and the way everyone helped the Jews. Moreover, the sounds of birds chirping should give everyone a blissful feeling.

Analysis – Compare the symbols, images, and sounds you chose. Which are the most powerful? Why?
The Star of David shows the main victims of the war, and the Swastika shows their persecutors, which are the exact opposite. Another difference in symbols is that the usual symbol for peace is a dove, but we used a swing with people because it shows the happiness that all children have in them. Additionally, The first song is happy and shows the peaceful times before the war; however, the last song shows the war and hate between the Jews and Nazis. Finally, the pictures before and after the war have definite differences. Before everyone is playful and joyous; however, during the war, everyone is gloomy and beginning to lose hope. In terms of similarity, the swing symbol and meadow both show the freedom that the Jews are longing to receive. Furthermore, barbwire is often used to show restriction the same way that we used it. We thought that the sun symbol, tattoo, and the song Where is the Love were the most powerful. We thought that the sun symbol was a strong sign of hope since it’s a bright colored picture, and the sun coming out from under the cloud looks like newborn hope. The tattoo was an authoritative symbol because it was a label on Jews that could never be removed and showed that they were the slaves and would never leave the camp. We liked the song because those specific lines really summed up the war and what was happening in Europe at the time.

Evaluation – Summarize and grade the final product and the process to accomplish this task.
For this project, we feel that we should about a B+. This is because overall, we did a pretty good job of going through Bloom’s Taxonomy and creating our project, but we feel it could have been better. The process that was taken to accomplish this task is as follows. First, we talked about the two choices of projects and decided which one we would do as a group. Then we were all meant to find some pictures, but the amount that each person found in the end varied. We then discussed some possible symbols we could use and decided on which ones we would actually use for our project. Then we were meant to meet up over the weekend, but only Adrian and Jed did. They picked the music and arranged the slides. Adrian then completed the PowerPoint, and he and Jed met up again to work on the write-up together.

ESLRs

In our group, we were Effective Communicators because we listened respectfully and asked questions to facilitate understanding and achieve insight. For example, when we began, people were talking over others and interrupting them. Group members were also “shhh-ing” others when they talked. However, we don’t do this as much anymore and can listen and work together much better.

While doing this project we also solved problems using a variety of strategies which makes us a Critical Thinker. When we first got together, we wanted to do the short film, but none of us had iMovie or any other Mac-friendly program. So, instead of doing the memorial, we decided to use PowerPoint to create our film instead.

During this project, we demonstrated the ability to work both independently and collaboratively, making us Academic Achievers. This is because at school, we would work together to decide who would do what for homework. When we went home, everyone did some work and brought it back to school so that we could work on it together. This way, we worked by ourselves and together to get things done.

Jed and Adrian demonstrated the use of being a Self-Directed Learner since we showed competency in goal setting, time management, and organizational skills. This is because we set up times to meet up and we didn’t leave the project to last the minute. We also didn’t waste time when we were working on the project out of school.

Finally, we were all Involved Citizens because we interacted respectfully with people of diverse cultures. No one made fun of some one else in our group because they were from a different culture. Even though we were dealing with a topic that could create arguments between people of different nations, there were no quarrels everyone respected each other.

Cooperation

In our group, Adrian and Jed did most of the work. Adrian found most of the pictures, and he created the actual show by putting the pictures and music together. Additionally, Adrian did the sound effects. Jed found some of the pictures, and he came up with two symbols, and he drew all three. He and Adrian decided on the music and order of slides together. Furthermore, Jed and Adrian did the write-up together. Adrian and Jed met up twice out of school to do the project. Ah Ihn found six pictures, but only one was used since she gave it to us very late in the project, and she came up with one symbol. We invited her over to our house so that we could work together out of school, but she didn’t want to come, and since we couldn’t force her, she didn’t come. Ah Ihn didn’t really do that much in this project.

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Bloom’s Taxonomy and ESLR Journal (Quarter 1)

During English class so far this year, my classmates and I have created personal goals to work towards, and we read the extraordinary novel Lord of the Flies by William Golding. In addition, all of us have participated in countless activities that relate to the book and help us enhance our understanding of it. Once we had completed the novel, we each created a short-term project and began learning about Bloom’s Taxonomy of the Cognitive Domain. Bloom’s Taxonomy was designed by Benjamin Bloom and is the basis of this journal in addition to the Expected Schoolwide Learning Results (ESLRs). In the following paragraphs of this journal I will discuss each ESLR, and I will identify one feature that I did and didn’t do for most of them. Then I will use those aspects of each ESLR and go through the six main sections of Bloom’s Taxonomy. Long story short, I will use Bloom’s Taxonomy to illustrate my understanding of the ESLRs.

During my English class this year, I was a Self-Directed Learner because I accepted responsibility for my own learning. Being responsible for my education and doing my work voluntarily without being asked or nagged is my personal definition of this skill. Being responsible includes things like self-checking my work and self-editing it. Equally important, this means that I am prepared for class each day by completing things such as homework, reading, and having debate questions to discuss about the book. I feel that I accepted responsibility for my own learning when I created my personal goals for this year. Moreover, by reviewing my work by myself and self-editing it, I displayed this aspect of being a Self-Directed Learner. These include assignments such as the Myers Briggs Personality Test write up, the free writing on Simon, and my Lord of the Flies project. I believe that by accepting responsibility for my own learning, I am also helping myself to continually assess, evaluate, and adjust work to maintain high standards. This is because if I self-edit my work, I am altering my work to improve it and make it of higher quality. Next time, I could enhance this skill by writing a short summary at the end of each chapter that we have read. By doing this I would have been trying to help myself learn and understand more about the book. This is because I’m making sure I understand each chapter and I put it into my own words. Therefore, I did really well with accepting responsibility for my own learning. I’ve always been ready for class and I created some personal goals to achieve during the year.

However, there were some aspects of Self-Directed Learner that I didn’t demonstrate in the previous quarter. One of these is taking creative risks in developing untried ideas. This means that I attempt to do something out of the ordinary; I take a risk that may not pay off. A time when I didn’t do this is when I worked on my Lord of the Flies project. I didn’t think outside the box and just stuck with an ordinary project. To illustrate, all I did for my project was write two letters and put both of them in an envelope. Then I put a stamp or two on each envelope. I could also have demonstrated technological literacy and the use of technology as a tool for efficient and creative completion of a project if I had taken a creative risk. This is because, for example, in addition to writing letters, I could have also created a PowerPoint presentation which had a summary of my letter to William Golding. By doing this, I will do something creative while using technology to assist me. I could take more creative risks in the future by creating the PowerPoint I described above. In addition, I could illustrate a scene from each chapter that I thought was the most important. Finally, I could have used color post-its. Each different colored post-it could have represented a different category such as fascinating words that the author used, parts I didn’t understand, and symbolism. If I had done these, I would have had taken a few creative risks. Overall, I did quite horribly on taking creative risks; I would consider it one of my weaknesses. The reason for this is I always do very common pieces of work that don’t catch people’s attention.

So far this year, I have also been an Academic Achiever since I accessed information from a variety of sources. Acquiring information from many places such as people, books, and the internet is what this means to me. When we were reading the novel and doing our project, I displayed this aspect of Academic Achiever. I would search for information and pictures on the internet to help enhance my understanding of the book. Furthermore, I would ask my friends and parents any questions that I had related to the book. I believe that by demonstrating this feature of an Academic Achiever, I am also gathering, analyzing, and processing information from a variety of sources. The reason for this assumption is that I take information from books, the internet, and people. When I do this, I also analyze and process this information. Thus, in both skills I gather information and in the second one I process and analyze it too. If I had looked at and borrowed books from the library, I feel that I could have accessed information from a variety of sources far better. The reason for this is because I haven’t obtained information from books yet. On the whole, I did fairly well with accessing information from a variety of sources because I got information from a few sources, but not all that were available to me.

On the other hand, I wasn’t an Academic Achiever because I didn’t demonstrate the ability to work both independently and collaboratively. In a more straightforward definition, this means that I can work well alone and with a group of people. I didn’t display this skill because when we had group discussions and activities I didn’t participate or involve myself enough. For instance, when we had the Bloom’s Taxonomy meeting, I didn’t speak up. While this is true, I was able to work independently like the time we did our free writing assignment for Simon, our project, and Myers Briggs Personality Test write up. I believe that if I had demonstrated the ability to work both independently and collaboratively I would have also been an Effective Communicator. If I speak up, contribute, and listen to others when working in groups, I’m communicating my ideas well and showing that I can effectively collaborate with others. The precise aspect of Effective Communicator that I would have hit would have been demonstrating the skills of effective collaboration. I feel that I could have spoken up and contributed my ideas more in group discussions and activities. If I had done this then I would have demonstrated the ability to work both independently and collaboratively better. In the future, I could set a goal for myself to speak up at least once or twice in each group activity I participate in. I did satisfactory on this part of Academic Achiever because I didn’t really collaborate well, but I did work well independently.

In addition to these ESLRs I have also been an Effective Communicator. Whenever I listened respectfully and asked questions to facilitate understanding and achieve insight, I was being an Effective Communicator. Listening while others talk and not interrupting is another way of saying this. However, just as importantly, I am also meant to ask questions whenever I don’t understand something. During discussions and group activities, I did do this. Whenever we did these activities, I would always be all ears and listen to what others had to say. Also, when there was a part of the book that I didn’t understand even after we had gone over it in class, I would usually ask my friends or someone else to help explain it to me. By performing this skill, I am also demonstrating awareness and respect for the rights of others. This is because by listening and not interrupting, I am showing that I know and am aware that others also have the right to speak. To try to perfect this skill, I could ask my friends more questions to make sure that I completely understand the book and activities we did. All in all, I think that I did fairly well on this since I always listened, but I didn’t always ask for clarification when I didn’t understand something.

Although I have been an acceptable Effective Communicator, I wasn’t a perfect one because I didn’t demonstrate the skills of effective collaboration. This is saying that when I work in a group, I contribute ideas and I occasionally sit back and listen to others. I didn’t do this when we were having our group discussions and small group work assignments. My opinions and ideas were rarely given; I usually sat back and not a word passed my lips. I think that if I had displayed this skill I would have also demonstrated the ability to work both independently and collaboratively. This is part of being an Academic Achiever. The reason for this is that by participating well in group discussions and activities I am working collaboratively, which is part of both skills. In the long run, I feel that to grow in the skill of demonstrating effective collaboration, I could have a goal to talk at least once or twice when we have group discussions. Furthermore, when we have small group activities I could be sure that I contribute at least a few ideas. In general, I did dreadfully on this aspect of being an Effective Communicator. The reason for this assumption is that I only talked once in a blue moon when performing group activities and I didn’t collaborate well with my partners at all.

Second lastly, I have been a Critical Thinker in English class since I built meaning and understanding using prior knowledge and new information. Gaining understanding by using old knowledge such as experiences and previous work in addition to new information is what I believe this to mean. I used new knowledge when I used the information and notes we took in class to do my project. Furthermore, I used new information when I did extra reading on the book at Cliffnotes and Sparknotes on the internet. This rings a bell in my mind and takes me back to a time when I used prior knowledge and new information to help me do wall climbing during P.E. class. An example is this year when I had P.E. on the climbing wall, and I used the information I got last year and the information I learnt this year. Last year I learnt how to belay and the proper rock climbing calls, but I didn’t really know how to tie knots. So, this year my teacher taught me the things that I didn’t know how to do yet. Therefore, I’m much better at the safety aspects of rock climbing. Next time, to improve on this skill, I will keep my notes and pieces of work from previous years and use them. For example, I could look over them to remind me of important information and mistakes I made last time so that I don’t make the same mistakes again. Overall, I think I did acceptable because I got new information such as the notes we took in class and the information I found on the internet. However, I barely used any old information to help me understand concepts we have covered.

Finally, I have been an Involved Citizen since I interact respectfully with people of diverse cultures. To me this means that I don’t insult people because of their culture and I respect everyone. Additionally, I work together with them and I treat them as I would treat any other person. I demonstrated this when we had group discussions or worked in small groups. I was never ignorant of other people’s race or culture, and I never interrupted others when they were talking. Also, I didn’t criticize or insult them just because their point of view was different from mine. By interacting respectfully with people of diverse cultures, I think that I’m also improving the lives of others in my community. This is because I don’t make others feel dreadful or disliked since I don’t insult or put them down in any way. In the future, to interact more respectfully with people of diverse cultures, I could actually ask others about their culture and race. By doing this, I would get to understand others better and what their life is like. So, instead of just treating others respectfully, I would get a sense of what it’s like to be in their shoes. Generally, I think that I did really well since I never disrespected anyone because of his or her culture or race. However, I can still improve to better understand others.

When I first received this assignment I was utterly confused and I had no idea on what we were meant to do. However, now that I’ve been taken step-by-step through it and completed it, it is a lot simpler and more like child’s play. Nevertheless, this journal has still taught me a lot about the ESLRs and I now see them through a much clearer and lucid window.

 

Six Traits

Ideas and Content: I narrowed my topic down to show my understanding of the ESLRs by using Bloom’s Taxonomy.

Organization: I organized my journal by first having an introduction paragraph. Then I had two paragraphs for the following ESLRs: Self-Directed Learner, Academic Achiever, and Effective Communicator. One talked about an aspect of that ESLR that I did do and one talked about the aspect of that ESLR that I didn’t do. Then I had a paragraph for Critical Thinker and one for Involved Citizen talking about an aspect of those ESLRs that I did do.

Voice: I added sentences such as: (–> = became)

1. This reminds me of a time. –> This rings a bell in my mind.

2. The reason for this thought is that I rarely talked when doing group activities and I didn’t collaborate well with my partners. –> The reason for this assumption is that I only talked once in a blue moon when performing group activities and I didn’t collaborate well with my partners.

3. So, instead of treating others respectfully, I actually learn about their culture and religion. –> So, instead of just treating others respectfully, I would get a sense of what it’s like to be in their shoes.

4. Although this is true, this journal has still taught me a lot about the ESLRs. –> Nevertheless, this journal has still taught me a lot about the ESLRs and I now see them through a much clearer and lucid window.

5. In other words, I will use Bloom’s Taxonomy to show my understanding of the ESLRs. –> To make a long story short, I will use Bloom’s Taxonomy to illustrate my understanding of the ESLRs.pp

Word Choice: First word is original and second word is changed.

Thought	Assumption
Badly	Dreadfully
Spotless	Lucid
Really	Utterly
Easier	Child’s play
Find	Identify
Includes	Incorporates
Show	Illustrate
Got	Acquiring
Improve	Enhance
By myself	Voluntarily

Sentence Fluency: I added sentences such as: (–> = became)

1. To me this means that I get information from many places such as people, books, and the internet. –> Acquiring information from many places such as people, books, and the internet is what this means to me.

2. This means that I attempt to do something which isn’t so typical, and I take a risk that may not pay off. –> This means that I attempt to do something out of the ordinary; I take a risk that may not pay off.

3. I didn’t really speak up much or give my ideas or opinions. –> My opinions and ideas were rarely given, and I usually sat back and not a word passed my lips.

4. In my own words this means that I am responsible for my education and I do my work by myself without having to be told. –> Being responsible for my education and doing my work on my own accord without being told or asked is my personal definition of this skill.

5. I think that if I had taken creative risks I would have also been demonstrating technological literacy and the use of technology as a tool for efficient and creative completion of a project. –> I would also be demonstrating technological literacy and the use of technology as a tool for efficient and creative completion of a project if I had taken a creative risk.

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