Reflective Learning Blog
As we approach the end of the trimester we continue to learn about various topics and information while still focusing on our main topic. This week our various topic included a lesson about "Register Switching" (also known as Code Switching). This topic involves the observation of human nature to change how we act to accommodate those around us. These Registers are divided up into 5 basic groups. One consists of being with a close friend or significant other ( Intimate). The next is taking to peers or relatives ( Casual), after that follows a formal register you use with strangers or bosses (Formal). The fourth one is a register you would use with a judge or police (Frozen). Finally is the last one that involves just passing information between one another ( Consultative). As for our main topic, we focused on how we have to develop a main question or big idea to think about and answer for our books. This is a step further from our last unit which had us choose a question from the beginning before we read. But now we are going to create our own based on what we have read about halfway through. The result of these questions will be much more vast and varying than the ones from the unit before, each will have its own twist based on the books we read. A good example of this would be that A Brave New World big question would ponder the necessity and definition of ethics in a society.
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Week nine consisted of use finishing our essays for the character from our book and their " This I believe essays". After which we learned about signing statements and the power they have on government documents. We were given two different viewpoints on the matter to read from and give our opinion on the subject. One was more pro presidential signing statements. The other was leaning the opposite direction; it was more against signing statements. The last thing we did this week was we were given books surrounding the idea of utopias and dystopias. This subject is interesting because the books all highlight the common theme about how one like minded idea for government, and to much of that can easily change what was intended as a utopia into a dystopia. The books we were given went about showing this in different ways. One was about to big of government, one was about religion leading government, another was science and technology leading government, and finally one was about to little of government and how our own desires leading government can be a bad thing. I choose the book called " A Brave New World" which was about science leading technology. It was the one that interested me because I have always thought of our society needing more science and tech leading our future. So I would like to see how to much of it could lead to a dystopia.
http://sciphishow.com/why-are-all-utopias-dystopias-sps502/ At the 8th week in, we are now do the writing portion of our workshop. It started off with us reading our books to acquire notes for a big question we had. Now we are putting those notes into a presentation powerpoint and explaining what those had to do in relation to our big question. I have two key parts to explain for my big question. One is how ideals lead to a better future. And the other is how knowledge leads to a better future. For the ideas i can relate to the main character ( Santiago) and his idea of becoming a shepherd to travel. As for knowledge, the book speaks much about santiago wanting to learn this " universal language" and how to read omens. I have learned from this that the notes we took can really help us to remembering what things we wanted to talk about. For example i would have a hard time remembering that i was going to use santiago's conversation with his father as an example of ideas, when it was all the way back at page 9. After we do our slides, our end goal is to create another " this i believe" essay, except for a character in our books. I have learned that asking a simple question while you read can really help you understand and relate to the character more. This is because we have to keep track of what our character is feeling and doing and how to relate that to our big question.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Writing_Workshop This having been the seventh week in the trimester means that we are focusing on reading our personal books for a one pager, reading our class books for reading workshop, taking notes of the book to answer our chosen question, and doing creative writing. For class I learned that not all notes have to be written down, they can be as simple as a photo. In this case we are taking photos of the pages in our books to take notes. We are taking photos of pages that we think is important to answering our big question. Another thing I have learned is that the more I read this author's text, the easier it is to read. It started out with just trying to understand the author by occasionally rereading parts of the books to get a better comprehension. Now it is far easier, I can just speed through ten pages within a handful of minutes. As for creative writing, I see that we can take a random beginning written by another and still be able to transform it into our own story. No matter what the story is, you can transform it into your own by adding on to the text. Another form of creative writing I found interesting was being able to branch off old and foggy memories by just writing " I remember" and saying what ever memory comes to mind.
http://www.twc.org/resources/lessons/i-remember-poems-from-poetry-everywhere/ For sixth and final week for the first marking period we revised and edited a final draft for some of our creative writing stories. And we picked out a question to think about that involves the power of story for our novels. The options of novels we could have picked involved, Their Eyes Were Watching God, Things Fall Apart, The Alchemist, and Siddhartha. I choose The Alchemist because i like the idea of leaving home and traveling to see the world around me. I feel that the the main character sounded quite relatable. As for my question to help me with character lens I decided on " How does knowledge and ideas lead to a better future?". I thought that this would be the most interesting question, we all worry about how we can have a better future. My creative final draft consisted of only one longer story. I picked the story that I thought was kind of funny to write. I picked the story of The Tomato Man.
This week in class we learned a lot from working on our Wevideos. We learned through the use of applying pictures and sound to our own voices the ability to convey our stories in different ways. Such as, we can alter so much by simply changing the soundtrack. We could go from inspirational motivation videos, to a more fast paced story with rap or hip hop in the background. It showed us how each element is so important, because if you change any one of them, just a little bit; it will change your story and message entirely. We learned how to find images and sound that could fit what we are trying to say through the trial and error of Wevideo. This imagery gave our stories a sense of visualization, something most of us have never had to add to essays in English class before. Normally to write a paper, we would just type letters onto a screen, but for our " This I Believe" essays it added new things to consider, new dimension to our stories. Should I use one song for the majority of my video, or should I use multiple parts from different ones? How should I transition my pictures? How do I even introduce my video? These are all questions that make us think more deeply about our stories. It lets us add our own sense of style and flare to them.
http://filmsound.org/QA/non-tecnical-discussion.htm For our third week in class we started of with learning about the seven elements of digital STORYTELLING. These elements include: Point of view, A dramatic question, Emotion and feeling, your voice, the soundtrack, economy, and finally pacing. After that, our class watched some of " 2015 this i BELIEVE" videos to get an idea of what our final product should look like. The three videos we watched were each very DIFFERENT from one another but all ACCOMPLISHED the same task, to tell use what the person BELIEVES and why by using the elements of digital storytelling. Our class then pointed out how each video made use of the seven elements of digital storytelling. After that our focus was to finish typing OUT our " this i BELIEVE" papers and having it recorded. In order to record our voices we had to take the recordings on our phones and then share them to drive. After they were in drive, we would place them into wevideo and start adding music and photos. I would say that i have a good understanding of what we did this week in class and have no questions. I only need to continue working on my "This I BELIEVE" video. I have it recorded but need to find the right images and soundtrack to give it my own personal theme. That I what the plan should be for next week in class UNTIL THURSDAY.
For the second week in class we started of with talking about the power of story, worked on creative writing and then we did the "This I believe" paper. Through the power of story we heard about how stories can draw people in, and make them pay more attention to the details to remember later on. It puts into perspective how important it is to draw the reader in, not by spouting data, but my creating a story for people to listen to. For our creative writing I had to come up with five topics to write about and then choose one of them. After, I worked on my story I had to share a sentence or word that I felt meant a lot. A sentence to sum up and give an idea of what the story is about. Lastly, was my " This I Believe" paper. In this I could look at examples made by other students and look at the various tops that people had come up with. I decided to choose my belief in atheism and how important it is to think freely. I feel that this essay is a good why for people to be able to look in on themselves and see what they think is truly important to themselves. It lets everyone be able to just put down on paper what is going through their heads, to express the inter workings of their own mind.
http://www.thesimpledollar.com/figuring-out-whats-really-important-as-a-foundation-for-your-decisions/ In English 12A for the first week we focused on us as readers and writers. We talked about how we have come to learn to read and write, our reading and writing preferences, and what people can to to become better reader and writers. Our class then discussed what similarity's each of our groups shared in what we wrote. Some shared similar tastes in books, others believed in writing only for school. This assignment; to write about us as readers and writers, was a form of self examination or reflection of ourselves. It made us think about what our personal opinions are about such subjects, and then compare what we thought with those around us. My only question about this main idea of the week is how are we going to use it later on in class. Are we going to look back on what we wrote this week later on and see if any of our options changed? I would say that me and everyone in my group around me participated to the full extent of the assignment. We all wrote plenty to reflect upon, shared our ideas and options, and compared those ideas with others. My rating for my understanding of this weeks lessons would be that i fully understand it.
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