When we started to talk about race, gender, class and what that had to do with The Tempest, I got quite interested. Then when I got more alert and we got into different lenses and what influenced these variations a lot seemed to knot together, though the reason why men think differently then woman still was a mystery. Also while reading The Tempest I noticed that Prospero basically controlled Miranda’s life. That made me want to answer the question “What is the role of woman in The Tempest, how did it change over the years and what influenced that?”
I believe that the role of woman dramatically changed around the world since the Renaissance. Shakespeare seems to express his opinion of the role of woman in The Tempest; to me he is saying that woman back then did not have much to say. For example in Act 3, Scene 1, line 64 where Miranda says to Ferdinand “I am skilless of, but by my modesty”, on the whole, William Shakespeare is saying that woman were not rated by there personality but if they are a virgin or not. Another opinion is articulated in Act 4, Scene 1, line 1 to 35. Prospero, Ferdinand and Miranda are on stage and Prospero is having a conversation with Ferdinand and says that he is allowed to marry Miranda; this whole scene Miranda doesn’t say anything as if she were a price. Lastly in Act 3, Scene 1, line 27 to 33 Miranda is watching Ferdinand carry logs and says that she wants to help, but Ferdinand says that she should not. Subtext of this passage could be that women were not supposed to work but just look pretty and reproduce.
These days woman are equal to men almost everywhere around the world, though the contribution in society is still a bit different. Lets look at Africa first, by what I know and heard it seems like woman are the once that work, I may not have my own lives experience to support this but I do have Mr. R’s who lived in Africa, he once told us in class “In Africa the woman basically do all the work and the men sit around all day smoking cigarettes even though they are really poor.” This clearly shows that the role of woman there is a lot different. While that is true, it is not true that the men force the woman to work, the men are just lazy and don’t get anything done, though the woman want to feed them selves and their children to stay alive. In Asia the role of woman is also different, men and woman both work, though it is more agricultural work that they do because Asia is not that modernized yet. Nevertheless the men and woman still have some separated jobs. I can prove this with my own life experience, I have been to a wide variety of countries and everywhere I see woman and men working in the rice fields. In Europe and North America most of the work is urban where both woman and men get jobs in factories or other businesses. To support this I have my own life experience because I lived in Europe and I have a quote form Azita Amini who comes from the USA, she said “In North America woman started to contribute to the society because the country could not function without them.” Lastly, in South America the role of woman is a lot different than North America, the countries in South America are not fully modernized yet. I got my opinion and support from Ali Pinedo who lived in Brazil all her life until she came to Malaysia, she told me “In South America it depends on the environment in which the woman lives. For example, in the city woman have the same role as in North America, but in agricultural or the outskirts of the cities men and woman still both work but the jobs are a bit separated just like in Asia.” In short the role of woman has changed a lot through the years.
As we talked about different lenses in class we also talked about what influenced these things. In this case, where we are talking about the role of woman through time there are a lot of thing that determined how life is like for woman in the present. For instance, religion and law have had a position. Sometimes a religion says that women are not allowed to work and because in some cases the religion shapes the law, woman cannot get away from that. An other explanation that might have bent the role of woman is the environment. If you live off of agriculture and trade, you need to grow as much crops as possible to make a living. This may lead to the whole family working. Last of all, one of the major things that contributed in this process is culture and what people are used to. For example, the men in Africa may not be used to working and the women are. This will also not motivate the men to start doing any work.
In conclusion, this year I learned how to look for subtext and how to look through different lenses. I think it is amazing what you can sometimes find when you just look close enough! It seems like there is a whole new world is out there! Also I learned how to support my opinion and prove that I have a point.

Hey Everyone,

When I listen to music I hear a wide variety of song and I think to my self, what do they mean to me? I have a totally different perspective of the songs on the radio then other people do. For example, the song “Dance with the devil” by Immortal Technique, I disgust it. Though when a guy might listen to this song, he might not hate it as much as me but just think it is wrong. I think that guys are this way not because of there education, culture, language or religion because females have these same things, but I think its just part of there structure.

An other lens would be the once of a mom that has lived all her life in a campung, not knowing English or what is happening in the world around her, and one day listens to this song, (pretend that she understands it) she might say, “That woman could be me.” She will maybe even think that it is a part of life; daily life. This opinion, I believe is influence by there education, because she doesn’t get the same education as us. She doesn’t learn about consequences, or other important things. Also I believe that culture and religion influence it because there culture might say that women are just on earth to reproduce and so they believe it because they have nothing else to believe.

Lastly a black man may listen to “Dance with the Devil” and think that the artist (Immortal Technique) is being racist and that the sub-text is saying that black people are the only once that do things like that. He then would most probably hide this feeling deep inside and just ignore it. Though I think they shouldn’t. Anyways, I believe there history or in other words experiences of there ancestors controls this view the most because all the way back to the Age of Exploration, the Europeans made the black people slaves and treated them like animals. Also, not that long ago when America had developed in a lot of ways and was full of Europeans they forgot one thing, respect. The black people had to sit at the back of the bus, etc. It is kind of logical that these memories will stay with them for ever.
In conclusion, I believe that all these different people are allowed to look through their own lenses because other ways the world would turn into a place where everyone thinks the same way.

This post is 417 words long.

�Click HERE to listen to “Dance with the Devil” by Immortal Tachniques

Hey Everyone,

This quarter in English we covered the poetry unit. At the end of the quarter we showed what we learned by making a poetry book, by having a poetry night and as we know at the end of every quarter we had to write a journal! Well this quarter was no different!

We also worked on a Teen Life project during this quarter. We worked with students around the globe to make a final animation. My group’s topic was the cause and effects of teenagers using drugs. I wrote several poems and made several picture to contribute to this project.

As you may know, this journal is written according to the Expected School Wide Learning Results and the 6 traits. For the ones who do not know what these things are, I will explain. The Expected School Wide Learning Results or in short the ESLR’s are 5 things the students have to be at our school, they are as following; Critical thinker, Academic Achiever, Involved Citizen, Effective Communicator and Self-Directed Learner. Secondly the 6 traits are areas to improve your writing. The 6 sections are, Ideas and content, Organization, Voice, Word choice, Sentence fluency and Conventions, we will also be graded on these traits.

To make our writing more detailed and in depth we used the Blooms Taxonomy. This is a 6 step way to make your writing thorough, the 6 steps are, Knowledge, Comprehension, Application, Analysis, Synthesis and Evaluation. Where knowledge is the easiest level of description and evaluation the hardest or most professional!

Now, after a long and boring introduction of 4 paragraphs let’s start the actually work!

To start with, I was a critical thinker this quarter because I applied problem solving skills to facilitate learning. To me this means that I used prior information and new information to make my learning easier and that I was able to solve problems by myself and in a group. I demonstrated this while working on the teen life project; I worked independently but still communicated with my team mates to clear our thoughts. Another thing that showed that I met this trait was by solving problems that came along. If I would have the opportunity to do the teen life project again I would adjust my behavior by getting my team mates email addresses and talking to them more often.

I was also being an academic achiever. This is because I demonstrated progress in all curricular areas especially in writing poetry. When I started writing poems I did not really get it nor like it too much, but at the end of the quarter, my poetry book had some really deep poems in it. This shows I learned to respect the art of poetry and learn that it is not that bad. I also showed that I was an academic achiever by demonstrating that I could use technology as a tool for efficient and creative achievements for a project. This applied to the Teen Life project where I used the computer to modify pictures and I went to websites to help make my poems sound more professional. If I would like to modify my work on this ESLR I would have worked harder at writing poetry and really used metaphors, similes and personifications. I would also have made them longer like the one poem called “Death”.

Thirdly, this quarter I was an involved citizen. This is so because I demonstrated care and concern for the environment by not printing every single poem that I wrote, instead I put them on the Teen Life wikispace or my web log. I also showed care and concern for the environment by recycling sheets of paper by using them more then once.  For example, when I printed a poem and Mr. R had corrected it. Later that day or the next class I would use that paper to write a first draft or drafts of a new poem. Next quarter I would like to improve in this area because believe that I could demonstrate an other reason why I was an involved citizen, for example I could demonstrate responsibility in active decision making or demonstrate awareness and respect for the rights of other.

During this quarter I was also being an effective communicator. This is because I collaborated with others in appropriate learning situations to achieve group or individual goals. This means that I talked to others to make sure we understood what we had to do to achieve our assembled goal. This situation applied to the Teen Life, because we had to make sure we were clear on our task. Also it applied when we had to make a class slide show to show who we were. This demonstrates this trait because our class had to establish good communicational skills to make sure that everyone contributed to the project. Moreover, to me this trait means that you put effort into joining in conversations we were having during class. I showed that when I was being an effective communicator by listening respectfully to others and by asking questions to achieve better understanding. I confirmed this in class when we were doing the Hai Ku’s. I was not totally clear what standards you had to meet for a poem to be a Hai Ku so I asked questions to clarify my self. An other example was when we were talking about the different kinds of poems, like image, sound, or message. I could improve in this area by mixing my communication skills with my creative talents so that the general out come would be more resourceful.

Lastly, I was being a self-directed learner this quarter because I accepted responsibility for my own learning and evaluations. I illustrated this by doing my homework and doing my work in class. Mr. R had told us a couple of times that if we just wrote the poems in class, we would get a good grade. So that is what I did! Also I showed that I was a self-directed learner by taking creative risks in developing untried ideas. I applied this to the poetry unit while making my poetry book. I made the cover really unique and exceptional and as it turned out no one else did it the way I did it! What I would like to change for this ESLR is that I would like to monitor, adjust and document all my work in progress. This is because at the end of th poetry unit I had all loose papers with poems on it lying in my binder.

Over all, I thought that this unit was really fun and that I learned how to admire poetry a little more and also, I learned how to have a higher opinion of it. In conclusion, I think the memories of this quarter will stay with me forever! Compared to the first and second quarter I believe that I have grown physically to become a more efficient and better used of all the ESLR’s!

This essay is 1173 words!!!

Hey Everyone,

As you guys may know, quarter 4 has strated! this quater in english we are reading The Tempest by William Shakespeare and an other book which i don’t know the name of. We already finished Act 1 scene 1 and 2 but we have to read scene 2 again so that we will understand it better.

Now the reason I am writing this blog post is because we have to write 2 lines we understand, 2 lines we don’t understand and 2 questions about te plot of the book.
Here they are!!!

Well I understood these 2 pasages:
- Act 1, Scene 2, Line 552 to 554 “Miranda: There’s nothind ill can dwell in such a temple. If the ill spirit have so fair a house, good things will strive to dwell with ‘t” This says: This man has no evil inside him. If the devil is inside such body, good things will come with it.
- Act 1, Scene 2, Line 586 to 588 “Miranda: My affections are then most humble. I have no ambition to see a goodlier man.” This means: My love is not poor. I have no need to search for a more handsome man.

And i didnt understand these:
- Act 1, Scene 2, Line 385 to 387 “Caliban: A wicked as e’er my mother brushed with raven’s feathers from unwholesme fen drop on you both” I suspect it has something to do with his mothers magic.
- Act 1, Scene 2, Line 41 to 42 “Sebastiaan: A pox o’ your throat, you bawling, blasphemous, incharitable dog!” I think Sebastiaan is trying to make the workers work harder but I am not sure.

Some questions that I have about the plot is that in Act 1, Scene 2 is says that Caliban is trapped in a cave, though it also says that he is the one that gets wood for Miranda and Prospero. How can this be is he can’t leave the cave? Also a question that bothers me is that Ferdinand says that his father and all his friends have died, but that couldn’t be true becuase then there would not really be a book. So then why does he say that when he saw everyone in the ship still alive?

Hey everyone,

For in english we had to write something about a famous poet, or in other words a BIGGY as Mr. R calls it. I chose LAngston Hughes because i think his poems have a meansing and teaches people a lesson.

Here is my write up:

Langston Hughes was born February 1, 1902, his parents divorced soon after that and so he went to live with his grandmother. Mean while his father settled in Mexico. When he was thirteen he moved in with his mom and her new husband. After that they moved to Cleveland, Ohio. It was when Langston moved in with his mom that he started writing poetry. After graduating, he spent a year in Mexico and a year at Columbia University. During these years, he had a lot of odd jobs, like assistant cook, launderer, and a busboy. He also traveled to Africa and Europe working as a seaman. In November 1926 he published his first poetry book called “The Weary Blues. 3 years later he finished his college at Lincoln University in Pennsylvania. Langston Hughes died on May 22, 1967 in New York form prostate cancer.

A poem this I really like that Langston wrote is called “Dreams” it is as following:
“Hold fast to dreams
For if dreams die
Life is a broken-winged bird
That cannot fly.”

”Hold fast to dreams
For when dreams go
Life is a barren field
Frozen with snow.”
I like this poem because it is short and because I think it is true what he is saying about holding on to your dreams. This is because if you don’t hold on to your dreams you will never reach them either and also if you let them go you have no reason to live any more. He said this by saying “For if dreams die, Life is a broken-winged bird, That cannot fly” because if a birds wings break they can not fly and that it the whole purpose of them living and it is what makes them special! The only thing that I dislike about this poem is that is repeats lines. Some thing I would like to know is what he means with the last 2 lines. I don’t get them.

Some figurative language that Langston Hughes used in this poem is metaphor; he used 2, in the first stanza and in the second/last stanza. In the first he is comparing lost dreams to a birds broken wing and in the second he compares the lost dreams to a barren field frozen with snow.

This is a picture of Langston Hughes:

Click HERE for alink to the asignment description.

Hey everyone,

My name is Emma. I am born in the
Netherlands and have lived there for around 10 years. My family and I are living in
Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia now. My birthday is on the 7^th of September and I have an older brother of 16, called Bastiaan and a younger sister of 11, called Maria.

Just before my tenth birthday we moved to Asia. I am 13 years old now and have lived the past 3 and a half years in Malaysia! My hobbies are horse riding, touch rugby and dancing! When I was 5 years old I started horse riding when, so I am riding for over 8 years now. I just started playing touch rugby! I have been dancing all my life and recently started taking a class at school as well! Dancing makes me feel free and gives me the feeling that I can do whatever I want. In addition to my hobbies I love being in an international school because I like meeting new people from all over the world.

Let me tell you a little more about my family and how we got here. My dad works for Shell (the oil company) and got relocated to Malaysia in July 2003. First my sister, my brother and I really did not want to come to Malaysia but now I am happy that we did. It gave me a different perspective of the world. When I lived in The Netherlands I did not even know that Kuala Lumpur existed! Pretty weird that you do not know any thing about some thing that is lying right in front of you! I am not sure whether my brother and sister are happy here, but one thing is for sure, they really want to go back to
Holland! In general my life as a teenager is pretty normal compared to the life of other people that I know because I am sure it is not normal to the people in Africa! I have complains but I guess they are not major ones. It could get better, and I would like it to, but I should not keep my hopes too high other ways it will probably bring me down because life would not be exiting without all kinds of bumps on the way!

Hey every one,

Just like last quarter we had to write a journal about what we acieved. the only thing that is differt now is that we were in a group of 3. my group mates were Gino and Joo Keng. If you want to you can check out their blogs here: Gino’s blog and Joo Keng’s blog

An here is our final write up:

This quarter we read “Anne Frank, the Diary of a Young Girl” in English class. When we finished reading the book we had to do a project. We could choose between 2 options. The first one was that you had to design a memorial, and the second one was to make a movie that would illustrate a lesson that Anne Frank taught us through her diary. My group chose the second option.

In this project every one had to illustrate the lesson using 3 things, which were symbols, images and sounds, and if we wanted to, a fourth one, text. We used lots of pictures, each representing an idea. For example we had a picture of barbed wire which represented being excluded from the outside world. Pictures of the 2^nd World War, the Holocaust and the soldiers involved in it were also used to show that the war wasn’t something that happened just because of the Nazis. Everybody was involved and underwent a complex change following the Pyramid of Hate, which eventually led to the war, and the Holocaust.

We incorporated sound into the movie by having the song It Ends Tonight by The All-American Rejects play throughout the movie to help with the emotion and messages trying to be implicated to the audience. Another tool that we used to improve on the aspect of sound was the sound recorder of the computer, and by having Emma read out quotes from the diary, it sounds as if Anne herself was in the room telling you her ideals.

These sounds, images and symbols expressed a meaning that when combined, made perfect sense together! The pictures, sounds and symbols put together described the story of how, through the battles, the wars, the deaths and unpleasantness, Anne Frank kept to her ideals and most of all, tried to keep optimistic during the times of despair, which dominated the experiences that she went through.

We think that however rock-like the song is, it fits the theme of Anne Frank because the song starts off with a slow, soft beat, whereas when the message of optimism is portrayed at the end, the whole song is in full-swing with all the guitars strumming, drums clashing and vocal chords working themselves. The lyrics also have a meaning of their own, which will be mentioned later on. One important ESLR that we used was Effective Communicator because we demonstrated our creative talents to convey ideas and because we utilized technology as a tool for communication! In our own words this means that we used the computer and its programs to help us communicate and reach other people in a different way. Some proof of this is that we made sure that our movie contained a message: the lesson from Anne, which is that it is good to keep having hope in all kinds of situations just like she did.

The most vibrant trait of our movie was definitely images, since we can’t successfully make a movie without images or videos. In our movie, we showed many different images from WWII, each with its own significance. There were parts about The Holocaust, the Hiroshima Bombing, and The Final Solution etc. Watching these old pictures will make the viewers think back towards the war and all the sufferings that all the people back then had to endure. It would give them time to contemplate upon how lucky they are to be living decades after the war and also to pay respect to the lost souls. Also in the latter parts of the movie, we showed images of Anne Frank with her family, her diary, and the seven other people living in the same house. It gave a very brief story about Anne’s life so that the audience would understand what she had to go through at such a delicate age. A picture can speak a thousand words, but music can whisper a million. A movie isn’t completed without supporting music that adds to the emotion. For this particular project, we chose a song from The All American Rejects- It Ends Tonight. Though it may be a little too rocky at some parts, it has a nice slow start accompanied with a steady uprising. This would help build up the intensity in some parts as needed. This song also had a few vivid lyrics that really represented the pain of the war. During the song, these words “It Ends Tonight” were being repeated over and over again. The song could be wanting for something bad to stop, such as the war. It could also represent that the damage has already been done, and the only hope is to end the war. A major challenge of exploring sound was taken into consideration in our project. We took a creative risk and tried to use our voices to read out Anne’s quote to add the extra effect of involvement to the audience. It was an extremely risky task, but with the help of technology it was successful. This act increased the creativity of our project and therefore will make a bigger impact on our audience.Though text may not seem too important in this visual display, it was in ours. We communicated most our thoughts through text and images, without this essential element, our main purpose of hope could not be communicated. Last but not least, the astounding element of symbols. Symbols play an immense part in this project, because each different symbol represents something different, which needs their own time to be thought about and analyzed. In our project, we had symbols of the Star of David, barbed wires and the concentration camp tattoos. These symbols would help the audience understand the inequality towards the Jews, as they were not considered human to the Nazis. Other important symbols were Anne Frank’s inspiring quotes, which will help to enlighten the audience of her high hopes and positive outlook on nature during these tough times.

The first thing from the movie that comes up is text saying World War II, which is quite an ambiguous topic. Along the movie, the topics get more and more specific from, World War II, The Holocaust, Anne Frank and finally to her message of optimism. In the beginning, we think that the pictures of the war will slowly, but surely put the viewers into a somber, sensitive mood, calming their emotions and preparing them for the rest of the slideshow. The pictures of the Holocaust, tattoos and dead bodies will ultimately create an aura of sadness around the audience. That is what we are hoping to do for the first part of the movie. Without music or some form of sound, just having the pictures shown to you would be bland, so we chose a song that we thought fit the right mood we were trying to convey. The song that we used is called It Ends Tonight performed by The All-American Rejects. The song starts off with soft piano chords, chords and notes that subtly repel each other and sound slightly unnatural when played in unison so we thought that those notes could represent how the Nazis and the Jews didn’t really get along, how they never could. The crescendo in the song could represent how the neglected hate built up and resulted in World War II.When the subject of Anne Frank comes up, pictures and quotes from her diary are brought into the movie. We think that the quotes will really bring out her optimism towards the world. The fact that we have Emma voicing Anne’s thoughts is complete genius compared to having the quotes flash past the screen unnoticed, because Emma’s sound clips take it up to a whole new level where people are actually forced to take note of the quote and think about it. At this part, the song’s volume and intensity also rises where the voice, electric guitars, drums and all the other instruments are joined together on a much louder scale, which we hope will subconsciously bring people to a more energetic and hopeful mood, if combined with the quotes.Another great aspect of the whole movie brought together is how the different parts also blend into one to finally also exit as one. The movie fades out as the last chord of the guitar fades out.

At the end of the project, we were proud of what we had accomplished, the movie and the write-up put together was one project that did not disappoint us. Although, at times we did not have very good co-ordination and organization because we missed some meetings, we still did well due to the fact that we all wanted to receive a good grade for this project. All the members of the group obviously put time and effort into the project, which is reflected upon on the movie and in this write-up. We wouldn’t give ourselves a very good mark for our organization, but we still did well because we planned out the movie, the write-up and who was doing which part of the project. For the rest of the project, the movie and the write-up, we would give ourselves a good grade that we thought we really did deserve. This movie will make people think twice about their own attitude and will leave them in a very hopeful kind of daze.

The ESLR that we used the most in this project would most probably be the Effective Communicator. Just by doing this project, we have already achieved most of the major points of this ESLR. One major bullet point that we have accomplished was demonstrating our creative talents to convey ideas. We performed this by taking a risk and trying out new methods to make our movie more effective on our audience. We used Emma’s voice to read out some of Anne Franks quotes while the text is being shown on screen. We believe that the combination of text and voice will impact the audience more than just text itself. This example could also show that we are Self- Directed Learners, because we tried to take a creative risk to develop an untried idea. Another bullet point that we achieved from being Effective Communicators was that we collaborated with each other in an appropriate learning situation to achieve a group goal. Since all of us were Extroverts, we each had different ideas and ways that we wanted the final project to turn out. We had a few long discussions on certain decisions to make, but in the end we worked together and came up with a solution that accompanied each of our opinions.We were also Academic Achievers in this project; each of us demonstrated the ability to work both independently and collaboratively. Every single one of us worked tremendously well independently because we all got our assigned tasks completed with excellence. We also worked fairly well collaboratively. As I have said before, we each had different ideas and conspiracies but we managed to intertwine each other’s ideas evident in the final product.

Another ESLR that we used a great deal was Critical Thinking. During the production of the movie, we had some difficulties in adding Emma’s voice into the movie because Windows Movie Maker would only allow one audio clip to be played at a time. Therefore we had to try different strategies in order to solve this problem. We had many different possible solutions, but most of them were not that satisfying. At last, our brains started progressing and we came up with a great solution. We actually had to publish the movie first without the quote clips, and then start a new project and insert the movie into the timeline. Since the movie already has the music in it, there were still free spaces to put the extra audio clips. We added the clips with the quotes coordinated it with the music. Also, we had to adjust the volume in order to do so. Although it was a tedious process, we finally got the problem solved.

I believe, in this group project that each member contributed in areas that we are strong at. For example, Gino in my opinion is the strongest writer in our team; therefore we sent our writings of the Bloom’s Taxonomy to him for editing and further improvement. As for Emma, she is a great researcher. She gathered some pictures in the movie and provided us with powerful quotes from Anne. Last but not the least; Joo Keng was the one, which put all the information and pictures together into a movie. In my opinion, the three of us really worked well during this project. Everybody held their responsibilities and did their jobs assigned to them.

Hello Everyone,

In the first quarter of this school year we read the book “Lord of the Flies” inEnglish with Mr. R. It is a book about a group of english school boys that end up on a deserted island after their plane crashed and their pilot died. At the end they end up trying to kill each other. Any way after we finished we had to do a project and a journal of a 1000 words.

This is my result of the Journal:

In the first quarter of English we read a book by William Golding called Lord of the Flies. With that we worked on the Bloom Taxonomy. The Bloom Taxonomy is a way of writing with 6 key terms, which are, Knowledge, Comprehension, Application, Analysis, Synthesis and Evaluate. With these 6 terms we were supposed to write a journal at the end of the first quarter identifying the ESLR’s that we used to help us finish the novel, participate in discussions and in class, and complete our project. Here on this following page we show you our result!

Lord of the Flies is a book about a group of boys that get stranded on a deserted island where they turn into savages except for one. This book is written, as you have all ready been informed, by William Golding. We read it in English class in our first quarter. While reading this book, I was using four ESLR’s, from which two were really important to me. When I was a self-directed learner I had good time management and I accepted responsibility for my own learning. In my own words this means that I used my time well and that I knew that I was responsible for my own work, so If I would not put 100% of my effort in it I would probably also not have a A+ either. I showed this by reading the pages that were assigned to us. This showed me that I know how to use my time wisely! If I would compare this to when I was in 4^th Grade, I did not have good time management at all because I would always do my homework the night before it was due. Also, when I was in 4^th Grade, I did not except responsibility for my own learning because when I would fail some thing I would go to my mother in stead of blaming to on my self. Also, if I would not have changed my self-directed learning skills from when I was in 4^th Grade, then I would probably not have finished the book like I was supposed to. Next time I would modify the way I read a little bit. I will use more sticky notes in my book so that I can use those as notes later on. Any way, if I could grade my self of how I did on being a self-directed learner I would give my self an 80% because I think I could have improved a little bit more on getting into the book so that I could really understand the language. I was also being an academic achiever which also helped me finish the book because I demonstrated progress in curricular areas.  In my own word this means that I improved from the beginning of the story to the end. I proved this because I improved my reading skills! When we started to read Lord of the Flies I was struggling with the detailed language of William Golding and with the many pages that we had to read, and if I would compare that to how I managed after a couple of weeks it was much easier for me to keep up! A question that I often ask my self is; what if I did not bother to have improved? I would have most probably not read the book at all because I would not have even tried! I think I did a good job with reading this book and applying this ESLR because Mr. Raisdana also told us that Lord of the Flies is a High School leveled book!

Almost every class in first quarter when we were reading the book Lord of the Flies we had a discussion about the chapter or chapters that we had examined the night before. We then talked about what had happened, how it happened and what that lead to. In this process I used some ESLR’s to help me. I was being an effective communicator in this area because I demonstrated the skill of effective group effort. To me this means that you show respect to others when they want to put in effort to help the group. We showed this by carefully listening to each other with discussions and so we could communicate better. This shows me that as a group we had the ability to share our ideas. If I would compare our discussions from the beginning of the quarter to the end I would see a huge difference! This is because when we just started to learn how to have proper discussions about a book Mr. Raisdana was the only one asking the questions and not many people contributed answering them but after a while my classmates started to ask questions as well. Next time I would like to ask more questions my self so that I can clarify the sections of the book that I, personally did not understand even though my classmates covered most of it. In conclusion I would give my self an 85% for this area because I think I could have done a better job! Also, I was being an involved citizen which also helped me participate in class discussion and in class because I seek to improve the lives of others in my community. To me this means that I had teamwork in and out of the classroom! My class and I showed this by communicating out side of the classroom about the book by asking the simple questions that were troubling us. If I would compare these actions to when I was in 6^th grade, now we are doing a much better job because if my classmates and I would walk out the classroom we would just stop talking about school, and start talking about fun stuff. This is why I would like to keep on doing that, though next time I would like to ask those simple questions in class too because then we could get deeper into it! To conclude every thing, I think that being an involved citizen helped me a lot because I learned that you can learn things out side of the classroom as well even though there is no teacher watching you.

After we had finished the book Lord of the Flies, Mr. Raisdana gave us a variety of options for our project. I choose to do a journal or diary for a week in Ralph’s voice, starting with the day before the crowd of boys left their towns in Great Britain. While doing this project I met one main ESLR. I was a critical thinker because I solved problems using a variety of strategies. In my own words this means that I did not only depend on the information that I had but that I thought outside of the box. I demonstrated this because I could not know for sure what Ralph would say about things that happened but I could guess. This also shows me that I can think independently.  If I would analyze this, a possible result would be that I could do the project with out the notes that we had taken in class, though I would the need to be really experienced for this. The only two things that I would do different next time is that I would want to put more detail in my writing and show a clear difference between the writing in the beginning of Ralph’s diary and the end! Overall, I think that this ESLR, critical thinker, helped me most with finishing my project!

To rap every thing up, while finishing the novel, participating in discussions and in class, and in completing my project this quarter, I have met all the five ESLR’s! And over all it was kind of fun!

In total my journal was 1298 words long!!!!!!!!

Hello every one,

In English class we have been reading a very interesting book, well actually it is not really a book; it is a diary of a young girl that lived in a “Secret Annex” to hide from the Germans in Amsterdam, Holland during the Second World War! In it she writes about her thoughts. The book is called, Anne Frank, a Diary of a Young Girl and while reading it I came across one interesting thing. It all started when I was reading on page 102, I read one sentence that pulled my special attention, it is as following: “I don’t think my opinions are stupid and others do; so it is better to keep them to myself.” In general this quote says that Anne thinks that her opinions are not stupid but that she also believes that others do think that they are, so that’s why she does not share them with any one and only writes them in her diary. I personally think that it is really important to share you thoughts on particular subjects! For example, if you really disagree on some thing that the rest of your class agrees on and you have a strong statement to support your thoughts, go up there and show them what you are made of! Maybe you are shy, or maybe you don not mind talking all you like. The thing that matters is that it is important to tell people what you think as long as you have the right to! I conclusion, I would like every one to just go out there and show the world what you believe in!

To add to this I have written a letter that I would send to Anne Frank if she was still alive about this quote:

Dear Anne,

In English we are all reading your diary and we enjoy it very much, but one day I came across a sentence that when I read it, I began to think. It is on page 102 and it is as following: “I don’t think my opinions are stupid and others do; so it is better to keep them to myself.” After this I asked myself one question, is your decision a wise one or should you tell others your opinions even though it seems like they don not appreciate it that much? Once I thought it over I came to the conclusion that it is good that you believe that your ideas and opinions are not stupid, but you should not think straight away that others feel that they are! I know that maybe they laugh at you or say that you talk too much but it is important to give your opinion of things as long as you are allowed to! Let others know if you agree or disagree on certain things. Like this you can also get into interesting discussions about the subject and maybe by doing that you get to know every one a little better! In general I just think that you should share your thoughts a little more with the people around you and I think that you should not mind about what they think of you too much!

I hope this will help and I also hope that I have not been a pain in the neck with this long and boring letter, I just want to help!

Sincerely,

Emma O. 

Thank you for reading my writing!

Have a nice day.