Reflective Journal- Poetry Unit
Last quarter, we worked on several things in English class including poetry, photography, and Teenlife Project. We focused mainly on poetry, and thus we spent most of our class periods writing and reading poems out loud. Nevertheless, we were still able to train our photography skills and also finish the Teenlife Project, where I, along with Adrian and other students from other schools worked on ‘poverty’. In brief, Teenlife Project was where the three schools, located in Malaysia, Canada, and Columbia, got together through media and completed projects together. There were different topics about the problems in the world such as global warming for different groups, and each member/members of different schools were responsible for different things; the members of M’KIS were responsible for the poems and photos that were related to the topic, the students in Columbia were in charge of storyboards and recordings, whereas the people from Canada were working on background music and post-production. Now that we have finished our poetry books, participated in Poetry Night, and completed the Teenlife Project, hence I will be writing a reflective journal about which and how the five ESLRs helped me accomplish each of those things, and also what I could have done for better results.
First comes- Critical Thinker. While writing the poems for the book, I was ‘building meaning and understanding for myself using prior knowledge and new information’ by adding the new ways to write poems while using things like figurative language and rhythm, rhyme, and repetition. At the same time, I also ‘identified, evaluated and used resources effectively for the purpose of problem solving’ by reading the poems that famous poets wrote and using their unique styles to write my poems. For instance, I wrote my color poem, Silver, Silver, Silver, after reading Silver and Blue Cornucopia. Lastly, I ‘selected, monitored, and adjusted problem-solving strategies’ when I asked Mr. Raisdana to edit/check my poems for the book. Therefore, I met all the bullet points while finishing the book. When participating in the Poetry Night, I ‘solved problems using a variety of strategies’ by asking my mom to come with me so that she can help us organize the food section. I believe that I was being an awesome critical thinker by doing so, and so I cannot think any other things I could have done for better job. During the Teenlife Project, I ‘gathered, analyzed and processed information from a variety of sources’ by looking over the websites that one of my group members posted on the wikipage for better understanding. However, I could have done a better job if I had used the information I gathered from the sources as I did not really apply the information I read inside my poem due to my laziness. Also, I could have ‘solved problems using a variety of strategies’ by thinking more creatively and making changes to the photos I got from Internet by using Photoshop or other appropriate programs, or by burning, drawing, spilling water on it, etc., not just copying and pasting simply cause of laziness.
The second ESLR is called the Academic Achiever. I firmly believe that I was a strong academic achiever by finishing the book as I ‘demonstrated progress’ as I received a 99 per cent on the project. I also ‘continually assessed, evaluated and adjusted work to maintain high standards’ by asking the English teacher to read my poems, and I ‘accessed information from a variety of sources’ by examining the poems from the text book and writing similar-concepted-poems. However, I did not ‘demonstrate the ability to work both independently and collaboratively’. I could have done that by working, reading, and editing others’ poems with a couple of my friends. On the Poetry Night, I was academic Achiever by bringing the food I was supposed to bring, organizing the food that other people brought in, asking my mom for assistance (though she did everything), and by being responsible to call all the eighth graders who were coming (along with Sai). This means that I ‘demonstrated the ability to work both independently and collaboratively. By participating and finishing the Teenlife Project, I ‘demonstrated the ability to work both independently and collaboratively’, and ‘demonstrated technological literacy and the use of technology as a tool for the efficient and creative completion of a project’. I did the followings by working/communicating with the team members AND writing the poem plus finding the picture by myself, and by successfully working with other people in different countries through technology. And yet, I could have done better by making the pictures unique to ‘demonstrate technological literacy and the use of technology as a tool for the efficient and creative completio0n of a project’ more.
Involved Citizen comes next. ‘Demonstrating care and concern for their environment’, and ‘demonstrating responsibility in active decision-making’ are the things I did when working on the poetry book by discerning trashes and reusable papers, and using my time wisely and knowing what I should do to finish the project. However, I would like to point out that I would have been more successful if I ‘demonstrated care and concern for the environment’, and ‘seek to improve the lives of others in the community’ more by using appropriate amounts of materials, not over-using them. I was successfully being an involved citizen at the Poetry Night by meeting such bulletpoints: ‘demonstrating responsibility in active decision-making’, ‘interacting respectfully with people of diverse cultures’, and ‘demonstrating awareness and respect for the rights of others’. I could do all those by being responsible to bring the food assigned to me, making sure that everyone else had what to bring and brought in what they were to bring, communicating freely with people/parents from diverse cultures, and by respecting people who attended. However, if I ‘demonstrated care and concern for the environment’ by not having plastic plates, forks, spoons, and other materials plus not too many tissues, I would have been an even better involved citizen. The Teenlife Project was the part where I was being the best involved citizen compare to the other parts as I really accomplished all five bullet points, ‘seeking to improve the lives of others in their community’, ‘demonstrating care and concern for their environment’, ‘demonstrating responsibility in active decision-making’, ‘interacting respectfully with people of diverse cultures’, and ‘demonstrating awareness and respect for the rights of others’. I did them by trying to bring awareness to the public about the seriousness of poverty throughout the world, participating and donating my ideas and thoughts on the wikipage (on time), and by successfully work and communicate with people from Columbia and Canada. Because I am very satisfied with the result, I don’t suppose I could have done any better.
The second to last ESLR is Effective Communicator. When working on the poetry book, I ‘demonstrated my creative talents to convey ideas’, ‘listened respectfully and asked questions to facilitate understanding and achieve insight’, ‘understood and conveyed written, oral and visual information using appropriate media’, and ‘demonstrated awareness of the role of audience’. I did them by writing poems by looking at the cards with different visual images, asking questions for better comprehension, and by reading out loud in front of the audience. However, I could have worked collaborately with other people and communicated with people through technological programs like MSN about the poems, as we live in the 21st century, in order to ‘incorporate/utilize technology as a tool for communication’, ‘demonstrate the skills of effective collaboration’, and ‘collaborate with others in appropriate learning situations to achieve group goals’. Also, I wish I had ‘incorporated/utilized technology as a tool for communication’ by being more involved while taking photos as I was not really interested in taking photos that I just ran around and took random pictures. I ‘demonstrated my creative talents to convey ideas’, ‘listened respectfully and asked questions to facilitate understanding and achieve insight’, ‘demonstrated awareness of the role of audience’, ‘demonstrated the skills of effective collaboration’, and ‘collaborated with others in appropriate learning situations to achieve group goals’ at the Poetry Night by communicating with people fluently, reading my poem in front of the audience and by collaborating effectively with other students in order to set up everything for the Night. I am very happy with what I have achieved, but I think I would have been able to ‘demonstrate their creative talents to convey ideas’ better by taking better photos so that it could have been hung on the wall. During the Teenlife Project, I used technology (blog and wikipage) to communicate with people from other cultures, collaborated with team members, created a product (a poem plus a picture) for the people globally to notice the affect and effect of poverty. This means that I ‘incorporated/utilized technology as a tool for communication’, ‘listened respectfully and asked questions to facilitate understanding and achieve insight’, ‘demonstrated the skills of effective collaboration’, ‘collaborated with others in appropriate learning situations to achieve group goals’, ‘understood and conveyed written, oral and visual information using appropriate media’, and ‘demonstrated awareness of the role of audience’. And yet, as I have mentioned previously in this journal, I could have ‘demonstrated their creative talents to convey ideas’ by editing the pictures from the internet to make them look unique.
Self-Directed Learner is the last ESLR in this journal. ‘Accepting responsibility for their own learning’, ‘identifying their needs and applying appropriate learning strategies’, ‘taking creative risks in developing untried ideas’, ‘demonstrated competency in goal setting, time management, and organizational skills’, ‘monitoring, adjusting and documenting work in progress’, and ‘developing prioritizing and continually revising personal goals’ are the things I have done to achieve where I am standing. I did all of the above by being responsible of my homework and/or project, asking Mr. Raisdana to edit my poems, creating my own unique poetry book, making time adjustments in order to finish the project on time, and having, keeping, and revising my own goals. I am proud of what I have achieved. On the Poetry Night, I brought in something unique, organized the food, asked my mom for help and practiced reading my poem, and thus, I ‘accepted responsibility (for their own learning)’, ‘identified their needs and applied appropriate learning strategies’, ‘participated in a wide variety of co-curricular programs and activities which develop social, emotional and physical talents’, ‘demonstrated competency in organizational skills’, and ‘took creative risks in developing untried ideas’. I believe that I had been a very good self-directed learner. For the Teenlife Project, I ‘accepted responsibility for their own learning’, ‘identified their needs and applied appropriate learning strategies’, ‘participated in a wide variety of co-curricular programs and activities which develop social, emotional and physical talents’, ‘took creative risks in developing untried ideas’, ‘demonstrated competency in goal setting, time management, and organizational skills’, and ‘monitored, adjusted and documented work in progress’. I took responsibility to finish and post things on time, was involved and donated, created my own unique poem, and used time wisely to adjust the work to do so. Because I met 7 bullet points out of 8, I think I have achieved more than I could have.
On the whole, I am really satisfied with what I have accomplished; I learned that I have achieved more than I have ever expected through writing this reflective journal. I firmly believe that I was being strong in all five ESLRs, Critical Thinker, Academic Achiever, Involved Citizen, Effective Communicator, and Self-Directed Learner. However, I think I did better in some ESLRs compared to the others. The strongest to the weakest are as follows: Self-Directed Learner, Academic Achiever, Effective Communicator, Involved Citizen, and Critical Thinker. I chose Self-Directed Learner as the strongest ESLR as it is the ESLR that helped me to become an Academic Achiever, Involved Citizen and Critical Thinker; and I chose Critical Thinker as my weakest ESLR as I believe that I was not an awesome Critical Thinker as I could have done so many things to improve. And yet, by saying so does not mean that there are big differences between them, and it fact, the differences between each of the ESLRs are vague and very subtle. Once again, I am fully proud of myself for achieving all these things through ESLRs.
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