Well, it’s that time again. The time where you must once again sit down on your favorite chair, stool or by a cozy fireplace, take out your favorite brand of whisky (or to minors and those who don’t drink, a Coke), and read a long-winded paper that merges both the ESLR’s (Expected School Wide Learning Results) and Bloom’s Taxonomy of Revised Cognitives.

That may sound long and complicated, like the name your great, great, great Cheyenne ancestor, but it’s really not. Like her name, Bloom’s Taxonomy also has a simpler definition, and in this case, it’s just a fancy a way of saying the six forms of thinking - Knowledge, Comprehension, Application, Analysis, Synthesis, and Evaluation.

Using both of these elements, I’m going to recount the events during the Poetry unit and tell you, and probably myself while I’m at it, what I did and didn’t do in terms of the ESLR’s. And yes, you will here that word often throughout this journal.

The first ESLR I achieved during the poetry unit was the Self-Directed ESLR. Originally, (and these are my exact words) I defined this ESLR as “working harder and more efficiently”, but as time passed, I discovered this was not so. Now, I describe this infamous ESLR as accepting responsibility in all forms, whether it be for him/herself or others, and trying your very hardest despite any limits. A person who isn’t afraid to leave the masses once in a while to try something new and fresh. A person who constantly seeks to better him or herself.

Maybe I didn’t do all of that and perhaps I’m not the best example of a Self-Directed Learner, but let me show you the things I did do…and didn’t. The first skill I accomplished was accepting responsibility for my own learning. That just means I took the fate of my own learning into my hands and recognized that what I didn’t learn was my own fault. I probably showed this quite a few times with my book by asking numerous questions regarding poetry writing, recommendations and editing both completed and drafted ideas. I also could have really done nothing with the Teen Life project but I took the time to talk with my teammates from across the world and write a poem for them, and as for the poetry night, I took the time to listen to Mr.Raisdana’s recommendations for speaking into a mic. I could have done nothing of this, but I would have come out a less knowledgeable and perhaps a less than happy person. The second skill I completed was demonstrating competency in goal setting, time management and organizational skills. In other words, I took the time to organize myself in order to complete certain goals within margins of time. With both my book and the teen life project, I set out goals to either write poetry, talk to my team to get up-to-date with the latest information, or both. I also showed some organizational skills by putting all my poems into one folder, and then separating them by completion and rehearsing the poem I was to read during the poetry night. This skill is actually very similar to the accepting responsibility skill, as I set out goals in an organized way for both. Without setting out these goals, there would have been no way I could have completed all of this in time, or at least, no way it could have turned out well. The last skill I completed as a Self-Directed Learner was monitoring, adjusting and documenting my work in progress. This means that I looked over my work once in a while, changed and adjusted it, and kept all of it in a file. I mostly did this to my poetry, looking back at all of it once in a while and making small changes here and there and putting them all in one folder (as I said previously). I did the same thing with the Teen Life Project, checking in everyday to see if anyone had posted anything new, answering them, and making sure it was always put into a file just in case. I can’t say I did this for the poetry night, as the notion of how one would do it escapes me, but at least I adjusted the poem I was going to read there. Now, for the skill that I didn’t do. There’s only one skill that really sticks out, and that’s taking creative risks in developing untried ideas. Sure, I went out of the loop once in a while for my poetry, which turned out to be good, but my book was dull and boring, the poetry being the only original thing in it. I’m sure that I could have come up with five billion ideas for my book, but I suppose I just wasn’t trying hard enough. Perhaps it was because I believed that the contents of my book, my poetry, was more important than a book cover. Say someone hands you the Declaration of Independence, the original one, but it looks old and worn out, scratched and torn. You wouldn’t throw it away (at least I hope not). No, you’d keep it because of its historical importance and content. I’m not saying my poetry will survive the test of time, but the content is more important than the way it looks. Anyway, I’m straying from the subject, and to sum it all up, I completed almost all of the skills required to be a Self-Directed Learner, and for that, I’d give myself an A-.

The next ESLR may perhaps not seem to have much importance in this subject when compared to the Self-Directed Learner ESLR, but it’s equally important. In the past, I thought of this ESLR as “thinking outside of the box and solving problems carefully”. Well, now in the present, I think it may be a bit more than that. I think this ESLR describes a person who thinks far beyond the realm of normal thought and uses problem solving skills to resolve everyday things using a variety of methods from knowledge gathered in both past and present. You may think that the Critical Thinker ESLR is not an ESLR you would use often in a poetry unit, but you’d be surprised. Take this skill, one that I achieved, for example: apply problem solving skills to facilitate learning. You may think, well what problems? I mean, all you have to do is write poetry, put it in a book and talk to a bunch of people. But it’s nothing like that. The first problems came with writing the poetry. Some poems, like haikus for example, require a strict number of syllables, while others sound horrendous without it. Rhyming can also be difficult, as it has to make sense and rhyme at the same time, but I had a number of strategies to solve each one. Sometimes, I simply free wrote and it came close to the final product, so only minor revising and editing was needed. Other times, I’d make poetic sentences, cut them up, change the wording and rearrange them. As for rhyming, when I couldn’t find a suitable word that rhymed, I simply changed the word or rearranged the sentence. More problems came with the book. I had to find a way to put my poetry in the exact order I wanted it to without making a mess of things. My first thought, or at least Mr.Raisdana’s first thought, was to print the words on the sheet. But that would mean a confusing mess of numbers and words, using both sides and the back, so I simply discarded that idea. Then someone suggested we print it out on pieces of paper and stick them completely over each page. That seemed like a waste, but my final solution was not so far off. I made my book, printed as many poems I could on a separate piece of paper, and then cut them out and stuck them on their according places. I suppose I took the easy way out, but at least I didn’t waste that much paper and it looked reasonably okay. Then the Teen Life Project came up, and a whole other slew of problems came up. Communication was one of the biggest problems because of different time zones and culture, but we soon got over that by using MSN and the Wiki spaces. The next problem was telling people what to do. It’s a bit difficult to tell a guy in America to give you a good two pages of research when you’re in Asia, but after the first few days, we all learned to collaborate. The next skill that I think I completed was building meaning and understanding using prior knowledge and new information. What that’s simply saying is that I used ideas past information that I already knew and things I had recently learned and put them together to get a better picture of things. I did this a bit with my poetry, as I had a minimal knowledge of what similes and personifications were, but by learning about them properly, I was able to grasp their meaning better, just like many other things. These other things included communication with the outside world and learning to talk and collaborate with people I’d never met or properly speaking into a microphone will standing in front of a crowd. As for the skill I didn’t do, I think that gathering, analyzing and processing information from a variety of sources was my weakest point. Sure, I got information on how to write poetry by my teacher and during the Teen Life Project, I looked up a few websites on global warming, but I never looked at too many different places. In the end, if I had to give myself a grade on my performance as a Critical Thinker, I think I would give myself a B+.

The next ESLR (bear with me, we’re almost at the end) is perhaps a bit shorter and not as important in this unit as you may think, but being an Involved Citizen can save a lot of stress and pain. Once again, in my original words, I wrote that an Involved Citizen “had to be kind to the environment around them and to be kind to their peers”, but perhaps I had not quite grasped the subject. Now I see an Involved Citizen as someone who is aware of other cultures, respects them and the environment, seeks to help others, and a person who can show that they are responsible. I am not the perfect model for this category, but I did however manage to accomplish quite a few of these skills, enough as to not to be called evil. Anyway, the first skill I completed was demonstrating responsibility in active decision-making. That means that I took part in deciding things instead of skulking in the back or not being able to make up my mind. I definitely did this during the Teen Life Project by helping decide who would do what, or more specifically, what jobs they would do within their area and how they would do it. It’s quite impossible to start, let alone finish, a project if no one makes any decisions and everyone turns up doing nothing. Another skill I showed was being able to interact respectfully with people of diverse cultures and demonstrating awareness and respect for the rights of others. Once again, this relates to the Teen Life Project as I didn’t insult anyone culture or religion, mistake or otherwise. I also talked normally to the people on my team, instead of talking straight out slang before knowing who they were. Although I did all these things, it seems that I ended up caring more for people than the environment. It may have not made such a big difference, but I skill I certainly didn’t do was demonstrating care and concern for the environment. I used excess paper, bought ridiculous amounts of it, and then tested on it, rendering it useless forever. Apart from that though, I think I made everyone’s life a little bit easier, and for that, I’ll give myself an A.

The next to final ESLR is actually quite similar to other ESLR’s, such as the Involved Citizen ESLR, the Self-Directed Learner ESLR, the Critical Thinker ESLR and even the final (isn’t it nice to hear those words?) ESLR, the Academic Achiever. All of these have skills that are very familiar to the Effective Communicator ESLR so bear with me if I repeat myself. In any case, my original definition of this ESLR is

because I have no evidence that I ever wrote one, so here’s my most current definition of an Effective Communicator: a person who uses a different variety of media to express their ideas while effectively collaborating with others. And so I’m sure if it’s no surprise to you that one of the first skills that I reached was demonstrating the skills of effective collaboration. I used this skill a lot in my Teen Life Project, along with the skill of incorporating technology as a tool for communication, by talking to my team mates using the Wiki spaces and doing as we were told to do. The last skill achieved by me while being an Effective Communicator was listening respectfully and asking questions to facilitate learning and achieve insight. The just means that I asked a lot of question to understand what I being told, and I did this for both the Teen Life Project and my poetry book. I asked my team mates what exactly we had to do, or what they had to do, and I asked Mr.Raisdana for some tips on how to write poetry. I don’t think I didn’t do any of the skills, and so for that, I’ll just give myself an A-.

The last and final ESLR (insert trumpet sounds here) is the Academic Achiever ESLR. I put this ESLR last because I find this one slightly difficult, but I think I’ll survive. My first simple-minded definition of being an Academic Achiever was “to improve on your existing skills”. Now, that’s not very accurate, but in order not to confuse you, I think I’ll leave at that. And with that, I’ll just tell what skills I did and didn’t do. I definitely demonstrated the ability to work both independently and collaboratively (that just means working alone and with others) by creating the poetry book by myself and working with others over the web to complete a project. The last skill that’s quite obvious that I accomplished was demonstrating technological literacy and the use of technology as a tool for the efficient and creative completion of a project. That’s just a really long way of saying that I showed that I could use technology in order to complete a project. Can anyone guess when I used this? That’s right, I used this skill during the Teen Life Project (along with photography for some of my poems), technology being the computers and the internet, to complete this project. I don’t think I accessed information from a variety of sources though, another skill in this ESLR, as I only used the internet and few books, and for that, I’ll give myself a B+.

Overall, having the poetry book, the poetry night and the Teen Life Project crammed into one unit was quite an evil thing to do, but I think we all pulled through with sighs of relief. Looking back at all of this, if I had to do it again, I would have tried a little bit harder to come up with more creative ideas and gather more information from different places, but apart from that I loved every second. As for the ESLR’s, I think that the best ESLR’s that one could use to make a poetry book would be the Self-Directed Learner ESLR and the Critical Thinker ESLR. They’re absolutely necessary for this part of the unit because all of it and what goes in the book is up to you, and how you put it in their. The ESLR that was probably the most important for the poetry night was the Effective Communicator ESLR because you had to convey your expressions through the poem you had to read that night. As for the Teen Life Project, the ESLR’s that I thought were the most important included being a Self-Directed Learner, because you had to check up on your team once in a while, the Effective Communicator ESLR, because you used technology and you had to convey your ideas properly, and the Involved Citizen ESLR, because you showed you could work as a team. If I had to grade my performance on this entire unit, then I would probably give myself and A-, as I did every ESLR, but I didn’t complete all the skills in them. In any case, if you’re still alive, then I congratulate you for surviving this long. Good job.

By Nick C.

Hannah B.

And Daniel N.

We created a “commercial” using certain symbols, images and sounds to create something that would tell people about the true horrors of the Holocaust. Here we’ve described them:

Symbols:

Barbwire: symbolizes that the Jews had no freedom in the concentration camps as this barbwire surrounded the entire camp. Barbwire also symbolizes the concentration camps themselves in which many Jews suffered and died.

The dove:  the universal sign for peace and harmony but we felt that it should also symbolize hope, as we did not have a symbol for hope.

The Star of David: symbolizes the Jewish religion and also the persecution of all Jews in Europe at the time of the Nazi occupation. This symbol is both good and bad as it represents the Jews being persecuted but it also represents a religion that some people were very proud to belong to.

Images:

The Jewish persecution is symbolized with the Star of David the Jews had to wear. This image is portrayed in not a very graphic way but it still has a meaning that will show us how wrong we were to treat these people like that.

Death is symbolized by the concentration camps in which most Jews were killed. It is also symbolized by the mass graves that the Germans had the Jews dig before they were killed and buried with hundreds of others.

The Final Solution is symbolized the death in the concentration camps. Hitler called this the final solution because his dream of a final solution was to have no more Jews left in
Europe.

Anne Frank is a symbol of hope to all. She gave hope that they were going pull through. She symbolizes this because of her bright, optimistic character and her belief in the good inside of her.

Sounds:

We used two pieces of music. One had singing, but it was wordless. This was better because it was more of a universal song. It was also very depressive and sad, and at the same time reflective. The second song we used was a song by Enya that had a lot of meaningful words and that went with the last few bits of the “commercial” well. Both were composed by Enya and conducted by Howard Shore of the LOTR the Return of the King album.

Most powerful:

After comparing all of our symbols, images and sounds together, we’ve come up with some of the most powerful. We believe that the most powerful symbol we used was the dove. It was powerful because it was something white and pure amidst the black background. It’s also so powerful because it known world-wide and needs no explanation. The most powerful images we think we used were the concentration camp pictures. These images were filled with death and the horror that was the Holocaust. Those pictures were the real eye-poppers of the “commercial”. And finally we believe that the first song we used was the most powerful because it was universal and it all flowed smoothly together. Because it was wordless, people could really use their own imagination and put the words in themselves, or just listen to its beauty and its sorrow.

ESLR’s:

While doing this project, I believe we improved on some of the ESLR’s. The first ESLR we improved on was the Self-Directed Learner ESLR. We identified our needs and applied appropriate learning skills, or in other words, we took the time to figure out what we needed for the project and we did it. We also took creative risks in developing untried ideas by communicating our ideas correctly and creatively. However, we didn’t demonstrate competency in organizational skills because we all didn’t exactly know what we were doing until Saturday, and even then we were still debating and bickering. We would give ourselves a B+ for this part of the project because of our lack of organization. During the making of this “commercial” we were also definitely hitting the Critical Thinker ESLR. We built meaning and understanding using prior and new information. We achieved this skill by using new signs and old images and sounds to make a project that communicated meaning and understanding. We would give ourselves an A- on this ESLR. Unfortunately however, we didn’t demonstrate very good Concerned Citizen skills. We didn’t show responsibility in active decision making because we couldn’t really ever agree on anything. We switched from commercial to memorial to commercial again. On the other hand, we did exhibit awareness for the religion of others, which was quite a big part on this project. We did this because we didn’t reveal any images, sounds or symbols that in any could offend someone because of their religion or race. For this, we would give ourselves an A. The next ESLR we achieved was the Effective Communicator ESLR. Of course, we did have our occasional fights, which meant that we weren’t demonstrating the skill of effective collaborators, but despite all this bickering, we also incorporated technology as a tool for communication. We used the internet and our thumb drives to get our information to each other and we even used PowerPoint to convey our ideas better. We also wrote this reflection, which shows that we were able effectively communicate how well we thought we did. Anyway, we would give ourselves a B for this ESLR.

Individual work:

Working as a group was not a difficult task for us. We just did not find the right way to organize ourselves. Every one contributed fairly to the project. Nick did the entire PowerPoint presentation while Daniel and Hannah split the write up in two. Four bullet points for each person on the checklist.  Then later on Nick checked the write up to see if it was ok.

Summary:

We created a short “commercial” in order to commemorate the victims of the holocaust or remember Anne Frank. We incorporated specific images, sounds and symbols that would give the audience a deeper understanding and get them thinking. We went through the process of planning, arguing, switching, arguing some more, then switching back again, and then doing the actual project and write up. Group wise, we think we did ok, even though we had our little occasional argument. But project wise (write up included), we think we delivered a great project that incorporated relevant symbols and images and good music to go with it. It was meaningful and it makes you reflect a while before going back to your daily life. Because of this, we think we deserve an A-.

The Lord of the Flies is an enticing and suspenseful book full of twist and turns, fear and sorrow, and good and evil. That was the book we read inside Mr.R’s darkened classroom, with flickering candle light illuminating our way throughout the rest of the quarter. A book like the Lord of the Flies is something that you don’t find too often these days. It’s one of those books that make you think about what our future is coming to and how we’ll avoid it. It’s an allegory of civilization against savagery and the true identity of man, but I don’t think you’d be able to figure that out without looking into a moldy textbook first. The book itself was quite challenging to understand at first, but slowly things began to unravel and the book suddenly became very clear, along with the message that it brought: inside, we are all savage. But I’m not going to get into that right now, instead you’ll read a bit about what I got done  while reading the Lord of the Flies. I’m going to combine the ESLR’s (Expected School Wide Learning Results) with Bloom’s Revised Taxonomy of cognitive objectives (another fancy way of saying the six stages of thinking.)

While reading the book, I hit one of the ESLR’s called the Self-Directed Learner ESLR. I’m sorry to say that you’ll see this word often throughout this journal. This means I was able to set goals for myself, manage my time carefully, use my organizational skills and accept responsibility for my own learning. In other words, I took the time to organize my goals in a way that I could easily complete at any time. In any case, the only goals I had were reading the number of chapters I was assigned each night, so that wasn’t too hard to do, organized or not. I know I accepted the responsibility for my own learning because at any given time, I could have left the book to rot on my bedside table and copy off information from Spark Notes, but I didn’t. I think that by demonstrating these skills, it helped me become a better Academic Achiever as well because by setting goals, organizing myself, managing my time and accepting responsibility for my own learning, it also showed that I was able to work collaboratively and independently, a skill for being an Academic Achiever. Even though I did most of the skills needed to be a Self-Directed Learner, there was still room for improvement. An area I could have really improved on was monitoring, adjusting and documenting my work in progress, which is something that would have been useful as well. I did occasionally write notes about the book, but it’s not like I came home, read the book and wrote a twenty paragraph essay on the monstrosity of human nature. I came home, read the book and expected my memory to remember everything I read that day, even if it was three chapters, which now I know was wrong to do. I know I could have improved by using sticky notes to write down important information or I could have kept a journal or log and write something down on it everyday. In whole, I think I did a pretty good job on this ESLR because I followed many of the skills that make up this ESLR and I followed them well.

  Moving on to the next ESLR I think I achieved while reading the book is the Critical Thinker (believe me when I say you don’t have to think too hard to do this one.) I know I hit the Critical Thinker ESLR because a skill I definitely accomplished was building meaning and understanding using prior and new information. To put it in another way, I was able to understand the knowledge given to me and build on that knowledge to understand it better. I think that by building on this knowledge, it also helped me become a more Effective Communicator because this shows that I’m able to understand and convey written, oral and visual information using the right media (in other words the book.) I honestly don’t think that I didn’t do any of the skills required to be a Critical Thinker, but I could have unquestionably done better on them. Take this one for example: gathering, analyzing and processing information from a variety of sources. I know I did that, but there were so many more ways I could have done it. I could have asked my parents, my English teacher, a friend, I could have looked on the internet, looked in an atlas or even looked in the auto-biographical section of the library to see if William Golding had published a book about his life and possibly learn more about the book while reading it (up till now I still haven’t figured out if he has or not.) I admit that most of them I didn’t even bother considering and that was my mistake. Overall, if I could give myself a letter grade, I would give myself a B+, mostly for not putting in enough effort in achieving this ESLR.

  Now it’s time to move on to the next ESLR, and what else could it be other than the Effective Communicator ESLR? I achieved this ESLR (I think the count so far for saying the word ‘ESLR’ is now eleven, wait, that’s twelve) by listening respectfully and asking questions to facilitate my understanding of the book and achieve insight at the same time. That is to say that I listened to other people with respect and asked question in order to gain a further understanding of the book. I think that by doing these things, it also helped me be a better Self-Directed Learner because by listening with respect and asking questions, I accepted the responsibility for my own learning. I accepted this responsibility because I could have simply saved myself the trouble of asking people and assumed things myself, but I didn’t. I think that a skill I could have undertaken next time would have been incorporating technology as a tool for communication because even though nowadays we use MSN and SMS to talk to everyone, I can’t say that I used these ‘tools’ of technology to communicate with people about the book over the time that I read the Lord of the Flies. In general, I felt that I did a pretty decent job on this, and if I was to give myself a letter grade, I would give myself an A-.

  The final (isn’t it nice to hear those words?) ESLR I achieved while reading the gripping novel was the Academic Achiever ESLR. I accomplished this ESLR by demonstrating technological literacy and the use of technology as a tool for the efficient and creative completion of the project. In other words, I used the internet to help me understand what I was reading in the book, for example, SparkNotes, CliffNotes, online dictionaries, online atlases and countless other websites (though I did not copy off them). I think that by demonstrating this skill, it also helped me become a better Self-Directed Learner because once again I accepted the responsibility of my own learning. A skill I could have improved on was accessing information from a variety of sources. I feel I did a moderately good job and I think I would deserve a B+ on this ESLR.I really have to say that I’ve learned an enormous amount from this book. Not just about humanity and our true nature, but about myself as well. I know now what my limits are and how I can improve on the things I can achieve. I think that if I just tried to reach a bit higher, strive a little harder and show efficiency and effort throughout all my work, I know I would have reached my goal.