Reflection On The Poetry Unit
Reflective Journal
We are reaching the end of the school year and our English class is coming to an end. Sooner or later we will be in high school, and I have a feeling that life in 9th grade was going to be a lot harder than we think it is. At least that’s what the people from that grade said. And sometimes I ask myself, ‘Why am I even writing this journal anyway?’ So I thought long and hard and I finally got the answer. We wrote this journal to cherish the moments that we held in this grade, the 8th grade. Well, it was only for English class though. Anyway, the following paragraphs contain information on our poetry unit and our Teenlife project. Our book making, the Second Annual Interactive Poetic Experience and our Teenlife project all have something to do with the ESLR’s and Blooms Taxonomy, and has taught me many things so far, so here I go.
First of all, Self-directed learning has a lot to do with our poetry unit and Teenlife project. I thought that the one part that taught me to being a self-directed learner was monitoring, adjusting and documenting my work in progress. For example, I had learned to be responsible for keeping my poems in a certain area so that I would be able to have all my poems ready to make my poetry book in the future. Another characteristic that showed the self-directed learner in me was that I learned how to do photography. I was new to the digital camera because my family did not have one. So, instead I used cameras from the school to do my photography for the poetry unit. When I was familiar with the basics on how to use a camera, I soon got one of my own and was able to take pictures easily.
Furthermore, I think that comparing self-directed learning to another one of the four ESLR’s or the Blooms Taxonomy can also teach us many things. An example would be comparing Self-Directed Learning to being an Academic Achiever. If I could excel in monitoring, adjusting and documenting my work, this would lead to the demonstrating progress in all curricular activities. Analysis would also compare to being a self-directed learner because they both involve checking and making changes to our work and these habits are very important when reviewing our notes and doing our homework.
After all of the above, I conclude that I did quite well in the keeping of my poems and in the learning of photography, although I do sometimes question my self and say, ‘what would have happened if I already knew how to work a camera properly, would I have gotten better photos?’, and for that I will give my self an B+.
Secondly, another ESLR that I thought had something to do with our Poetry Unit was being an Academic Achiever. A part of being an Academic Achiever would be accessing information from a variety of sources. I think this because it helped me in Teenlife project. The source that was most useful to me was the Internet. The Internet is a very useful tool for finding information today. And instead of using it to play online games everyday, people can also use it for finding sites on global warming and its prevention. Being an Academic Achiever also helped me in the making of my poems because as I looked into a variety of poets’ works I learned of their writing styles, and took it to myself to try and use that style in a good way for my poems.
Academic Achieving can also relate to many other ESLR’s, like Effective Communicating for instance. How is this, you may ask? Well, when you can demonstrate technological literacy and the usage of technology as a tool for the efficient and creative completion of a project and demonstrate the ability to work both in and out of a group, I think that we will be able to effectively communicate with people and demonstrate our creative talent to convey ideas.
All in all, I think that I could have done better when I was researching for information on my topic and I could have improved on writing my poems. So I give myself a B+ for not improving on all of the above.
Moving on, I think that Critical Thinking has a lot to do our Poetry Unit too. A part of being a Critical Thinker is that we can build meaning and understanding using prior knowledge and new information. I relate to this because while doing research for the Teenlife Project, I realized how much damage the world is taking from us. This has given me an understanding of what it must feel like to be slowly destroyed, piece by piece. I now also have a better understanding of poetry. Poetry just doesn’t have to rhyme. Poetry can be anything. That’s what so good about it.
Once again, we compare this ESLR with any other ESLR we have. But this does teach us a lot of things though, so you should be ready to read these next couple of lines. Critical thinking can relate to being an involved citizen because when I look at all the things that are happening to nature and I really think about it, it gives you a sense of responsibility. It makes you want to do something, to be involved.
As a result, I conclude that without critical thinking, we could not be able to get involved which results in the continuation of global warming. And without critical thinking, poetry wouldn’t sound the same either. And I also think I did well on doing my part to save the environment, so I give myself an A-.
Next up, we have the Involved Citizen ESLR! Now, being an involved citizen is very important because without people to be involved, no one would want to help anything or anybody for that matter. The world would be dark and gloomy and there would be chaos everywhere. Okay, maybe I was exaggerating just a bit, but the world would be a better place if everyone just did something to help the environment once in a while. It won’t hurt anyone to do so. A part of being an involved citizen would be to demonstrate care and concern for the environment. This, once again, relates to the Teenlife Project on global warming. In fact, global warming plays a huge role to the reason why the earth is coming apart. How I have demonstrated this is by trying to throw any unwanted rubbish in the right place and to recycle. And why I have suddenly taken to heart to doing this is because since the research I have done, it has given me the slight passion to do what I can to save the environment.
Now it’s time to compare the ESLR’s. Involved Citizenship can be compared to being an Effective Communicator because to be able to involve to your full potential, you must be able to effectively communicate with other people to achieve best results.
After all that, I ask my self the question, ‘what if I had taken into the consideration of helping the environment earlier; would that have made any difference at all?’ I could have helped many people and do many things, I think. So I think I did well and was responsible enough to throw my own trash in the bin, so I give my self an A.
Last but not least, we have the Effective communicator ESLR. Effective communication is very important to the collaboration of students, which is important for many other things and other ESLR’s too. What I did to become an Effective Communicator was to demonstrate the skills of effective collaboration and to incorporate/utilize technology as a tool for communication. I showed this because I learned to make Powerpoint presentations, movies, slideshows. And I also learned how to use photoshop. All this helped me to the improvement of my showing of my ideas. How I demonstrated effective collaboration was because I have improved in my in-class discussions since the beginning of the year, and I also have learned to communicate to people not only with poetry with words, but also with people.
This ESLR could compare to being an Academic Achiever. Because when we have the talent to convey ideas not only through paper and ink, but when we can show our thought through media manipulation or in any way at all, we can be sure to demonstrate progress ion all curricular areas.
Now, this was a short paragraph, but I still think that it contains the information in the other ESLR’s too. So, while evaluating myself, I begin to ponder, ‘what if I had demonstrated my ideas in a different way? I would have gotten better grades in some curricular areas.’ It would have been worth the shot. So next time I should to step out of the box, my comfort zone and be ready to share ideas creatively. I should give my self an A, according to the things I should have done.
Filed under: Reflective journal
