When I walked in one fine day into Mr.R’s room, what did I find? A dark room, dimly lit, the only source of brightness the candles standing in the faint corners of the room. Our only directions were to read the instructions that were put up on the board. Meanwhile, the “ghost” of Mr.R was “floating” around the room taking notes on us. By the corner was a TV that showed a picture of an island, which was slightly puzzling, yet conveyed the theme of the decoration. Bird chirps and elephant trumpets were the only melodious sounds that we could hope for. As far as I can remember, the sheet of instructions told us to elect a leader immediately. We chose to have one boy and one girl leader, and we did so accordingly. Chaos was present during the very first task, as no one would listen to the other, and people took more time than necessary to complete the tasks. After a while, I felt we did have a good discussion. In the end, after we (unsuccessfully) completed our tasks, we were all asked to sit down. The ghost approached the front of the room, and started reading the notes that he took. I felt the comments that he gave us were slightly harsh. There were some areas where we had reasoning to support why we behaved that way, but he didn’t listen to us. Later, I thought about it, and I felt there were a lot of areas we need to work on as a class. Our last meeting was more successful than our first, and we all showed immense improvement. That brought us to Lord of the Flies, and my understanding of the ESLR’s (Expected Schoolwide Learning Results that are used to assess a student following various criteria) using the Bloom’s Taxonomy.

While reading the book Lord of the Flies, I was a Self-Directed learner as I took responsibility and devised methods to overcome any shortcomings in my understanding of the text. For example, if there was any incomprehensible idea or thought, I would first try some resources like the dictionary or thesaurus. After thoroughly reading the matter, if I am still unable to grasp the meaning, I would seek the help of my parents, my brother, or Mr.R. This way, I could reinforce my understanding or clear out any wrong perception of the text.  I could apply this ESLR mostly while reading the book but not so much while we were having classroom discussions, as classroom discussions mainly improve one’s Involved Citizenship. Now I ask myself a question: What if I would not have been a self-directed learner during this quarter while we were reading the book? I would have encountered a lot of problems. There were times when I felt the book was not easy to fully understand. I feel I really need to be more persistent as I would look for answers with the resources around me, yet, if I didn’t understand it after the second or third attempt, I would give up and move on. From now on, I will strive harder to be patient. Everything will become clear then. Thus, I am being very Self-directed by accepting responsibility for my own learning. I am involved in a lot of after-school activities, and sometimes, I relate them to this book. I practice for the school play, and after I say my lines and my role is over, I think to myself, how would Jack or Ralph react if they were in a similar situation? I would apply their psychology and try to find out how they differ in their reactions to such situations. I love thinking about things like this and contemplating human nature, as they really bring out the natural creativity in me.  Reading this book made me apply a lot of important life skills like goal setting, time management and organizational skills. Goal setting and time management went hand in hand; as I had to divide the number of pages I had to read and to meet the project deadlines. With all the handouts and notes, I had to be extremely organized, since many a time, I had to do cross references to understand some things. Self –Directed learning with appropriate organizational skills has tremendously helped me to understand this otherwise difficult book. All through this book, I had to adjust many of my ideas. For, the way I perceived things at the beginning of this book greatly differed as I progressed and at the end I was totally amazed how wrong I had been about some events, characters or situations at the outset. I think I was Very Good during this quarter, but I still want to be better.

Critical thinking has been imperative while reading this book. The definition of critical thinking would be thinking in many different ways, and using what you knew before to improve your current situations. For me, this book represents human nature. It mirrors the diverse personalities, circumstances and ideas that we humans have and experience in our lives. I think I thought more critically while reading this book, than I did with last years’ books. All through reading this book, I applied problem-solving skills to facilitate my understanding. Learning what exactly happened in the scene was a bit of a challenge, as I had to decipher the many hidden meanings that William Golding had incorporated. And, all along, I had to keep changing my thoughts, as many events took unexpected turns in this book. I ask myself now, what if I hadn’t actually thought about all the hidden meanings in this book? What if I had just read the book as a book? I had to monitor, select and adjust my stream of ideas, for, if I stayed with the old ideas, they would hinder my understanding of the current narration. I would rate myself about a Good on this ESLR.

During the class discussions of Lord of the Flies, I thought I was a Critical thinker, which was paramount in class discussions. It is about solving problems using a variety of strategies. Any comment made without really thinking about is sure to put the whole class on the wrong track. So, I took care to express ideas after proper thinking. My understanding of the book went from being a novice to an expert with every discussion we had. They were indeed thought-provoking. I would always evaluate my resources after I was done. Basically, I would review all the notes I took everyday to see what I learnt from them. But, I feel I should take more notes in the discussions to come, as I would get so caught up in doing the talking that I would forget to take notes. The discussions made me build meaning and understanding using prior knowledge and new information. My prior knowledge was what I got when I read the book; the new information was what I learnt from the discussions. I would gather and process information from my classmates, i.e. their way of perceiving the book. In this way, I try to evaluate my thinking process. Whenever I reached a dead end in my thought process, I would look for various strategies that would help me. And finally, one of them would click, and I would be able to come up with a brand new idea. But, the next time we are doing class discussions, I will try to select, monitor and adjust problem-solving strategies. All I did was if I found something that works; I would go with it without looking for something better. Though it doesn’t apply in this context of only “discussions”, I consider our free writing assignments as discussions, as you are discussing your thoughts or ideas to no particular audience. I demonstrated immense progress in my free writing between the first and second one. It was remarkable. Though I might sound pompous saying this, I think I was exceptional in my second free writing assignment. The way I wrote amazed me. My first attempt at free writing was anything but exciting, whereas, the second one was very entertaining, and it even taught me a lot. What if I would have written a dull, boring story and got a bad grade on it? Would I have grown? Would I have learnt? Probably not. Discussions taught me to work both independently and collaboratively, and that makes me hit the Self-Directed Learner ESLR. I was discussing with my whole class, so I was working collaboratively, and I was working independently because I was taking notes based on what I understood. Assessing what was important and what was not was a little hard, as everything that we talked about sounded right. I feel like I would have gotten a Very Good on my performance as a Critical Thinker.

Class discussions really helped me be more of an Involved Citizen and Effective Communicator. Effectively communicating is not only about talking, but listening to others’ ideas. Recycling and helping the environment is one way you could be an involved citizen. The other is sharing your thoughts, and helping your community in a constructive manner. I was always contributing all my ideas, so as to help me and the people around me. Maybe some of my ideas were used in our school projects – thinking thus makes me feel very involved. Communicating my ideas lead to me being an Involved Citizen, because ideas need expression and should be communicated. Most of the time, I grabbed every opportunity to express my ideas. Now I feel listening too is a powerful way of communication, for, it opens the doors to new perceptions. In retrospect, I feel that I should have given some room for others to express their opinions too. Sometimes I tend to slacken the discussion by my wavering in decision making, which I must overcome, to save time. My maturity shone in my respect for others’ opinions. I ask myself the question now; What if I had been very impolite during discussions and always just had my way? Would I have helped the class? No. I feel I did the right thing by putting forth my opinion politely, so as to not let my opponent feel that his/her opinion is redundant. I feel having class discussions is a very great idea, as it helps people think deeper. I understood the book far better through these discussions than I did when I just read the book. On being an effective communicator and an involved citizen during class discussions, I would grade myself a Good.

Working on the Lord of the Flies symbolism project really made me a/an Academic Achiever, Self-Directed Learner, and Effective Communicator. This project basically hit some important ESLR’s. I tried to be an Effective Communicator using this project as a tool. I was effectively communicating and summarizing all my ideas on one poster board so that the whole class can benefit from it. Making a poster board with pictures and information was a creative talent I used to convey my ideas. With the technological support systems and resources available to me, I put them to good use, to get people interested and grasp my ideas better. I conveyed my understanding of the book using pictures from the Internet with the help of appropriate media. While I was doing the project, sometimes I asked myself the question: What if I had not chosen this project? The only thing I wished I worked on was presentation. I feel I should have worked harder to make my poster look better. My presentation coupled with my Effective Communicating Skills ensured that they understood the main theme of my project. I think I got about a Very Good if I grade myself.

I’m glad I was a Self-Directed Learner even before I started this project as it paid off beautifully and to my satisfaction. I took notes, listened to what people said, conveyed ideas, and asked questions for my own benefit. What if I had not been a Self-Directed learner? What if I would have just read the book and done some boring project? I feel that would have been a waste of time for me. This book is made for the reader to read from cover to cover and devour the book. I utilized all the information from my notes in my project for the benefit of others. I was more of a Self-Directed Learner in that particular respect. I would say I was a Very Good Self-Directed Learner. 

I felt very proud of myself when I hit the Academic Achiever, as that was what I was striving hard for. Normally, I am averse to handling projects – for the percentage they hold in the overall grade system, and for what I call my “artistic disability.” I would rather have done an essay or a test than a project. But, this time, I have shown my maturity and growth by choosing a project that would be a challenge for me and completing it to my utmost satisfaction. There lies my academic achievement. This project really asks you to look for hidden meanings, and almost dig through the book for some certain small quotes or sentences that really mean so much. Try as I might, I cannot find one thing I did wrong by attempting this feat, so I feel all the more proud. I would give myself an Excellent while grading myself on being an Academic Achiever.

Our last meeting proved to be a big success. As usual, Mr.R was in his ghostly form. There was much more order and control this time, as we all knew the basis of the meeting. The last time we had met, chaos prevailed. Everyone was ready to finish the work on hand, and a couple of people took charge in organizing people to do different tasks. As a matter of fact, this time, I took the back seat, and let others be leaders. Nevertheless, I worked on my task as best as I could, and understood so much. The magic about Lord of the Flies is that, no matter how many times you read the book, or how many ever discussions you attend, you always learn something new. This is one thing I have discovered about this book. All in all, I think through this whole unit, I have displayed most or all of the ESLR’s. This book has really made me learn and grow. Deciding which ESLR I exhibited was a little tough, yet, I feel I managed to do so convincingly.