The classroom buzzing with excitement

Poetry, did he say?

Let’s begin this unit

And awaken the fresh new day

            English has always been a subject I have enjoyed. However, once the poetry unit started, I have stopped just enjoying English; I have started to love the language. Poetry is a way of expression that even people poor at English can convey and relate. Within poetry, free verse gives one the absolute freedom of writing anything on their mind - something that prose restricts us to do. We began this divine unit by taking a general survey of the class on whether they don’t like poetry, don’t mind it, or love it. And, as expected, many were either in the “I don’t like poetry” or “I don’t mind poetry” section. Since my parents had exposed me to poetry before this unit started, I let myself plummet into the “I love poetry” section. Yet, the amount of new things I learnt in this poetry unit was just mind-boggling, and I would not forgo this experience for the world. During this unit, we learnt about the various kinds of poetry styles, the rules for these types, and word choice to help us write these poems. Class time was enjoyed by all as we shared our poetry, or even as we wrote in silence. At the end of this unit, we created a compilation of poems we worked on. And to go with the releasing of these books, we organized a poetry night where parents and friends could appreciate the hard work we put into during this unit.

            While the poetry fabulously ran on, we had another project - The Teen Life Project. This project was a way for us in Malaysia to communicate and cooperate with students from Canada, the United States, and Colombia. This project has really helped me to be up-to-date with my work, and organize myself thoroughly. I truly enjoyed working with these other schools and I would like to thank all our teachers that helped make this possible.

As I am now at the end of the unit, this brings me to my reflective journal entry, summing up the Poetry Unit, and the Teen Life Project and illustrates my understanding of the ESLR’s (Expected Schoolwide Learning Results that are used to assess a student following various criteria) using Bloom’s Taxonomy.

During our classroom sessions about poetry, I felt I was a Critical Thinker as I carefully analyzed the information I had, and put it onto paper in a creative manner. Throughout the time in class, I learnt the various forms of poetry, wrote general poems or poems applying these forms of poetry and read them out loud to the class in a poetic manner. Learning new kinds of poems always gives me great joy - a feeling that says, “There’s another world to venture into!” Mr.R would first introduce the type of poem, for example, haiku, sonnet etc. He would then describe the rules that are present for each type of poem and read out a poem that follows these rules. I feel this is a good method to understand the style, as it shows the reader how the poet has artistically followed the rules and also provided meaning through that style of poetry. Critically thinking has helped me through understanding these styles of poetry, as most times, careful measuring of syllables, using wit or pun, or providing deep meaning become essential tools that strengthen the poem. Solving problems using a variety of strategies is what critical thinking is about. I really showed I could solve problems using a variety of strategies, an occasion when I proved this was when I got stuck writing poems for homework in the style I just learnt in class. I could have easily gone to seek help from friends or family members. Instead, I looked up some poems on the internet that follow the same style, and used them as a guideline. What’s more, I also gathered, analyzed, and processed information from a variety of sources by being independent and going the extra mile. However, if I felt like my understanding was still patchy even after looking at a couple of poems, I could ask my family members, my friends, or my teacher, but that situation hasn’t arisen yet. After we had learnt what we had to for the day, and filled out some worksheets, we would move on to writing poetry using the style we just learnt. Critical thinking has been paramount while writing these poems, because, if I forget to apply some of the rules for the specific type of poem, or write something that does not make sense, it is bound to bring about confusion and criticism from the whole class. Thus, I took care to express ideas after proper thinking. I never realized how well my peers could write until this poetry unit. My awe kept increasing with every person that read their poem out loud, and I am proud of all my peers for writing so creatively. This experience was indeed thought-provoking. Even this recognition makes me a critical thinker because I inhaled all the positive aspects that different individuals put forth. Personally, I feel poetry is like a whisper of the wind. Taking a quote from the movie A Walk To Remember, “you can’t see it, but you can feel it.” That is exactly what poetry represents. You cannot understand the deep meaning of the poem unless you read through it and take the meaning in.  Although I have read poetry before this unit started, I feel that this is the first time I really took time to critically think about poems and not overlook the smallest words that could mean the largest things. However, I noticed something about my writing skills in poetry. Most of my poems seem to have a slightly tearful edge toward them. I always seem to be searching, questing, crying, loving, hating, losing etc. I have really tried to make an effort by writing on a lighter, wittier vein instead of my usual style. By recognizing this, I feel I have applied problem-solving skills to facilitate my learning. So daily we used to saunter into the “world of meaning” and write, read, and share our masterpieces. Something small yet meaningful that I have noticed is that however good your poetry is, if you are presenting it, it should be presented in a creative and dramatic way to suit the theme of your poem. This is something I could be proud of - acting is my passion, and as a result, my poems were well appreciated. Even though the unit has almost ended, I feel like poetry has left an everlasting mark on my soul. Nowadays I am even thinking poetically. As an illustration, I was watching the rain in my balcony about two days ago, and all of a sudden I am thinking: “The falling tears from the drifting clouds.” Suddenly, it struck me; I knew that poetry is something I should pursue and not give up. Nevertheless, I asked myself a couple of questions while I had that notion. What if I get discouraged whilst I am in the middle of my writing? Will I just give up? Will my love for poetry fade away? At this point, I would answer “no” to all these questions. But, who knows? We did one other life-changing thing this unit in English. We watched The Dead Poets Society, a movie that completely took my breath away. From the beginning to the end, my awe for the strong characters in the movie never faded. The loyalty, courage, passion, and love these characters displayed really shook my world. The end really brought tears to my eyes and a promise to my mind - I shall never forget this movie and these ideals. After this breathtaking event, we had to all write a poem about any aspect of this movie. My brain was reeling; what should I write about? By writing a touching poem, I built meaning and understanding using prior knowledge (poetry rules) and new information (the movie). I would rate myself about a Very Good on this ESLR.

Through our classroom sessions, I was a Self-Directed Learner as I made sure I was completely on track and devised methods to overcome difficulties in my understanding of any information. For instance, as I mentioned before, after we watched The Dead Poets Society, we were asked to write a poem about any aspect of the movie. All Mr.R did was put up some ideas on the board that we as a class came up with for our reference. No more nudges or pushes. With a topic this wide, it could get very confusing and brain-freezing. Nevertheless, I spent some time to actually think about a topic that I was moved to write about, and the final product turned out to be one of high quality. This way, I feel like my work has an aura of “Sai” around it, and I would also be hitting the Self-Directed Learner ESLR. Now I ask myself a question: What if I would not have been a self-directed learner during this poetry unit? Would I have been able to achieve the same amount of things I achieved by being a self directed learner? There were times when I would be confused as to the number of syllables, the rhyme, rhythm, repetition etc. On occasions like these, I would usually pick the first thing that comes to mind and write it down if it followed poetic guidelines and made basic sense. This is one thing I regret doing - my poems could have been a lot better had I worked harder and spent a little more time on them. Henceforth, I will strive harder to be a bit more patient with my work so I could polish it to perfection. Thus, by accepting responsibility for my own learning I am being very Self-Directed. Poetry is like a shadow that follows me wherever I go. Everything I see or do could be translated into poetry. Many a time, whether it be during sleepless nights or walks to school, I would view a certain object or act and automatically, a poetic line would just appear out of nowhere! These observations, I feel, would represent me achieving the “take creative risks in developing untried ideas” because the way I visually translate sights into words - that could really help me in the future if I decide to be a poet. Doing this poetry unit really helped me with vital skills like time management and organization. As it was an ongoing cycle of poems, if I missed even one poem, it would leave me behind the rest. And it did. It made me feel terrible that I was not keeping up to date, and I would fear that I was behind all my classmates. Nevertheless, I managed to get all my work in on time in the later stages of our poetry, and I didn’t slack off after the couple of assignments I missed. Organization was extremely important for poetry, because with the amount of poems we wrote, losing a single poem could mean chaos and disarray. I should say that I am extremely proud of myself for being organized throughout this poetry unit - I did not lose a single poem, and even finished all the extra poems I was meant to write, well before the due date. All my poems had to be constantly edited, hence I kept every one of my poems just in case there are any last minute emergencies. Therefore, I achieved the “demonstrate competency in goal setting, time management, and organizational skills. I think I was a Good during this quarter, yet, I strive to be better.

Class sessions really helped me be a better Effective Communicator. My weak point, as I mentioned in another one of my reflective journals, is listening. I cannot sit still for a single moment without moving my jaw - sometimes I feel like my ear may need that exercise too! In other words, my listening skills need to be brushed up on, and I need to tone down my talking. This poetry unit really helped me do that, as I had to listen to the rest of my peers as they read their poems out loud. I will not deny that the reading of my poem was the most enjoyable for me, yet, I am joyful that I managed to listen to my classmates, and pick up their views and ideas. This is one of the most important reasons why it is vital to listen - you gain many different perspectives from many different people. I feel I have shown great improvement with regard to my listening skills from my previous reflective journal; my maturity shone in my treating other peoples’ ideas with respect and giving them my complete and undivided attention when they are presenting their poems. I ask myself the question now: What if I wouldn’t have shown improvement from last time’s reflective journal? Would I still feel proud of myself? Or will I have tried to work harder for the next journal? My honest opinion would be that if I hadn’t shown improvement, I would feel a little disappointed, however, I would try my best to work on my weak areas for the next journal. I thoroughly enjoy our classroom sessions as they help provide a friendly environment to understand and love this godlike language. I gained more confidence in presenting my poetry to an audience through the discussions we had in class, and I am greatly thankful for that. Regarding the Effective Communicator ESLR, I would rate myself an Excellent, as I am very proud that I saw progress from my previous journal entry.

The year 2006-2007 Poetry Night was a big success. I was almost close to tears of elation when I walked into the beautiful setup - all done by this year’s batch of 8^th graders, and of course, Mr.R. I have demonstrated being an Involved Citizen during the course of the planning for poetry night and attending the real night itself by taking responsibility and ensuring that everything proceeded smoothly. I was one of the leaders for the “food” group of poetry night, along with Sarah and Honoka. As a born leader, I immediately designated jobs to my co-leaders which they had no qualms about, and took on some challenging tasks myself. We called all the parents in the 8^th grade - this took a lot of courage and politeness! Yet, I feel that I have “demonstrated care and concern for the environment” by taking the time to ensure that every parent knows what to bring, and the night will not be in disarray so that every guest has a wonderful time and enough food to eat. My biggest improvement from last quarter would be learning how to “demonstrate responsibility in active decision-making.” Decisions are very difficult for me - I feel everything is the best or everything is the worst. There is no middle. And there is never a ‘perfect one’ that I could choose. Hence, by organizing and attending this night, I feel I have overcome this fear of decision-making. Talking on the phone respectfully to a parent of the school community, filling in the list of what foods the mentioned parent would be bringing, and making sure that there are no empty spaces is an extremely challenging task to carry out. However, I feel that by making quick decisions and giving the parents precise answers, I have carried out this task smoothly. Being an Involved Citizen was very vital for this purpose, as, if one does not have the spirit of being involved, one cannot perform the necessary tasks. ‘Interacting respectfully with people of diverse cultures’ has been a key skill to achieve. When I had to call all the 8^th grade parents, some questions came to my mind: What is the right time to call them? How should I ask them to bring food? Is it polite to just directly request them for something? What quantities will they think is appropriate for them to bring? All these questions, alas, went unanswered, and I had to call by just being extremely well-mannered and polite, and speaking in a soft, requesting voice. I rate myself a Very Good on this ESLR.

Effectively Communicating is not about giving a long speech in a loud voice to please a hundred applauding citizens. It is about being able to get a message across, provide information, and do so in a convincing or pleasing manner. I feel I thoroughly deserve to be called an Effective Communicator as I worked extremely hard into communicating thus and have reaped what I have sowed. By working together with a couple of people, we have produced an adorned international buffet - voila! The wonders cooperation can do! I believe we have all worked very well in organizing this major event, but, in retrospect, I feel that we could have all cooperated better, so that just two people didn’t have to do all the work. Nevertheless, I am extremely satisfied at the level of professionalism that we have accomplished in creating a banquet out of some desks, foods, and drinks. Yet, I must not take all the credit. Although this might not be the best place to mention this, I do not want to forget my sincere gratitude to all the moms that came in and set up the food and drink and helped with serving. They were extremely helpful, and without them the food could have been in complete disarray. By doing these tasks, I have proved myself to be one that can “demonstrate the skills of effective collaboration” and “collaborate with others in appropriate learning situations to achieve group goals.” I would give myself an Excellent on this ESLR.

We started off the TLP (Teen Life Project) by writing an introductory post about ourselves on our blog. This post had to contain hobbies, ideas, interests, and any issues that concern us teenagers of today. All schools completed this part of the project, hence, every student in each of these schools had the opportunity to match interests, and learn about the different ideas and environments the other student had or lived in. Just by taking part in this project, I believe I applied the Self-Directed Learner ESLR, because I participated in a co-curricular program that developed my social talents. Meanwhile, Mr.R had created a Wikispace where we could post our first questions or thoughts we had on any issue our world is facing today so we could all look at this wiki and add questions or join people that have the same questions as we do. After all this was organized, we all had to comment on the introductory posts written by people in other schools, including interest in any of the issues raised by the one we are commenting on. Afterwards, we created videos representing our school - something that the other schools had created already. But, I am delighted at how our videos turned out; they were concise, smooth, and gentle to watch. At the first stages of this “video-making” we had to all go around school, and take pictures of what we thought would be good to go into the video. The pictures I took were fairly alright - they had some strange angles and some minor details in ceilings or walls that no one cared to notice in their busy schedules. By taking these pictures, I proved myself to be a Self-Directed Learner, as I took creative risks in developing untried ideas, and an Academic Achiever as I ‘demonstrated technological literacy and the use of technology as a tool for the efficient and creative completion of a project.’ Our final video comprised of pictures and music that were voted on by our class and put together using the software iMovie. In the future, we worked on creating “We Are” videos - videos that represent us as what each of us depicts ourselves to be like. That was an immensely enjoyable activity as we got to write a poem, type it up, and record our voice, using a picture that we took as our main image. This is how I “demonstrated the ability to work both independently and collaboratively”, as I individually recorded my voice and collaboratively maintained silence while it was the turn of someone else to record their voice. Lastly, we got the biggest reward anyone would love to receive for a day (or more than that) of hard work - recognition! Yes, that’s right. We were all recognized by the CBC (Canadian Broadcasting Corporation) for taking education to such an advanced level; how “multimedia meets multi-literacy age.”I am extremely pompous for myself, my grade, and my school for receiving such an honorary mention, and would reward myself with a title of Academic Achiever as I had “continually assessed, evaluated, and adjusted work to maintain high standards” to get to such a level. I would rate myself a Very Good for Self-Directed Learner, and an Excellent for Academic Achiever.

In a nutshell, this has been a bountiful experience that I will never forget. Poetry Night was my proudest moment - seeing all our days of hard work shape up into a beautiful night is a sight to withhold at least once in one’s life. I have thoroughly enjoyed planning out poetry night, learning about poetry in class, and working on the Teen Life Project. Using the ESLRs, Bloom’s Taxonomy, and The Six Traits has taught me what I have achieved through this unit, and what I need to work on for next time. Mr.R has been such an astounding teacher to lead us through all of this that I do not have words to explain how thankful I am for such a wonderful experience.

 Experiences.

Come and go

But last forever.

In the heart of a

Poet.