B7 Consequences of Choices: CC

In ELA we watched the movie Dead Poets Society. We then had to answer questions reflecting on the movie and what we got out of it. Then we were asked to do an audio recording about how teens now days are pressured and what they are pressured by. As you will hear in the recording, the pressures society puts on teens has changed quite a bit.

Copy and paste the link below into your browser!

http://www.fotobabble.com/m/WlhBWnRxM3NBMG89

Letter to a Pal- Week 2

Hello Anna and Alisa!!

I totally feel that what you said about the refugee crisis makes sense! People should have religious freedom, but things could become dangerous.

I absolutely love living on a farm! I have so much space around my house! My nearest neighbors are about a mile away from me. Living on a farm does come with a lot of responsibility and you do have to be up early some mornings! The animals need to be fed morning and night no matter what the weather is like. Some nights I will come home from school, go out to do chores at 4:30pm and not get back in the house until 9:00pm. But I wouldn’t want to live any other life!

A few classes ago in ELA, we watched the movie “The Wave”. It is a German movie about a class of students that do a project week. I had never watched a movie in German before and I found it very interesting. Even though I had to read the subtitles to understand what was going on, I was still able to understand the movie very well. Do you get to watch very many English movies or TV shows in Germany? If so, do you enjoy them? Are they hard for you to understand?

Looking forward to your resonses

Thanks, Leah 🙂

A3 CC: Personal Response to “The Wave”

In ELA we watched the movie “The Wave”. It was about a school that had a project week and this one class chose the topic of autocracy. The teacher proposed a question “Do you think a dictatorship could happen here?”. They created a group called “The Wave” and many of the students joined. Eventually the group went too far, to the point of being incredibly dangerous. A dictatorship doesn’t really seem possible in our world today, but this movie proves this wrong. All it takes is a strong leader that is able get people on their side and in the same mindset. Many feel that these leaders are manipulating the people that join their group but that’s wrong in many cases. They are just motivating people to think the same. Also, this is possible because there will always be people that want to be part of any group that makes them feel like they have purpose. There for, I feel a dictatorship is totally possible now days.This movie also taught me an important lesson. Your friends can turn on you in an instant. In the movie, Karo didn’t want to join “The Wave” and she pretty much was told to get on the boat or leave, by people that are some of her very best friends. Even her own boyfriend turned on her and ended up going as far too hit her. This part really makes you think how quickly the people you trust most can change. There was also larger messages involved in this film. One of the biggest is make sure you think about what you are getting involved in before it goes too far. Think about your actions and what consequences are going to come along with them. On the other side of that, make sure you are not letting people push you around. Stand up for yourself, but don’t get yourself in a situation you don’t want to be in. I feel this movie left me with only one major question “Why did Tim go as far as to commit suicide and would he have done the same thing if the wave wasn’t created?”. The making of this movie was also very well done. They used very good actors and they added in parts that showed you don’t have to follow the group. Overall I really enjoyed this movie! Even with having to read the subtitles! 🙂

Letter to a Pal- Week 1

Hello there! I’m very excited to get to know you!

 

    In ELA we just finished talking about the idea of minorities in society. We looked at the two different types of minorities, visual minorities meaning a difference you can see between people and non-visual minorities meaning a difference you cannot see. We were left with the question “Would you rather be a visual or non-visual minority?”. Personally I feel that I would rather be a visual minority. In the society that I live in, visual minorities have stereotypes that are placed against them almost instantly. Once a person sees someone that has something different about them, they will be judged. This is something I took in to a lot of consideration when I was making my decision of being a visual or non-visual minority. When I weighed the pros and cons of the of each, there was too many cons that came along with the non-visual like what would happen when someone found out you have a minority and are hiding it from them. This lead me to believe that it would be easier to live as a visual minority. Things could be completely different in your society. Do people judge other people based on their looks? Do people care if you are different? What are your thoughts on visual and non-visual minorities and which would you rather be? These are tough questions to think about because there is no right or wrong answers, so I’m very curious on hearing your thoughts on this topic!

 

Thanks,

Leah 🙂 

Image result for waving gif

A1 Inequalities in Society: Compose and Create

We have been working on a lesson that is focused on inequalities in society. We looked a lot at visual and non-visual minorities. We then had to to answer a question talking about what would be different for me, in my life if I was born a visual minority.

Being born as a visual minority affects how your life is going to be in terms of the opportunities and experiences you get. You are going to have automatic stigmas or stereotypes place against you by people that have experience with the visual minority you have in the past. This will lead to unfair education and job opportunities you will have. You might not have the quality of teachers in your school or you might not be treated fairly because of the visual minority. When you don’t have fair education, you may end up with lower grades than the majority of the people. This is going to lead to a harder time to find a job, and since you already have those stereotypes placed on you, other doors are closed on jobs that you don’t have an opportunity to apply for. Less job opportunities leads to less income that can cause poverty in certain visual minorities, but there is something that can help out people with visual minorities and that is affirmative actions. I feel that affirmative actions are a good thing that work well to give visual minorities a chance to ride up in society. They have a hard time doing this already because of the stereotypes they have to overcome, so affirmative action helps with this. Usual minority’s are something you have from the day you are born and unfortunately this can lead to disadvantages and missed opportunities for you.

 

ELA B9: Student Responses “Who are your heroes?”

In our ELA class, we were instructed to read an article about heroes. Then we choose two student responses to what a hero is and wrote our response to those students.

This is the link to the website we read the article on:

stover 2015 October 13, 2015 · 1:06 pm
Adam Nossiter, the author of “Americans Resist Hero Label After Foiling Train Attack,” reports in his article three American men who stopped a terrorist attack on a train in Paris. In my eyes a hero is a person with the courage or bravery to put his or her life in danger to save or help another person. The qualities I look for in a hero is someone who goes out of their way to help someone in need. I personally do not think that heroism requires physical strength because most heroes have to be mentally strong to accomplish their heroic deeds. Nothing extraordinary has to happened for someone to be a hero. There are people that help other people in everyday life that I would consider to be a hero. There has been times where I felt like I could have been labeled as a hero. For example a couple of nights ago I was driving home from Roanoke, and I saw this elderly man on the side of the interstate. I saw his car was in bad condition as if he had wrecked. Nobody stopped to see if he was alright, so I pulled off and checked it out. He said a deer had jumped in front of his car and he hit the guardrail. He had no phone and had been there for about twenty minutes. I was the first person to stop. I called 911 and they sent people to assist the man. I’m sure the three men on the train felt the same way and that’s why they didn’t take credit for the heroic act that they performed.

Response: Through my eyes I also see a hero as someone that will go out of their way to help a person without getting anything in return. I agree with pretty much everything that you stated. You don’t have to do something super extraordinary to be a hero. You could buy someone luch if they didn’t have money to do so. To you that would be a small gesture and to the other person that would make that persons day and you could be their hero. I would also agree with you saying you should be labeled as a hero for stopping to help someone in a car accident. You may be the only one driving by that would stop to help that person that night. You potentially saved that persons life and that is a quality I feel makes a hero. I think that your idea of a hero is fairly close tow hat mine is.

Olivia B 2015 October 16, 2015 · 8:30 am

In Adam Nossiter’s article, “Americans Resist Hero Label After Foiling Train Attack,”he discusses the incident of three American men who took down a gunman on a Paris-bound express train. None of the men wanted the title of being a “hero” because they thought they were just doing what they should. Nossiter says,“In their telling, the dramatic moments in the railway car could have been a particularly lively finish to an otherwise great night out: no heroics, and nothing dramatic about it.” One of the American men, Spencer Stone, said of the assailant, “He seemed like he was ready to fight until the end, and so were we.” That is what I believe a hero is. Someone who is willing to sacrifice their own safety for others. To me, my hero is my dad. He was in the National Guard and was deployed in Iraq in 2010. My father decided to go into the National Guard because it would give our family some extra help with health care and more money to have saved for an emergency. He is risked his own life to help us and preserve freedom for American citizens. After he came home and he was able to tell us stories about his time in Iraq, I now have a greater respect for him and all American soldiers. Not only did my dad risk his life for my family, but for all those who call themselves Americans.

Response: I think that you are on the right track when you say that a lot of heroes don’t want to be considered heroes. I think that some reasons for this is people think they are doing what they should or maybe being called a hero brings back bad memories of the event that happened. You mention that you believe a hero is some that is willing to fight until the end. I agree completely with that. I also think that a hero is some that is willing to take risks to be helpful and someone that is brave an courageous would fit into my description of a hero. I think that it is totally possible for your dad to considered a hero. He was willing to put his life in danger to fight for the rights of his country. I feel my ideas of a hero are very much like yours.

A5 Imagination Beyond Daily Life: CC

I had never watched The Village or any kind of movie with that sort of genre before. I really enjoyed the different techniques and styles. The producer was able to add in many different clues about what was going to happen in the movie without actually telling us, so we had to infer a lot of the time. They added enough creepy elements into the film to make it unsettling, but not as scary as a horror film. The style they used really mad you think and question what was going on and make predictions for what was going to happen next. A great example of this would be Ivy standing in the red flowers in the woods. We knew that there was going to be a bad monster, because red was the “bad color”. The producer tried to avoid the blood and guts when creating this film. when you don’t actually witness the crime, you are left to just imagine what happened and how it happened. It almost leaves you wanting more. Also without the blood and guts, a younger audience s able to view the film. People that would like these kinds of films are people that don’t really enjoy all the blood and guts and ghosts of a full on horror movie, but they can still handle a creepy unsettling theme. I am personally one of those people that really enjoys unsettling, but not totally horror themed movies. Overall I really enjoyed watching this movie. If you look at the ratings other people give this movie, it is fairly low on the scale. I have never seen anymore of this producers films before, so they must have been really good. They were maybe more unsettling or had a more realistic story line. I am going to have to watch his other films sometime to create my own opinion of where The Village would sit. I would rate this movie overall with a score of 4/5. There was many parts that were really satisfying, but it ended a bit to abruptly for me to rate it higher.

Year End Grade Nine Portfolio Interview

As a year-end project in ELA, we are answering questions that reflect on our grade 9 year. There are eight questions that talk about our improvement of skills and things we covered in this class. I will provide an example for some of these.

1. Prove or disprove, using supports/examples, that you have grown as a learner through the ELA class activities. 

There are many ways that I have grown this year. One place that shows this is on my blog. My writing has become a lot more in-depth and detailed as the year went one. When I started my blog I never really added an introduction to what my project was or why I was doing it. I think my writing has improved, and my comma usage has advanced compared to where is was at the beginning of the year.    I have attached two links to my blog posts below. The first one showed one of my very first posts that didn’t have an introduction and was that well written. The second one has an intro and is much more in depth. I also added pictures to make it more visually appealing.

Earlier Blog Post

Later Blog Post

2. You have completed speaking, writing and visual representations in this ELA course;                                                                                                       

A. Identify a before (reading/listening/viewing) activity that enhanced your appreciation or understanding of the text. Explain how the before task changed the text for you.                                                                          

B. Identify a During (reading/listening/viewing) activity that enhanced your appreciation or understanding of the text. Explain how the During task changed the text for you.                                                                        

C. Identify an After(reading/listening/viewing) activity that enhanced your appreciation or understanding of the text. Explain how the After task changed the text for you.   

4. Give an example of the planning/development of an assignment that you’re most pleased/proud of. 

I try to give myself an outline to follow when I am writing. I find it way easier to keep the ideas flowing if I already know what I want to write. I have done many types of outlines this year, including webs, charts and just jotting down my ideas. I feel that just jotting down my ideas and color coordinating them works best for me. The example that I am going to show you is about my ending to the outsiders movie. It shows exactly where I would like to start my story, tells me what my climax is going to be and then the fall actions and resolutions. It is all color coordinated in a way that I can follow. It may be hard for others to follow, but it is very easy for me.Planning Outline

5. Formative feedback is the same as summative except you get it before you finalize/submit the assignment. How did it help you improve the quality and/or level of your work to get your feedback during your work instead of after it? Give and example to support your work.

I find it very useful when teachers provide me with formative feedback. It helps me learn and expand my knowledge when I can take the feedback and change the mistakes in my work. I am not able to change them after I submit the assignment. This helps my marks and even how I do in other classes. I feel like the feedback sticks in my brain because I am using it right away. When I get summative feedback back, I usually don’t remember it as easily because I am not using it until the next project. One way my teacher did this was by commenting on my blog. She told me what I was doing well and what i should work on. This helped my take my assignment to the next level. Here is a blog post with one of her comments on it.

Blog Post Formative Feedback

6. Did you reach or test your potential in this ELA class? Explain with and example.

I do think that I reached my potential in this ELA class. My work did advance over the course of the year. I am writing longer answers to my questions and way more detail. My comma use and grammar have changed as well. I have noticed that these skills are transferring to other classes as well. I pay attention to more of these types of things, not just in ELA class. I also used the blog and I help me add more details. I am able to write more on a computer than with a pen and paper. Also, when I am writing for an audience, I make sure that my work sounds good and uses proper grammar. This is one blog post that shows these improvements.

Blog Post With Improvements

7. Do you find your level of self-awareness in your skills and abilities in ELA has improved at all over the past year? Are you reflective and conscious of what is expected if you and what level you accomplish? 

8. Explain whether you felt sufficiently challenged in you ELA work this year. Give an example of a task or project that tested the limits of your abilities.

I feel that I was challenged by many different activities this year. Adding the blog to our course took our work to the next level. We were always adding new things and learning new skills on our blog. I think that it challenged us in an excellent way! There was one activity that challenged me the most this year. The last presentation that we had to do. We had to do a lot of research about a topic that didn’t have an answer to the questions we asked. Then we had to come to a conclusion and create a presentation. These projects took a lot of work and time. Then we did something that I’m not very strong at, presentations. I prepared notes for what I wanted to talk about and practiced. I was very nervous doing this presentation, but in the end, it turned out well. I have attached a copy of my presentation below.

Canadian Beef Farmers Inquiry Presentation

9. You developed your blog this year, adding samples of a lot of your work. In doing so, you’ve tweaked it to include a fair representation if your personality online. What skills do you think you’ve developed through using the blog? List two positives and two negatives of the blogging work you’ve done this year.   

I really enjoyed using the blogs this year.

A10 CC Descriptive Instructions to Follow

For this activity, we started out practicing drawing a sketch of the image that our partner was describing to us. Today we had to find an image off of google and not show our partner. They will then have to use the description that we give to try and do a drawing of the image we have. Here it goes.

  • I will start off by saying that is a picture of a chihuahua. Though, it is not your typical dog.
  • It is a front view but is turned slightly to a right side angle.
  • The dog is a very light brown color (almost white) and relatively small.
  • It has two very buggish green/brown eyes. They are spread fairly far apart.
  • It has a smallish nose that is just the slightest bit darker than its body color.
  • It has very large pointy ears that stick almost straight up.
  • You are not able to see very much of the dogs body due to a puffy snow white princess dress.
  • the dress has light blue, puffy sleeves that have red stripes running vertically on it. You can only see one stripe on each side.
  • The dress has a dark royal blue from the shoulders to the waist. (About have way down the dogs body.)
  • The dress has a yellow bottom and is super puffy. It is also sparkly.
  • The dress has a white collar that stops half way around the dogs neck.
  • On top of the dogs, head is a bright red, sparkly tiara.
  • The dog has a brown wig with the tiara. The hair is to the dogs shoulders.

I have now attached the original image and people’s drawings from my description.

Disney Dog The Original Image.

Carsons dog drawingCarson’s Interpretation

 

A9 CC: The Majestic 24 Emotions Representations

The Majestic- Title PageThe Majestic- Colour EmotionsThe Color Wheel of Emotions

We watched the movie The Majestic in ELA. We then went through the movie and picked out the main parts that were important to the story line. Next, we chose colors that represented what emotion Peter/Luke was feeling at that time. I have explained my choices for these colors below:

  1. Girlfriend– The movie starts out with Peter Appleton and his girlfriend sitting in the movie theater, watching Peter’s movie that was just released. Happy seemed to be an emotion that fit this situation well. I decided to use the color green to represent this. I used the color wheel above to help me make color choices. Also, green is a happy color. There is lots of green in nature and nature makes me happy!:)
  2. Communist– The second point of the movie is when he is being accused of being a communist. I chose fear as the emotion to show this. I chose orange as the color because orange fear is in between angry which is red and terrified which is yellow. Also, orange is a brighter, bolder color, which makes me think something is going to happen in the story.
  3. Fired– This is the point in the movie when Peter is fired from his job. Anger is the best way to describe how he was feeling at that moment. The color I think of when I hear anger is bright red. It is bright and bold, and people tend to turn red when they are mad.
  4. Drinking– After being accused of being a communist and getting fired from his job, Peter is upset. That is the best word to describe how he was feeling at that time. He decided to go to the bar and ends up getting drunk. He is trying to drink away his problems. I chose a light red for this because he is not super mad, but things are still bothering him.
  5. Accident– After a night of drinking at the bar, Peter decides he wants to leave and ends up driving intoxicated. After driving for a while, its starts pouring rain and Peter ends up driving off a bridge. He would have to be terrified at that moment. I thought that a greenish, brown color would show this well because Peter is not angry and not happy so this seemed to fits that particular spot.
  6. Lost With no Memory– During the accident when Peter was in the water, he hit his head on something and was knocked unconscious. He woke up in the morning with a dog standing over him, licking his face. He didn’t know who he was, where he was or how he got there. He knew nothing. There was a man that was the owner of the dog that helped him up and got him to town to see the doctor. Peter had to be unsure of what was going on. He remembered nothing. That’s why I chose the word unsure. For this, I used a peachy, yellowish color. He wasn’t scared so it wouldn’t be yellow and peach just seemed like it fit as a color. It is in between yellow and red.
  7. Breakfast– Once the man that finds him(Ernie), gets him to town, he takes him for breakfast. The doctor just happens to come into the restaurant at the time Peter is eating breakfast. Ernie thinks that it is a good idea for him to get checked out, so they leave to the doctors office. They pass by a man sitting in the restaurant, and the man gets this excited look on his face. The word I chose for this is confused. Peter doesn’t know what is happening and is just going with the flow. Again, I chose an orange color because it just makes me feel confused and not sure what to do.
  8. Father– The man that was in the restaurant comes running to the doctors office needing to talk to Peter. They let him in a he introduces himself to Peter as Harry. The weirdest part of this is he calls Peter, Luke. Also, he says that Luke is Harry’s son. Everyone thought that Luke was killed in the war, but Harry is positive that Peter is Luke. Everyone believes this, even Peter. Still Luke is a little bit hesitant. The color I chose for this is a yellow, green color. He was somewhat happy, but also a little scared.
  9. Town– Harry convinces everyone that he is Luke. Harry then takes Luke and shows him around the town, to “refresh” his memory. Luke has no recollection of anything. Harry then takes Luke to where he lives. The old movie theater. He gives Luke a tour of that and takes him up to his living room.The emotion that best described this was interested. The color I chose was a bright green. Luke is happy and excited to see all of these new things.
  10. Reopening– Luke falls asleep on Harry’s couch and sleeps away the rest of the day and the entire night. Luke wakes in the morning with Harry and two other people standing to overtop of him. Luke sits up very rapidly because this startled him. Harry introduces the other two people, Emmett, and Irene. They are the old staff members from The Majestic. They had a very good idea to reopen the theater and start playing movies again. Luke doubts this a bit. He says it will take to much work to get it going again. The color I thought represented this the best is a bright purple. He isn’t sad and gloomy, which I feel is a blue color, but he isn’t mad which is red. He is somewhere in between this, so that’s why I chose purple.
  11. The Majestic– They get Luke convinced that it is a good idea to reopen The Majestic. They go and look through the whole theatre and see how much work it would be. They decide that they should and start figuring out how they are going to make this happen. The colour I chose to represent this was a darker green. Luke was intrigued and excited to see how this was going to turn out. Green representing intrigued seem to go along well with the other colours that I had chosen for the other emotions.
  12. Adele– Luke goes to the diner with his dad. There he meets Adele, Luke’s old girlfriend. They go for a walk around town, and she shows him all of the places they used to go to. At one point Adele gets a really bad case of hiccups and the only thing that fixes this is kissing Luke. He was excited in this part of the movie. A very bright green is the colour I choose for this. Excited is a lot like happy. When you are excited, you are happily mixed with so many other good emotions. I had chosen green to represent happy so I thought that a very bright green would show excited well.
  13. Party– The whole town has a welcome home party for Luke. They try and get him to play the piano because he was so good at it. He doesn’t remember how to play at first. He starts to play jazz music which is not what he played before. This confused quite a few people. Luke was amazed that people would throw him such a big party and that he remembered how to play the piano. The colour that I thought amazed should be is a yellow, green colour. He was thrilled with the party but also a little frighten to play the piano. Then he ended up playing it which shocked him a little bit.
  14. Confrontation– After the party, Luke walks back to the Majestic. He is just about back to the theatre when a man stops him. The man is Bob, a war veteran that lost one of his arms. He thinks that Luke is not Luke. He is fairly upset about this and ends up punching him in the face. Luke is very aggravated at this point in time. He can’t understand why Bob thinks that he isn’t Luke. The colour I thought represented this the best is a lighter red. He isn’t super mad that it would be a really bright, bold red, but he is getting to that point.
  15. Setting up the Theatre– A whole crew of people comes together trying to get the theatre ready for its first showing. People are busy doing all of the jobs that need to be done. They have to get everything ready for the opening showing that night. Luke is thrilled to see this happen. He is so much more than happy, so I chose a dark green. He is super happy to have the theatre up and going again. Also, it makes his dad really happy!
  16. The Moment he Remembers– Everyone starts to show up for the movie at The Majestic. The movie that is being shown is the movie that Peter released before he got accused of being a Communist. Luke has a moment of “Wait, I know this movie! I am not Luke after all!” He is completely astonished! His actual name is Peter Appleton.  The colour I chose for this was yellow. He was shocked which makes a person turn a bit white, but i thought that yellow would be a better colour to choose to represent an emotion.
  17. Heart Attack– Harry is the one that is running the movie and doing the reel change. At the time of Luke realizing he is not Luke, Harry misses a reel change. This causes everyone to panic. Peter goes running up to check on him and finds him on the floor. He had a heart attack. The doctor comes an takes him to his bed where he later passes away. This causes Peter a lot of grief and sadness. I thought that blue was the best colour to show this with. He is feeling down and depressed, and blue is usually the colour people associate with sadness and grief.
  18. Funeral– They have Harry’s funeral. Many people from the community show up. Peter is sad at this point in time. I chose a lighter blue for this. He still is sad; it’s just not as dark of blue as when he was grieving.
  19. Informs Adele About Not Being Luke– After the funeral, Peter asks to talk to Adele. He tells her about not being Luke and gives her all of the details. She is pretty mad at him and doesn’t want to talk to him. During this part of the movie, Peter is very worried. He doesn’t knows how to tell Adele or how she is going to take it. Then, once he tells her, she is mad at him. His emotions are an orange colour right now. He isn’t mad (Red), and isn’t surprised (yellow). He is somewhere in between there (Orange).
  20. Federal Agents– As Peter is walking down the street, a person calls out and orders him to stop. It is the federal agents accusing him of being a communist. They call him on it in from of everyone in the streets. People start to get upset. The Federal Agents tell him that he is going to have to appear in court. Peter is very frantic at this moment. I wasn’t sure what colour frantic would be, so I used the colour wheel to help me make my decision for this one.
  21. Talks to Emmett– After Peter is accused of being a communist in front the entire town, he goes home to the majestic. He finds Emmett in his room and talks to him for a bit. He tells him that he knew that Peter wasn’t Luke ever since he played the piano at the welcome home party the town threw. Peter is surprised about this and doesn’t quite understand why Emmett didn’t say anything. I chose a yellowish, peach colour for this because he was kind of shocked and upset at the same time.
  22. The Court Room– Peter has to go to his court hearing today. He is super nervous and can’t even focus on what he is trying to read. The court is getting a little upset with him because he isn’t using his time and doing what he is supposed to be doing. The emotion that represents this situation is nervous. I represented nervous with a light orange. He is stressed and getting a bit upset, and orange makes me think of stress and nervousness.
  23. Makes a Statement– Peter finally gets over his nervousness and starts talking. He begins making points about human rights. He talks about Luke and from what he has heard, Luke wouldn’t agree with what the court was trying to do. At this point, Peter is a little bit irritated. I used a bright pink colour to show this. He is getting mad, and he is trying to get his point across.
  24. Starts a “New Life”– After Peters court hearing, he goes back to his studio and quits his job. He then comes back to Lawson and finds Adele. They work things out and start dating again. They eventually get married and have children. Peter is more than happy! He is Exuberant! I again chose green for this. Green is just a happy colour for me and it fit the situation perfectly.

Here is a trailer for the movie The Majestic. It will give you an idea of what I am talking about.