My school has five ESLRs, which are self-directed learners, academic achiever, critical thinker, involved citizen and effective communicator. I started to make connections of the ESLRs with the experience I had in English class especially discussing and reading the novel Lord of the Flies.
I considered myself a self-directed learner at the beginning of reading the novel. I identified my needs and applied appropriate learning strategies. When I found excerpts of the story that were meaningful and interesting, I jotted them down onto post-it notes and stuck them into the book to bookmark for future use. Besides the tiny summaries, I wrote down predictions of what could have happened if there was absence of the important objects. While I was doing my project, I discovered many uses of the notes. It was easy and efficient for me to complete the “objects and symbols” project. The day I started reading this novel, I proved competency in goal setting, time management, and organizational skills by having a timetable drawn up. It was compulsory for me to read at least 2 to 3 pages a day, soon it became a habit. I would add on notes in my folder describing the changes of the characters in the novel and the importance of its appearance since Mr. R told us this hint. The objects and characters in the book all symbolize certain behaviors of the society. For example, Piggy’s glasses symbolize intellect and the sign of ideas and improvement. This helps in a way for me to understand the connection of the novel with the real world. As I was very curious of the various consequences of the novel, I carved down many ‘what ifs?’ question into my folder. For example, conch symbolizes control and order, “what if there was no conch, would there still be any law or order?” I have gone beyond what seems to be a normal book reading routine to a whole new level. I treated this as an experiment; I used resources from the library and the net. I researched this book and applied more learning strategies towards this story.
After we completed the novel, it was time to start on the projects. While I was doing my project, although I tried my best to assess, evaluate and adjust my work repeatedly to maintain high standards, the grades were not really satisfying. I did my work more than once to find out what’s missing and how to change it if things were out of order. It was my first project and I spent countless hours and put much effort into it. I not only used information of the novel, I also surfed the net to obtain more resources, reader’s notes and comments of the novel. This changed my whole view about the book, the comments and notes were additional knowledge to guess the possible modified version of Lord of the Flies. Illustrations make up an essential part of the grade, which was why I looked up for the pictures of the objects which had the properties described in the novel. Unexpectedly, the grade of the project was very disappointing to me. Finally, I accepted the fact that I was hard-headed and was unwilling to accept advice given; but at least I’ve gotten the picture of what a good project should be. This showed that I was not much of an academic achiever. Next time, I will put in more effort and try to achieve better grades.
I have shown the ability and skills of a critical thinker. Besides that, we have had regular meetings about the story line and the appearance of each important symbol. During discussions, I listed down everything that came in handy, I ranked each items by its value and the times it appeared. The new knowledge was then combined with the old information and data to conclude a final idea of the meanings. This indicates the ability of building meaning and understanding using prior knowledge and new information. As I am a student who does research, I have shown the ability to identify, evaluate and use resources effectively for the purpose of problem solving.
Whenever good complicated questions where shot out during our regular class discussions, the whole group would think of suggestions and solutions. This activity was important because it helped us identified the significance of the book. I found out that we had shown care and concern of the boys’ environment and situations they were facing in the Lord of the Flies, which of course, demonstrated that we have the characteristics of an involved citizen. During negotiations, I listened respectfully to others when they spoke, and demonstrated awareness and respect for the right of others. For example, while someone talks, I’ll look at him/her and write down notes or nod my head whenever what is said makes sense. I noticed that some of my classmates should be more concerned of the environment. What I really wished would happen was that others would try to listen to my suggestions and don’t interrupt my speech.
The last ESLR, was being an effective communicator. This was a challenge for me as I said I wasn’t able to be heard. There was a boy in the book, named Simon; he was also not much of an effective communicator. He had the intuition and right view to lead, what was missing was that he just wasn’t able to express it. This is the thing I want to improve on. In addition to discussions, Mr. R gave us a class activity before we started the book. We walked in the class. It was dark. We heard noises of birds screeching, the sounds of waves washing to the shore, “Swoosh!” There by the corner, was a ‘ghost’. Mr. R, stood with a pen held in his hand. The activity was for us to have a first impression of what the book is like; instructions were showed on the board. The activity was fun, although we had not enough time to finish, the experience was entertaining. If only we had enough time working and not goofing around, we would be able to complete the task on time. This showed that we were lack of effective collaboration skill. After we completed the book, he gave us the similar activity to do again. This was more serious because we had to separate ourselves into groups regarding our personality test result to have a better outcome on our jobs. This personality test, known as Meyer’s Brigg’s test, is testing yourself whether you are an introvert or an extrovert, uses sense or intuition; prefer thinking or feeling and judging or perception. Too bad almost all of my group members were extroverts. We weren’t able to cooperate really well. There were several arguments, but at last my group got together and we collaborated with each other in appropriate learning situations to achieve a group goal.
Ideas
For this journal assignment, I used the ESLRs to make connections with everything I’ve experienced from the start of the school year, throughout the class, and activities I’ve done as a team and individually.
Organization
I arranged my journal in six paragraphs, each containing one ESLR except the first paragraph which is the introduction.
Voice
For voice, I made changes to some of my sentences to make it sound more interesting to the readers.
Eg.
(i) Whenever good and complicated questions where shot out during our regular class discussions, the whole group would think of suggestions and solutions.
(ii) There by the corner, was a ‘ghost’, known as Mr. R, stood a pen held in his hand.
Word Choice
Initially when I was writing my journal, I had never realize how many repetitions of certain words I made. Eventually I made some changes to it.
Eg. Discovered- proven, found out
Demonstrated- shown
Discussions- meetings
Besides- in addition
Ideas- views
Importance- value
Important- essential
Comments- explanation
Notes- remarks
Bad- worse
Sentence Fluency
I wrote down a few sentences which weren’t very fluent at all. That is to say that I made corrections to which I have down wrong.
Eg.
Before
I have not only uses information of the book, I surfed the net to obtain more resources, reader’s notes and comments of the book. This changed my whole view about the book, the comments and notes were additional knowledge to guess the possible modified version of Lord of the Flies.
After
I treated this as an ‘experiment’; I used resources from the library and the net. I researched this book and applied more learning strategies towards this story.
Conventions
I looked up and fixed all the errors I could find in my journal. I read the whole journal more than once to search for grammar mistakes and spellchecked it. I tried my best to make sure my ideas were clearly presented to the audience.
