Unfamiliar passage.

Creatures captured. Punished. Their chest pounding as they breath heavily. Squashed between a flat wooden boulder and a shimmering glass. There was no escape. The cell was surrounded by barriers of gliding, sealed in prison by mechanical gates and poisonous sticky substances secured the gaps. Been engraved with faded historical patterns, distracting the unseen feeling of lament from the creatures. Even if they were able to move around, the chance of survival was slim, as they were then.

What can this be?

It can see what is out there and what is out there can see it. It sways with the rhythm of whom it listens to. It crashes to the inexistent edges. 'It' is a sort of a cluster of invisibility but with powers to regenerate 'him'. Those who are chosen are kept at the bottom, near the dark tunnel, to exit to the unknown. The rest honours them with grace with the traditional ritual. Youngsters are kept at a safe distance away from the occurrence whilst then elderly and the adults begin the process. Carefully, they go around in twirls like a hurricane, resulting those who are chosen to sink to the bottom, reaching to the darkness of tunnels. The beat stops and a part of it is gone. It shrinks and shrinks and shrinks, without knowing what is happening. Those chosen starts to flow in 'him' like a water fountain defying gravity. Entering the suffocating atmosphere, they enlighten the air with oxygen and strength. And that is the last of them..

Reflection.

Reflect:
Today, we have done our English Speaking and Listening assessment. Our characters were chosen by ourselves. The plot was that the plane was going to crash if we did not throw out 5 people. The character that I chose was Karen Woodward. She lives with her parents, whom are disabled. She runs 'Shopping for the Disabled'.

The learning intention for this task was - "I can effectively manipulate language to be
persuasive." I believed that, I was quite manipulative in my speech as I have used rhetorical devices in a persuasive speech. I was confident with my speech as I was quite prepared. Before this CA, I have never prepared for any of my previous Speaking and Listening CAs so, by preparing, I was able to score higher and reach for my goal. My goal originally was to try to get 15 marks but then as I went and continued talking, I've realised how I wasn't focused, I forgotten
words, I sort of waffled a bit on some parts so, I was hoping for 14 marks, and thankfully, I've gotten that mark.

Carlos was peer-assessing my work and the highlighted areas above on the rubrics are his thoughts on my grade. The only feedback he has given me was too use more body language to interact with the audience more.

I can say that I can evaluate the persuasiveness of fellow learner's speeches because at the end of everyone's speech, we all peer-assessed each other. By doing so, it enabled a better understanding on how persuasive their speeches were. This results to a better understanding how examiners will mark the work.

Overall, the task was helpful and I feel like I have successfully accomplished the learning intention and success criteria.

Reflection

This week, I have learned to use the 'Literature Circle'. This is when we discuss about a story based on our specific roles. This week, I was the discussion director which leads everyone throughout. I believe I wasn't as effective as I should be so what I can do is to talk more with relevant information.

Mundane

Walking:

- forced - shoes were uncomfortable - wrong sides of feet

- legs chained

- legs wobbling - unsteady - weren't given good

The day came, the shine arise, freedom came nearer. I needed to leave. I need to see the world, where was my dignity? Where was my rights? Wasn't I noticeable? Escaping was a hard, long process to consider. Would I have made it out?

Ah, came the usual occurance; our inmates came to 'visit' us with such willingness. Whoever thought it was a different day? It wasn't. Forced to stand on both feet and walked the ruins about a dozen times. The joy.

The walk. Never have I hated walking to such extent. My shoes were excruciatingly painful, filled with such horror. It felt as though they were placed on the wrong foot; or were they just my feet all along?

My legs were chained together with hard, heavy, solid steal. The walk was heavy and crucial. My legs wobbled tremendously as I tried to gain strength. The steps were slow, filled with anger and furry. Why didn't any of this punishment occur to someone else? Why was I punished? It didn't matter. The emotions that have been stored would not help me.

As the journey continued, the balance of the ground changed. The varieties of rock formation were scattered, leaving small gaps between them to create unsteadiness. They were rough, no doubt. The soles of my feet were burning from the pain. "I couldn't stand it, I couldn't," I said to myself. As I mumbled, my foot slipped from one of the rocks. Unknown what I had to do, but let gravity defined the next step, I fell crashing to the ground.

Reflection.

This week, we learned about mundane; lacking interest or excitement: dull. We've started off to list down 5 or so daily boring activities. It was sort of a hassle since I barely knew what could be defined as 'boring'. Ms.Bailey eventually made us read two stories: Paint Drying and The Bomb. To my surprise, the way the writer analysed and took the small details of something so mundane in Paint Drying, was beyond interesting. For me, I tend to get too creative in essays that we weren't suppose to and during essays when we were suppose to be too creative, I blank out. So for an essay like Paint Drying showed me how and when to appropriately be creative.


During that lesson, we also wrote our own guideline from an extract.

"Do not see the topic on the surface. Go in deeper to understand and explore the situation"

This made me realise that all the essays that I've done, I was too scared to go into depth, to go in deeper. Probably from all my 'awkward sentences' which made me feel a little traumatize of making the same mistakes. But then, it also made me realise that if I'm afraid, I should overcome it, instead of running away.

So overall, the lesson was helpful for me to reflect on what I've done and what I have not achieved.

Sentence Type Poster.

please comment on this wonderful poster, everyone! :D

Reflection 1

This week, I have been assigned into Ms.Bailey's group (because I am re-sitting the exam) and went through some basics.

For the past two lessons, I have learned how to use rubrics. Rubrics was sort of a markscheme to see how we will progress and what was the boundary between the developing, intermediate and expert writers. Instead of a markscheme already given to us, we had to make our own statements in the rubrics. I found this useful because I was able to distinguish what examiners/everyone look for instead of always guessing.

For both of the classes, we were given tasks. The tasks consisted of editing and rephrasing the sentences given to make the sentences more 'lively'. This was a good way to start off the class, because as what Ms.Bailey said, "practice makes perfect." I felt it was useful for myself to be aware of how fast and how creative I could be with minimum amount of time.

Writing Challenge: Shark

The day was filled with birds chirping in harmony, the sway of the trees through the winds and the noise of the water, crashing towards the beach. It was a beautiful day; a day to be filled with happiness and joy. What a better way then to engage the feeling in something worth remembering? There it was, a brilliant idea came to mind, "I should go snorkling in the middle of the sea!" as I said to myself calmly and excitedly, "it's something worth remembering, wouldn't it? The sea, the creatures, everything!" But little did I know, that day was literally the day I will never forget for the rest of my life.

I arrived at this ideal location where tourists come every now and then to explore. The blue crystal waters, the exotic fish in every colour you can imagine, everything about it screamed excitement! But the best part? The corals weren't even bleached! I was unable to wait. I had to go inside, see the world under and see the beautiful creation that Mother Nature has granted us. With no hesitation, I dived into the new world and experience something that I will never forget.

There were fish, turtles, seahorses, every single creature were there! (so I've thought to myself) but there was one that caught my eye. I couldn't understand the structure nor the colour of it as it was too far to be visible. With my curiosity, I went closer, and closer, and closer. The vision came more vivid. "What could this be?" as I said to myself curiously. With my surprise, I had the shock of my life.

A shark. But not any type of shark. A great white shark.

"I better get away before it's too late," and there I was, swimming away. But it was too late. The shark has seen me; it sensed my blood.