Category Archives: English 9

Animal Farm Video

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For one of our final major group projects in English 9, Mr. Bell assigned us to complete an election campaign for a character in the novel “Animal Farm”. My group and I decided to do Old Major. Old Major was one of the first main characters introduced in the book and was the animal who inspired the whole rebellion. Our entire campaign was based on how much older and how much wiser Old Major was than all the other animals. We discussed how he had been around the longest and knew the most about the farm.

During the project, we had to come up with multiple propaganda techniques for Old Major to win the election. One of the main tactics used for our group was fear. We used fear by stating that if the other parties didn’t vote for Old Major then Mr. Jones would return. And because all other animals were scared off of his return they were forced into voting for us. Another technique we used quoted. I’m not sure if this is an actual technique but my group and I took quotes from the novel to state facts about the other animals. For example, we used Boxer’s quote “Napoleon is always right” to prove that he is a follower to Napoleon.

Overall there were a few things that our group could improve on. Staring with doing more work in class. Sara and I did most of the project outside of school which made us fall behind just a bit. Also, I wish we had put more effort into the video because that’s what brought our markdown to an A-.

Africa Road Rap

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Communication

In order to complete the Afrika Road Rap assignment, I had to use my communication core competency. To be more specific I used the following, share and develop ideas, obtain, interpret, and present information, work together to plan, carry out, and review task activities, and finally describe/recall and reflect on the experiences and what one can do. To finish our rap in a timely manner my group and I shared and bounced ideas off one another for lyric brainstorms. We then took those rough ideas and developed them into the completed lyrics which we used. Our group also needed to come up with a plan of costumes and what we would wear for our presentation, after little debate we settled on wearing black pants, a colorful shirt, sunglasses, and hat. Our group members also had to exchange emails so we were all able to work on the document at different times.

Another key portion of completing the assignment was presenting our information. My group and I tried our best to incorporate as much from the short story as possible while also adding a few twists of our own. Presenting the rap to the whole class was by far worse than writing it. I didn’t realize how nerve-racking it would be to stand in front of my peers and sing our rap. Sure everyone in the class was forced to do the same as us but I had no idea it would take so much bravery to perform such a task.

Reviewing the video that my classmate took I can clearly see what we could have improved on. Even though we had practiced our rap numerous times and had made sure the soundtrack lined up correctly, we still looked down too often. Not only that but we also didn’t project our voices loud enough. If I were to do this project again I would simply rehearse our song a few more times and make sure everyone in the group has more of equal participation.

 

What I Want To Learn In English

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What I Want To Learn/Get Out Of English 9                                                              Kyla Wallace, Block 4, September 5, 2019

In this semester of English 9, I aspire to obtain as much knowledge as possible. In no particular order, I hope to better my understanding of the normans journey through Scandinavia, learn about the origins of the old English language, and be taught how properly write in cursive. I also wish to improve my spelling and public speaking skills. I tend to become apprehensive when speaking in front of my peers and I am hoping to boost my confidence this year. Aside from public speaking, I find I need to work on my neatness habits. I am an immense perfectionist and need everything to be perfect. Whether it’s my notes or a project it constantly needs to be organized. This semester I will try to cut back my habits and get assignments done earlier.   

 

Core Competencies Review

In order to write the paragraph “What I Want To Learn/Get Out Of English 9”, I needed to use one of the many core competencies. Out of communication, creative thinking, critical thinking, positive personal and cultural identity, social responsibility, and personal awareness and responsibility, I chose creative thinking. The three points in creative thinking consist of Novelty and Value, Generating Ideas, and Developing Ideas. To write the paragraph above I believe I had to use all three of the points. For example, Generating Ideas, I used this to develop ideas on what I felt I wanted/needed to learn in English 9. Another example would be Novelty and Value. I used this point to come up with topics that I am interested in learning about with Mr. Bell. Although I felt as though I mainly used creative thinking as my core competency, I think I also used my personal awareness and responsibility competency. In this assignment I was able to self regulate myself and stay on task, not to mention I was also very determined to make a good first impression on Mr. Bell. I used my wanting to make a good first impression to motivate myself to put in maximum effort towards this paragraph. Overall I fell as though I used both creative thinking and personal awareness as my core competency.