Reflections and Outcomes

General Outcomes and Reflections 

1.1 Discover Possibilities 

1.1.1 Form Tentative understandings, interpretation and positions
1.1.2 Experiment with language, image and structure

My Truth and Bright Water Visual project allowed me to form my understandings and interpretations from the book and show my positions from the book and about the characters and events. This book allowed us to study many more texts on the Aboriginal communities and cultures to better understand them. The language in Truth and Bright Water made have to decide what words I wanted to tie in with my visual project. How I wanted to present my project with the language I had chosen within it. Through having to create your project you had to create a certain structure with symbols, as you did the project you started to understand how important these symbols are to the Aboriginal culture. I used a flat surface on my project to show how difficult it can be to understand things if you only know one position of the story and not all of them. Tecumseh only ever had the opinions that came from himself like him thinking Aunt Cassie was pregnant because of the suitcase and what he sees and hears going on around him but that is not what is actually happening. The flowers that I had in the center of my project unfolded and opened up and allowed to me imagine how everyone was connected and what situation they were all in. Linking them all together in a structure that connected showed you how they were connected and what they had come to realize.                                        

1.2 Extend Awareness

1.2.1 Consider New Perspectives
1.2.2 Express preferences and expand interests
1.2.3 Set personal goals for language growth 

The project that could reflect these outcomes is also my Truth and Bright Water visual project but Smoke signals could also be used. The connection charts allowed me to have new perspective about the aboriginal culture and community, have the movie based on the lives of them. By creating these charts and putting two characters from two different Aboriginal communities beside each other it allowed to consider new perspectives about Aboriginals because though they were completely different people, they were so similar and different in many ways. That allowed me to expand my interest of the Aboriginal culture because seeing that these people were from different tribes they were still similar and showed everyone carried burdens with them and everyone had issues. When I connected these charts I got show my preferences in the ways that I thought characters between Smoke Signals and Truth and Bright Water connected to each other. The chart allowed me to set personal goals for language growth in remembering that quotations are very important in writing and that they add to a opinion and help build the piece of writing. 

2.1 Construct meaning from text and context

2.1.1 discern and analyze context
2.1.2 Understand and interpret content
2.1.3 Engage prior knowledge
2.1.4 Use reference strategies and reference technologies 

The novel questions we did based off of Truth and Bright Water also included looking up other writings and looking at the context of many other things than just the novel itself. Researching other texts about the Aboriginal communities and cultures made it easier to look into this novel and understand more things about the community your reading about. When answering these question they did not just focus primarily on the novel they also focused on looking deeper into the context and finding what it means and seeing what you can recognize or find in it. By answering these questions it made you look back into prior knowledge on what you have learned through the years that could connect to these questions. You had to be able to look at a question and connect it to the book or connect it to a person and to do that you had to understand what was going on with that person and interpret it and connect it, usually into a quote. With question number seven you had to look back and reference the animals in the book and how some FNMI oral teachings with the mention of these animals like, "She sees my hand right away and makes a noise like a whale coming up for air" pg.243 and In First Nations the killer whale was a subject of focus in the belief system of many First Nation Tribes on the Pacific Northwest coast. You had to be able to look into the book and reference the page of quotes and track them all. On a question like number four you had to look into your prior knowledge of the characters to see which one fit the quotation the best, for example "Lucy is a person who could connect to the quote “I never let the facts get in the way of the truth” because Lucy never gives up on the facts about Marilyn Munroe. Lucy will spend her time researching Marilyn and finding out everything she can about her because she wants to be just like her, she believes Marilyn is native. But whenever someone throws the facts that Marilyn isn't native at her she refuses to believe it because Marilyn had dark skin and her father had left her when she was little so she did not know her father. Lucy believes Marilyn’s father could have been a native man because no one knows who he is.

2.2 Understand and appreciate textual forms, elements and techniques 

2.2.1 Relate form, structure and medium to purpose, audience and content
2.2.2 Relate Elements, devices and techniques to created effects 

By analyzing these poems and having to connect them to different texts and relate them. These questions have taught me how to look into poetry and take pieces of its structure to find different elements, techniques and devices within the poems. These poems have taught me how to appreciate this literature form because now by being able to look into a poem and see the techniques and created effects it helps me get a better understanding of it. In the poem "The Starry Night" appeals to the audience in the way of creating visual imagery and connecting to the readers emotions which connects them to its content. When I was answering these poetry questions I took the poem and divided it up looking at different elements in the poems. I then wrote what I felt about that poem and a clear explanation why. 

2.3 Respond to a variety of print and non-print texts

2.3.1 Connect self, text, culture and milieu
2.3.2 Evaluate the verisimilitude, appropriateness and significance of print and non-print texts
2.3.3 Appreciate the effectiveness and artistry of print and non-print texts 

For Lord of the Rings: Return of the King, when writing the research project about the cinematic, dramatic and literary elements of the film we had to look closely at the culture, text, and milieu. There were many different cultures created within the text of this film, which of course this film was based off of J.R.R. Tolkien’s books. Peter Jackson had taken his books and made them into three remarkable movies, by making the film without losing the essence of the books. I could connect the milieu of Pippin because Pippin is a smaller person in middle earth and is always getting into trouble though when he did wrong and caused trouble he didn't try and hide he stood up and faced the fight he needed too. The cultures within middle earth all varied because there was Rohan, Mordor, Gondor, the shire, all different people with different cultures. Though you know that Middle Earth is not a real place and the movie is shot in New Zealand, primarily in a warehouse, it kind of shocks you because of the verisimilitude throughout the film. After watching the special features and seeing how many people and how much work was put into these films it’s truly amazing. You very much appreciate the level of artistry put into the film, and even after watching the special features and them showing you how they do things and what they add after the fact, when you’re watching the film it still seems very real, the work they do is very effective. When watching the special features and your listening to everyone talk you realize there is a parallel structure between the film making and the actual film, which shows the connection between the film and the human condition.

3.1 Determine inquiry or research requirements

3.1.1 Focus on purpose and presentation form
3.1.2 Plan inquiry or research, and identify information needs and sources

With my visual project, I had to pick my teaching statement which I chose Teaching the truth to reveal and connect, with this statement I had to focus on that purpose. Which was showing how the symbols and elements I showed on my project which was a flower that was opening its petals and 'revealing' what was inside which on each outer petal was one thing that connected to two things which were on the two inner petals which it connected too. I presented this project by just stating the main elements of my project to the class and why I decided to include that symbol in my project. For this project I had to plan and research the information in which I used on my project. When presenting this in the circle, it allowed developing connections to each project, and with everyone presenting and giving input and questions on your own project it makes you realize what elements I could have connected to my visual or what I could have added to make it a better representation of what I wanted to show. I choose the flower to show the purpose of how you may know only one small thing but then as time goes on you figure out more and it connects to other things and eventually it all connects just as all the petals connect to the center of the flower.

3.2 Follow a plan of inquiry

3.2.1 Select, record and organize information
3.2.2 Evaluate sources, and assess information
3.2.3 Form generalizations and conclusions
3.2.4 Review inquiry or research process and findings 

The chapter charts we made for Truth and Bright Water reflects these outcomes in the way that with each chapter we read we had to make a chart with the categories: page numbers, main events, characters, symbols, elements/techniques, dramatic purpose, themes/motifs and First Nation connections. Being able to select and organize which information was the most important and critical to the chapter made it easier and made a better understanding of the content of the chapter. When writing our essays on this novel, it was much easier to find quotations and items we wanted to include because it was all already laid out in these charts and we knew where to find them in the novel. When I thought a theme had a deep meaning I would include evidence of this theme such as a symbol, literary device or quotation and assess this information. When you would hear something in the book you thought was meaningful you would be able to draw many generalizations and conclusions about it, such as when you heard Helen and Auntie Cassie talking about the suitcase of baby clothes you might to think Aunt Cassie was pregnant just as Tecumseh did, because that's what the narrator made it seem like.

4.1 Develop and present a variety of print and non print texts

4.1.1 Assess text creation context
4.1.2 Consider and address form, structure and medium
4.1.3 Develop context
4.1.4 Use production publication and presentation strategies and technologies consistent with context

For my Lord of the Rings: Return of the King, research project I had to assess what I was going to include into the context of my paper. When writing you have to be careful when developing the context of a text form within a paper when tying in your themes and the elements you using. In this case the literary, dramatic and cinematic elements, with also developing the context of your paper as well. We had to choose how we wanted to structure our own papers, I chose to structure mine with the three elements we needed to look at literary, cinematic and dramatic, because it would be easier to put more information into these three categories than having many small categories and sometimes having to repeat yourself in them. Marshall McLuhan "The Medium is the Message" would help you consider the medium of writing your paper, and looking that the medium is embedded in the message, creating a symbiotic relationship by which the medium influences how the message is perceived. Then when writing your paper you had to decide how you wanted your message of what your writing about to be perceived and how you’re going to create that medium to send the certain message you want to. 

4.2 Improve thoughtfulness, effectiveness and correctness of communication

4.2.1 Enhance thought and understanding and support and detail  
4.2.2 Enhance organization
4.2.3 Consider and address matters of choice
4.2.4 Edit text for matters of correctness

For this outcome, on improvement I looked at two of my essays, my Hamlet essay and my Truth and Bright Water essay. After writing my Hamlet essay and getting my feedback on it, I used that feedback on my next essay to improve my writing skills. When writing my essays I would add details such as quotations or events that happened in the novel or play to add support and detail into my papers. When writing my second paper I had much more idea on how to write a stronger paper after my first one. When writing the second one I made it much more organized by putting the body paragraphs in order from most important example of my topic to least. I edited the essay more than once to check for matters of correctness by making sure there were no run-ons, grammar mistakes or major errors in my writing, my matters of choice were considered more deeply in thought in my Truth and Bright Water paper than my matters of choice in Hamlet. I made my thought more clearly by enhancing it with more support by using many quotations that fit into the paper, relating to the content of my essay.

5.1 Respect others and strengthen community 

5.1.1 Use language and image to show respect and consideration
5.1.2 Appreciate diversity of expression, opinion and perspective
5.1.3 Recognize accomplishments and events 

There are two items that I thought could reflect these outcomes. I thought that our "Love Thy Neighbour" groups could reflect these and so could doing the character/chapter charts for Hamlet and Truth and Bright Water could. These could both reflect these outcomes because we showed image with our "Love Thy Neighbour" presentation, we recognized the events that happened in the nineteenth century traumas such as:  disease, massacres, January 23, 1870, and effects of residential schools. Also recognizing the plaque in the river bottom of present day Lethbridge commemorating “last big battle" and the "Baker Massacre" in Montana. The charts allowed us to talk among each other when filling them in which helped us recognize not just our but each other’s opinions and expressions about the chapter or scene we had just read. These charts helped us to collaborate with each other and get more details about the novel or play to help us further our knowledge of it by using these details and quotations when writing on the texts.

5.2 Work within a group

5.2.1 Cooperate with others and contribute to group processes
5.2.2 Understand and evaluate group processes  

A group project that we did in class was based on the essay "Love Thy Neighbour" by Narcisse Blood the group I worked with was, Madyson, Trina, Kayla, Louise, and Meaghan we covered the part of the essay called, "A Story". Together we made a prezi to show pictures of the things we were talking about form the essay and each read sections of what we had put together to present. We had also put together a fill in the blank worksheet for the class which talked about the historical traumas in the nineteenth century. I contributed to the group process by putting together the fill in the blank sheet and though I had to miss the day we worked on this project I made the sheet and sent it to someone else to type up. I understood that in a group process everyone has to contribute or it is not fair to those that do.