This year, for English, we read many books and ventured forth and discussed many sensitive themes in these novels. We even wrote essays about which Expected Schoolwide Learning Results, or otherwise known as ESLRs, were used in each unit. Since I was fairly new to the school, I had no idea what these “ESLRs” were. But now, as we come to the end of the year, all that has changed. I’m not going to explain them to you since all of us know them and understand them, however, I am going to tell you which ones I have improved the most in. So therefore, I believe I have improved the most in these ESLRs: Effective Communicator, Critical Thinker and finally, Self-Directed Learner.
This year, I improved a lot in becoming an Effective Communicator. I collaborated with others in order to achieve group goals through the TeenLife project. I was assigned to a group, with people of similar interests, and was asked to come up with a poem about pollution. Since we had little time, I had to come up with a poem fast and so I spent my time drafting poem and redrafting and so on. I also demonstrated the skills of effective collaboration in the Anne Frank project. My group and I worked together to create a memorial for Anne Frank. We split the jobs equally, according to our strengths. One person drew the plan of the memorial, another worked on a Powerpoint and finally, I wrote a description. The videos that we took during the short, but interesting, Poetry unit was another way of improving as an Effective Communicator. I used my creative talents by taking pictures in unique and interesting ways. The wikispace that we used during the TeenLife project was also another project that helped me become a better Effective Communicator. We used the wikispace to talk to others around the world, express our feelings on certain matters and plan our project with our group. Lastly, I was also an Effective Communicator during the in-class discussions. I asked questions to facilitate learning by asking about anything I wasn’t sure of or speaking up in class to hear other people’s response.
Becoming an Effective Communicator wasn’t the only ESLR that I improved in, I also improved as a Critical Thinker. The translations that we had to do while reading The Tempest was an extremely difficult task, but now, I realize that it was very important as well. While doing these tedious translations, I had to solve problems using a variety of strategies. Sometimes I turned to the dictionary for help and other times, I asked my friends, teachers or parents to see if they knew the definition of a word. During the unit about Anne Frank, we had to write many blog posts describing the situation that Anne was facing. To complete this, I used my problem-solving skills in order to understand. I read through the book and tried to understand what Anne was feeling, her anxieties and her hopes through the words she had written. Finally, I was a Critical Thinker when it came to the poet assignment. When I was first asked to do this, I was completely confused! I had never heard of many poets since I didn’t like poetry that much. But suddenly, it struck me. I remember reading about a famous poet known as Emily Dickinson when I was in 5tth grade! I know what you are thinking – 5th grade? But what can I say I have good memory! Anyways, I did my poet assignment on her. For this, I used my previous knowledge and found new information in order to complete the assignment.
The last and final ESLR that I believe I improved in was becoming a Self-Directed Learner. Since I was quite well organized with my books and schoolwork, I thought I was already a Self-Directed Learner. But I was completely wrong. Being a Self-Directed Learner isn’t just about being organized and finishing homework on time, you have to also be creative and manage time well. So when I finally figured that out, I remembered four tasks that I did, during English, that helped me improve as a Self-Directed Learner. During the major projects that we had at the end of each unit, I took creative risks to develop untried ideas. The Anne Frank project was the first. We had to come up with a uniquely designed memorial, so we each came up with an idea and combined them together. For the Poetry book project, I had to design a new, different cover. So with that in mind, I designed a cover that reflected my personality, which I believe is very different. For the final project, the voice clip of The Tempest, I really had to go out of my comfort zone. I usually don’t like to record my voice but this time, I decided to take a risk and record my voice. Also, with the help of my teammates, we used GarageBand to create interesting background noises that we assumed would have occurred in the setting of that book. Another way that I improved as a Self-Directed Learner was by monitoring my work in progress. I made sure I read the book that we were currently focusing on. Whether it was Anne Frank or The Tempest, I always read and tried to understand the plot of the novel. Another way I improved is related to the one mentioned earlier, I made sure I did all my homework on time. I managed my time well and set achievable goals in order to complete this. Finally, understanding The Tempest was quite hard because it required lots of analyzing and defining words. This was when I had to apply appropriate learning strategies to reach my goals.
At the beginning of the year, I wasn’t comfortable with the ESLRs at all. What did they mean? Why does this school use them? What use are they to us? All these questions were buzzing around in my head. But now, as the year comes to an end and I move on into 9th grade, I have finally found the answers. Not from teachers or my close friends but from myself. I learned them through essays I had to write, discussions in class and from my own curiosity as to what they really are. And although they are a little boring, they really do help you now and will in the future. All in all, the ESLRs were something new to me and the three ESLRs mentioned above were the ones that I believe that I improved in the most.