Mayalife

During English class, we learned about Instructional Writing. An Instructional Writing are usually used in recipes and procedures to make them easier to read and simpler. We tried this method on our PE assignment. Our PE assignment was to make our own strategy on Capture the Flag and present it in a way that grade 6 students would want to read and would understand.  Here is the link to my overall piece. Puzzling Trees

With Ms Clifford, my English teacher, we discussed on the main points of a  Instructional Writing. And these are examples of what we found:

• Aim
• Short numbered  steps
• A picture to show the overall

As we discussed, with an aim, the reader would know what was the overall result in following the steps. If we did not have any aim, the reader would not know what the steps are for and people would not buy your recipe book or read your blog post. Another thing that was very important was the short numbered steps. With short steps, the reader is able to read easily the directions and would know which part of it they are at. In class we were also talking about dot points or numbers. In the end, we decided that numbers would be better for the reader to follow. Finally having a picture in the writing would make your writing stand out. For example, if you were writing a recipe for a cake. You should have a big picture of your cake so it would be eye catching and the readers might want to try making one with your recipe. Even though I found Instructional Writing rather difficult, I think it was a great challenge to try a different technique instead the same old essay style. From now on, I would try to work on other Instructional Writing too!

Last week, a author called “Holly Thompson” visited YIS and we had a workshop with her. The workshop started with a presentation by Holly Thompson. During the presentations, we had a chance to ask her questions about her life being a author. I found Mrs. Thompson a very interesting autor. Especially how she likes to write novels in verse. The questions we asked and the answers are written in this document.

After the presentations, we had the workshop where Mrs. Thompson taught us about writing poems and verses. First, she told us to think and jot down about five interesting topics that we are able to write a lot on. Then, we had to choose a suitable on out of the five. I asked my friends on the table and in the end, I chose this topic:

Buying my first pair of glasses

After we chose our topics, we were told to list down points about the topic.

• The shop was full of glasses
• I tried on many different ones
• I had to do a test to test my eye degree
• It took me about and hour before the glasses was made
• The world turned so clear when I put on the glasses

In conclusion, I really enjoyed it when she gave examples of other poems and we discussed it together. It was one of my best workshops I have done. I wish I can meet her again and I would love to read her books. Thank you Holly Thompson and also thanks to those people that help make this workshop happen.

At school , we are learning about shots and angles for filming. We grouped up in partners and we took two images including two different angled images. Lucy and I took each others pictures and it turned out to look like this.

The image of me is an angle from above. It is a little slanted but I really like the angle Lucy took my image in.

The other image of a black shadow is a shot taken by me. It was bright but her shadow stands out giving a body shape of superman pose. I also liked this angle.

From this activity, I learnt that it is easier to show a action if you film compared to reading it from a comic or a manga.Comic and Manga use only still images that sometimes aren’t realistic. On the another hand, films and shots are exact images of the position so we know how the  character is going to move. (usually)

I think  directors creates film the same way as an author creates a  text because it both tells a story. These days, some novels and books are made from movies. Also there are movies that are made from novels and books. The only difference between them is how they present the text or film. Books are presented in paper  where else, movies are presented in film, shot or videos.

During English class, we studied about the Sakura Medal books. We chose a book from the school library and we had to focus about either the setting, character or the theme. Most of my classmates chose “Character” but I chose “Setting”. The book I chose was called” Thirteen Treasures” .It is a book by Michelle Harrison.Using the book, we made a podcast.Please look out fo the first part of the podcast where we voted for.

Having real audiences for my podcast made me feel even nervous and over excited. My voice became loud and shaky but I tried to maintain my voice so it would be clear and presentable to almost everyone. I hope you will enjoy my podcast.

Working with others was difficult but exciting because we had different ideas and plans for our podcast. Everyone had a creative intro and outro for our podcast and I liked all of them although I only voted for one of them. Working with others also helped me to gather more skills on my technology knowledge.

I would improve my next podcast by focusing on my sakura medal book more and collect better notes than before so I can make a podcast nearer to the one I wanted to make. Also, I would want to use more tone in my voice. I hope it does works !