What is a Million?

LI: to describe what a million is to you.

For this writing activity, we focused on describing what something means to us. I chose to describe what a million is to me. A million to me is represented by many things, one for example is: the number of mosquito bites I have had. I really enjoyed this activity because I could get creative with my describing and make different types of comparisions.

Misery

LI: to write an abstract noun senses poem.

Today, we focused on writing abstract noun senses poems. An abstract noun is an existing thing that cannot be touched or physical obtained such as, happiness, sadness, and anger. Metaphors compare two things without using the words 'like' or 'as'. The five human senses are sight, hearing, touch, taste and smell. 

For this task we worked collaboratively to create a poem using abstract nouns. Our group was given a list of abstract nouns that we can use to write a poem. The abstract noun we choose was misery. We used the five senses to describe what misery sounds, looks, tastes, and smells like while using metaphors to structure a poem correctly. 

An abstract noun is a feeling or emotion that cannot be physically touched. A metaphor is the comparison between two things without using as or like. For example: Happiness is a river of joy that is flowing through my heart. The word happiness is the abstract noun and is used to create this metaphor. The five senses are: hear, touch, smell, feel and see. Each of these five senses are what many humans are able to do. A metaphor is the comparison between two things without using as or like. 

I really enjoyed doing this because I got to work collaboratively and work together in a group and also use powerful words to strengthen the poem to make our poem stand out.

Five Senses Personification Narrative

LI: to use the five senses and personification to help us paint a picture with words. 

Our focus for this activity was based around using the five senses and personification to describe a pair of shoes. The five senses are: see, hear, touch, smell and taste. A personification is when an object is given an attribute of a human. We used a plan to structure our narritive properly. The structure of a narrative is: TOPES. TOPES stand for: title, orientation, problem, explain and solution. In our orientation, we wrote a hook, introduced the characters, the settings and hinted the problem. We talked mainly on the problem of the story in the paragraph after. We then explained the events leading to the solution in our explaining structure. After this, we talked about our solution and if there was a solution. In our story, there was never a solution. I enjoyed this activity because I found it fun and interesting. 

Dialogue

LI: to undestand how to use and correctly punctuate dialogue when writing.

Dialogue's are conversations between people. When writing a conversation, there are things to remember. In order to seperate what the speaker says to how they say it, we need to use punctuation marks. Puncuation marks look like: ("") some people call them quotation marks. 

First, we created a conversation on ifaketext.com between characters from The Three Little Pigs. We choose one out of four scenarios to create a conversation about. Our scenario is with the pig's mum telling the pigs to move out of the house because she is annoyed with them never helping her. 

After making a conversation, we changed what the characters said into writing. We added punctuation, speech marks and said words in order to do this. For each character speaking, we added a different line. 

We then wrote about what we know about the requirements of writing a conversation. I found this activity easy because I knew a lot about how to write a conversation and use them in a lot of my recounts. 

Cinquain Poem

LI: to write a cinquain poem to describe a sports star.

We have been learning to write cinquain poems to help us strengthen our connections to description. A cinquain poem has 5 lines. Each line has a different purpose. Line 1 is a noun which is a name. Line 2 has 2 adjectives taht describe the noun. Line 3 has 3 verbs that end in ‘ing’ and describe the actions. Line 4 is a noun phrase which is a group of words (not a sentence) that go together to describe the noun. Line 5 is a synonym which is a word with a similar meaning to the noun. I enjoyed this activity because it taught me how to create a cinquain poem.

Five Minutes of Camp

LI: to recount a 5 minute snapshot of one experience you had at camp.

Last week, LS2 went to camp at Kokako Lodge. The 5 minutes snapshot that I have written, shows my personal voice and my perspective of the activity I chose (High Beams). 

I have attempted to paint a picture of what I had done while attempting the activity. I made my 5 minute snapshot more interesting by describing my feelings during the activity. 

I hooked people in with my story by coming up with a good title that makes people want to read more of my story as well as describing the story using my thoughts at the time.

I found this activity fun because I got to write a recount about how I felt during the activity. 

Describing Wheel

LI: to create a describing wheel. 

A describing wheel contains words that are synonyms with eachother. As the words go to the end of the circle, they get in more depth of meaning. 

First, we thought of words that could describe culture and the meaning of culture. We used these words to start the describing wheel. After this, we think of other words that describe that starting word even better. 

When we completed the wheel and filled it with words, we made a TEEL paragraph. A TEEL paragraph contains: Topic sentence, Elaborate, Evidence and Linking sentence. Combining these attributes together creates a paragraph in which it can tell a lot about a certain topic. 

I enjoyed this activity because it helped me use these words more and I participated with my group.

Why do we use TEEL paragraphs?

LI: to understand how TEEL paragraphs can help us structure our information and ideas in a paragraph.

Using the TEEL structure to write a paragraph gives people more information about the topic. When someone structures their paragraph with TEEL, it makes the information more complex and it can be easier to understand the text. TEEL is the acronym for Topic sentence, Elaborate, Evidence and Link. 

A topic sentence introduces the main idea of the paragraph. Elaborating gives bonus information to the reader to help understand what the text is about. Giving evidence supports the topic and ideas throughout the paragraph. Linking the paragraphs help create a connection that gives the reader a hint about what the next paragraph is going to be about. A good paragraph has all the main points written and TEEL helps to do that.

Writing most of the main points in a paragraph gives clear information and makes it easier to understand. By doing this, people can process the information and give their opinion on the ideas.

I enjoyed this task because it gave me a clear understanding of what TEEL is and how I can use it in my explanations.

Cybersmart | Kawa of Care

LI: to be cybersmart and use our devices in a smart and clever way in order to learn, create and share.
  

Being cybersmart means to be knowledgeable towards a device in order to keep it secure and safe.

Understanding the rules of the Kawa of Care, can help someone to learn, create and share.

Some of the rules state that a person should: never have food around the netbook, charge near a wall to contain a risk or hazard, placing a netbook away from the edges on a table, use two hands when carrying a netbook around, put the chromebook in a case when going outside with it and more. These rules ensure that the netbook can remain protected.

Knowing the keyboard can assist with how fast someone can type and finish their work. When someone memorizes their keyboard it will be easy to complete a task.

Being cybersmart can help to learn, create and share a person’s work.

Summer Learning Journey | Which One Doesn't Belong? | Step It Up | Day 5 Activity 1

This activity was based around spotting the difference between four images and getting a chance to create your own 'Which one doesn't belong?' activity.

 

Watching some videos and reading some articles was the first step. The videos talked about what 'Which One Doesn't Belong?' activities are. Which one doesn't belong activities require you to spot the differences between a number of images. There can be more than one difference for each image.

After this, we needed to complete nine of these tasks. I found many differences for some of the images.

Next, we created our own challenge with four images. I chose to put four images of bears. Can you find the differences?

I enjoyed this activity a lot because it was an interactive activity which required us to also make our own task.

LI: to spot the differences between four images.

Summer Learning Journey | Haiku Poem | Day 5 Activity 2

The focus for this task was based around looking to create a haiku poem about the summer.

First, I watched a tutorial about how to create a haiku poem. In this video, it explained that a haiku poem is a poem that has five syllables on the first line, seven on the second line and five again on the last line.

After watching this, I read an article about how to write a haiku. This also explained the amount of syllables and even gave examples of them.

Next, I needed to create my own haiku. I remembered to use only five syllables, seven syllables and then five syllables again. My poem was about the summer and how poeple go out to have fun during summer.

I enjoyed this challenge very much because I enjoy writing poems and have had experience writing haiku poems. I think that if there were more syllables alowed, I would most likely change my poem.

LI: to write a haiku poem.

What are you doing today? | Summer Learning Journey | Day 3 Activity 2

The focus for this activity was based around arranging some Maori words together to make a sentence.

First, we listened to an audio where a man asks a question in Maori. This first step can improve people's skill level in listening. 

After listening to this, we put our listening skills into action and arrange the words that are jumbled up in the correct order for it to make sense. 

The question asked "What are you doing today?" and our answer was "I am going to ...". I was able to learn how to ask "what are you doing today?" in Te Reo Maori.

I found this task very enjoyable because I learnt new things and this activity was interactive. One thing I would like to improve on is my pronunciation of the Maori words. 

LI: to arrange Maori sentences properly.

Summer Learning Journey | Fishing False Teeth | Day 2 Activity 1

The main focus for this activity was to create a comic strip using your ideas and creative mind.

First, I read an article about the story. The story talked about a man dropping his teeth into the water and then another man finding a different pair, and giving the teeth to the man. This went around the place. Later on, a taxi driver revealed that the teeth in fact, were not the old man's teeth. They were actually the wife's teeth. 

After this, I watched a short film about a man that lost his fake teeth on a fishing trip. After watching the short film, I needed to create a comic strip based on the film. I thought about the different events in the film and based the comic strip off of that. 

I enjoyed creating a comic strip because I used my imagination and creativity to think of some ideas to write. 

LI: to create a comic strip.

Filming | Film Creation Challenge

Today, my group and I filmed our videos.

First, we created a film schedule that consisted of the actors, the time it will take, the scene, the equiptment and the location.

After this, we began practising our lines. The film we chose was about a teacher stealing a burger from a student. The total time we needed was 35 minutes.

Finally, we put the scenes together and edited our video with WeVideo.

I enjoyed acting my parts. I found it difficult to act because sometimes I would forget my lines but overall, it was a great experience. 

LI: to film a screenplay.

Commanding Conversations | Can-Do

Commanding Conversations is a can-do that consists of writing a conversation based on what the person thinks the image is about.

Depending on the image, there can be different types of conversations. This can-do uses creativity to come up with ideas on what types of conversations to write.

Commanding Conversations can help with using speech marks and improve on writing conversations. 

LI: To write descriptive conversations.

Anywords | Can-Do

Anywords is a can-do where two people recall words to connect them to another word.

I played this activity with Bella. We can only write words vertically or horizontally. The words have to be connected to eachother and needs to make sense. We can make two points by making two words in one go.

Bella and I had an interesting game. The best way we got two points was by making a word plural. 

I enjoyed this game and would like to learn more words to win at this game.

LI: To recall and play with words.

Narrative | Storyboard

Storyboards are images that show the character movements, the camera angles and the story setting. 

The image should have enough detail so that someone can find out where the setting is without someone else telling them. People show the emotions on the face and draw in different camera angles to make it more interesting.

A storyboard has the scene number on the side of the image. People usually have a short sentence to give more detail if the picture isn't clear enough. Having no description is best. If someone understands where the setting is without someone else telling them, they have most likely done a good job drawing the storyboard.

In storyboards, there are no words in the image. The main idea for a storyboard is to show the setting, the characters, and the angles of the story. 

It is helpful to understand what a storyboard is and how to write a storyboard because it can help to give the actors a good visual reference. Storyboarding can also help to visualize the enviroment and people's surroundings.

LI: To create a storyboard from a narrative.

Screenplay | Narrative

A screenplay is a story that has been converted into the dialogue parts only. Screenplay have a few directors to help give more detail.

A screenplay has the scene number in all caps. The name is centre aligned and is also in all caps. If there is any extra information to lead the actor, people add what type of voice or thing they should do while they are talking in brackets and underneath the name.

The actor's line is under the name or under the leading act. The actor's line does not have speech marks, but it still has to be correctly punctuated so that it could help the actor understand what tone to use.

Understanding how to write a screenplay is important because it can help the actors to understand what their line is and how they say it. 

LI: To convert a story into a screenplay (script) or storyboard.

Fixing Narratives

Narratives are fictional stories. Narratives tend to use past tense and third person narration. The structure of a narrative is TOPES.

TOPES stand for Title, Orientation, Problem, Events and Solution. A title is a short phrase that talks about the main idea. Orientation introduces who, when, where and what. The problem is something that goes wrong in the story. The events are the steps taken to lead to a solution. The solution talks about the last steps for the solution and the new normal.

If the narrative has too much speech and dialogue, people add more narration. However, if a narrative has too much narration, people add more dialogue. This is to balance it out and make it more interesting To improve a narrative, people add more detail and fix the parts that are confusing.

To plan a narrative, people usually brainstorm what the narrative is about first. Then people start to get ideas of who the characters will be, the problem and the solution. People think about how they introduce the characters and setting the scene. The solution can either fail or succeed.

To write a narrative, people write sentences and paragraphs that are inspired by their ideas.

It is important to understand the process of writing and planning a narrative because it can expand someones knowledge and bring out their ideas. It is also important to improve the narrative to make it more interesting.

LI: To write a narrative.

Class Blogpost | Writing

My class blogpost for Mr Wongs writing tasks can be found here.