Critical Literacy- Decoding Media!

1. What aspects of stories was she (Andrea)  interested in?
2. What did the ad imply with the big diamond ring?
3. What is subtext?
4. With CL, can each student have their own answer?
5. What does Andrea compare CL to?
6. How can CL be applied to your life outside of school?

1. Andrea was interested in the aspects of stories that no one told her. The secret messages that she had to decode to find. 

2. The ad that she seen as a child implied that because the man gave the women the big diamond ring that they were going to live together, happily ever after. It also implied that the man is the one that gives the woman the gifts in the relationships. 

3. It is an underlying theme in a story or conversation. Its what we dont see and is basically just our own interpretation on the text. 

4.Yes, a student can have their own answer and it's okay if their answer is different from their classmates. They bring their own opinions into class with them. With this part of English all students should have an opinion on the text, video or other media aspects. 

5. She compares Critical Literacy to a Super Power; decoding media to find the truth. 

6. It's something that you can use everyday and doesn't just have to be at  school. It allows you to be able to find underlying messages while you are watching an ad or movie. CL helps you decode messages that before you took the class, you wouldn't be able to have seen.

Home Ec-Chicken and Rice Patties

Last week was our first practical lesson in Home Ec. We made chicken and rice patties which tasted so good.

The recipe that we used had to be altered a bit as they found that some of the things needed to make it was a little bit too much. But the original recipe is printed below.

Ingredients
•3 cups cooked Jasmine rice
•1 chicken breast
•1/2 tbsp olive oil
•1 large carrot
•1 1/3 cups grated cheese
•3 eggs
•3 spring onion stalks

Method
• Preheat the oven to 200°
•Slice chicken in half, heat oil in pan and then fry until brown
•Remove from pan and shred apart with fork
•Grate carrot, need about one cup and slice the green onions
•Lightly beat the eggs
•Add cooked rice, chicken, spring onion, eggs and a handful of your cheese Spoon mixture into sprayed muffin tins and top with rest of cheese
•Cook on 200° for 15 minutes
•Let sit in tray, use a knife to cut them out.

What we learnt?

I learnt that you need to be careful with knifes and boards that you use for different things, and to read the recipe.

There were only two people in my group, Presayus and me, so instead of the 12 that the recipe made we were meant to make 6 but I didn't realize that until I had filled all the cups up. So we had to get another tray out and redo it. So I have learnt to read the recipe properly and not to rush.

What I will do next time?

I will read the recipe thoroughly and make sure that I have done everything correctly.

I will also make sure that I will do the mis en place properly and have everything set out, cut up and in little bowls before I start cooking.

The good and bad.

Mostly everything about the practical was good and I enjoyed working with who I did. Since it was quite an easy recipe and we had the chicken/rice already cooked for us, there was only a small space for something to go wrong and thankfully, nothing did go wrong.

It didn't exactly go wrong but we  needed more flavor in them. We could've added more salt and pepper, we could have had a spice or we could have put some fresh herbs in them.

Overall it was a good lesson and I think that I will end up making these for my family and friends. I like how this is quick and easy to make, you can cook them the night before and take them for lunch the next day.

Heart Attacks- Science

What is a heart attack?

A heart attack is when the blood vessels that supply the blood to the heart are blocked off and no blood is able to get into the heart. The heart then becomes stared of blood and oxygen, causing the cell in the heart to die.

A myocardial infraction is the fancy smancy name that doctors use to  call a heart attack.

Causes of a heart attack and how to prevent one.

There are many things that can lead to getting a heart A few of them are:
•Blood clots
•Blocks in the Coronary Arteries
•High Blood Pressure
•Smoking

You can prevent a heart attack by:
•Exerzizing daily
•Eating a diet that is low in fat
•Keeo your blood pressure under control
• DO NOT SMOKE!!!!

Symptoms of a heart attack and how to treat it
•Chest pain is a major symptom
•You may only feel pain in one part of you body
•Irregular heartbeats can lead to death in the first few hours
•Severe or mild pains

You can treat a heart attack by being connected to a ECG machine, may need to be in ICU (intense care unit) and being in hospital.

Creative Writing #4- Slam Poetry

Slam poetry is the art of spoken word and it combines the elements of performance, writing, and competition. It can be performed in competition called a poetry slam.

I chose a poem from a site called Digital Poet to use. 

Words are Weapons 

This poem shows you how that, words, even if you meant them as a joke can still hurt the people around you.

Hidden with the collection of words
That hammer nails through wooden skin,
That built a coffin within

My gut

The four lines above stuck out to me because words that you say to people could just  sit there and fester and make the person that you have said all these hurtful things to, put a guard up that won't ever come down. 

She kind of looked off,
A twinkle moistened her eye,
And wrinkles hoisted either side
Of her lips

And she said: "He's such a d**k"

Wow.

“F**k you too”, I thought.

I blew it off.

I acted like it never happened.

But I added those words to the collection of:
"You Always", "You never", "Why can't you", "I wish you", "You used to", "I told you", "Try harder", and "How could you's",
That I always stow 
Below deck,
Hidden away
Like Hannibal Lecter’s prey

This is the start of the poem and its also my favourite part.  I love the way that the writer has written it and when you listen to the audio, you can actually feel like what hes saying is true, like its what hes going through. Which I mean, he could be but you would never know because he puts on a face so that you won't see what is going on inside. Like most people. 

English- Critical Literacy

https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLE067749C594F4E6A

Up on the link above is the four ads that we had to watch and then answer these three questions about each:

The intended audience
What the ad implies about the product 
How it makes the audience feel

Thrillicious: 2008 SoBe Life Water Super Bowl 

I think, since this is a Superbowl ad, it was directed at the adults that watch the Superbowl. But if it wasn't an ad for Superbowl, I would say it was an ad for kids/teens to get them more interested in flavoured water. 

The ad implies that the flavoured water has such a good taste that it makes you want to dance and makes you happy and it implies that it makes you full of energy and can make you energized. 

I believe that it would make the audience feel happy and would make them laugh as the ad has DANCING FROGS in it. I found it very nice to watch and it was an ad that would make me want to go out and buy the drink that they were advertising. 

Nike Commercial

This commercial in my opinion is directed at the athletes of the world, the swimmers mainly.

The ad implies that if you have these pieces of swimwear you will be faster in the water and a faster swimmer. It also implies that you will be sleeker in the water and will glide through it, like a knife through butter.

I'm not sure what it would make the audience feel as there is only thirty seconds of footage and that it is only a man jumping into a pool. I don't feel as inclined to go and buy this item as it wasn't as interesting as the last ad that I watched. 

Nike Commercial Move: Olympics 

This was WAY BETTER than the other nike ad. This ad was most likely aimed at athletes in the Olympics and  everyday people who like to exercise and go for runs almost everyday. 

The ad implies that it is suitable for all sport and it has all types of gear to fit the climates. It is easy to move in and makes it easy to jump, run, ski and jump off of a bridge. It  shows that, for any activity that you can think of, they will have the gear and the shoes that you need for that activity. 

I would like to think that it would make the audience watch The Olympics and would make the audience feel like their country is trying their hardest for their country. Also that they would go out and purchase some of this stuff for themselves and maybe to go out and try  a new sport. 

1984 Apple's First Macintosh Commercial

I'm very confused but I'll try. I think that this ad was directed at everyone. This would revolutionise the way people would work so I think Apple would market this computer to everyone not just one set of people. 

 
In all honesty, I don't understand the ad at all. I'm not sure what was happening or what the women throwing the hammer represented or what it meant. Maybe she is being hero and trying to save all the people who were walking?
But I don't get what what was happening.

Creative Writing #6- Final Reflection.

Throughout the 5 (6 including this one) tasks that we had to and the discussion that we had before we started our journey with creative writing, it's been a good experience. I've learnt about terms that I had used but didn't know, how haiku's may look "easy" but take a lot of time to get right and to get the sentences to have the correct amount of syllables in each, that slam poems have some really good meanings behind them, that metaphors and similes aren't that same thing and that I created a really good piece of writing- one of the best I've done in a while- using sensory language. I have also learned what makes a piece of creative writing "good" and my classes opinions on the matter.

The way that I have learned things is by asking, searching and getting people to read what I've done to get their opinion. With the piece that I wrote using sensory language-it's on my blog somewhere if you are interested in reading it- I had made three of them but with the help of a few different people I managed to choose the one that they and I liked best.

I've also learned the names of two language features that I had used but not known about.

A few things that I found fun and interesting were slam poetry and the sensory language.

Reasons why I liked the slam poetry were because you could tell a really deep and meaningful story using poetry. Also because I like the way it sound when you hear people reading it out and the way that they use their voices to kinda emphasize what they are feeling as they read their piece of work out to the audience.

I enjoyed the sensory language activity for many reasons. But there happens to be only one that I can actually explain. I liked the way that you could paint a picture in the reader's mind without actually telling them what was happening, where it was taking place and what it was. You didn't have to say 'the car had crashed and I couldn't  move' because that totes boring and because by explaining what they heard, smelt, tasted, saw and touched you got the feeling you were there.

Overall, I enjoyed all of the different tasks that we got set. It gave us the chance to do new thing and to explore things that we didn't know existed or that we wanted to explore, but never got the chance to. It was a good experience to have and I would love to do it again.

Growth Mindset Piktochart- English

Creative Writing #5- Metaphors and Similes

What's the difference between the two?
A simile is when you use words such as as or like to compare one thing to another thing whereas a metaphor is where you just directly state the comparison that there is. 


What is a Metaphor?
It's a figure of speech that refers to something by telling us about another. It can/may identify similarities that we hadn't noticed before between two ideas. 



What is a simile?

It is a a figure of speech that compares two things directly. They are a form of metaphor that use  connecting words, but these words may not be always necessary. 


My own two metaphors and similes?

Janes heart is made of gold. 

The football pitch was like a sauna

She is like the sunshine
He is as bad as the devil. 

Currency Throughout History

Solomon Islands- Dolphin Teeth

Between the years 1976 and 2013, the villagers of the Solomon 

Islands killed more than 15,000 dolphins for their teeth, which they used as their currency. Some advantages of this could've been the fact that this currency was small and easy to transport.

Greece- Drachma 

Drachma is a silver coin that was used from about the mid 6th century and was one of the earliest forms of currency. People stopped using the drachma after the conquest of Alexander the Great. It's weight varied between regions. Some advantages of this money, were that is was hard to counterfeit due to the lack of technology at this time. The fact that it was probably a lot heavier than modern coins.

UK- Pound Sterling

Pound Sterling is the national currency of the United Kingdom, consisting of £5, £10, £20 and £50 notes, and 1p, 2p, 5p, 10p, 20p, 50p, £1 and £2 coins. This currency has advantages due to the fact it is light and easily transportable. However, disadvantages could include the fact it is made from an easily damageable material. 

By Chloe and Natasha

Natasha Fry and I both collaborated on this, hence why it is on both of our blogs.