Category / Core Competencies

by Claire

Short Inquiry Reflection

What was your inquiry question? Did it shift or change in any way through your inquiry? 

My initial inquiry question was “how do women express their opinions through literature?” I wanted to read some feminist literature and write a podcast script about it and how I could relate. In the end I changed my question to “how can I connect feminist poetry to my own life and experiences?” I shortened my original plan to read a single poetry book instead of my originally planned 2-3 books. I also decided what I wanted to make for my final inquiry project was an art piece instead of a piece of written work. I ended with a collage of small images, each based on a poem I read and the images it brought to mind when I read it. 

What did you enjoy about the inquiry? What are you most proud of? 

My favorite thing about my project was of course my final product. I’m very happy with what I came up with. A lot of feedback I got when we shared was that people thought I should add explanations for each drawing, but it was intentional to not include them. I wanted to have my collage be a random mix of all the points of view from the book and not necessarily need each picture to have a deep meaning. Some pictures were just images from the poem and some pictures were my own personal interpretation of the poem and how it related to me. I’m happy with what I made because I found joy in the artsy side of the Inquiry and exposed myself to some literature I have been meaning to for a long time. I really enjoyed an excuse to be creative in my own way at school. 

What did you find challenging? 

Personally I find a more rigid inquiry process difficult to follow because I often want to change my direction as I go and having to complete a step before continuing to the actual doing makes the inquiry feel more like a chore. What works better for me is a general outline/idea and then jumping to the do step. It helps me hold onto the motivation and I often come back to the defining steps later when some work has already been completed and I can now decide where I want to go with the project. For this reason, I would say my biggest challenge with this inquiry was the more guided structure and trying to connect to such broad topics like the UN 17 Goals. Such broad topics can leave room for creativity, but they can also feel daunting and finding something to focus on was hard to do when there are so many directions to take. 

What would you change? 

Unfortunately, this school semester was very busy for me so the amount of time I was able to spend on my Inquiry project was less than I was hoping. I think I could’ve accomplished more on my topic and maybe added a write up explaining the point of my piece if I had given myself more time for the project. I also would’ve liked to have a concrete plan made earlier. I started the inquiry with a strong idea of what I wanted to accomplish, but this plan did not consider the likely number of hours of my work time taken up by other classes. For my next project I should make a stronger plan and have a better timetable or what and when I want to accomplish all my goals for the Inquiry. 

Is there anything else you want to share? 

Not really. I am very excited for the more open inquiry though and I’m hoping that I can get a lot accomplished towards my plan for the project. Hopefully there will be less class time taken away because of assemblies.  

Do you want to continue with this topic, or something related for your Long Inquiry, or will you explore something different? 

I will be exploring something slightly different. I want to do some studying on the writing of poetry and short stories. I want to write a small book that summarizes the helpful information I learned and includes samples of my writing where I applied what I learnt. It would be like a book for beginners from the perspective of a beginner. I’ve always been very interested in short forms of literature like poetry and short stories because though I love writing, finishing large projects is unimaginably difficult. I want to take some time to learn about something new and get decent at it so I can enjoy writing in shorter forms. Maybe learning and writing poetry will also give me better skills for reading and deciphering it. 

Core Competency Reflection

Thinking

My IDS project revolved around reading some poetry then making art out of it. I read each poem thoroughly and deeply thought about how each could be represented in an image. I took my own thought out interpretation of each and at the end put them together in a collage. The layout of the collage took lots of thinking out and rearranging to make everything fit and still look appealing. I think in grew in this Core Competency because I also needed to put lot’s of thought into the UN 17 Goals and how all of them in some way affected me. I did lots of considering how I wanted to talk about or approach gender equality and ended up with a project that was very introspective and required my own opinion put into the final product.

by Claire

Pre-Calculus 12 Project Self-Assessment

I compile and synthesize information to draw reasoned conclusions, such as when…

In my project I used what I knew about sinusoidal functions and applied it to a calculated equation. I used evidence I learned in class and from practice to conclude and decipher how each value affected the graph in order to fit my data. For example, the calculated k value shows how much the graph must be moved on the y axis. All the y values in my data averaged out to be about 8.00 so it makes sense that the k value would be about 8.00 to move the sinusoidal graph upward to fit the data. I used similar processes of using information I knew or could calculate to explain the other variables and their relation to my data and graphed function.

My strategies for collecting relevant information for specific tasks include…

In my variable explanations there was of course many ways to prove that each value was correct. Instead of listing all of these I used the simplest evidence and used it as my explanation. Why use every piece of evidence when it will make your presentation confusing. I looked back at classroom notes and was able to simplify every explanation to the necessary information for it to be understood. I also used explanations that made sense to me in simple terms because if my presentation was to be used for something like teaching the concept of transformations in sinusoidal functions, it would need to be understood by people with less understanding of transformations.

This is how I select images and words to create impact for different audiences:

For my PowerPoint presentation I put a lot of thought into it’s arrangement and how to best represent all my information simply. This slide is an example of this because i used images that were reasonably sized and tried to keep the text small to not overpower the actual data being shown. I chose to do this on this slide because the only need for the text is to explain the context of each image. On other slides I changed my approach though and instead used one image and then left the majority of the slide dedicated to text because I needed to explain the image. In all cases I wanted to keep each slide simple and avoid being too wordy.

Examples of where I communicate clearly and purposefully can be seen in…

When I needed to give my opinion of my calculations I had to communicate effectively. I tried to keep my opinion simple and made sure to not repeat similar points. Repeating points in different sections of the text makes it difficult to follow and instead I left the explanations short and arranged in a thought out manner. This helps me elaborate on opinions without overexplaining myself.

by Claire

Chemistry 11 – Core Competency Reflection

Collaborating

I can work with others to achieve a goal.

Lab 6B was a partner lab like all the labs in chemistry 11. Me and my partner worked together well during this lab. While filtering it was important that we judged carefully and communicated how much liquid to pour through the filter at a time to prevent a hole in our filter. Working together by swapping jobs throughout let us work efficiently and make sure we could finish the lab. By splitting up duties and using communication we were able to work together well to achieve our goal of finishing the Lab 6B correctly and efficiently.

Example of the filtration process in Lab 6B
by Claire

Socials 10 – Core Competency Self Assessment

Creative Thinking

What makes you want to get a new idea or try something new?

At the end of the WW2 unit we were tasked with a reflection project. We had many options, one being writing a 2 page reflection. That type of long writing is usually my strong suit but I decided to write a poem instead. Poetry has always interested me and although I’ve never really had time to read or write any, I decided it would be a fun challenge. That new challenge that would have been tough was what made me want to try something new. I knew that I would be able to complete the task, even if it was new, because I had an interest in the subject that made me want to try and do a good job.

Now I had my project, but didn’t know much about poetry. So I researched types of poems and found acrostic poems. They are a short or long form of poetry and I decided this was probably my best bet because it would give me lots of space to convey my ideas and reflect instead of trying to cram many ideas and opinions into a smaller or shorter poem. This idea ended up working. I could form my ideas into words but also into a poem. It was a fun project to do because of the challenge of writing poetry with not much experience.

by Claire

FIDO Paragraph: Self-Assessment

Curricular Response

I believe that the greatest strength of this paragraph is using evidence to effectively prove my point and answer the question. I think that I did a very good job of drawing my explanations back to my main point by using reoccurring words. Another thing I think I did well was using good transition words to help the whole paragraph flow smoothly. By using these transition words properly I can let readers digest the ideas presented in the paragraph without being bothered by jumpy reading or startling sentence breaks. I also worked hard to properly and fully explain the points I put foreword.

Core Competency Self-Assessment

Think about and describe how your experience writing Literary paragraph 1 was different or similar to writing this paragraph. Was one easier? More difficult? Can you explain why?

The “Fido” paragraph was definitely much easier to write. I wrote literary paragraphs last year, but I was rusty so the practice was very valuable for paragraph #2. I also think that #2 was much easier because I understood the point I was trying to put foreword much better. I knew what I was writing in the first paragraph but I more clearly could put together my thoughts into explainable ideas the second time. The feedback given after writing the first literary paragraph was also very helpful when trying to improve upon the first and put together my ideas in the second one. I could more easily understand where to add transition words and a few other points that had to be improved upon.

by Claire

Core Competency Goals

Some things I think about before dividing tasks among group members include…

When considering what responsibilities to give to others in any group project I usually consider how hard they work. Usually I can tell how well people are going to be able to complete tasks in a timely manner. I also consider how much I can afford to do while still having time for other classes and free time. I generally tend to divide tasks between people fairly and equally but I do often end up giving myself at least a bit more work to make sure it gets done and some people get less work to make sure they can complete it. Sometimes people are better at one thing than another so I try to give people tasks they will hopefully thrive with.

One strategy or activity that stimulates my imagination is…/When I need to boost my mood or re-focus, I…

I used two prompts for this answer because my answer applies to both. To stimulate my imagination and/or boost my mood to refocus I listen to music. Specifically to boost my mood I make sure the music is upbeat. It makes me feel better and puts me in the mood to get stuff done. I’m even listening to music while writing this. It can occasionally be distracting but it helps to make the work at least a bit enjoyable when doing something tough. Being in a good mood also makes it easier for me to think and use my imagination for more creative work.

What are you strengths and stretches?

In terms of communication one of my main strengths is that I am not usually scared to speak in front of others. This allows me to feel good about sharing my ideas. I am good at listening but I will admit one of my weaknesses can be appreciating ideas. Though I listen and do appreciate when others have ideas to share I am not always as open as I should be to using an idea that I do not think is the correct option even if others think it is.