Band #125

Band #117

Slave Questions

1. Where were the slaves kept after a day(s) of work?
2. Were the slaves owned by Yeomen treated better than those owned by Planters?
3. How did Americans think that they were superior to slaves in the first place?
4. What was the process the slaves went through to escape?
5. Did the slaves try to kill their owners?

Capturing Americans

Blog: Currently there are approximately 300 million Americans. If 50 million of America’s youngest, strongest, and most capable of earning wages and contributing to the economy of the country suddenly disappeared, what would be the consequences for the future of America? How long would such consequences last (decade, score, century, how many generations)?

If the 50 million of the youngest and strongest people in America suddenly disappear, the consequence would lead to an economic decline. As those 50 million people are the most capable to earning wages and are the ones who contribute to the countries economy, America wouldn't be able to control and run the economic system efficiently. However, the other remaining citizens could take the jobs of the 50 million missing people, but won't be able to contribute to the economy efficiently. The consequences would have a lasting affect of a few decades as the population would wait for a new younger generation to grow.

First Semester RLA Reflection

Over the first semester in Reading Language Arts, I am most proud of how I have developed as a reader by gaining a constant pace of reading and including different ranges of genres. Though, as a reader I do need to improve by keeping track of my note taking, which I will do by writing in my thoughts in my readers note book after a session of reading. As well as, over the course of this semester, as a writer, I am proud of how I have developed a stronger understanding of writing different genres for Back to the Drawing Board. As in previous classes, writing projects would only consist of a genre that was set. For example, factual writing, which never included a wide range of different genres. So, having to do some reading to understand different genres, such as dystopian and poetry. I have been able to incorporate different writing styles into my writing. As well as, I have been able to improve my craft on my writing pieces with the help of given examples and mentor texts to give me a better understanding.

Though next semester, as a writer, I would like to accomplish having a stronger meaning into my writing pieces. As I feel really comfortable with the Back to the Drawing Board writing because it is free writing of any topic or genre, I would like to accomplish by putting more time and effort into class writing. With this, I will be able to gain a stronger understanding of the meaning, which will then lead to me being able to write stronger and more powerful writing pieces. As well as, it would be important to have a better grammar structure into writing pieces.

The most challenging part in RLA this semester was in the unit of our Application Essay. I found this the most challenging project as I haven't had any experience with writing an application essay, as well as I wasn't strongly developed and didn't have a complete understanding of all the important parts that make up an application essay.

Overall, over this past semester I am glad to say that I have improved as a reader, writer, and listener in many different ways, but still have goals I have set to improve even further to grow as a reading language arts student.

Persuasive Speech Reflection

1. What was your favourite part of your speech? Why?

My favourite part of the speech was how with my loud projection of my voice, I didn't use any filler words. As I felt a lot of pressure and nervousness to be the first speaker, I was proud that I kept a clear voice, used pausing/pacing, and had no filler words.

2. What do you hope your audience noticed as you spoke?

During my speech, I hope the audience members noticed my emphasis on some of my words. As in parts of the speech I would starting talking or faster, I hope the pacing wasn't overpowering the use of emphasis on some important words I shared.

3. What do you wish you had more time to fine-tune?'

If I was able to practice and edit this speech more, I would like to have been able to have a clearer projected voice, so some words wouldn't sound so unsure. I would also have liked to put more revising and editing into my speech, so there would be stronger in between sentences from my supporting claim to evidence. As well as, I would have liked to practice and understand my speech more so I could have a stronger connection of eye contact with the audience.

4. How do you feel you grew as a persuasive speaker during this unit of study?

Over this Persuasive Speech Unit, as a speaker I have grown by understanding more of additions that provide to an important speech. Including, hand gestures, pacing, tone, and the use of counterarguments to power a speech. As before this unit, I was uncomfortable with persuasive speeches as I haven't had a lot of experience with them, I grew to be more comfortable with greater understanding of them.

Documentary Analysis

1. The film uses shots such as the Ken Burn Effect. It puts an impact on the film by seeing more and having a closer focus about what the subject is itself.

2. The film uses mostly indirect interviews of the Trainers. It helps tell the subjects story by giving the witness perspective, and stories from those who have experience who knew if there were suspicions and lying going on about the cases. Therefore, it puts a stronger telling impact on the subject.

3. Blackfish uses many hand footage(Film Footage) to show the event leading up to an accident, the areas and captivity the whales were kept in, training sessions/shows, and how the whales acted. The hand footage is helpful because it gives a lot of examples and imagery of the situation. They also have the use of showing Sea World commercials and News Casts (Archival Footage) to emphasise the lying of the people from Sea World that they give an innocent and good reputation.

4. Blackfish uses different types of soundtrack in the film to set/emphasise the mood. Also, ambient sounds are used during scenes when the sound was made, such as the splash of a diver or whale flipping into the pool, so the ambient sounds can give an idea of the setting and whats going on. Overall, most of the music and ambient sounds were used as emotion emphasis on the documentary.

5. My overall thoughts on Blackfish is it puts a lot of questioning on the viewers toward sea park owners as you could see how many accidents and events there are, but aren't told. As well as, the lying that is brought, just to not ruin their reputation and industry. Other individuals should watch it because it is a very interesting story and is a great film to understand what goes beyond the shows and controversy in sea parks.