Goal Setting

Goal
My goal for the remainder of this school year is To be more aware of current news events both locally and globally, which will expand upon my knowledge base, allow me to solve problems with greater ease, as well as make more informed decisions or choices. In particular, to become more alert about health, science and humanity related issues, which will help with my Science One World tasks and improve upon my critical thinking skills. I can achieve my goal by Reading or watching the news for at least 15 minutes every day, further discussing key events with my family either during or after dinner, which will allow me to learn about the news events, while also allow me to gain insight to others views. People and/or support I will need to achieve my goal are My family to spend time discussing current issues with me. I know I will have achieved my goal when I develop an awareness to current news events and issues, which will result in an increase in my Science One World Task grades (from a 4 to either a 5 or 6 - out of 6), and an improvement in my humanities critical thinking criteria.

Strength
A strength I can build upon for the remainder of this school year is My time management and organizational skills, arranging my time schedule to allow more time for reading, sports, calligraphy painting. Allocating time to read both English and Chinese books (fiction and non-fiction), training at least twice a week for running, and paint for 2 hours every week. I can develop this strength by Being more focused on my work, then using a to-do list to prioritize and plan out the tasks I need to do every day or every week, rearranging my time schedule to allocate a balanced amount of time for both sport and artistic activities. People and/or support I will need to develop my strength are My family, friends and myself. My friends to accept my busy lifestyle, my family for their support and encouragement and myself to be conscious and focused. I know I will have developed my strength further when I am able to maintain my calligraphy writing and painting activities 2 hours per week, spend 6 hours training for running on a weekly basis, while also finish at least 1 English and 1 Chinese book every month.

Learner Prole Goal

To Kill A Mockingbird is a novel written by Harper Lee. The story is set in Maycomb County, Alabama, during an era when social prejudice and racial discrimination was prominent. For this task of an in class timed essay, we needed to write a commentary on the passage from the novel. To be able to write this commentary, I needed to have a sound understanding of the novel To Kill A Mockingbird, the knowledge on literary devices, as well as know about the literary techniques effect on the plot, theme and message of the novel. When I was given this excerpt, I first read through the passage and highlighted key phrases and sentences. I then decided to focus on the authors development of suspense or tension, her use of symbolism throughout the text, as well as her use of imagery and characterization to convey the theme of courage. This task shows my understanding of and engagement as a thinker, as I needed to analyze the excerpt in great detail whilst also evaluate the authors use of literary techniques and comment on their effectiveness in the novel. Nonetheless, I found thinking critically about how the authors use of literary devices affects the novel really challenging, as I was supposed to look at the passage from at least three different perspectives critically - author, reader and the plot of the novel - but when I was writing this commentary, I only looked at the effect on the reader, making my writing limited to one perspective. To apply my goal of being a better thinker for written tasks, I need to pay closer attention to others opinions on all sorts of events or issues, while also bear in mind (when writing) the significance of the passage - why the author wrote it in this way, what the effect would be if the author used a different technique. Furthermore, this learner profile goal can be achieved alongside my personal goal, since becoming more knowledgeable gaining knowledge about current news events or issues - would allow me to make better decisions, while also enable me to consider an event from a wider range of perspectives. To conclude, being a thinker is my learner profile goal, the reason to this is that thinker is a learner profile that I find difficult to fully understand and grasp. I do understand that a thinker generally needs to be able to applying their analysis and thinking skills to make good decisions and solve complex problems, however, I am not as skilled and confident in thinking critically, and is not able to truly view a passage, event or incident from a wide range of perspectives.

Learner Prole Strength

Personal Project was an independent project that spanned nearly a year, where all Year 10 students were given the task to choose a topic of interest and create a product relevant to one of the 5 areas of interaction. For this project, I chose to base my product upon the topic of Traditional Chinese Medicine, with the goal of my project being: To educate people who do not believe in Traditional Chinese Medicine, showing the causes and consequences of TCM development through a display and an electronic book. This project clearly shows my development as a communicator, since I was able to keep a detailed and organized process journal documenting all my thoughts, ideas, research and designs. Furthermore, since I was also able to coherently write a report reecting upon my entire progress during all stages of the project as well as effectively communicate my research and knowledge on the evolution of Traditional Chinese Medicine (through 6 Chinese paintings and their accompanying bilingual descriptions), it clearly shows the communication skills I have gained and developed over the years. I consider communicator as my learner prole strength mainly because it is the learner prole that I have had a great deal of improvement in this year, particularly when I was working on the personal project. My gains from being a good communicator does not only apply in classroom practices or assessments, but is also evident in my daily life. I have learnt a lot about the skill of communicating effectively, whether it is using the correct terminology when addressing specic target audiences, or expressing myself through verbal, written or visual means. A good example was during the Work in Progress fair and PP Exhibition. When people approached my desk, I needed to explain my project clearly to a wide range of audiences. However, the topic I chose for my project had quite a complex content and lots of difcult terminology, therefore, I needed to develop the skill of simplifying my presentation, using easy to understand vocabulary to explain my project in a simple manner. Moreover, another reason for communicator being my learner prole strength is because I am much more condent with applying my communication skills, unlike last year when it was still my learner prole goal. In conclusion, my learner prole strength is communicator, since I have gained a greater insight to what it means by a good or effective communicator, have developed and rened my communication skills greatly, and is more condent in expressing myself through various modes of communication. As a result, by effectively applying this strength on my assessments, I have been able to save quite some time and effort in trying to express myself. My work has also improved slightly, since I have been able to record all my ideas, thoughts and opinions in a concise and easy to understand manner. Nonetheless, I will still need to practice my communication skills, further rening and applying it to all aspects of my life, to be able to get my opinions across effectively.