Tag: Writing

LI: To learn how to use construct the TEEL paragraph structure.

What are Refugees? Refugees are people who are forced to leave their homeland in the hope of seeking asylum when entering a new country. Like many other Refugees, Refugees who left Afghanistan are because of the Taliban, a group of dangerous Islamic fighters who have taken dominance over Afghanistan. Afghanistan was very heavily targeted by other countries because of war, that’s why refugees are forced to flee to keep not only themselves but their family safe. Before seeking asylum, many Refugees smuggle their way to another country by hiding in the back of a vehicle and risk being found. This is the fact that the borders have strict protocols and are guarded by heavy security. When Refugees get smuggled, they risk and abandon what is behind them and focus on moving forward by making the most intense choices. Unfortunately, other Refugees travel in impossible ways for safety. Such as riding in a fragile unsecure boat. It may result in loss of a life or a miracle for reaching a country guaranteed of safety. There are many great authors who have experienced what feels like countless and perilous journeys. Such as, Abbas Nazari (The Author of ‘From Afghanistan to Aotearoa’) and Mahdi Basari (The Author of ‘Escape from Afghanistan). Reading these books gives our global audience solace for the very brave Refugees, but as Abbas Nazari said, “Imagine having to make an impossible choice….”

For writing this term, our topic focus was about Refugees from Afghanistan. We wrote a TEEL Paragraph about Refugees who were forcefully made to leave their country due to reasons such as war, violence, or persecution We also learned about the difficulties they faced trying to escape their homeland from a group called the Taliban.

I found this activtiy interesting because I experienced with new powerful words such as solace to create a professional TEEL Paragraph.

LI: To write a set of clear instructions that shows us how to make a Hangi

How to make a Hangi; A Hangi is a traditional underground cooking method to cook a variety of foods.

You will need:

• Equipment/Materials
  • volcanic stones
  • shovel
  • paper
  • lighter
  • twigs/kindling
  • cloth sacks
  • metal basket (cooking tray)
  • hook tool
  • gloves
  • cylinder of water
  • leaves

• Ingredients
  • vegetables (cabbage, potatoes, carrots, taro leaves, kumera, pumpkin)
  • meat (ox, chicken, beef, lamb, pork)
  • stuffing

Numbered steps:

1. =Dig a hole in the ground that is about 4 ft. Make sure that it is slightly bigger than the food baskets.
2. Gather volcanic stones to fill up a portion of the hole after it has been burned.
3. Collect pieces of wood (45 pieces at least)
4. Gather 3 Food baskets and place all ingredients needed inside. (Vegetables and Meat)
5. Pile the wood and volcanic stones to create a big fire stack. 
6. LIght the wood with a lighter and leave it to burn for 3-5 hours. 
7. Once the fire is done burning, use long shovels to transport the hot rocks from the fire in the Hangi.
8. Whilst transporting the hot rocks, soak 5 sacks and 1 sheet of material in water for the Hangi.
9. Once the hot rocks are in the hole, place taro leaves to help the rocks generate the heat.
10. Place all three food baskets on top of the wet cabbages as the heat starts to generate.
11. Once all three baskets are successfully placed into the Hangi, place the wet sacks to protect the food from soil. Leave the food to cook for 3 hours.
12. Once 3 hours is done, carefully use a shovel to take out the soil from the sacks.
13. Once the sacks have been taken off, carefully place all 3 baskets out of the Hangi and transport it to a marquee to carve.

Make sure not to leave a Hangi unattended while it’s on fire or left underground.

Today we unpacked how to follow and write a set of instructions. To do this effectively your instructions need to be explicit and the steps to follow ordered. Each step begins with an instructional verb and should be written in a way that is easy to understand.

I enjoyed the paired practise challenge because this challenged us to see if we can follow clear instructions and understand the procedure of what we are being asked to do.

LI: To create a comparison of the before and after experiences at camp

Before camp, we wrote down what we would achieve at camp by using the acronym TRUMP. The meaning of Trump is Thinking, Relating to Others, Using language text and symbols, Managing Self, and Participating and contributing. These 5 words help us to remember when to use them in every activity. When we came back from camp, we wrote down how we used the key competencies for our belongings and in the activities. 

I found this activity interesting because I had to use this acronym to make sure I am organised for camp.

LI: To recount and explore the learning and experiences from our Year 7/8 camp

Our group wrote a poem based on our senses like auditory, tactile, visual, and kinesthetic. We used our prior knowledge of the senses and unpacked different words and ideas that describes the Hunua Falls. These moment in time poems represent our experience at Kokako Lodge. One of our ideas were (I heard the roaring sound of the freshwater, as it was plunging into the liquid surface below, intercepting my auditory senses). We then used word hippo to find more powerful words to strengthen our poems.

I found this activty interesting because I collaborated with my group to unpack powerful language and create powerful paragraphs.

LI: To understand the structure and language features in an explanation

How did Goldilocks upset the Bear family?

Upset is a powerful emotion that is defined as making someone angry or distressed. In the story of the Goldilocks and the Three Bears, Goldilocks made some unworthy decisions which upsets the characters in the story. Have you ever had the intention to upset anyone?

Goldilocks never had any intention to upset anyone. Without thinking of the consequences of her actions, she allowed her curiosity to intrude into an unknown home, unidentified and uninvited. 

Oversighting and demolishing others belongings shows a decrease of respect. Throughout the story, Goldilocks continues to show a lack of respect each time she mistreats the Bears home. Goldilocks does not contribute to acts that have been shown in the story which us as readers should reflect on. 

Goldilocks has a lack of respect throughout the whole story by demolishing the belongings of the three bears.

To help us understand how to write an explanation we looked at the purpose, the structure (what it looks like) and the language features. An explanation tells us how or why something is the way it is. To help us understand this we learnt about cause and effect. Cause and effect is an action and a reaction. We used the story of Goldilocks and the 3 Bears to help us understand this. Here is our explanation that describes how Goldilocks upset the Bear family.

This activity was interesting because I used my knowledge of the Goldilocks and the Three Bears to create an explanation 

This week, we revised some formal and informal language. Formal language is used for writing or professional conversation purposes. It uses complex and more precise vocabulary and uses full sentences. Informal language is mainly used for relaxed and more casual conversations. It uses a lack of grammar and vocabulary and uses short sentences. It also uses slang words. 

Formal Language example:

Dear Mr.Bean,

I am here to report an incident that happened in your restaurant. Whilst I was enjoying my plate, I heard some arguments in the kitchen. This type of behaviour is completely unacceptable and needs immediate action to take place. I hope you will investigate even further and to solve this incident and require the saftey for the customers. I look forward to hearing back to you.

Informal Language example:

Wassup,

I just heard some arguments. I believe it was some of your staff. I was very cross because my son was crying. You need to sort this out. I want to hear a reply ASAP!

I found this activity interesting because we learnt new things about fomal and infomal language.

LI: To list the similarities and differences as you can between the two texts. 

Our task here was to compare the similarities and differences between the same story told from two different perspectives. We read The 3 Pigs and The True story of the 3 pigs. The first text was told from the pig’s perspective and the second story was written from the perspective of the wolf.

Something I found interesting was that I was mostly connecting the stories in the similarities box.

LI: To make an informed opinion

This week we have been learning about bias. Bias can be objective which means not allowing bias to affect judgement or subjective to be influenced by the past. We looked at the same story from different perspectives. A perspective is based on your point of view and how it can affect throughout your opinion. After reading and summarising both texts we thought about and talked about the facts to help us make an informed opinion.

Our group found this challenging because we were confused about who was at fault and I had some connections between the Lizzie Borden cases on how they just let the case go and couldn’t figure out who was the culprit. 

Something I found interesting was that I had different perspectives.

This RFE activity was to make a short story about a character or a setting inside of a book. Can you guess who this character might be? There are lots of book characters and book settings that you can do. For example: Fantastic Mr Fox – Tree House. We can also use different vocabulary to create a even more powerful story. For example: Understand – Precise.

I found this activity interesting because I can use different vocabulary to create powerful sentences and this activity can people can figure out where the setting or who the character is by reading sentences.