Final Post

In this term, my ESL teacher gave us a freedom of choosing topic and make a project of it. In this project there are 4 parts that I have to complete which are; knowledge, comprehension, application and analysis. I chose "ballet" as the topic of my project. I want to learn more about it because I think this particular dance is very pretty and elegant.

The first step is called "knowledge". In this part, I have to collect information about my topic as much as I could. Therefore, I did some research about the basic movements in ballet and some of the glossary.

The second step is comprehension. In this part, I made a video to compare each of the movements. At first, I took a video of someone doing the 5 basic movements and sequence it. I put it into iMovie and for the back sound I recorded my own voice talking about the explanation.

The third step is the application part. in this part I have to do what I have learned which is doing the 5 basic movements. at first I wanted to make it into a video but then I thought it was boring because I already made a video in my Comprehension part. I tried to think about what I could do to apply the 5 basic movements in ballet but I couldn’t find it and I ran out of time so at last I decided to do the post. I wasn't very happy with my decision but this is the only thing that I could think of and do in a very short time. If I have one more change to do it, I want to do something that for certain better than this one.

The last thing that i have to do before i finish this project is to write my analysis paragraph, and this is my analysis paragraph:
 
I think I always communicate my understanding while doing this project. The first thing I did was by making a step by step and then creating a video to explain how to do the 5 basic movement. Llastly, I took photos of me doing the 5 basic movement.

The first way to communicate my understanding was by making the step by step of how to do the 5 basic movement in ballet. I did some research about the basic steps and found pictures of 5 of them and then give an explanation of how to do it by writing with my own words. I think this is not really effective because I only explained it by words and maybe not everyone could understand what I wrote.

Comparing each of the movements also one way of how to show my understanding. I compared the movements by making a short video to show it. At first I took a video from YouTube of someone doing it and sequence it, put it into iMovie and I talked about it.

I think my first and second way to demonstrate my understanding wasn't really really effective. Therefore, I decided to applying what I know, so I took photos of me doing all the 5 legs basic movements and explained it with my own words again. And I think this is the best way of communicate my understanding because people can see how I explain it and how I do it.

This is the video when I did the interview with my teacher:

Application

In this week, my task is to show the information that I have and illustrate how to do them. After I do some trial of the movements, I examine some of the hardest and easiest movements. 


This is me when I do the five basic legs movement:

First Position:

I stand up with both of my heels touched and open the fronts slightly like a “V” shape.

Second Position:

From the first position, I open the heels.

Third Position:

The right foot is in front of the other with the heels touching the middle part of the left foot.

Fourth Position:

From third position I slide the right foot forward so they're apart

Fifth Position:

From the fourth position pull the heel of right foot to touch the toes of left foot. 

For me, the hardest movement is the fifth because I think it is just awkward and it is hard to position my foot like that and it is also difficult to stand with your foot in that position. But after I do it 3 or 4 times, it is not that painful again. Even though my fifth position is still not good but at least I can stand with that position without any problem anymore :)) 

And I think the first and second position is the easiest because it's just making your heels touched then make a letter "V" and then open the heels.

Leg Movement of Ballet

For the next step for this project, we try to comprehend the topic and try to implement it by doing it. Unfortunately, I wasn't prepared so I decided to utilize video of others that showing the material for the latest topic (basic leg movement).
Here I include the video that I made:

I think the easiest move out of these 5 basic movements are the first and the second. It is like a stand up straight and put both of the heels together. Slide a bit wider and voila that is the second position.

While for the difficult ones which are the forth and fifth position I don’t feel comfortable at all although both of the movements are in sequence. I feel like twisting my feet into unnatural position that makes me want to either tilt or stop doing it. This makes me wonder how could a ballerina stand to stand like that?

Ballet as a Project

In ESL class, the students are allowed to choose a topic they would love to talk about. We should learn about it and put it into a project. I chose ballet as a topic because I think movements in ballet are really pretty and I want to know more about it. The ballerina is my inspiration because they look graceful when they dance. I limit my research to only the basic movements which are the legs and the arms.

In these 10 weeks I will do a trial of some of the ballet basic movement that covers the legs and arms. At last, I will video my effort and submit it to my teacher. If it is good enough, I will post it in my blog.

Some of the legs movements that I will try to learn:

First position:

Stand up with your feet together. Make your heels touch. Your left toes will face toward the left, and your right toes will face toward the right. Your feet nearly form a straight line except your toes point ever-so-slightly forward.

Second position:

From first position, transfer your weight to your left leg and slide your right foot sideways along the floor. Your right foot should remain turned out during this motion — that is, your right heel should stay forward, just as in first position.



Third position:

 One foot is in front of the other with the of the front foot touching the middle of the back foot.


Fourth Position:

Go to the first position. Set one foot to the toe of the other foot, so the legs are crossed. Set a foot apart from each leg.

Fifth Position:

From forth position, draw the legs close to each other. 

There are also a lot of glossary of ballet that I should know such as: Arabesque, Fouetté en Tournant and Grand Jete.

Arabesque

One of the basic poses in ballet, arabesque takes its name from a form of Moorish ornament. In ballet it is a position of the body, in profile, supported on one leg, which can be straight or demi-plié, with the other leg extended behind and at right angles to it, and the arms held in various harmonious positions creating the longest possible line from the fingertips to the toes. The shoulders must be held square to the line of direction.

Fouetté en Tournant

Fouetté en Tounant means turning. This fouetté may be done on demi-pointe, on point or with a jump. It is usually done en dedans and may be finished in attitude croisée, attitude effacée or any of the arabesques. 

Grand Jete

A long horizontal jump, usually forward, starting from one leg and landing on the other. In the middle of the jump, the dancer may be doing a split in midair. One of the most memorable of all ballet jumps; the dancer seems to float in the air, as a result of the shift of his center of gravity from the split.

Learning Syles

There are 3 different types of learning, which are visual learners (learn through seeing), auditory learners (learn through listening) and kinesthetic learners (learn through moving, doing and touching).

People who learn visually have to see the teacher's body language and facial expression to understand the lesson. They choose to sit in front of class so they can see the teacher's body language without any barrier. In learning process, they like to make like a diagram or pictures to help them understand about the topic.

The auditory types learn best through verbal lectures, discussions and debates. The sound of voice helps them to remember the topics. They prefer to sit and listen to the teacher rather than being involved like touching or moving. 

A kinesthetic learner can't just sit for the whole period they may become bored. The best way to learn for them is being active an involved such as moving and doing. Exploring the surrounding helps them to understand.

I am a kinesthetic learner because I am easily bored when I have to sit and just listen. I need to move and touch stuff. Being actively involved is helping me to understand more. For example in the science class, I love to do experiment because it is fun and I can move around. But it is inevitable that many of the subjects are taught that way. Maybe it is me to improve the learning technique. 

Sentences Game

My final project is; I have to make something to teach other people about sentences and I decided to make a board game.
The rule is very easy. Its just like the other board game. You just have to throw the dice and once you've got the number, you can't just go to the next box, you have to answer the question first. If you can't answer the question, you cant go to the next box.

Editing Inquirer Work

This is my work before I go this the grammar unit. I made a lot of silly mistakes like forgot add an "s" to make it plural.

This is a short movie when I am editing my old post:

Lastly, this is my final draft:

Adverb

I have been making a cartoon animation that explain about adverb. Hopefully this video can help you to understand more about the adverb. Enjoy!

Verbs

This is another video that I made. This one is about verbs :D

Adjectives

In ESL class, I've made a little short video about adjective to help me understand about adjective. I made this video using iMovie and for the musics and the recordings I use GarageBand. I do and don't enjoyed this assessment because it was fun when I have to choose the clips form the video but don't enjoyed when I have to choose what adjectives that I gonna use. It was hard. So firstly, I decided to make like a story about the clip that I already choose before and then I  highlight the adjectives. 


So, do you like my project? Is that detail enough?

Short Reflection

So far, I've learned about the meaning of parts of speech, nouns and adjective and also the various types of nouns. Parts of speech are words that we put into categories. There are eight parts of speech. Noun is word that describes things, place, person or idea. Adjective is word that describes nouns. Adjective makes the nouns to be more specific.

In class, we use Brain Pop to help us in the learning process. Brain Pop is web that is designed to help us to understand school subjects. It provides video and quiz for each topic available. For example, in English they have grammar, writing, reading and so on. For each topic, they break it down to smaller parts such as adjective, adverbs and nouns. Personally, I think Brain Pop is not interesting but it helps to understand some subjects easily.

Other than Brain Pop we also use Google Docs in learning process. It is one of facilities provided by Google, which means, you have to have Google account to enjoy this service. Google Docs help us to share documents with friends when we do our group work.  We agree to go online at certain time and do all the work together. I like the idea of using Google Docs because it is time and place efficient. Since this is new for me, I am glad that my teacher introduce this to me.

If in any way, I have to do a tutor in grammar, I would like to make it into a comic so it will be more interesting. I will put color, pictures, and characters to make it more appealing.  While for words, I will choose simple ones to make it easy to understand.