Description The 1994 Rwandan genocide was a horrific mass slaughter that left more than 1 million people dead. Years after this tragic event, the blame for this genocide still remains a controversy. During this unit in Humanities, we learnt about the history of Rwanda and explored various factors that played a role in the genocide. Through learning about the colonial past of Rwanda and the series of events that occurred before, during and after the genocide, I was able to develop a greater picture and understanding of the incident. Nevertheless, it was only after I thought of the research question To what extent are Belgian colonizers more responsible for the 1994 Rwandan genocide than the international community and Rwandan people that I began to consider the precise roles that these three groups of people (Belgian colonizers, international community and Rwandan people) had on the genocide. For this in class assessment, I used various examples to support my thesis point that the Belgian colonizers held the most responsibility for the genocide, though also discussed the extent in which they could be fully blamed for the genocide. Justification This essay on the 1994 Rwandan Genocide evidently shows that I am an inquirer, not only because I developed my own research question as guidance for the essay, but also because I came up with a few short questions that enabled me to consider the wide range of factors that affected the genocide. During the process of planning out the essay, I started off with the question: Who was involved with the Rwandan genocide?. The research I carried out on this question allowed me to categorize the people involved into 3 groups (Belgian colonizers, the international community and Rwandan people). This then sparked my next two questions: What did they do? When? where I organized my response to these questions in the form of a timeline, with the events before, during and after the genocide displayed chronologically. With the events clearly shown, I realized that most of the cause of the conflict arose after the Belgian colonizers established the racial segregation system, which stimulated my last question: If the Belgian colonizers did not stir up the resentment between tribes, would the genocide have occurred? By thinking about this question, I realized that the genocide would most likely not have occurred if it wasnt for the Belgian colonizers, which would mean that the international community would not have to interfere, as Rwandan people would not have started killing each other. Reflection I think that I did really well on this task, although there is still some room for improvement. On the whole, I was able to make a concrete judgement with supporting evidence on the Rwandan genocide incident, when in the beginning, I did not know much about the event at all. Looking back, I see the progress I have made throughout unit, having developed a much greater understanding of the Rwandan genocide. From this task, I realized the importance of learning the skills (thinking, questioning) for conducting research, as well as knowing how to organize the research, to be able to effectively apply the knowledge acquired in writing an essay. This said, I will need to continue developing and improving upon my inquiry skills, to allow more effective learning, whether it is for future research tasks or for similar essays. In terms of the written essay itself, the choice of vocabulary and flow between each point (paragraph) needs to be improved upon, to allow a more persuasive essay, since many key terms were repeated throughout the essay.
Joys and Values of Life Essay
Description While learning about argumentative writing in Chinese, our unit review assignment was an in class written essay on one of the four given topics: (Interpersonal relationships and the ideal society), (Online world and real life), (Joys and values of life), and (Living environment and human development). In the end, I chose to write an argumentative essay on the Joys and Values of Life, where I used a range of real life examples and famous quotes to support my thesis: In order to overcome all sorts of difficulties, it is essential for a person to learn to be contented with their life, enjoy what they do, appreciate what they have and have a positive attitude when encountering problems. When writing this essay, I also used a wide range of argumentative techniques ( deduction, induction, analogy) to express my points in a more strong and coherent manner. Justification This essay comprehensively shows my knowledgeable trait, since I explored the concept of the value of life acquiring real life examples and famous sayings to develop a more all-rounded understanding of the essay topic. With a better idea of the topic itself, I went on to developing my arguments and supporting points, gathering past knowledge and experience on the joys and values I have on my life. I decided to use two real life examples to support my thesis. The first was an example of a dancer who got cancer, which was an example that I found online, used to support my point of enjoying your life and be contented with it. However, the second example was the first American shooting spree that was carried out by Brenda. This was an example that I remembered from previous knowledge, as it was an incident that I did some detailed research on during the introductory unit in Drama (I do not like Mondays). I decided to my knowledge on this event to portray the consequence of not having a positive attitude in life. Instead of finding two articles or events directly from the internet, I applied my previous knowledge (relevant to the topic) and used it as juxtaposition to the first real life example, emphasizing the importance of having a positive attitude. Reflection I reckon that I did quite well with this essay, as I was able to apply my knowledge from research and experience to write a strong argumentative essay. Furthermore, I was also able to apply a range of 4 techniques to strengthen and enrich the piece, covering a wide perspective regarding the topic. Through this task, I was able to think more critically about what my joys and values of life are, while at the same time, find out more about the opinions other people have on the same topic, combining them to structure this essay. However, just because I applied my knowledge of a previous real life example in writing this task, it does not mean that the structure and style of my writing is good, which is what I will need to improve upon. Although I had a rich content that covered several points about the values of life, I was not able to distinctly link them to form a clear and concise thesis, which I can improve upon if I did slightly more planning and reorganized my points (grouping or joining them to form concise supporting points).
Matrices Investigation
Description Having learnt the basics of matrices (addition, subtraction, multiplication and inverse matrices), we were given an investigation task, where we explored the properties and patterns of different matrices. Starting off with raising square matrices to different powers, I observed the patterns and came up with a general formula for all square matrices raised to any power. By using a table to organize all the matrix multiplication results, I was able to notice the patterns easily (describing them clearly), finally determining a general expression. Moving on from simple matrices raised to the nth power, I began looking at proving the general expression through algebraic means, while also spotting patterns of raising more complex square matrices. After finding the general formula for several complex matrix multiplication problems, I then began looking at the scope and limitations of the matrices involving an unknown term. This gave me the opportunity to show my understanding, as I needed to write down all the steps required to complete matrices multiplication - to be able to simplify the matrix. Justification I believe that this investigation task distinctly shows that I am a good communicator, because I was able to clearly express my calculations and thoughts through simple forms of mathematic representations effectively. Even though this task involved some of the basics of matrices, since matrix multiplication can get really complicated when it involves several algebraic terms, the fact that I was able to systematically show all my calculations, while explain them in a chronological order shows the communication skills I have developed over the past years. I started off with a table, then described the patterns I saw. Afterwards, I algebraically derived a general expression for any value (which was the conjecture), and I also carried out tests (showing all my working) to support my conjecture. If I did not show all my working out through the expanded multiplication form, I would most likely not have been able to determine the clear correlation and pattern of the multiplied matrix, which would have resulted in my inability to answer all the questions of the investigation fully. As a result, it can clearly be seen that clear and easy to understand forms of representation in math is extremely beneficial, allowing patterns and errors to be spotted more easily. Reflection Although I am quite pleased with my ability to lucidly show my working, I reckon that I should have spent more time not only on finding the general expression for several square matrices, but rather on determining the properties (scope or limitation) of the specific square matrices. Additionally, I should have also used a bit more forms of communication: Instead of only using mathematical deduction, algebraic expressions and tables, I could have used a graph to show the basic properties of matrices, further explaining why my results hold true in general. When exploring the properties of specific square matrices, I could have further looked into k as a fraction, to observe if there are any limitations on the scope of the results, which would allow me to come up with a more generalized statement. Through this investigation, I learnt that even when matrices are raised up to certain powers, they still follow general number rules: any negative matrix raised to an even power will become positive, but when raised to an odd power, it will remain negative. I also discovered the importance of showing all my working, because matrix multiplication is quite confusing, and by showing each step (writing them out clearly in the correct form of a square matrix), I was able to determine its correlation and properties.
Brechtian Theatre
Description For the first unit in drama, we looked at a totally different type of theatre - Brechtian / epic theatre - which utilizes the alienation technique to make spectators question the reality of the play. By making the invisible wall between actors and audiences more distinct, the audience becomes an observer and is constantly reminded of the fact that they are simply watching a role play, not the actual event. Since we have never learnt about Brechtian theatre before, our first tasks were simply introductions to this type of theatre, where we learnt the techniques of using narrations, narrating our actions, using gestus/gest (exaggerating emotions and using gestures to symbolize certain traits), using monologues, spoken thoughts, freeze frames and music to convey perform unique plays. For our final assessment, we were given the task to select a well-known fairy tale, and in a group of 3, plan out and perform the script using several Brechtian techniques to make it a Brechtian play. In my group, we chose to use the fairy tale Jack and the Beanstalk, where we used placards, gest, reported speech, tableaux and switching roles to perform the play. Nevertheless, throughout the unit, we wrote reflections for every session, where we reflected upon our ideas, participation and performance, which has been put together into a folder - composed of the entire unit of work. Justification This unit of work clearly shows that I am reflective, because throughout the unit, I kept writing reflections for every session. These reflections provided me with an opportunity to look back at the session, considering my strengths and weaknesses when I completed the task. By continually referring to the task and my involvement in it, I thoughtfully considered my use of the 5Cs: creativity, cooperation, consideration, communication and concentration, which are really important drama conventions that I need to develop and use. Furthermore, I also reflected upon my performance during tasks, where I noted down weaknesses and limitations (things I did not do as well in), suggesting solutions to improve or overcome the problems, so I could be able to do better next time. Additionally, knowing and understanding my strengths in various aspects of the work allowed me to focus more on expanding those particular skills, which would in turn helped my weaknesses. In particular, an example would be doing the final assessment, where we began with a draft idea, reflected upon it by ourselves (as well as by asking peers), make adjustments accordingly, which ultimately resulted in the final idea. Reflection This unit of work was really challenging for me, not only because the type of theatre introduced was one that I have never heard of before, but also because Brechtian theatre is a really complicated and unusual form of theatre, making it more difficult to understand and apply. I think that I did pretty well throughout the unit, even though there were several sessions that could have gone better. Even though I found reported speech (narration of actions) really challenging, due to the reason that after each session, I reflected upon my performance during the lesson and suggested improvements for using Brechtian techniques, I was able to slowly improve and get comfortable with this Brechtian technique. Nonetheless, I reckon that I could have been more specific when writing my reflections, discussing more details so I would be able improve on more distinct skills. For example, instead of just mentioning the fact that I should become more familiar with the technique of reported speech, I could have suggested that I should do more acting practices (finding an easy role play and act it out, adding reported speech and narrating all the actions of the character) that involved reported speech, so I would be more comfortable and accustomed to it.