Last year, when initially taking the diagnostic tests I landed on Phase 3 of the oral portion and on Phase 4 of Visual, Reading and Writing. It was my stated goal to at least move up once phase by the end of this year. To be frank I think my speaking abilities have bettered in the last year due to constant oral presentations in my French class and interactions with my french teacher. I am able to communicate ideas clearly with only a a small amount of difficulty, mostly in my vocabulary. However, I do not believe I was able to move onto Phase 4 of the oral section due to the lack of constant speaking this school year.
My visual interpretations has improved and I think I was able to move onto Phase 5 of Language Development due to my larger understanding of objects and words. Particularly in the Children's Storybook unit, I was able to create illustrations that accurately fit the French narrative. My Reading comprehension has greatly improved as I have been reading short stories and french news at least twice per week. The news site I tend to turn to is 20minutes, which has short articles that be to be read during commute. This site has bettered my reading comprehension by not only improving it but also adjusting it to a francophone setting. Finally, my writing has also improved by developing new tense usage and increasing my vocabulary which is owed to my increased reading every week. Thus I feel that I have moved on to phase 5.
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Reflection
To create this children's book I first brainstormed an idea and a story that would relate to my area in some way, and this transformed to the story of a little boy who wanted a friend - a sister, and thus drew her and their adventures together. The writing portion of the bit was not very difficult, I think I had most of the vocabulary on hand however I wanted to try something new and ambitious. Therefore I decided to write the book in a tense I had never learned - the passé simple. The passé simple is the literary equivalent of passé composé and is mainly used in formal writings. The most challenging part about this new tense was knowing when to integrate it into the writing and when to switch to other tenses when necessary. The drawings/paintings were the biggest portion taking up to 20 - 30 minutes each depending on the page. Some pages were more detailed since the setting was necessary to draw out, such as Vert's bedroom that is a nod to Van Gogh's Bedroom, and the "horrible monsters" page (p. 12) that is Munch's The Scream. The speaking portion was pretty good. I feel very confident about my ability to speak french however my comprehension is still not as good as I would like it to be thus I will continue working on listening and understanding. Hours spent: 25 hours Visite Van Gogh Le dernier jeudi, je suis allé à l’Institut d’Art avec mon ancienne amie, Esther, qui je connais depuis plus 7 ans, et une nouvelle amie, Surisiday. Le trip a été très long. On a pris le bus 72 a le centre ville et puis on a pris le train à l'institut. On est entrés à l'institut et - mon dieu - c'était plein de personnes, mais on a attendu parce que les jeudis l'institut est gratuit. On a obtenu notre tickets mais quand on est entrés à galerie principal, le sécurité on a dit qu’on a du enregistrer notre sacs, donc on l’a fait. Depuis de visiter les galeries que Surisiday a du visiter - la galerie d’art Africain, et les galeries asiatiques - et les galeries que Esther a voulu voir - l’art et fashion contemporaine - on est allés à l’art moderne. On a regardé l’art de Pablo Picasso, Man Ray, Matisse et Warhol. Finalement, on est arrivés à le galerie de Van Gogh et j'étais épuisée avec émotion. Son art a été rempli de sentiment. Les couleurs de son pieces ont été très brillant. Mais le chose que j’ai adoré plus que tout autre a ete la texture de ses pièces. C’etrange, mais la texture de ses oeuvres l’ont donné beaucoup de vie. Les oeuvres de Van Gogh m’ont donné l'inspiration pour mon art - je vais utiliser beaucoupe de peintre et le style impasto. Les dix phrases -
Hours Spent:
2 hours Retro
In retrospect, I feel like the project went very well. We did stumble upon a couple issues here and there but were worked around them very nicely. Every visit was consistent and we were very well prepared for each day. The music was consistently good every day, with the musicians showing up on time (mostly) and preparing and tuning quietly to the side while the seniors were given their lunch. Every day, the seniors complimented the music and said how much they enjoyed live music and some of them even teared up. The JROTC did very well in taking command of the preparation and execution aspect with Caitlin Lair a their leader, and the leader of the whole project. She, with the help of her fellow comrades, was able to pick up the slack that one of the members left behind after failing to put together the scrapbook that was planned for the project. With quick wit, diligence and perseverance they were able to complete the scrapbook a few days before it was presented. The art part of this project was very shaky. We were unable to get any of the seniors to participate in the activities we had planned and because of the mock testing we were also unable to get the seniors their commissioned art on time. The timing was out of our control and unfortunate, I will admit, since both Eleanor and I had a lot to do the week prior and the week of. Nonetheless the art was delivered two weeks after due to some unseen circumstances. Overall the project was a success, but the art portion may be in need of some rethinking since it is difficult to apply in the setting we were given. Journal 9: En recul, je sens que le projet fut bien. Nous avait du problèmes partout mais nous leur résolvions. Chaque visité était cohérent et nous préparions bien pour chaque jour. La musique était cohérent aussi et les musiciens venaient en temps tous le jours (surtout) et ils se préparaient silencieusement pendant que les seniors mange ses dejouners. Tous les jours les seniors disaient que ils aimaient la musique et des personnes pleuraient un peu. Les cadets faisaient bien aussi en la préparation et la exécution de le projet avec Caitlin Lair comme le leader. Elle, avec ses camarades, complétaient le scrapbook que un personne n’avait pas fini. La parte d’art de le projet était incertain parce que les seniors n’auraient pas voulu dessiner ou créer un pièce d’art donc chaque jour nous avions changer le plan. L’art demandait ne fut pas donné a les seniors parce que Eleanor et moi n’ayez pas été là. Néanmoins, l’art était distribuer deux semaines depuis. Le projet fut un succès, mais la portion d’art ont besoin de repenser parce que ce difficile appliquer a la situation que fut donné. Mots neuveux: cohérent - consistent camarades - comrade néanmoins - nonetheless Hours Spent (Journal 1 - 9) 10.5 hours Trying to Acrylic
As it turns out, I will not be going to tomorrow’s final Midweek Matinee since I will be taking a horrid AP mock, Calculus. Putting the fear that this has caused aside, I guess I’ll be reflecting on my art process since acrylic painting is fairly new to me. I will begin by discussing Ms. Luz’s requested piece. Ms. Luz asked for a “landscape with trees. water, and an angel,” all of which are truly new to me. I’ve never done a landscape and I had also never really worked with acrylic on canvas which altogether made me feel very hesitant. The only paint I had ever used was gouache, a sort of opaque watercolor with strong pigments and a very matte finish. Acrylic, however, is very different. Its consistency is thick and it is not as water soluble as guache, and unlike guache, it sticks to canvas. When I first started to work with it, I realized that due to its thick nature, I would be unable to use the grisaille method I tend to use with gouache and that the shading would have to then come after the base colors instead of before. You can imagine my frustration trying to use methods that prove useless with acrylic but nonetheless, I think I got an okay hand on it. The subject altogether was just overall exasperating. I know nearly nothing about how to paint a landscape, so it was difficult to travel away from my comfort zone in portraiture and work on the intricate textures in the scene described by Ms. Luz. Ms. Molina requested an “angel playing the piano’ which I thought might be easier to draw (easier than the landscape) but my piano ended up looking like a brownie. Overall, the experience was very interesting and, thought it was strange and difficult, I would like to continue opening up my horizons and explore more art stuffs. Journal 8: Demain, je n’irai pas a le Midweek Matinee dernier parce que je vais prendre un horrible examen faux de calculs. Donc, je vais parler de l’art que j’ai été créant. Je peindrai un paysage avec du arbres, de l’eau et un petit ange pour Mme. Luz, et tous de ces choses sont neveux par moi. Je jamais ai faire un paysage et je jamais ai travaille avec le peindre acrylique donc je m’ai sentis très hésitant. Le peindre unique que j'utilise c’est le gouache, un aquarelle opaque avec forte pigments et un vernis mat. Mais l’acrylique est très diffèrent. C’est consistance est épais est elle n’est pas soluble dans l’eau, donc contrairement a le gouache, elle se colle a le toile. Pour être plus épais, je n’ai pas pu utiliser le méthode grisaille et j’ai eu travailler en arrière. J'étais très frustre. Le sujet était excédant aussi, je sais rien de paysages. C'était difficile de bouger de mon zone de confort en l’art du portrait et peindre les textures de le paysage de Mme. Luz. Mme Molina exige un ange que joue le piano, et je pensais que c'était facile peindre mais mon piano s’a semblé un brownie. L'expérience était étrange et difficile mai je voudrais continuer gonfler mes expériences et explorer plus choses d’art. Mots nouveaux: paysage - landscape aquarelle - watercolor épais - thick https://drive.google.com/open?id=0B-qTX44F_Mv5SDYtejE2dHZ3OXZESk5DNDM5UWJJS091VWVV
Reflecting on Day 3
Yesterday, March 8th, went quite well due to the fact that there were less seniors to attend. The music was very lively and many of the seniors in attendance admitted that they enjoyed it very much, and some of them rather listened to the music than speak with us. Conversations died out a little bit since some of us did refer to the conversations as ‘interviews’ which made it seem as if we were only interested in certain things about the seniors and then nothing more which caused some seniors to avoid speaking with us. Those that did continued to have great conversations. Once again, the seniors avoided doing any sort of activity the art folk,. Eleanor and I, came up with, which caused us to be at lost for the day and so we resorted to speaking with the seniors. For our final day, maybe Eleanor and I should have a small gallery where we can showcase our art and give the requested art to those who it belongs to, as well as display the scrapbook the ROTC people along with some music people have been making. The performers should perform some of the requested music, which shouldn’t be all that much of a hassle since some seniors have requested an encore of previously played music such as Ave Maria. Journal 7: Hier, le 8 de mars, était bon parce qu’il y avait moins de seniors. La musique était vivant et beaucoup du seniors ont dit qu’ils l’aime. Des seniors ont préféré écouter la musique a parler avec nous. Les conversations était short parce que du élevés ont dit qu’elles fussent interviews donc du seniors ont nous dit qu’ils fussent déjà entrevue. Mais, les seniors que voudraient parler avec les élevés ont continuer de parler et ils ont de long conversations. Autre fois, les seniors n’ont pas voulu faire d’art avec Eleanor et moi donc nous avons parlé avec les seniors encore. Pour le jour final, Eleanor et moi devrions avoir un petit gallérie d’art avec le scrapbook que le JROTC a fabrique et nous devrions donné les pentures exige. Les artistes de musique devraient jouer les chansons que les seniors exige, comme joue Ave Maria encore. Mots nouveaux: vivant - lively entrevue - interview exiger - to request Ms. Luz
Last week I spoke with Ms. Luz . The conversation went well and was pretty general; nothing very specific in terms of names and years. I learned that Ms. Luz was born in Ecuador and moved to the United states in her thirties and then lived in Texas. She had children; one of her sons married a pakistani woman, and had a son whom I resemble - apparently, which led her to believe that I was pakistanian. She was astonished when I spoke to her in fluent spanish. I initiated the conversation and sat next to her since she was by herself. I brought up my little art lesson and placed a couple small objects in between her and I. The objects were simple, a cubic pencil sharpener, a couple packets of butter and a pawn chess piece. I handed her a piece of paper and explained that we would draw the outlines of the objects in front of us without looking at the sheet of paper below our hands,therefore we would be drawing contour lines blindly (hence why it’s called ‘blind contour line’ drawing). Ms. Luz was hesitant. She believes she’s not very good at drawing or any sort of art so it took some effort to actually get her to draw. She also was very stubborn and kept looking down at the page when the instructions said not to. It helped that Staphany had joined us, since she also encouraged Ms. Luz to draw with us. We had a little chat about the weather and snow and so on. Ms. Luz also really enjoyed the music that was played in the background, particularly Ave Maria during the second day. Journal 6: La semaine dernier, j’ai parlé avec Mme. Luz. La conversation était général, rien fut spécifique. J’ai appris que Mme. Luz est née en Équateur et elle est venus a les États-Unis quand elle a eu trente ans et elle a habite en Texas. Elle avait des enfants. Mme. Luz était très heureusse quand je l’ai parlé en espagnole. Je lui introduis la session d’art mais elle était hésitante parce qu'elle a pensé qu’elle est un mal artiste. Nous avons dessiné du objects simples comme un boite et un pièce d'échecs. Je l’ai donné un papier et un crayon et l’ai dit que dessiner et elle dessine le contour de les objects mais elle continue de regarder les objects quand elle n'aurait pas faire ça. Staphany s’a nous jointe et ç’aider Mme. Luz parce quelle s’a senti plus calme puisque Staphany n’a su pas comment dessiner aussi. Nous avons parler ensemble en même temps et Mme. Luz appréciait «Ave Mria» pour Sheila . Mots nouveaux: fut - was contour - outline/contour joidre - to join Drawing Conclusions: Part 2
I think that yesterday went well. The music was complimented a little more than last time, particularly Ave Maria. It was a little difficult to speak to the seniors this second time around due to the fact that we were really early and they were being served lunch, and too many of us were hesitant so we would not seem rude. Even then, many seniors did not want to speak as they had already been “interviewed” before. To fix this issue we must stop following the interview structure and follow a more flowing form of just “talking.” As for the art portion of the project, many seniors seemed very uninterested in doing anything related to drawing, so Eleanor and I will draft a new idea to follow through next week. For next week, we are still to determine the materials that we will need. I am in the process of creating the requested art pieces (I am not sure what stage Eleanor is in). Currently I have collected photographs for inspiration and have drafted a rough sketch onto the canvas of both drawing, however I will be buying the paint and other materials this weekend and will have Friday until the last day to complete the pieces. Journal 5: Je pense que hier fut bien. la musique était complimenté plus que la fois antérieur, particulièrement la chanson Ave Maria. Il fut un peu plus difficile parler avec les seniors ce fois parce que nous sommes arrivés très tôt et ils ont mangé le déjouner, et trop de nous étions trop hésitant. Les seniors n’ont pas voulu parler avec nous aussi parce que ils ont dit qu’ils ont ete déjà entrevue. Quant a le portion d’art de le projet, les senior étaient très indiffèrent en dessiner donc Eleanor et moi vais faire autre plan pour le prochain semaine. Je suis en le processus de créer la pièce d’art exigé (je ne sais pas ou Eleanor est). A ce moment j’ai collecte des photos comme un source d’inspiration. Je vais acheter les matériels ce week-end et je vais compléter les pièces près de vendredi. Mots nouveaux: hésitant - hesitant Quant a - As for source d’inspiration - inspiration Drawing Conclusions (Day 1)
In retrospect, the first day of our outing to the senior home went very well. I think that most of the seniors felt very happy to have us performing and talking to them as it breaks from their quotidian routine. The Jazz Lion's performance was absolutely great, however, next time I would not mind if they had been a little more timely. Waiting for them was a little shaking, specially given that the weather was not cooperating. Also, I did think that the Jazz Lions would be the center of attention and it would be difficult to speak to the seniors because of the music, but it seemed as if some of the seniors enjoyed the music as only background noise. Danitza also interacted with the seniors by snapping her fingers during one of the solos which was very nice, it brought attention back the music and created a playful atmosphere. The only drawback at the moment was not not everyone could snap due to health reason, so maybe next time we will clap. The JROTC cadets did very well with communicating and chatting with the seniors. Since many of the seniors wanted to talk to someone it seemed that the ice breakers we created were unnecessary (and that is a good thing). The cadets remained extremely polite even at a little rudeness here and there, like Staphany who was misgendered by one of the seniors or receiving inappropriate comments. Though they did great, next time we should attempt to talk to more than one person at once since we were outnumbered causing some seniors to be left out. Finally, the interactive art session did not go as plan. The seniors were not very interested in drawing with us as some of them considered themselves “too old to learn to draw” or just did not see the “reason why.” This left us talking with the seniors and listening to their stories which was fun. Some of them requested some art pieces which Eleanor and I will begin to work on. Since the lesson did not go as planned, Eleanor and I have decided to not hold another interactive art session and instead also do Tea Talks with an art component - possibly an art therapy sort of scenario. I look forward next Wednesday and changing our plan up a bit. Journal 3: En recul, le première jour de notre projets était bien. Je pense que les seniors se sentaient très heureux avec la musique et les discussions avec les élevés puisque ça change de la routine quotidien. Le performance de Les Lions de Jazz étêtait grande mais le prochain temps, je pense qu’ils devrait venir plus tôt. Je penserait que la musique serait allé le centre de attention et il serait difficile parler avec les seniors pour la musique mais les seniors préféraient parler avec nous. Les personnes de JROTC fait bien parle avec les seniors et beaucoup d seniors étaient content qu’ils ont un nouveau personne avec qui parler. Bien que des impolitesse, les cadets étaient bien poli. Cependant que les cadets faire bien, le prochain fois ils devraient parler a plus que un personne. Finalement, l'activité qu’Eleanor et moi organisons n’a pas passé parce-que les seniors n’ont pas voulu participer. Ils ont pensé qu’ils étaient «trop vieux» par apprendre comment dessiner et autres «n’ont pas vu pourquoi dessiner.» Donc Eleanor et moi sommes restes parlent avec les seniors. Mots nouveaux: en recul - in retrospect serait - would be devraient - should |
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April 2017
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