Understanding Sacrifice

• A.B.M.C.: American Battle Monuments Commission
• If you died overseas, families would decide if you would be buried back at home or overseas
• Max Cleland
• Former American senator
• Vietnam War veteran
• Triple amputee

Research process:

• Use AMBC website for list of names
• Personal connection
• Social media
• Going to the actual site
• Pay attention to the details

The Pitch

• Make a personal connection with the people
• Length

Historical Fiction Narrative Poetry and Author's Note

Walk

I walk
heavy bag
on my back
and my rifle
in hand.

No one talks.
There is only
the sound of gravel
crunching beneath our feet.

Last night
I couldn’t sleep,
but today
I am wide awake

The sun is coming up.
A new day.
One that I might not survive
I walk.

Man Down

We have reached Manila.
The streets are empty.
The wind kicks dust
into the air.

My muscles tense.
Japs could be behind any corner.
Waiting.

We shuffle forward
as the shadows
become more sinister

Out of the corner of my eye
I see a body drop
It has begun
Man down
Man down
Man down

Bullets

Bullets start to fly

I hide behind a wall
As order descends
Into chaos

The Japs were prepared
For our attack

Something explodes nearby
My ears ring
I stick my gun over the wall
And fire blindly
Until my mag runs out

The hot shells
Fall to the ground
Bodies
Fall to the ground
I fall to the ground

Night has fallen
The gunfight had taken hours
We lost many men
but tonight
we are victorious.

I fall asleep
dreading the next few days.

Cycle

We make our way
To the center of Manila
Over the next few days.

Many have died
Along the way.
I don’t befriend anyone
So I can’t lose them

Ballpark

We reach a ballpark
General MacArthur orders us to storm the Japs inside
Some take cover in the seats
And try to snipe from there
While others are on the field
Hiding in the grass
Waiting to pounce on a Jap.
I am one of them.

I crawl in the grass,
Trying to get closer to the Japs
Without being seen.

I can hear explosions in the distance
I glance to the buildings in the distance
One of them explodes
And crumbles to the ground.

A Jap comes near
I am far away enough
From the main battle
That I can reveal myself
Without getting shot.

I jump out of the tall grass
And point my gun at him.
He whips around
And points his gun at me

I pull the trigger.

His body falls to the ground
Riddled with bullet holes
However, the rising sun flag of the Japanese,
Crudely stitched on his jacket
Remains intact

I had never killed before
Usually I try to injure them
So other soldiers can finish them off
I push back the guilt
And save it for later

He looks young
About the same age as me

I crawl back into the grass.

Funeral

The battle is over.
The Japs have retreated.
After resting,
Some of the soldiers
Begin to dig mass graves
For the ones who died.

I walk by one of them
And see the Jap soldier
That I killed.

Someone closed his eyes

War

War has changed me
It does that to a person.
It turns you into something
you never thought you could be
whether that be good
or bad
It gives you a different outlook on life
how valuable it is
and how it should not be taken
for granted

Author's Note:

On 8 December, 1941, the Japanese invaded the Philippines 10 hours after the attack on Pearl Harbour. The lives of many Filipinos changed for the worse. However, in late 1944, General MacArthur and his army joined with the U.S. Army to liberate the Philippines. Fighting did not stop until Japan’s formal surrender on 2 September, 1945. About one million Filipinos were killed during this period. I wanted to write my historical narrative poetry project on the Japanese occupation of the Philippines because during the Multicultural America project for Social Studies last semester, I had to interview my grandmother about her experiences during World War II. She talked about how the Japanese made frequent patrols around her village to look for anything valuable. Anyone who got in their way would be killed. While my grandmother and her family were hiding from the Japanese, her father and little sister ran out, and they were captured and executed. While I didn’t write my story like this, it inspired me to pick that time period and event.
One source that proved to be very helpful was an article, Invasion of the Philippine Islands (7 Dec 1941 - 5 May 1942) by C. Peter Chen, founder and editor of the World War II Database, on a World War II database discussing the events and strategy in the liberation of the Philippines. The site was created by C. Peter Chen, who originally created the site as a hobby, but as it grew, he became more serious about it. The characters in my story are fiction. While the events that take place are not completely accurate, they are based on what really happened during that battle.
One thing that was left out of my historical narrative poetry story was multiple perspectives. At first, I wanted the story to be told from the perspectives of a U.S. soldier and a Japanese soldier. However, I got sick, so I had less time to work on this project, and I had to scrap that idea.
The reason I wrote this historical narrative poetry story was to show that life is valuable. In the story (spoiler alert), Rodney Miller (the main character) kills a Japanese soldier that is about the same age as him. After walking by his dead body in a mass grave after the battle, he had a sudden epiphany that life shouldn’t be taken for granted.

First Semester RLA Reflection

The most challenging thing of this semester in RLA was completing Back to the Drawing Board every week. It clashed with other homework and activities we had. This semester, I have really improved as a writer. Even though BTTDB interferes with other classes, it has really helped me with my independent writing. Before 8th grade, I never wrote on my own. I just wrote what I was required to write for RLA. BTTDB has given me a chance to write what I wanted to write. As a writer, something that I really want to accomplish next semester is completeing my independant writing story.

RLA Persuasive Speech Reflection

What are you most proud of with this speech?

I am most proud of presenting in front of the class because I get very nervous when having to speak in front of a large group of people

What was the most challenging part of this speech?

The most challenging part of this speech other than presenting in front of the class was making my speech persuasive when spoken. A persuasive essay is drastically different from a persuasive speech because you have to think about tone, pausing, enunciation, etc.

What “unintended learning” did you have beyond the rubric?

As stated above, I learned that a persuasive essay differs drastically from a persuasive speech. With a persuasive essay, the kinds of words used is one of the things that matters most. However, a persuasive speech requires correct tone,  enunciation, etc.

What  did you learn from others (such as from your teacher, mentor texts, or peers) as you developed your speech?

Something I learned from others as I developed my speech was the importance of tone and pauses. 

Podcast Reflection

Something I am most proud about with this podcast is how I got to interview 3 people with completely different backgrounds that provided a lot of insight to my topic. The biggest challenge with this podcast was time management. My interviewees were only free during the last few days of the project, and I needed the interviews for my bridges. Something that I wish I had more time to fine-tune were the bridges and transitions between my soundbites. Sometimes, they did not really flow together, so it really affected the rest of the podcast. Something unintended that I learned was not to procrastinate. I procrastinated my ticket to ride so that heavily affected the rest of my project and schedule.
     The interviews went very well. The interviewees answered the questions with detail, and they slowly opened up more as the interviews went on. During Rui's interview, I asked him how the haze was affecting his learning. He had answered with, "It's not affecting my learning." After some prodding and letting him ease into the questions, he answered with much more detail: "The haze is not letting me go to P.E. classes outside, so we have to do stuff in the gym. It’s really not fun in the gym because you can’t really do the activities that you’re supposed to do, like the mile."
     I think that I could have been better at asking follow-up questions. I was too focused on trying to get all of the questions that I had come up with and too nervous to bring the conversation to a new area that I barely asked any.
I asked Mr. Clark, "How do you think the haze affects teaching at SAS?"
He answered, “It’s had a major impact this year. I’ve been here for 7 years now and it’s never had too much of an impact at all, but in recent months, it’s had a very big impact on me as a P.E. teacher because we found that we have had to restrict our lessons so much, and so many of our lessons that we wanted to teach outside, we’ve had to teach inside. This means that often, a gym that we would have a class of 20, we end up with a class of 60 because of the haze. It has a big impact on the P.E. program, and it also has a big impact on after school coaching. The first season has been really disruptive because of the haze.”
"So you said that you needed to transfer some outside classes indoors. How does that affect physical activity?"
"Well, for example, things like the mile run. The mile run is something that we do each quarter. We didn't even get a chance to do that in the first quarter because we obviously can't do the mile run inside. It also means that when you do things like touch rugby or flag football or ultimate frisbee, a lot of those sports require so much space. Because we have to bring them inside, it makes it pretty much impossible to do those sports."
     There is nothing else I would like to add.

RLA 8: Journalism Project Podcast

Application Essay: The Jump

The Jump

She jumped.
Her limbs flailed through the air as her body fell closer and closer to the vast stretch of blue that is the ocean. There was a thunderous crash as her body splashed into the water. The throng of people watching on the deck roared and cheered as she was swallowed under the water.
It is the second day of the 8th-grade Classroom Without Walls, or CWW for short. The whole 8th grade is at Telunas, Indonesia, and we will stay here for 5 days. Right now, it is C side’s turn to jump off the high deck.
The line of people shuffled forward. I watched as someone climbed the ladder to the high deck, the sun glistening off his back. There were two kids that stood between me and the ladder.
I started to doubt my choice to jump. I have always been afraid of heights. I can’t even walk over to the edge of a balcony without feeling queasy.
I remember the Christmas break when my family and I were visiting the United States of America for the first time. During our stay at New York City, we visited the Empire State Building. I remember the fear slowly growing inside me as we went higher and higher. Once we got to the top, I could not bring myself to stand near the edge and gaze at colourful nighttime New York City. I just stayed inside and watched through the windows.
The earsplitting crack of skin on water brought me back to the high deck. Someone had belly-flopped off the high deck and landed flat onto the water.
The line shuffled forward. Now, there was only one person between me and the ladder. I made a decision. I would jump off the high deck no matter what.
Two more people jumped off the high deck, both sending the water high as they collided with the surface of the ocean. I placed my hand on the ladder and took a deep breath. I will jump.
I climbed the ladder and reached the high deck. I looked over the ledge to see how far down the water was. From the high deck, it looked very high, but I stuck with my decision to jump off the high deck. I walked back to the center of the high deck, my legs shaking. Adrenaline pumped through my veins. I took another deep breath, ran forward… and jumped.
I did not know what to expect. The wind rushed into my face. The water got closer and closer. I was not aware of what my limbs were doing, but later I was told that I was doing a mid-air cannonball kind of pose. It felt like I was in the air for minutes.
Then suddenly, the water rushed to meet me like two friends having a reunion after so many years. I landed back first into the water. There was a stinging pain as I contacted with the water. As I became fully submerged, the stinging lessened to a bearable throbbing. The salty water then continued to rush into every open orifice on my body. My mouth, ears, and nose. I swam for the surface of the water, gasping for air. My legs were sore from landing on them, so I used my arms and the waves to get to the ladder that led back to the deck.
I did it. I jumped.
As the adrenaline died down, I realized that with some effort, I could conquer fear, which led to more possibilities. My conquering of my fear of heights led to me being more confident about myself and have a more positive outlook on life. It allowed me to take note of my surroundings and admire those who have done the same. It allowed me to have a better understanding of myself as a person.
Conquering my fear of heights had, ironically, brought me to new heights that I had never perceived in which I could reveal new opportunities and succeed in them.

Passion Project: March 17

During this class of RLA, I continued writing my story, for I had started writing it over the weekend. I edited the idea of the story so that the main character and his partner look for jobs to do, but do them only if it follows the main character's code of honour, as opposed to the duo wandering around in space. The main plot: Kevin Mallious and Zephyr "Zeph" Blackford

RLA Application Essay Pitch

RLA Application Essay Pitch

Passion Project: March 16

During this class of RLA, I planned and wrote the questions for my interview. The three questions were: "What is your opinion on science fiction in general?"; "What is your opinion on western fiction in general?"; and "What is your opinion on science fiction and western fiction being combined to make a story?". I wanted to know what other people thought about the two genres and how well they would fit together. Unfortunately, I did not have time to ask anyone in class because there was not enough time. My next steps are to interview someone once I get home.

Passion Project: March 13

During this class of RLA, I created my characters' personality. The main character, a former crew member of bounty hunters and interplanetary smugglers, will be a middle aged male, somewhere in his thirties or forties. He will have a serious, bleak outlook on life, which portrays the illusion of him being a strong person, but inside, he holds many regrets from the time he was a bounty hunter and a smuggler. It is kind of cliche, so I will tweak it over the weekend. His partner will be a young female, maybe in her twenties, who was abandoned while she was a teen and had to live in the streets of a city until the main character meets her (I have not figured out how yet). Because of her tendency to run into things head on, she usually gets her and the main character in trouble during illegal jobs. The reason I wanted the partner to be female was because I wanted the characters to have a father/daughter relationship, and because her personality would counter with the main character's personality.

Passion Project: March 12

During this class of RLA, I have decided to go with my second idea. However, I am not sure if I should give the main character a partner at the start of the story or if the main character will meet the partner during the middle of the beginning part. The reason I want the main character to have a parter is because it would provide more internal and external conflicts, so the main character cannot make choices based on only his wants and needs. Frankly, I am leaning towards giving him a partner at the start of the story because that would give me opportunities to write flashbacks that would give more depth to the character.

Passion Project: March 11

During this class of RLA, I brain stormed some new and improved ideas based on the information that I found while researching space western fiction. One of my ideas was a crew of outlaws on a space ship that flew around looking for jobs, which were mostly smuggling and bounty hunting. During one of their jobs, they would be asked to smuggle something very important, or kidnap someone very important. However, something would go wrong (i.e. space police, space pirates, etc.), and the crew would be conflicted, only to be reunited at the end to get through the whole adventure. My other idea is about an ex smuggler or bounty hunter, possibly a former member of the crew in my first idea. He would travel the planets, interfering when he sees the need to follow his code of honour. However, he would come to a scenario when his code of honour would interfere with him doing the right thing.

Passion Project: March 10

During this class of RLA, I researched a bit more on science fiction and western mash ups, or space western. Since space western uses amounts of both science fiction and western, I decided to do research on both of them. Science fiction is basically fiction that should be scientifically accurate and possible, whereas a Western fiction story "...centres on the life of a semi-nomadic wanderer, usually a cowboy or a gunfighter." (Wikiwand - Western [Genre]). Using this information, I am going to slightly or drastically change the main idea of my space western fiction story. After that, I will begin planning, outlining, and writing.

Passion Project: March 9

During this class of RLA, I have watched episodes 6, 7, 8, 9, and 10. I will not be watching episode 11 because it is about studying linguistics and creating an alien language, which is something that I will not do because it is not needed in my science fiction story. The episodes I watched are about the structure of the story, the outlining, the protagonist and antagonist, originality, and researching. Since I have just recently finished watching the first and only season of Firefly, I am very familiar with the theme of science fiction and western being mashed together.

Passion Project: March 6

During this class of RLA, I have watched episodes 1, 2, 3, 4, and 5 of Frank R. Haugen's "How to Write Science Fiction" Youtube video series. They talked mostly about rules that could be applied to any kind of fiction, like how to come up with an idea, the different types of genres, the conflict needed for a good fiction story, the character stereotypes, and the character's or characters' motivations. I have also decided that my science fiction story will be a science fiction and western mash up, and it will be heavily influenced from the TV show Firefly.

Passion Project: March 5

During this class of RLA, I continued my research on how to write science fiction. I found this site, and it went into a lot of detail on what science fiction is and is not. Star Wars, for example, is usually mistaken for a science fiction movie. However, it is actually a movie about a (Jedi) knight (Luke) going to save a princess (Princess Leia), who is trapped in a castle. (Death Star). The site also went into detail on the 3 main rules of writing science fiction: Know your thesis, do your research, and don't be afraid of the new.

Passion Project: March 4

During this class of RLA, I went to the library to look at the blurbs of some science fiction books to get some inspiration for my story idea. A lot of them were about dystopian futures, but I want to test myself and try something unique. One idea I came up with was a story on a crew on a spaceship in the future smuggling things from planet to planet, like the cancelled TV show Firefly. I also found another article on what I should and should not do in science fiction. It was mostly about how I should not use cliché. Tomorrow I will aim to finalise what my ideas are before writing either over the weekend or next week.

Passion Project Progress: March 3

During this class of RLA, I researched a bit more on the basics and techniques of science fiction. I found this site explaining how to write a science fiction novel or short story in seven steps. The site talked more about the actual structure of the story, as opposed to coming up with an original idea. I also came up with some ideas to write about. For example, 'What if the world's resources ran out and we had to go back in time to get more, but that would disrupt the space/time continuum?' or 'What if humanity started trading with other civilisations, but we were so desperate to have their resources that so much mass is taken off Earth and the pull of gravity lessened?'

RLA Realistic Fiction Story Reflection

The strategies I used to improve my realistic fiction story were peer and teacher feedback. In class, I asked multiple people to read my story and give me some constructive criticism. This included elaborating the message of the story, not going on and on, and show more internal thinking. After improving my story, I asked Ms. Bucknall about anything else I could improve. She said I could improve the placement of my flashbacks to improve the complexity of my story. IXL also helped me practice with conventions. This raised the meaning and understanding of my story. I also used the rubric to help me improve my story.