Reflection section

Text Title: Holden Kingswood '2 Face' shows the drastic changes of a restoration
Text Type: News Article
Text Creator: Nile Bijoux
Text Purpose: To provide interesting and useful information to readers.
Date: Nov 09 2021

Critical Literacy Question: What is missing from the text?

Restoring an old, beaten car to its original condition is an extremely time-consuming task, one that can take even years. One way of trimming this time is to half-do the restoration, literally. Geoff Luck of GC Restoration has restored only one half of his his Holden Kingswood ute, painting an imaginary line along the middle of the body. Luck has affectionately named the car 'two face,' or 'Harvey' after the Batman villain Harvey Dent. One half of the vehicle is in pristine condition, aside from a handful of modern touches such as LED lights in the cabin. The other half of the vehicle is rusted, sun-damaged, and beaten. GC Restoration's FB page had this to say about the build: 

“Geoff has had this odd idea for a resto in his head for years and has been talking about doing up an old ute to use as a GC Restoration shop runabout for quite some time... ...Harvey’s driver’s side has been bare-metalled, repaired, straightened and freshened up to look like a Sandman tribute from front to back, inside and out, top and underbody, right down the middle. BUT the passenger side has been left almost exactly as it was.We salvaged what we could. It has been sun and weather damaged, it has got dents, holes, bits missing, lost or damaged and bloody red dirt everywhere! Harvey is certainly a head turner!” 

There is no mention or picture of how the interior of the ute has been restored. I would have liked to see how Luck went about restoring the interior- whether he decided to restore it in its entirety or only one half. I would have also liked to see how he implemented the LED lights briefly mentioned in the text.

(Two Face)

PPP Reflection

Now that it's over, what are my first thoughts about this overall project? Are they mostly positive or negative?
They are positive. I remember having fun working with my friends to make the project come to fruition.


What did you do for your project?
For our passion project we did an american football sports tournament.

Why did you do it?

We decided to do an american football tournament because we are passionate about the sport and enjoy it.

How did the brainstorming of ideas go?

We think that the brainstorming of ideas went well and everybody’s opinions and ideas were heard and considered.

What was your driving question?

Our driving question was “How do you make a good sports tournament?”

How did your planning correspond to the finished project?

The result of our planning was a successful sports tournament that everybody enjoyed.

How did the planning help you?

Our planning and research helped us by giving us the knowledge we required to run a good sports tournament.

What didn’t you include in your planning? 

We did not consider how we were going to present our tournament and as a result do not have any photos of our tournament. We also didn’t include much bibliography.

What will you do differently in your planning next time?

Next time I would seriously consider how I would present my project.

What went well with the creating and implementation?

We were able to well organise the tournament and everybody had a good time.

What didn’t go well for the creating and implementation?

It was hard for us to get a great amount of people to come to the tournament because it is not common in New Zealand but this also meant that the people who did show up to the event were all interested in the sport and tried their best. We also did not think to take pictures.

What did you learn about yourself during this phase?

Greg - I didn’t really learn anything about myself.

What did you learn about working with others during this phase? (Please be respectful here!)

I learnt that is important to involve everyone in your group and listen to everybody’s ideas.

How did you show the HHS school values during the whole process? Please be specific.

We showed commitment by working on our project every wananga period no matter what.

We showed achievement by creating this slideshow to present our project to the class.

We showed respect by helping those of lesser skill levels who needed assistance.

We showed resilience by persevering when times got tough so that we could run our tournament.

I didn’t really learn anything about myself by making our project but I did have a lot of fun doing it with my friends. If I did passion projects again I would do one of the projects that are run by teachers.

These are the critical literacy traits that I used:

Passion Projects Sharing & Presenting

This is a presentation I made about my passion project. My passion project was to make an american football sports tournament.

Reflection Section Week 1

Text Title: People can't stop destroying their cars on this width-restricted UK road

Text Type: News Article

Text Creator: Nile Bijoux

Text Purpose: To provide interesting and useful information to readers.

Date: Oct 16 2021

Critical Literacy Question: Who is missing from the text?

Recently, many road users have been destroying their cars on a section on Woodmere Avenue in Watford. So many cars have been wrecking themselves that a 700-member Facebook group has been created to detail the destruction dealt by the concrete and bollards. A Watford Council spokesperson has said that the safety feature “does not meet the criteria for inclusion in our safety engineering programme”. Council Officers have interviewed local residents, spotting themselves at least one accident on the bollards.

The reader is shown the opinion of the Watford Council, but not of those involved in the accidents. I believe that this article should show the opinions of those who got into an accident on the width restriction, showing both sides of the story.

Woodmere Avenue

Reflection Section Week 10

Text Title: Fancy buying a Mad Max garage?

Text Type: News Article

Text Creator: Nile Bijoux

Text Purpose: To provide interesting information to readers.

Date: Sep 11 2021

Critical Literacy Question: Is the text fair?

The Doof Wagon

Australian auctionhouse Lloyd Auctions is putting   up for sale many of the vehicles from the filming of  Mad Max: Fury Road. These vehicles include the Doof Wagon, Furiosa's War Rig, and a twin-supercharged 1973 Ford Falcon Coupe Interceptor. 

The Doof Wagon is a repurposed missile carrier, mounted with roughly 100 loudspeakers. In the film, the Doof Wagon housed mounted drummers, who would pound on drums made of aircon-duct drums, while Coma the Doof Warrior-- who is blind and disfigured-- slung in a web of bungy sounded the distorted 'guitar of war.'

Other auctions include two Chevorlet Coupes, one of which contains a straight-twelve engine, built from two straight-six engins out of two GM straight-six engines. It is not clear if any of these vehicles function, but they are perfcet for anyone who is looking to get their old vehicle memoribilia fix.

Critical Literacy: I think the text is fair. I think this because, despite the use of words with positive connotations, the text makes no attempt to coerce the reader into purchasing a vehicle from this action, or to paint the auction in a negative light to the viewer. 

Reflection Section

 Text Title: This million-mile Honda CRX is basically new

Text Type: News Article

Text Creator: Nile Bijoux

Text Purpose: To educate its viewers

Date: Aug 21 2021

Critical Literacy Question: In whose interest is this text?

A Honda dealership in Tampa, Florida displays a million-mile Honda CRX. The car went on display in 2015, and since then has driven one extra mile- resulting in a total mileage of 1,002,474 miles, or 1,613,325 kilometres. Surprisingly, the car still its original interior, and a fresh exterior re-paint. 

This is because the owner put the CRX through regular maintenenace to keep it in great condition. The dealership says that it is unclear whether or not the vehicle has undergone any major repairs or replacements, but they say it "doesn't seem like it."

Bijoux then goes on to recommend that the article's readers perform some basic maintenance checks on their cars- referring to the TWIRL acronym: Tyres, Windscreen, Interior, Rust, and Lights.

I think that this text is of interest to most readers. It appeals to those interested in vehicles and motoring, but is an interesting and one-of-a-kind story. A vehicle reaching one-million miles is a rare occasion, but the car is also in great condition- especially for the distance it has travelled. 

Reflection Section

Text Title: An Evo has just Sold for Almost $300k

Text Type: News Article

Text Creator: Nile Bijoux

Text Purpose: To educate its viewers

Date: Aug 06 2021

Critical Literacy Question: In whose interest is this text?

Despite some not liking the Japanese four-door, a 2000 Mitsubushi Lancer Evolution VI 'Tommi Makinen Edition' Uk Specification hassis #001 just sold for NZ$288,427 at the Silverstone Auctions. Other notable auctions at Silverstone include 1991 Audi Ur-Quattro 20V (RR), which sold for NZ$321,707, a 1-of-45 1997 Porsche 991 (993) 3.8 RSR Carrera Cup, which sold for NZ$1,282,883, and Richard Hammond's 1999 Lotus Espirit Sport 350, which sold for NZ$128,682.

This text is of interest to those interested in motoring and vehicles, especially those interested in collectable cars. This text could also be of interest to people who like to purchase assets from auctions, to then hold so they increase in value.