This is Module 4: Express Yourself. For three modules you have read, analysed and responded to other people's work. Now you make work in your own voice: song, poetry, drama, a personal composition, and your two-year journal.

Today the class agrees its anchor set, the four texts you will keep all module, and their titles go in your Course Brief, the short planner at the front of your Reflective Journal. Then you write Journal Entry 10, the main piece, and speak from it.

You will complete four Key Assignments: a song, rap or poem comparison (KA1), a personal composition (KA2), a response to a live or staged performance (KA3), and the two-year journal update (KA4).

Your oral examination is in May of Year 2 and is worth 4 course credits. It is normally examined by an external examiner from the State Examinations Commission (SEC).

Model entry (opening only): "I used to think my voice was the quiet one in group work. Looking back, the pieces I am proudest of are the ones where I stopped trying to sound clever and said the true thing in plain words. Before I leave LCA I want one piece in the world that sounds like me on a good day, not like a worksheet." Notice: a past self, a concrete turn, and a clear want. That is the shape of Entry 10.

Agree the anchor set now: your teacher has a shortlist, and as a class you choose four titles: two poems, one song or rap, and one drama text or extract. You will name, quote and compare them all module, so choose pieces you can hold on to. The four go on the board. Copy them into Entry 10 and your Course Brief, rather than choosing texts of your own.

Before you write Entry 10, take a short, honest look at where you stand.

This is the main piece of the lesson and your Portfolio piece. The brief is in the activity below, and it saves your draft as you write.