edu3234- using songs to teach literary text

On 15 October 2009, my group presented our assigned task which is using songs to teach literary text. We have spent quite a few days to search and discuss for this topic. We have presented a text by Hillary Tham entitled ‘Offerings’ and we choose an evergreen song as well. ‘The One I gave My Heart to’ is the title of the song. It was sung by the late Aaliyah in 1997.
To my surprise, two groups have chosen the same songs and with the same literary texts. However, I found their choices amazing as this song really fits the storyline of ‘Cinderella Girl’. I realized that many of my classmates enjoy their time in this class as they are up-to-date to new great songs. Songs is a good choice when the students lose interest in the classroom. They may listen to the songs and sing along if they want to. Sometimes song depicts reality in life thus this is a good opportunity for teachers to instil moral values to the lesson that they taught.
In the activities provided by us, we stated that songs can be used at the set induction stage in which the students are instructed to listen to the song and underline specific info that the teachers will further explained in the next stage. The next activity that we suggested is find picture or captures a few photos that describe relationship. The students will then be asked to come up with a tagline for their photos.

edu3234 jigsaw reading

On 8 October 2009, I learnt jigsaw reading. Actually, I am quite puzzled with the name itself since I have never done activity like this before. I thought that this activity is like organizing sentences into the correct order but actually it is not. The whole class was given a speech by Malcolm X and I noticed that every page of the speech has been alphabetically ordered. I choose the front page of the speech that had alphabet “A” written on top of it. I felt grateful that I made a good choice as I well understood the whole content of my part. I heard complaints by my fellow friends that they did not understand what the text is all about. Some of them confused with the storyline because they said that they did not know what happened before that contributed to the consequent actions in the pages that they read.

Our task started when we were asked to gather in groups who had the same alphabet in their pages. In the assigned group, we had to note down the names of people and places mentioned and also search for the issues that Malcolm raised in his speech. After that, we came back to our groups and explained the result of our discussion. Miss Dzeelfa then told us to identify six elements in the speech which are purpose, key message, speaker’s point of view, tone, characteristics and other elements that we think interesting or our own personal opinions.

Our class ended after Miss Dzeelfa concluded the lesson by explaining the benefits and shortcomings of using jigsaw reading in the classroom. She told us that jigsaw reading can be used in class at any size or instruction by teachers of all teaching abilities. So, I will consider this activity to be included in my lesson plan in the future as i agreed with Miss Dzeelfa’s explanation that jigsaw reading can ease the burdens of the students from having to read the texts from beginning until the end. This will definitely makes the students overwhelmed with the lengthy speeches.

edu3234 speeches

Today, I learnt about rhetoric speeches. This type of speech is actually employed by politicians and activists hence its purpose is to persuade through speaking and writing. Miss Dzeelfa provided us with examples of how to utilize this kind of speech into classroom learning. I am ont surprised with expected responses from my fellow classmates about this speech. Majority of them are shocked to see the lengthy speeches that we have to read.

In this colloction of speech by many prominent figure, I am impressed with Martin Luther King Jr.'s speech. He highlights the dream of Afican American. I thought the sentence 'I have a dream today' affected me in such an amazing way. So, I wondered about African-Amerrican's feeeling as well when they listened to his speech,definitely, many of them will love it it.

My group's task for today is analyzing Earl of Spencer's speech for obituary of Diana, Princess of Wales. Seeing at the title itself made me eager to read the whole speech. After all, I am relieved as the speech is not too long.

I realized that using speech by famous people can actually help teacers to activate their student's schemata. They may have already knew bits and pieces about J.F Kennedy and Diana, Princess of Wales, for example. This speech also broadens our students' knowledge abour politics and history. The students also may get inspired after listening to this speeches of influential figures.

edu3234 parody

On 15 September 2009, we learnt about parody. It is also called send-up or spoof, in contemporary usage. Parody , a work created to mock , comment on, or poke fun at an original work is a devastating form of literary criticism. The wise parodist imitates with understanding and even sympathy. It can be aimed at good or bad poems. Other than that, it can be an odd form of flattery.

Miss Dzeelfa taught about the parody of A.E Housman. His poem entitled 'When I Was One-and Twenty' attracted Hugh Kingsmill. Kingsmill wrote a parody of his poem with the title 'What,Still Alive at Twenty-Two.'

In the original version of a literary work, the story always end with 'happily ever after.' The parodists believed that such ending is too good to be true so they change the story to suit contemporary world.

In my opinion, although parody serves the purpose of delivering reality in a piece of work, i still prefer the original version. The happy ending of a story is like a n escapism for me from the harsh reality of this world. Our class ended after Miss Dzeelfa gave us a task to create our own parody.

edu3234- last day of postion paper's presentation

We presented our paper personally with Miss Dzeelfa. I am surprised when I noticed that only a few people came to her room to present it as i thought that a quarter of my classmates are supposed to present it today with me.However,that was not my real concern today since i spent the whole night last night to crack my brain to come out with a good position paper. Finally, I am satisfied with my work. I am also happy as I was able to present the three supporting points fluently today.
Hopefully, my written paper also would be as good as my power point presentation. Again, I will ensure that I commited with my assignments and produce a great works.

edu3234 2nd day of position paper's presentation

3/9/09
I enjoyed today’s class. It is basically because of Geeta’s controversial stance that provokes a lot of reactions among my classmates. She talked about a short story “A Great Injustice”. Her stance is “Abortion is the best solution to the unmarried mother.”The class started being interesting as a few of classmates rose up their hands and argued her position. They claimed that Ah Nya should not abort the child as they said that Ah Nya did not know what is destined to the child if she lets the child enters the world. Farihan expressed maybe the child will have a bright future as in the short story “The Merry Maid”. Sakinah leads a wealthy and good life with her adopted parents although she is actually was born out of wedlock by an Indian girl. She was raised by a Malay family and the family treats her well. So, I think Farihan has her points there when she stated that maybe Ah Nya should let the child alive. Hani also chose the same short story for her position paper. She proposed a similar stance that is “The unmarried mother should be given the second chance.” What she meant here is the society should forgive her for her wrongdoing and give her a second chance to amend her mistakes. Hani asserted that everyone is not free from making mistakes. Ah Nya is unfortunate since pregnancy out of wedlock is unacceptable in our society and thus the society blamed her for it.

edu3234-1st day of position paper's presentation

1/9/09
The presentation of our so-called “debatable” position paper started this evening. Before the class begin, I feel quite nervous as I’m afraid that my name would be on the list to present today. Fortunately, Miss Dzeelfa decided to start with students at the end of the name lists. I’m so grateful for this since I need more time to complete my final drafts. I faced difficulty in deciding the third supporting point in my position paper. I spent quite some time to really think thoroughly on it and this makes me feel a bit exhausted. As for the lesson today, I’m quite impressed with Su Ynn’s work especially on the organization of her supporting points. Ah Nya as a girlfriend, Ah Nya as a daughter, and Ah Nya as a mother are the three splendid ideas presented by Su Ynn today. I also noticed another fantastic effort by Jolyne. She worked on a poem by John Keat, entitled “Ode to Nightingale”. She performed an in-depth analysis on the poem and she looked like she really put her mind and soul while presenting her points. Other than that, I am also aware of a few presenters who failed to show connection between their thesis statements and supporting details.

edu3234 letters and diaries

We learnt about letter and diary on 13 August 2009. We were given letters of John Keats to his fiancée, Fanny Brawne. Actually, that day I discovered new information about him that is Keats suffered from a type of illness which makes him unable to stand bad weather in England. Miss Dzeelfa said that he had to move to Rome and continue his life there. Then, I realized in term of relationship, John Keats’s move to Rome strengthen his relationship with Brawne . This situation was different from me as I did not like long distance relationship. Then, I just thought that this difference is what makes this world a wonderful place to live in.Another letter that I studied is also related to Keats as this is a friend-to-friend letter from Keats to Mr. Shelly, his dear friend. In his letter, he appreciated Shelly’s advice to him. As I read the whole letter, I became conscious of Keat’s characteristic, he is actually a humble person. Miss Dzeelfa also told me that Keats respects Shelly as well.

After that, I learnt about diary, a popular work of fiction. “The Andy Warhol Diaries” belongs to Andy Warhol himself. He was born Andy Warhola in Prague. In his diary, he makes fun of people around him. He teased Hollywood lifestyle in cynical and lively tone. However, I wondered about his relationship with Hollywood; who is he? Is he also a prominent figure? Why I have never heard of him name before? Then, I thought that he must be someone of importance in Hollywood as he can describe vividly the occasions and events in Hollywood. I am so interested in his diary because I found out that he knew many Hollywood famous figures such as Elizabeth Taylor and Richard Gere. Maybe the reason is because and I like to entertainment section in daily newspaper.Miss Dzeelfa told us that Warhol never wrote his own diary but he asked his secretary to do it for him. Every day, he called up his secretary and asked her to jot down what happened to him in the previous day.

Lastly, I learnt about Kafka’s diary. His diary was written in Germany from the year of 1910 until 1923. The tone of his diary is depressing as it depicted his casual observations, details of daily life, reflections of philosophical ideas, accounts of dreams and ideas for stories. I noticed a repeated sentence in his diary; “I must say that my education has done me great harm in some respects.” He then questioned profoundly isolated, failed relationship and an attempt to provoke his stalled creativity. He mocked old family photographs as he claimed that the people in those photographs stand there to take photo because “they do not know what to do with each other.” Both letters and diaries can be useful means to expose student to English Language because sometimes they feel too bored to read stories or poems during literature lesson. This two texts gives them more choices on what they can learn. Letters and diaries also sometimes provides new perspectives of the world since every writers' opinion might differ from each other.The class ended after the discussion is over.

edu3234 autobiography : Nelson Mandela's life

On 11 August 2009, I learnt Autobiography and biography. A autobiography of Nelson Mandela depicts his objection over Apartheid system practiced in South Africa. His terrifying experience while being a prisoner in Robben Island opened up my eyes about his struggle to abolish this system. He was willing to ignore the long trousers that he got he was the only prisoner who was given that trousers. He insisted that “all African prisoner must have (that) long trousers.”
It is quite obvious that this type of text broadens my reading experience and it offers more forms of literary works that can be used in the classroom. Autobiography is written by a person to depict his life and character and it contains deflection and reflection. I am also well aware that autobiography is meant for public audience.

Next, we were asked to provide activities that will be suitable for classroom use. A friend of mine suggested that we can organize a field trip to Pudu prison and another classmate voiced out her opinion that we can asks the students to find other heroes who fights for the same reason (freedom). Stages a sketch to depict a scene in the text will also be a good activity to be conducted in the classroom.

After that, the class continued with biographies. Miss Dzeelfa told us that one of the reasons why reading biographies should be incorporated in the class is it exposes students to as many genres as possible. In our handouts, it is mentioned that a teacher named Chandler believes that reading biographies is important for students to realize that heroes and other people of importance were not born with all they needed to be successful.

edu 3234 marginalized literature: minority groups

On August 8 2009, we learnt about marginalized literature. For me, it is inevitable for us to be fair to all. There will be groups of people which we might leave unnoticed. Surely, pity on them as their works are being abandoned. However, I think marginalized works portrays issues which will be an eye-opener to us as we have never heard or experienced such situation and this works of literature helps the world to ‘see’ their problems and maybe try to find their solution.

In the class, we were taught about the works of African American like Langston Hughes and works portrays the lifestyle of Red Indians. I find that Langston Hughes who was born from inter-racial marriage also faced the same problem as the African American. It is a shame that people tend to judge people by the skin colour. This will only bring the social gap far apart. I am worried of what will happen next if we, the people of the world still stick to that stigma. Obviously, this world will get worse.

edu3234 pyramus and thisbe

Today, July 14, we had so much fun during our class. Miss Dzeelfa asked us to come out with a dialogue for the scene P discovered that T died. Many groups doing excellent works by adding humour into the acting. Seeing Iskandar as a girl really made me laughed, he swayed his hand while walking and I cannot believe my eyes as I saw his hard calluses hands swayed. His movement also seemed awkward. Jolyne’s group performance is also great as its name says, ‘China 5’. It was named after Jackson 5. Still I am surprised with MJ’s influence towards my classmate although he died almost two weeks now.

My group was named after the virus H1N2, which begin to spread all over Malaysia. I did love the name, “H1N2, maybe it should be harmless virus which bring happiness to us. I truly impressed with everybody’s hard effort to produce a marvellous job during our tutorial. I also heard a classmate of mine said that she totally enjoyed this class. Hopefully this enjoyment continues throughout this semester. I am waiting for more surprises...

edu 3234: sara and the wedding

On 16 July 2007, we learnt about position paper. Actually, before the class begin, I did not know how to write a position paper because I have never written that before. I felt glad right now since I had clearer picture on how to decide on the title. In the class we were given two texts on Si Tenggang’s Homecoming and Sara and the Wedding. Then, we were asked to answer a few questions about the story ‘Sara and the Wedding’. The questions asked about the profession of Sara, Sara’s behaviour before and now in physical, her attitude towards marriage and the attitude of people around her towards marriage. When finished reading the text, I felt embarrassed as it portrays a woman’s sexual desire. I felt like I want to hide my face under the table.
Then, we tried to come up with a thesis statement for this story. We were given examples of thesis statement as our guidance. Every group wrote the result of the discussion on the white board and we discussed the chosen thesis statements whether they are good or not. Our class ended after we finished the discussion.

edu3234: project paper ( Ist meeting with Dr. Arshad)

My group member consists of 9 people including me. Mimi, Yin Chean, MinHui, Auni, Geeta and me managed to attend the first meeting. The other two members went back home .We met at 9am today at Bilik Am FPP. We discussed about our project paper which will contribute 40 percent of our overall marks for this course. I asked whether I can use the same text as my position paper and Dr. Arshad said that he has no problem with it. He insisted us to put quotation for our research papers or else he will penalize us for it. He also suggested us to make comparison between two texts in our task. Dr. Arshad wanted to see our first draft in two week’s time.
At 11am today, Auni and I went to FPP library to search for the suitable materials. Unfortunately I left my pendrive at my room so I just jot down the important and useful points in a piece of paper. Hopefully, I will manage to retrieve all the info later. Right now I am having problem in trying to connect the theme in Barn Burning with the theme of A Rose for Emily but until now, I have no idea how to make the idea tally each other. I have read at a website which commented that these two texts actually portrayed the conflict within one self. I think the best way to do it is by asking for Miss Dzeelfa or my friends’ opinion. Who knows maybe I can gain new insights from them.

edu3234 feminist writing

Feminisms poem by Hilary Tham and Erica Jong portrays woman’s pride. The puberty experienced by women is portrayed in poem “Becoming a Woman.” This poem should be read by both genders since it will definitely benefit them. For men, they will understand the process women undergo in their life and for women they may learn something new from this feminisms works. A married woman’s feeling also can be discovered in feminisms works as in Erica Jong’s poem “For My Husband”.

In sum, marginalized literature should be acknowledged by people around the world. After all, up until now most works’ published are not centred around women, thus women’s issues are seldom being portrayed in literature texts. The society should appreciate feminisms writing as it provides variety of literary texts to be read on.

edu 3234 zoo story

On 21 July 2009, Dr Jaya entered our class and promoted ICELT, a conference organized by him. I do not think I managed to go there since I have already faced financial problem. After all, I felt so embarrassed to ask money from my sister. I need to carefully organize my budget for this semester so that the money would be enough until this semester ends. Miss Dzeelfa started the class quite late this evening. She discussed on the text I received earlier this morning. After the first reading, I failed to make sense of the story. I am also unable to understand the gist of idea of it. Then, Miss Dzeelfa’s explanation about the playwright made me realized that I have heard of the name Edward Albee before. He is the one who wrote ‘The Sandbox’, a play that I learnt in the previous semester. Edward Albee is famous for his theatre of absurd.

On the second reading of the reading, I managed to trace a few important details in the play and i felt relieved that I finally understood the storyline of this play. Then, we were asked by Miss Dzeelfa to create three supporting details from the text to support a given thesis statement, “Jerry’s death signifies the birth of his pride and dignity.”At first, my group was able to find two supporting details to support it. Fortunately before the presentation started, a group member of mine suggested the line that is suitable as the third supporting detail.

The last part of the lesson is the discussion of the questions stated by Miss Dzeelfa in the handouts given. For me, it is silly to create a scene in which you force somebody to kill you. Life is so precious and we should not end our life like that. After all, I think Edward Albee is such a brilliant person since he managed to come out with that story. The unexpected event is beyond my thinking.

edu3234 thesis statemet for position paper

Last night, i worked on my position paper . I choose a short story by William Faulkner, 'A Rose for Emily". Actually, i don't like such a gloomy story which portrays the life of a fallen aristoctarac family. I love romantic story..hehe...Well, there's a long story happened before i picked up this story. I wanna avoid sexually-related topics and topics which are quite sensitive like racial and religious issues. So, here i am...cracking my brain to really understand the story... I'm even looked through my big red Oxford dictionary for the meanings of words which i'm unfamiliar with....haha...there's a long time ago since i opened up that dictionary...seriously, i think i need to do my very best in this assignment so i'm willing to invest time and energy to do it. Wish me luck..hehe

edu3234 bio-poem

I enjoyed my class today. Part of the reason why i said is because of the activity itself. We practiced bio-poem today, 11 August 2009.. This activity is easy as we have already being given a template and we just need to fill in the blanks with appropriate words or phrases about our dearest friends. I benefit a lot from this activity as I knew my friends better in terms of their likings and their interests.

My activity will definitely being a refreshment into our student’s interest of literature classroom. They will be given a ‘room’ to express themselves through poems. The template given to write bio poem will serve as their guides on how to write it.
Instead of writing a poem to my partners, i will dedicate this poem to myself. This is what i have done in the class today:

Shazrina
Cheerful,Talkative, Sentisive and sometimes outspoken,
A big lover of shopping,
Who loves variety colours of shirts, plenty of shoes and money,
Who is afraid of snakes, worms and
Who wants to see crystal clear beaches, lots of food to be eaten, and my famliy and friends happy,
Residents of mum and dad’s heart,
Shazrina Mustapa.

edu 3234 literary canon vs marginalized literature

Today, we learnt about literary canon, marginalized literature and feminisms. Literary canon refers to a classification of literature. A group of literary works that are considered the most important of a particular time period or place will be considered into literary canon. The works that had been accepted into the canon are widely read such as William Shakespeare’s works. Nevertheless, marginalized literature indicates the social process of becoming margin. This work is opposite of literary canon since it is not well known and not even widely read. Marginalized writing brings up the works of minority group.

Literary canon is indeed important as it helps us the readers of literature texts to choose marvelolous and of course suitable texts to read on. However, we should also pay attention to the texts by minory groups which are good as well as our options when we want to teach in the classroom. A balance between these two will help us to provide the best resources to students.

edu3234 le morte d' Arthur

On 14 July 2009, we were instructed to answer questions from Sir Thomas Malory’s work, “Le Morte d’Arthur”. I searched on the internet for the resources. King Arthur, the main character in this story is believed as legendary British leader, he led the defence of Britain against Saxon invaders in the early 6th century. He befriended with wizard Merlin and became the King of Britain by pulling the enchanted sword “Excalibur” out of the stone of destiny. He was said established an empire over Britain, Ireland, Iceland, Norway and Gaul (France) during the early 6th century.

Actually, by reading information from the internet about this text surprised me as I have never been exposed to England legends before. Then, I remembered about quite a few movies in the cinema that had the same character as this legend. The name “King Arthur” and “Wizard Merlin” are quite famous as I have heard these two names before in the movies. To me, this information was really helpful as I began understand England’s history, which in my opinion, quite interesting to learn about it. I only remembered two movies that relates to this legend, one of them is The Da Vinci Code and another one is Tristan and Isolde.
I think that such information is helpful for English teacher-to-be like me since I can share this information with my students. It is indeed important for us to know this as it will broaden our knowledge about the historical background of native English speakers.

edu3234 thesis statement

Today, July 9 2009, our class started at 3 pm. The lesson began when Miss Dzeelfa explained about thesis statement. Thesis Statement tells the readers how you will interpret the significance of the subject matter under discussion. It is useful as a road map for the paper, in other words, it tells the readers what to expect from the rest of the paper. I did understand Miss Dzeelfa’s explanation about thesis statement but I am still confused on how to write it. What should I start with and what information that I need to include to make the thesis statement a good one? Then, we practised by revising vague thesis statements. We need to discuss with our friends who sit around us on producing appropriate thesis statements. After the practice, I had clearer picture on how to make a clear thesis statement. After that, our class ended and I went back to my college.

edu3234 fable and tale

Our first class started at 4pm with the study on modern literary fiction. Miss Dzeelfa thought us about fable and tale; the similarities and differences between them. Now, I knew what makes fable differs from tale. In fable, it involves animals who act and talk. It illustrates particular moral to teach lesson to children. Example of fable is the race between two animals, I do not remember which animal that compete with snail in this fable but I did remembered the moral of the story, “Slow and steady wins the race.” This type of story serves as a great entertainment for children.

Tale, on the other hand, is usually less realistic and more romantic. Example of tales are Sleeping Beauty, Cinderella, Rapunzel and the Frog Prince. Both fable and tale are handed down from generation to generation. Miss Dzeelfa also explained the functions of fable and tale in our society. It is a good way to instil moral values in interesting and appealing manner. It also promotes reading habits in children. After we heard explanation from her, our class ended.

exam week...

i'm beginning to feel dizzy with testing n evaluating asgmt need to be done before edu3067 final exam. I am confused with what i am supposed to do 4 dat asgmt.... At the same tie alos i need to prepare 4 d xm...so many things to read...60 mcq questions ...I am glad dat it is mcq coz i do not have 2 memorize every single details...i need 2 understand d Qs n just choose d answer which i think is d right answer...it's dat simple right...