Tuesday, August 9, 2011 , Learning Log 6
Literary devices are devices that the writer use to convey his or her meaning of a story or poem to the reader. These literary devices include imaginery, dictation and prose techniques thus, the effects shown to the readers will be different and will have different effects on them. comments (0)
For example, a simile like 'as playful as a kitten'. This phrase make me think that the kitten is really cute and nice and not one to be violent. Let's take a look at another example. A methaphor like 'The teacher thundered at the class'. This sentence tells me that the teacher is really angry at the students in the class, most probably because some students misbehaved. There is also one literary device which made the deepest impression for me, and that is the 'incomplete sentence' device. To say the truth, when I first saw this device, I was dumbfounded. I kept thinking 'why is this part of a literary device?' Even though till now, I still don't get it.
Lastly, i think that there are really lots of literary devices out there in the world and of course, there are many of them which I do not know of. But some of them are really interesting, like oxymoron!
Saturday, July 30, 2011 , Learning Log 5
After reading the unseen poem booklet, I realised that doing unseen questions are not as simple as I thought it would be. Especially since I would have to read slowly enough to digest what the persona is trying to relate to us. I also learnt that one should read the unseen poem for at least two times in order to find the word, phrase or sentence that grabs one attention the most. Apart from all these steps i mentioned above, imagining and trying to decipher what the persona is trying to say also plays a part in helping us answer unseen questions. When trying to understand what the persona is trying to say,we need to put ourselved in the persona's shoes and think what made him or her said this. Then, we need to express our feelings and show the relevance of our feelings to the text as these are the keys to answering unseen questions better.comments (0)
To answer the unseen questions, of course we would need to quote from the text. But how do we know what to quote and what not to quote? We would need to use the ABC method. First, we should pick the words or phrases that draws our attention the most. Next, keep the quotation brief. If the quotation is too long, the examiner might think that the quote was 'copied and pasted' and then it shows that we did not understand the passage. Lastly, contextualise the evidence.
After knowing the skills to read and answer unseen poems and questions, i realised that I have not been doing any of these last year when we did our first unseen questions. but now I know how to answer unseen questions and read unseen poems properly, doing well in this section might be a little less difficult compared to last year.
Saturday, April 16, 2011 , Learning Log 4
I was grouped with Kelvin and Qiherng for the Macbeth performance. Our first discussion was during a literature period. At first, I never talked much to Kelvin as I am not really very familiar with him but after a while, we were discussing about all the crazy ideas we can think off. For example, bringing a pot to school and adding coke and mentos in it to make a volcano effect. After that, we went to buy the materials needed and that is when all the troubles come in when we started doing the props. Kelvin did the 'crows on branches', Qiherng did the lightning and I did the costume. At first, I was told to spray the poncho with black paint but it did not work very well as firstly, the paint is smelly. Secondly, the paint is harmful and last, the paint will peel off after it dried. So my parents ended up buying cloth to make our costume.comments (0)
As for the performance, it was better than I expected because we did not really practised for it so I am quite happy with the results, although we were not the best. The performance was also a great experience for me as it increase me confidence a little. I did not expect myself to act in front of all my friends. All in all, I am happy with the performance and I had a really great time watching the other performances too. I am begining to look forward to the next play, Romeo and Juliet.
Wednesday, February 9, 2011 , Learning Log 3
This week, we have 10 groups going up to the front of the class to present some predictions, which did or did not happen to them. Well, most of them are fakes, anyway. I learnt that predictions are not always true as scientifically, you cannot know what will happen to you or the people around you in the future.comments (0)
The lesson was quite interesting as I have heard many predictions from my friends although they were somewhat the same. An example is the prediction that Iqbal told us. he said that his friend told him that there would be a ten dollar note under his bed, but Iqbal did not believe his friend. But after much persuasion by his friend, Iqbal looked under his bed and to his surprise, he really did found a ten dollar note. He then asked his friend how he knew that there would be a ten dollar note under his bed and his friend said that he dreamt of it. (This is not true) Things like predictions are really hard to explain by using scientific theory, right?
The lesson was okay, and I enjoyed it. Everybody's presentation was interesting and the whole lesson was fun.
Friday, January 28, 2011 , Learning Log 2
In the last lesson, I learnt about superstitions. Personally, I don't believe in superstitions, but the older generations maybelieve in them. At class, we discussed that it may be because something happened to a particular person or family when they did something and then, they spreaded the rumours. For example, do not sweep the floor during Chinese New Year as you will sweep away all the luck. Learning about superstitions helps a little in the play, Macbeth,that we are going to act. For instance, witches usually dress in black because they represents bad luck or evil. This is shown when Macbeth died in the end because he met the witches.comments (0)
For the lesson, I think that it was interesting because I got to hear many different kinds of superstitions when we shared our research with the class. Most of the superstitions were related with bad luck. I wonder why?
As for suggestions, I don't think I have any as I think that the lesson was quite fun, like getting some students up to act as the three witches. I think that my friends were really brave as I would not be able to do it with the whole class looking at me. This also trains up our confidence. All in all, it was a good lesson.
Thursday, January 20, 2011 , Learning Log 1
I learnt about cinquain, a five line poem, on the first lesson of literature. The word 'cinquain' is derieved from the French word cinq, which means five.The first line is the title which consist of a word, the second line is the description consisting of two words. Line three consist of three action words while line four consist of four words that describes our feelings. Last but not least, the fifth line consist of a word based on our reflection on the title. For example,comments (0)
Books
Thick, thin
Interesting,exciting,fascinating
Joy on reading words
Fun
I think that the lesson was enjoyable, especially group work. Group work allows me to interact with my friends and exchange ideas while we discuss about the project.
Personally, I do not have any suggestions for improvement as I think the lesson was good enough. But I think that having more group work is better as we can know each other better during our discussion on the project.
