Finally on 27th August 2008, I had chance to present my position paper..I just volunteer myself to present because I do not want to wait anymore. I felt very relieved and happy after the presentation although I do not know how many marks I got formy presentation..
Of course I felt nervous during the presentation. Probably I felt nervous because I knew I will evaluate on that day and I worried if the way I presented on that day do not fulfill the criteria of the marks and more important I presented in front of the person that I not so close enough which is Mr Omid.
Overall, I presented quite okay on that day and I satisfied with my own presentation…Yeah..it’s over!!hehe.
Monday, October 13, 2008
Me and Poetry…
On the 21st August ago, we don’t have clad with Dr. Edwin. However, he had invited a guest to give her speech on her experienced in Poetry. She is a poet and a half Canadian half Jamaican. But I cannot remember her name..huhu.
She really made me a little bit fallen loves in Poetry even though before this I admit compare to novel, short stories, drama and play that I learnt in literature I do not have passion in poetry at all. However, the way she managed the activities on that day had open my eyes to see poetry in different perspective.
The three questions (“What do we know?”, “What do we think we know?” and “What do we want to know?”) are helping us to think more in depth than just analyzing the surface of the poem. She is giving us a poem entitled “Lulu” by Charles Causley and at first we were required to read aloud the poem, read it silently and then read it aloud again.
Then, it comes to the challenging part of the activities but still interesting to me. We are asked to write the poem from the perspective of Lulu, Mother or the narrator by our own or perhaps later on we can combine the ides with our ten group members. After that we had to point a person from our group to present and recite the poem.
Seriously I would like to thank Dr Edwin because brings such an inspiring person like her to give a speech. She had made me think again my perception towards poetry…
She really made me a little bit fallen loves in Poetry even though before this I admit compare to novel, short stories, drama and play that I learnt in literature I do not have passion in poetry at all. However, the way she managed the activities on that day had open my eyes to see poetry in different perspective.
The three questions (“What do we know?”, “What do we think we know?” and “What do we want to know?”) are helping us to think more in depth than just analyzing the surface of the poem. She is giving us a poem entitled “Lulu” by Charles Causley and at first we were required to read aloud the poem, read it silently and then read it aloud again.
Then, it comes to the challenging part of the activities but still interesting to me. We are asked to write the poem from the perspective of Lulu, Mother or the narrator by our own or perhaps later on we can combine the ides with our ten group members. After that we had to point a person from our group to present and recite the poem.
Seriously I would like to thank Dr Edwin because brings such an inspiring person like her to give a speech. She had made me think again my perception towards poetry…
Wednesday, September 10, 2008
Moral of The Story..
My position paper is based on short story entitle A Great Injustice by Heah Chwee Sian. Basically, the story is about Ah Nya, the main character had getting pregnant out of wedlock. In the end of the story, she did an abortion.
I believed that she did the abortion because of the cruel treatments and society’s pressure that she got from the society. As a result, based on the situation, I came out with a thesis statement. My thesis statement is the cruel treatments and all society’s pressures are the reason for Ah Nya’s abortion. The cruel treatments that she received are not in term of physically but rather on emotions and mental.
Actually, what I want to highlight here is after I examined the story based on my thesis statement, I learnt something from my stand. Our behavior usually is controlled and decided by us, but that is not the always the case. As we saw in Ah Nya’s action in this story, she actually made the abortion because she felt pressures the way people around her treat her. Her action was greatly influenced by the views of her society. She forced to abort the baby although she knew that it is wrong to do that. It is not always easy to refuse such thing; Ah Nya had to make the abortion. By analyzing the pro’s and contras she made the decision, basing it on knowledge and commonsense, actually is not a bad thing. Maybe, if the baby growing up in such society, the child will be shun from the society.
In this short story, made me think that our decision and choices are based on what we think as much as what others think. It is not always your choice and it is not always what you want to do. Some actions people do are subconsciously inputted by society. I believe that society pressures everybody all the time, this is unavoidable and even necessary still, I believe that society must only provide advices instead of provoking and causing actions.
Education…
In the previous lesson, (29th August 2008), after we finished read a text on Kafka, which is basically a diary about his education, Mr. Edwin had asked us what education mean for us. As for me, education is a process of civilization. This is because from the education, the knowledge that we gain we can use them to develop our won, society and next our own country.
Besides, education for me supposed to be will make someone become a better person in term of intellectual, spirit and emotion. However, I do agree with Mr. Edwin’s opinion that an education is a process of learning. If we said that an education enable ones to gain knowledge, actually it is not consider an education. An education is when ones using the knowledge that what they had learnt.
We can get education from formal or informal education. A formal education is a structure education for instance, the education that we get from school or university. Meanwhile for informal education is an unstructured education for example, the education that we learn from our parents an experience.
When he asked us to list three sources of our education, for the first one I put experiences as my main source of education followed by school and lastly family. I put experiences as my first source of education because for me sometimes when someone gives their advices we will take for granted till we come to the certain situation when we realize that the advices that they gave are true and useful actually. So, from that we will take as a lesson in the future. Therefore, form the situation it proves that sometimes our own experiences are the main sources of education in our life.
Monday, August 11, 2008
The fall of Icarus…
After I had read the tales entitle “Daedalus and Icarus”, I felt that Daedalus is a caring father. He shows his affection to his son very clearly through his actions and his words to his son. Some of his actions that prove his loves to his so when he himself test the wings first before he gave the wings to his son. He wanted to make sure that the wing is safe to be used by his son, Icarus. Besides, he makes sure that he will fly close to his son to keep his eyes on his son. In addition, he keeps warned Icarus not to fly near the sun. He cried when his son died. He named the land after Icarus to remind himself with his son and the memories with Icarus will everlasting.
Meanwhile, Icarus from my opinion is disobedient son. He never pays attention to his father’s advice. If he listened to his father’s advice, not to fly near the son, he will not fall. Therefore, I think he downfall is due to his foolishness and disobedient to his father.
I did not felt sympathy with Icarus’ character but I felt that way to Daedalus. He had did his role as a father very well but because of his son’s mistakes not himself, he suffered and solely sad of losing his son.
Meanwhile, Icarus from my opinion is disobedient son. He never pays attention to his father’s advice. If he listened to his father’s advice, not to fly near the son, he will not fall. Therefore, I think he downfall is due to his foolishness and disobedient to his father.
I did not felt sympathy with Icarus’ character but I felt that way to Daedalus. He had did his role as a father very well but because of his son’s mistakes not himself, he suffered and solely sad of losing his son.
Teaching Tales in ESL Class?
During the EDU 3234 class, we had learnt some tales from different cultures. The tales that we had learnt are The Mahabharata which is the religious text by Hindus and The Son of The Turtle-Spirit which is Chinese tales.
Personally, I really enjoy reading both texts. Both texts really captured my interest to read till the end even though The Mahabharata text is considered as a long text. From the texts, now I think for some reasons I think I had better known about other cultures, in this context, Chinese and Indian cultures.
The texts trigger me with the idea to apply as such tales in ESL classroom. Form my opinion; there are some advantages if we apply in ESL classroom especially during literature lesson. Teaching literature doesn’t mean we have to use poems, novels or short stories only. Tales, myths and legends can also be taught in the class as long the content are relevant, related and match to students’ needs, levels and follow the general syllabus in general curriculum.
What are the advantages? First and foremost, as we know one of the top reason why literature is implemented is to inculcate moral values in students. The Mahabharata text for example, according to the Cultural Model, will enable the students to understand and appreciate culture, values, and ideologies different from their own in time and space and perceived tradition of thought and feeling and artistic form within the heritage that of such cultures endows. Hence, students will respect others cultures and customs.
Next, tales such The Son of The Turtle-Spirit which relates to Chinese tales actually encourage the Personal Growth Model. By using the text, teacher had selecting text which students can respond because Chinese students have already the background knowledge of the text and they can share with their friends. Besides, the text enable the class participate imaginatively by promoting the kind of conditions for learning in the classroom which will make the reading of literature a memorable, individual and collective experience.
However, teachers have to bear in mind that some texts will longer compared both texts that I had mentioned before. Therefore, they have to modify and adapt the texts according their students’ level of proficiency and needs.
Personally, I really enjoy reading both texts. Both texts really captured my interest to read till the end even though The Mahabharata text is considered as a long text. From the texts, now I think for some reasons I think I had better known about other cultures, in this context, Chinese and Indian cultures.
The texts trigger me with the idea to apply as such tales in ESL classroom. Form my opinion; there are some advantages if we apply in ESL classroom especially during literature lesson. Teaching literature doesn’t mean we have to use poems, novels or short stories only. Tales, myths and legends can also be taught in the class as long the content are relevant, related and match to students’ needs, levels and follow the general syllabus in general curriculum.
What are the advantages? First and foremost, as we know one of the top reason why literature is implemented is to inculcate moral values in students. The Mahabharata text for example, according to the Cultural Model, will enable the students to understand and appreciate culture, values, and ideologies different from their own in time and space and perceived tradition of thought and feeling and artistic form within the heritage that of such cultures endows. Hence, students will respect others cultures and customs.
Next, tales such The Son of The Turtle-Spirit which relates to Chinese tales actually encourage the Personal Growth Model. By using the text, teacher had selecting text which students can respond because Chinese students have already the background knowledge of the text and they can share with their friends. Besides, the text enable the class participate imaginatively by promoting the kind of conditions for learning in the classroom which will make the reading of literature a memorable, individual and collective experience.
However, teachers have to bear in mind that some texts will longer compared both texts that I had mentioned before. Therefore, they have to modify and adapt the texts according their students’ level of proficiency and needs.
Monday, July 28, 2008
First Draft of Position Paper
As we had been told before, this time around for our tutorial this week we have to hand –in our first draft for position paper. During my way to the session, I kept wondering what Mr. Omid will ask us to do today. The questions that come to my mind are “are we going to learn another story” or “are we going to read another story and keep practice doing a thesis statement and supporting points? . Whatever it is, I hope it will not so bored as last tutorial.
Well, as for this week the activity that we had done was not so bad. Mr. Omid had asked each person in my class to write down the thesis statement that we had think and wrote down on the whiteboard. Besides, we had to explain to the class the points that can support our stands. He then will give the comments regarding on our thesis statements and supporting points. If he thought that our theses quite vague, he somehow or rather will gave his ideas on that or asked us to think another possible ideas.
Unfortunately, the class was finished before my turn arrived. However, thank God Mr. Omid did not quickly went out from the class after the class so I had chance to met him for a short minute to ask regarding my thesis statement and idea.
Personally, for this week activity was really useful to me because it helps and guides me on improving my skill to write my position paper. On the other hand, this activity teaches me how to learn from others’ mistakes and not repeat the same mistakes that my friends did while I’m preparing my position paper later.
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