The lesson gets more and more serious…

After learning about all the tales, myths, legends and fables, the lesson continued with more serious stuffs like autobiography, diaries, letters, as well as speech. In autobiography, I was introduced to ‘The autobiography of Nelson Mandela – The Long Walk to Freedom’. Learning the autobiography also, I have learnt about why do people write autobiography, how trustworthy are autobiographies, are autobiographies educational or entertainment, as well as learnt whether autobiography could be used in language classroom. After that, I learnt about ‘The Andy Warhol Diaries’. Frankly speaking, I was really clueless about who he was until we discussed about his diaries in class. Besides, I also learnt about Kafka Diaries, which I found very interesting because he had a different view on education. When I first read his diaries and came to the line, “…education has done me great harm in some respect.’ it has really caught my attention and made me wanted to read more and more about his life. Then, the lesson moved on to Keat’s letters to Fanny Brawne. Last but not least, the latest lesson we had was on speech from Martin Luther King, Jr, entitled “I Have a Dream”. To me, this speech was a fabulous literary masterpiece. In fact, he has a strong emotion and spirit in his speech. There are still a few articles left that we do not discuss in class like the essays on ‘Shooting an Elephant’, ‘The Common Reader’, and ‘What I Believe’. However, I still did my own reading on them since I have bought the book. So, it will be a waste if I do not use it to its fullest.

Discovering of different genres in literature

After gone through this course for the whole semester, I have learnt different genres in literature such as tales, myths, legends, fables, autobiography, diaries, letters, as well as speech. All of these genres vary in their own ways. At the beginning of the semester, I have learnt about Ovid, ‘Daedalus and Icarus’. We have discussed in depth about this tale in class. Then, I also did my own reading on the stories of ‘The Son of the Turtle-spirit’ and ‘Le Mort d’ Arthur’. Honestly, I found out that the story of ‘The Son of the Turtle-spirit’ is intesting but unfortunately, ‘Le Mort d’ Arthur’ was not very appealing for me. Maybe it was because the story was rather long. Therefore, I have to force myself to finish reading it. Then , I was also been asked to read the Aesop’s fables, ‘The Fox and the Crow’, ‘The Jay and the Peacock’ as well as ‘Androcles’, which I found very interesting and taught a lot of moral values. Apart from that, we also discussed about Ovid metamorphosis, ‘Pyramus and Thisbe’ in class. Actually, I have learnt about this story much earlier during my foundation course, which was through the play ‘Midsummer night’s dream’. Thus, when we discussed about this story, I have already had the basic knowledge about the story. When I reflected back of what I have learnt through out the first part of the semester, I found out that everything that I have learnt are quite interesting and lighter compared to the second part, which is more serious. This is because they are easier to understand compared to autobiography, diaries, letters and so on, which deal with serious issues and true stories.

Come out with the final product...

after my instructor went through my work and gave her comment, i started to work on my research to come out with the final product. first of all, i have to cut down the less important part about the playwrights' biography, like their major works and awards that they received. this is because due to Cik Sharifah, she can read them all by herself through internet or books. futhermore, these parts are not really related to my research. i have decided to put in the playwrights' background in my research paper because their lives background are related to and influenced their works.

secondly, i changed the introduction where the instructor asked me to change because there was a few confusion in it. Since it was too complicated, according to her, i decided to cut the paragraph off and rearrange the sentences in whole paragraphs all over again, from the most important to the less important.

Thirdly, i editted some of the implications on teaching at the final part of the research paper, to make it more realiable to the current teaching and education. finally, i have to re-check my grammar to make sure that they are all correct and there is no grammar mistake at all. to do so, i am not only will check it by myself but i will also ask a favour from my friends to check it for me. it means that my research paper will undergo a few stages of grammar checking.

Freedom Writer

Last Tuesday, we were assigned to watch a movie entitled ‘Freedom Writer’. The movie centres on the story of a 23-year-old teacher resorts to unconventional means of breaking through to her hardened students. This teacher is very enthusiastic and interested in teaching. this movie basically deals with how the teacher and her teenage students used writing to change themselves and the world around them. Her students had been written off, and her chances of succeeding scoffed at, but the teacher, Erin Gruwell wasn't about to go down without a fight. Long Beach is a place where a new war is waged with each passing day, and when the hardened students who walk those dangerous hallways sense an outsider attempting to understand their plight, their cynical resentment threatens to keep a deadly cycle in motion. Despite the initially hostile reaction she receives in the classroom, Gruwell uses the writings of Anne Frank and Zlata's Diary: A Child's Life in Sarajevo to teach her students not only the basis of the English language, but compassion and tolerance as well. Later, when the time comes to tell their own tales in a project specially designed to explore the daily violence that the majority of students have grown numb to, the barriers that had once stood so strong gradually begin to crumble. When the only chance for survival is to befriend the person who was once your mortal enemy, the world is opened to a whole new realm of possibilities.

I have learnt so many things from this movie and it really opens my eyes to dedicate myself to my future career as teacher. i realised that being a teacher is not just teaching in classroom but also educate them beyond the classroom. this movie has also introduced myself with various teaching methods like the teacher in this movie does. i have also learnt on how to handle students and make them interested in learning especially students who are quite unruly.

meeting with the instructor

Again, i was asked to meet my instructor to discuss about my draft of research paper. She wants to give her comment regarding my research and then, she asks me to re-do it. during the meeting, she asks me to improve on the language, introduction and the implications on teaching. besides that, she also wants me to cut down a few unnecessary things on the playwrights' biography because she said it is to long. According to her, the content and my argument on the points are sufficient but i have to check the grammar. after discussing and commenting on what have to be improved, we discussed with her about the due date to submit the final draft. fortunately, Cik Sharifah is very considerate and understanding. she gave us enough time to re-do the assignment and come out with final product. so, the due date decided was on the next Friday, which 1 week after the meeting.

apart from that, she also comment on my thesis statement. she asked me to change the thesis statement which really suits the supportiong points. basically, she said that she can understand what i want to say but the thesis statement is not really reliable. so, she suggest me to quote one line from my argument to use it as my thesis statement. this is because she found out that there is one line that is more suitable than my existing thesis statement.

Final Draft for research paper

Now, it is about time for me to send the final draft of research paper. According to my instructor, Cik Sharifah, this 14 March would be our final draft and she wants us to come out with full version of essay regarding my research. It has to be 3000 words, typed out. Then, she said that if she was satisfied with the work, it would be our final product. However, if she was not satisfied, she may return it back to me and for that reasons, I will at least still has for about two weeks before the actual due date to re-do the research paper. I think, that was a good idea in a way that I will have time to correct the work if she does not satisfy with the assignment. But, in a way also, it may be quite tiring since that 14 March is just around the corner and the fact that time flies very fast! Moreover, there are plenty of assignments to be submitted this week! I am afraid that I could not manage to finish them all in time. Perhaps I could say, I will try to finish it, or precisely, I must finish it! Maybe I have to burn the midnight oil to finish them in time. When there is a will, there is a way….

Malaysian Celebrations

There are plenty of celebrations in Malaysia that I am still not familiar with. So when we are asked to list down all the Malaysian celebrations that we know, I was only managed to list down 20 celebrations out of 26. Among them are Mothers Day, Fathers Daay, Children Day, Teachers Day, Valentine’s Day, Labour Day, Isra’ & Mi’raj, Nisfu Syaaban, Nuzul Koran, Hari Raya Aidilfitri, Eid al-Adha, Gawai Day, Wesak, Thaipusam, Indian New Year, New Year, National Day, Maulidur Rasul, Mid-Autumn Festival (Moon Cake Festival) and Pongal Festival. However, some of these celebrations that I listed down are not very familiar with. Basically, I know about the existence and the date of these celebrations but I do not know the origin and also not very familiar with the nature of how they are celebrated. After a brief discussion in class on the various celebrations in Malaysia, I then got the rough idea about some other celebrations especially those which are celebrated by other races as well as in Sabah and Sarawak. They are Dong Zhi Festival, Bai Tian Gong (Praying to the heavenly God), Vaisakhi, Good Friday, Dumplings Festival, and finally Naw Ruz.
Then, we are divided into small groups to study about these celebrations and we are given certain celebrations to focus on. As for my group, which consists of 3 people, we are asked to find the information on Mothers Day, Fathers Day and Children day. So after class, we went to cyber café to find the information about the celebrations. We decided to divide the work between the 3 of us to make it faster. So, I myself was assigned to find out about Mothers day, while Faizura was on Fathers Day and Arifah was on Childrens Day. After gathered all the info, we then do a discussion that night to finish the work assigned. We divided the information of the celebrations into 3 sections which are the date it was celebrated, the origin and finally the nature of the celebrations. After finished with the typing, we printed them out and then, made a copy for everybody.