Weekly Reflection 19/11/12-25/11/12

This week, we had a language session which we discussed collocations. Unfortunately, Miss Abena either didn't explain what a collocation was or I wasn't listening properly as I still don't know what a collocation is. We were given a worksheet where we had to match a noun with a given verb. This exercise seemed easy at first, but as the words we filled in I doubted whether my answers were correct as the remaining nouns didn't match the verb. I was also surprised to find that several collocations that I used to thought was right were actually wrong for example you can't "give someone a compliment" you can only "pay" and there were some which I presumed were wrong but was actually right for example, "cut a tooth"

Then came the second round of literature circle which went smoothly as last time. There was much talk about Madame, significance of the student's artwork, whether they were clones etc. We were able to keep track of this information via a shared Google Doc as it seems that these questions would aid us in examination preparation. I'm really satisfied with the group's overall effort and I know that with this dynamic effort we can give meaningful and insightful knowledge into our class study guide that we are currently creating Overall, Never Let Me Go was far better than I expected and it really showed to me that you should never judge a book by it's cover.

Later in the week, we analyzed a poem called Base Details. When I was analyzing the poem some stanza's in the poem gave away the what the entire poem was talking about in general. Basically, the author who is a solider imagines himself as a bad general and how he loathes the comfortable lifestyle that they live. I have learned through this activity that you should have some background knowledge on a poem beforehand, this allows us to read between the lines much more easily. Also, I have learned that there are just as equal interpretations of a poem. When we were doing the mat circle, I tend to easily shoot down opinions that contradict mine. I learn that analyze poetry is like looking at a piece of modern art, each person is entitled to their own opinions.

Overall, I feel that I have been successful in analyzing poetry this week. It's really quite interesting cracking the insides of a poem, revealing meanings and interpretations that give you that sense of awe and wonder.

Weekly Reflection 12/11/12-18/11/12

This week as we only had one English Class, we did quite a lot of individual and team assignments outside of class. This week, we began looking at our exam text, Never Let Me Go. At first glance, it seemed like a dull book, but after reading up to Chapter 4, the story has grown on me a bit and I'm interested to see where the story will develop.

During presentation time for our pre reading topic, disaster struck us all. Chua could not make it due to an eye infection and he had the actual presentation with him and what he left us with was a sloppy presentation that he made up in 10 minutes. Stuck between a rock and a hard place, we had no choice but to go impromptu. At the end of it all, we learned a lesson that we had to come prepared for any mishaps like this in the future.

This week, we began work on the study guide on Never Let Me Go that was planned last time. There was quite a lot of work ahead of us as we had to do various elements for our study guide.We were divided into lit circles and thankfully I got Brenon, Syahirah and Chua as teammates. Before we began working, we made a solemn "vow" to make sure that we all worked our hardest at any time. Then became the first session of many literature circles and unlike other groups we had a face to face discussion at the discussion room in the boarding house and I had to say I was quite pleased with the progress we've made so far. Everyone was very open minded and flexible and agreed to take on any task that we set as a group.

Hopefully during our second literature session, we can achieve the same kind of seamless discussion among group members either face to face or online.

Juxtaposition Essay Reflection

This week, we faced a particularly difficult task, which was to write an juxtaposition essay (which is basically comparing two things within the essay) I had some good ideas for this essay, but unfortunatly the chapter choice that Brenon and I wanted to pick was already taken and we got stuck with Chapter 8. There were quite a few challenges along the way to the completion of our essay.

- We were not able to find possible connections within the chapter and if we did we were not able to make a strong link between the two elements
-We didn't understand how to create a juxtaposition essay, we tried referring to other people's work but it didn't really help us understand how the essay would be completed

Although this task was particularly confusing and challenging, we were able to gain some new knowledge such as we currently roughly know how to create a juxtaposition essay and we have gained some knowledge on comparing and contrasting events to find their significance. For the completion of this task, we had to consult teacher, peers, online resources and offline resources. By working together with Miss Abena and with peers, we were able to get the support we needed to finish the essay.

In my opinion, I don't feel as if I have acutually achieved the success criteria as I am still in the dark about many things regarding to this lesson. If I am going to consider myself successful at this lesson, I would strongly suggest that another lesson be carried out on this topic to clarify and strengthen our understanding on the matter.

Interpreting Poetry For Dummies

Whenever I read a poem, I usually don't have much of a strategy. I would first look at the poem and obtain a rough idea on what the poem meant. Then I would usually read each line again and try to decipher the meaning of that particular line. I would usually read the poem about 3-5 times, each time trying to obtain the meaning further with each reading. On occasions when footnotes do appear, I would take the time to read it to help me further understand the meaning of difficult and old terms. I rarely use a dictionary when reading a poem, unless there is a word that is completely alien to me, then I would refer to the dictionary. Also, I will always read the poem in my head, never out loud because in my opinion, there really isn't much of a difference if you read it aloud or in your head. Furthermore, I do take notes on occasion when I am trying to decipher the meaning of a poem to help keep track of my idea. Lastly, I do encounter a few problems when reading poetry, for example on some poetry when the meaning is too encoded, I don't have the mentality to figure my way around, which leaves me slightly frustrated but I do feel that maybe after some practice on analyzing poetry, I can get around that obstacle when reading poetry.

This Week's Reflection (10/9)-(16/9)

This week was like any other week. We started the week off with an character analysis essay, as I have written a few before this, it was just a matter of brushing up some unused skills such as analysis skills and thinking and rationalizing skills. It was a bit of challenge at first reusing this skills after about a year or so but with some thought and practice, I came up with an essay that I was quite confident about.

After that, we did a poem called, "A Martian Sends A Postcard Home." A poem that's like a couple of riddles that were joined into a poem. I particularly enjoyed this day as we were more care free and not so serious about our work. We also took pictures of everyday objects at a different perspectives and made others try to guess them, some were kind of plain and some were kind of "dirty" :D We also made riddles that we had to make each others guess. I really wouldn't mind having these kind of activities again every once in a while, just to release all that stress we've been penting up after hours of essay writing, poem analyzing and novel discussions.

Creative Writing

84 of us line in a neat and orderly row. Some of us are white, some of us are black. There is no discrimination between the two as we band to sing to the gods who listen to us. We sing the voices of the dead and the living, a song of sadness or joy but alas as the curtains close, we only may stay silent in the shadow of our master as he receives his applause and kisses

This Week's Reflection (2/7-8/7)

This week, we started off with doing our commentaries with a activity where we had to match a section of commentary to the questions being careful to ensure each section was correct. In my opinion, it was a break from the norm and it helped give us an idea on how each section of the commentary should be structured and answered. After that, we began writing our commentaries which was quite a manageable task given that we had the questions to guide us through which I found to be highly useful.

Other than that matching activity, Miss Abena also read and showed us the children's book called The Gruffallo. Having the book read to me was quite an experience as books were rarely read to me but with Miss Abena's dramatic reading tone plus the animation that she showed us, it was quite an enjoyable week and just hopefully this reading session may happen again!