Learning Log 7

"If I profane with my unworthiest hand..."

Yes, the all famous proposal line from Shakespeare's "Romeo & Juliet. That was the line several of the boys in our class had the "pleasure" of saying to their "Juliets" last Thursday.

After a couple of moths of intensely hard work, complete with the occasional slight bickering and disagreements between the teams in our class, I am utterly proud to say that all in all, 2 Commitment's literature performances turned out to be even greater a success than we had originally planned it to be. Simply splendid in fact! All of which I believe could not have been achieved without a little old-fashioned teamwork, the binds to disconnected ideas and opinions, joined to form what I like too call simply an "awesome work of art"...Anyway, let me refresh you on my amazing acting experience among my teammates...

I was priviledged enough to be working with Phania on the performance, but apart form her, I was also able to become closer to my other classmates whom I rarely got the chance to speak to besides the usual "Hi's" and "Bye's". To be honest, I was absolutely nervous and my high expectations and ambitious nature soon got the better of me. I was wholeheartedly hoping for our team to become the best and was convinced with the efforts needed to fulfill that dream of mine. Before our very first "official" meeting, it was decided that Phania would be our director, while Anirwin and I would play "Romeo" and "Juliet". We also decided to put a spin on the classic by adding a Bollywood touch to the play. I was a little nervous a first, wondering if this risk we were about to take would eventually end well, but after much convincing from my teammates, I gave in.

At this point, I want to talk about how much of a leader Phania proved to be. She was strict, determined and a little ruthless at times (sorry, Phania!). But that was exactly why she proved to be such a good one too! She pestered us about our attendance and even punctuality, implementing "fines" if we failed to do follow. Personally, I think that this was why our attendance was nearly perfect during every meeting we had and I truly admire her for that! She was defintely resourceful, coming up with interesting and unique ideas to add a little more sparkle into the play. And might I add, really kept the group together at all times. If we have come out of this a little more bonded and having tightened our friendships, I think she is partly the reason. I can now say with conviction that if we were to pass each other at anytime, a little more than "Hi's" and "Bye's" would be exchanged.

Of course, I simply must talk about how wonderful the rest of my teammates were and how each one of them had a part to play in making this a huge success. Dewi, for her incredible help with the backdrop, tablecloth and in making the table. She and Fatimah also provided us with the scrumptious Hari Raya snacks for our buffet table which we were constantly gobbling. Also, Fatimah was a brilliant dance partner for me, helping through the steps I somethimes got muddled in and really easing the stress of the dance for me. Speaking of the dance, I think we owe Mui Siew for creating the beautiful and elegant steps for our fusion dance. She was so incredibly patient with our mistakes and brushed off her impatience with laughter and jokes, instantly lightening the mood. Justin, for one, struggled with the dance, finding it difficult to balance the complicated steps with grace and poise, but I feel that without him, our meetings would have been rather lacklustre as he usually served as comic relief. Anirwin was a great Romeo and though we struggled with mastering the kiss scenes, Clarence was always there to help out. To be honest, I think we owe it to him to have helped us finally "achieve the perfect kiss". Who knew that he was so experienced? He also proved to be an amazing Capulet and till today, I am still in awe of his surprisingly natural acting, never failing us during each meeting. Jing Ying, with her amazing artistic skills created the perfect "Indian-themed" backdrop for us, and was always lending a helping hand in anything she could manage. Not forgetting Kai Leong, of course, who surprised us with his mastering of the part of Benvolio. Despite the small role he acquired, I am unable to get over his remarkable "booming" voice, adding a little twist to his character as well.

After weeks and weeks of preparation, finally the day we had all been anticipating (and dreading) arrived. We had been confident  all the while, thinking that we were more that prepared to tackle the challenge that lay ahead, but on the day itself I could not help feeling a little queasy, worried that I would blow it for myself and for the team. My fears were put to rest my Phania's mom helping us with the makeup for the scene. I think I looked "incredibly" different from my usual self after my "makeover", though I am not sure if the makeup was to my advantage...Still, I thought that it was incredibly generous of her to take time off to help us all out.

It seemed to be over in a split second. I could scarcely believe that all the effort and time we had sacrificed for the play was all over. I felt as if I was in another world as we acted out the scenes, perfectly well. That was the only way I was able to stay in character; to get into Juliet's thoughts and "become her" for the several minutes of the act. The only time I slipped out of my focus was when my skirt got caught in one of the chairs and I accidentally kicked one of the members of the audience while I rushed to the other side if the stage. Apart from that, the performance ran smoothly without a hitch and afterwards, I found myself feeling incredibly proud, not only of myself, but also of all the other members of the team who had slaved day and night towards this accomplishment.

Now that this experience lies behind us, I am hit by pangs of sorrow ; saddened that I will never be able to recover the fun we experienced working as a team, maintaining good spirits till the very end. This experience has certainly been a fruitful one, certainly one that I will remember for a very long time,and if there is one thing that I have learned through it all, it is that with wonderful friends and belief, anything is possible.

Now, I no longer care if we were chosen as the best team. To me, we certainly were the best we could be, and I think that this is all that matters.

Yours truly,
Sanjna :)

Learning Log 6

Welcome readers to my sixth blog post! This time I come with my knowledge of literary devices which Mrs Woo has been introducing to us this term and it would give me great pleasure to share with you what I have gained from them and my ppersepctives on the application of these devices in modern context.

We were first introduced to Basic Literary Devices like similes, metaphors and so on, those of which I shall be explaining with further detail as you read on. I originally believed that learning these literary devices would be valuable, for scoring good grades in the upcoming end-of-years for Literature. However, I was pleasantly surprised when I learnt that these devices were more than simple terms used for special contexts only. In fact, these literary devices are used by each and every one us in our daily lives, unconciously...

Let me start of similes, which are the comparison between two different subjects which happen to share a hidden similarity. For example, "asa playful as a kitten" or "as busy as a bee". These similes are not simply made up, but taken from nature. In nature, we are able to observe the mischievious character of the kitten and the hardworking nature of the bee, thus lending to the similes we know so well today. Metaphors, too, rely on nature, as it applies the qualities of an object is applied to another, for example, " stuck in a sea of troubles". Judging by this metaphor, we can tell, that she was facing great difficulty. Moving on to personifications, this literary device describes an inanimate object using human qualities, such as, "the stars dances playfully in the moonlit sky". This almost gives the lifeless objects a life of their own! Symbols like the dove which symbolises peace and the rose which symbolises love, are well-known today, but these symbols actually stand for something more abstract than compared to its object. Then, of course, we move on to visual, auditory, olfactory, gustatory, kinesthetic and tactile descriptions which basically involve our five senses, sight, hearing, smell, taste or texture, movement and touch, respectively. For example, a "crimson red rose" depicts the bright red colour of the rose, of something we are able to see whereas "Amy skipping merrily" desribes the movement of Amy; visual and kinesthetic desriptions.

Next, we learnt about sound devices, which in my opinion, is a fun play of words requiring the usage of tongue-twisters. Rhyme basically is the similarity of ending sounds heard between two separate words. For example, we learnt about the different rhyme schemes earlier in poetry, such as "aa, bb" or "ab, cd". Rhythm, meanwhile, evokes a particular beat or pattern of a text, such as rhythmic claps or the use of words like "pell-mell" or "helter-skelter".  What about alliteration? Well, alliteration, is the act of repeating initial consonant sounds to produce a rhythmical effect. For example, many might find the alliteration, "I'm faster, faster than fingers, much faster" to be a mini tongue twister.
 Onomatopoeia, meanwhile, describes the words which echo the sound another word may make. This is commonly seen in animals, such a "a duck quacks". Another example of this is seen in the famous Old Macdonald nursery rhyme...something I'm sure all of us have grown up with. In order to properly depict tones, an efficient evoking of mood, attitude and perspective is much needed to differentiate two different sentences. Thisi is evidently seen in, "What are doing here?" a soft approach and "WHAT ARE YOU DOING HERE?" a loud and emotional approach to the same sentence.

We also immersed ourselves in diction and sentence structures, a more advanced level of the literary devices. We learnt about connontation, of how images and words combine to imply a specific meaning. For example, "the mansion he owns IMPLIES that he must be rich". Oxymoron meanwhile emphasises the complete difference or contradiction shared between two subjects, but how they relate to each other in a unique way, somehting I find extremely interesting. For example, the phrase "sweet sorrow" may seem utterly ridiculous but it actuall makes sense! Anyway, hyperbole basically exaggerates a particular message while paradox is similar to an oxymoron in some ways, but instead involves a statement like "the more I love her, the more I hate her". Now, we move on to complex, simple and incomplete sentences. Just like the names suggest, a simple sentence is one with just a single main idea while a complex sentence involves more than one idea combined with clauses or minor phrases here an there. An incomplete sentence involve several sentences which are improperly phrased which reflect great emotion such as excitement or sadness. When we think about this topic, how can we forget to mention exclamation? That's right, we can't! Exclamation is a strong and powerful statement which emphasises great feeling or emotion. It also usually ends with an exclamation mark at the end of the sentence to further emphasise this. I find a rhetorical uestion rather interesting too as it a question which does not aim to achieve a direct answer. A good example of this would be from the question, "How many times do I have to tell you?" The aim of this question is not to ask the number of times, but instead to bring out a tone different from the tone of the question. Last but not least, repetition comes into this list by using a particular word or phrase several times in order to stress an idea or show emphasis and feeling. For example, if one feels an urgency, a common repetition to use would be, "Go, go, go!" or "Hurry, hurry!"

It is terribly easy to forget the long list of literary devices I have laid out before you and that is why we are made to apply them into proses and poetry we read by commenting on the literary devices found in the text and giving our respective comments. It is very important for us as Literature students to understand the significance behind these devices not only for excelling in exams that come by, but also for receiving a deeper and more wholesome understanding of nature from different perspectives.

Your truly, Sanjna <3

Learning Log 5

 It has been a long time since my last blog post and today, as I revisit my literature blog, I have a "hidden" agenda...to venture into "Unseen Poetry".
The assignment given to my classmates and I recently was to read up on our Unseen Poetry booklet and to summarise the contents and give our own understanding of the wonders of this style of poetry, which is considered to be an extremely important component of our upcoming exams.

Here is my attempt of understanding the Unseen...

An Unseen Poem is simply one that has not been revised our studied in detail before, and as the name implies, may not have been seen before. This form of poetry is no different from common poems and therefore should not be treated any different. However, since Unseen Poetry is like mentioned, unheard of, students require special techniques to master this component, which the Unseen Poetry booklet helped me with.

Upon receiving the Unseen Poem, one should read the poem with much care and concern. However, the booklet provides useful information on even how to read simple poetry. First, the student should skim through the poem to get the basic idea of the poem, before rereading it carefully and highlighting difficult vocabulary. After having a thorough understanding of the poem, the student is advised to ask him or herself questions on the details of the poem and jot down his or her understanding of the poem on the whole. In this, the emotions evoked by the student is especially important in receiving a wholesome understanding, emotionally as well as technically.

Upon writing the answers to the questions, it is always important to never rush through them as this may result in carelessness and incorrent understanding of the requirements of each question.
How can this be avoided, you may ask? Well, following the PEEL strategy, it is almost impossible to score less than perfect for the questions asked. In case you are wondering, PEEL stands for Point, Explaination, Evidence and lastly, Link. The Point basically, is the main idea whereas the Explanation demands an elaboration of the Point. Evidence is very important as one must learn the correct tactics of quoting a sentence, phrase or word from the poem. In order to pick out the ideal example to further prove the point, stdents are advised to follow the ABC strategy (yes, there is a strategy even for THAT) which stands for Attention, Brief and Context. Attention, basically implies the particular word or phrase which captures the student's attention whereas Brief is the art of summary, or the skill of shortening a long qoutation. Context, meanwhile, is applying the quote into the point smoothly to show one's fluent understanding of the text. Anyway, back to the PEEL strategy...Last but not least is the Link, which is basically how one connects the question to the main point as well as the other paragraphs, especially in essay writing.

Now, let me move on the simple techniques on writing an impeccable Literature essay.

Organisation is vital. In fact, it is vital for each and every essay, and this booklet provided me with infromation on exactly how to organise the essay and the student's train of thoughts. The introduction should come first, of course, with a brief answering of the question. Then, one should move on to the Body, which expands on the answer through the PEEL structure. It is also imperative to add in the student's personal response as literature IS about expreesion and creativity after all. Finally, the conclusion is basically to emphasise the main point of the essay and to summarise basic key points.

But wait...that is not all...

Many students often get caught up in these steps that they forget how to properly analyse the text. Similar to the Unseen Poem, it is important to jot down one's understanding as well as read and reread the text, highlighting the main points as you do so.

And that is about it! This booklet has certainly given me great insight into the key areas of Literature and the techniques I once considered tedious, seem surprisingly easy now! I deeply hope that we will be given such booklets in the future because although they may seem a little time-consuming and difficult to pick up, they really do work!

Learning Log 4

"When shall we three meet again? In thunder, lightning or in rain..."

Those were the famous first words quoted in Scene 1 of Macbeth, which my fellow classmates and I had the privilege of performing last Wednesday. Since this was the first ever Shakespeare performance, or rather, first ever performance for our class, we were determined to give it our all and to expose our hidden talents, in acting to Mrs Woo.

This time, I found myself in the company of Jia Le and Jiayi...one vivacious, and the other quiet...an interesting combination. Anyway, due to Jia Le and I being heavily involved in the Odyssey of the Mind National Competition around this time, our group struggled to meet up and to simply discuss what we each had in mind for our skit. Although we barely had time to make our props, prepare our costumes and most importantly, rehearse our lines and get them pitch-perfect, I still found our final performance to be better than expected. It was not flawless, like many other performances, but it was comical and the added humourous aspect into the normally spooky scene gave the skit an interesting edge. I feel that our ideas were extremely creative, such as, the part where we used umbrellas as canes, to symbolise rain, as well as to highlight our magical powers as witches when we quoted the last line together. Apart from that, I believe that both of my group members and I used excellent voice intonations to represent our individual characters, despite our lack of practice and my always-reliable speaker, which turned out to sound unexpectedly soft compared to our booming voices. As a matter of fact, it actually had the class in stitches and further livened the atmosphere in the room.

As for the other groups, I was truly impressed by the immense effort some put in to order suitable costumes and to create gorgeous props. Some of the groups even had impressive Powerpoint slides and sound effects to create a scary ambience for the performance. Among the groups that really stood out for me were Rebeccas's, Theophania's and Clarence's performance which really emphasised the effort they had all put in to make their performances successful.

All in all, I found that Wednesday to be one of the most entertaining lessons we have had in a long time, and am dearly anticipating another one just as exciting as this lesson. Perhaps the Romeo and Juliet performance coming up shortly... :D

Learning Log 3

After two glorious Literature lessons, we finally had our third, and just as expected, it was marvellous! This time, however, our literature lesson was mostly subjected to discussion in groups which I found a ton of fun.

We still remained on the topic of “Superstitions” but this lesson however, like I said was different because in our groups, we were told by Mrs Woo to discuss about a true incident regarding a superstition that actually occurred to us. This assignment was a little challenging because each one of us definitely had to wrack our brain to think of the ideal situation to fit the question. For many of us, including myself, we simply could not manage to think up a situation, so we were forced to create a made-up story to fit the bill. I found it fun hearing about how some of my peers came up with their stories.

There were, however, those who actually had experienced such situations themselves, really surprised us with their experiences. Anyway, back to my group… I found myself in the company of Qi Herng, Lionel and Dawn, this time and we finally managed to select Dawn’s story, not only because it was the only account among us which was actually true, but also because we felt that it was the most interesting. Anyway, after much rephrasing and rewriting, it was time to present our ‘masterpiece’.  Apart from waiting eagerly for Qi Herng to read ours aloud, I also found myself anticipating the accounts from the rest of my classmates. I found some of the accounts written by my classmates quite humorous while others were pretty creepy, especially the accounts written by Amanda’s group and Rachel’s too.I found myself feeling grateful that the accounts were only made up.

All in all, I must say that I found our group’s and the others’ account to be really good. It was certainly a lot of fun laughing along with everyone as each representative of the group read out their accounts. For the third time, I found that it was definitely a great lesson and cannot wait for the fun we will have in the following lessons to come…Can’t wait!

Yours truly,

Sanjna

Learning Log 2

Superstitions...Whenever that word comes to mind, my mind automatically zaps to thinking about some of the most popular ones such as "if you walk under a ladder, you will get seven years of bad luck", totally unlogical ones like "if you sing in the kitchen, you will get married later in life" and sometimes, my mind even wanders to things like black magic, which is commonly associated with superstitions too.

Last week, we had an entertaining Literature lesson, learning about these superstitions, similar to what I mentioned earlier. However, we were not alone. Mrs Woo divided us into groups and I found myself in the company of Fatimah, Kelvin and Brian, and we were tasked to discuss the different superstitons we each had researched. During presentation, I found some of the superstitions shared by my fellow classmates pretty funny and enjoyed myself thoroughly. Never had I thought that superstitions could be this vast.

Later on, we found out why Mrs Woo had decided to introduce us to superstions. After reading Macbeth, particularly the first scene, I found my answer. Mrs Woo had wanted us to fully understand what superstitions really meant before she introduced us in depth to the Macbeth play by William Shakespeare. Why was this necessary? Well, I think it is because Shakespeare decided to introduce the three witches in the very first scene itself to indicate that a bad omen was about to curse someone in the play.

The entire superstitons lesson was a lot of fun, but the icing on the cake was when Mrs Woo called out some students to act as the three witches, with her famous 'number selector'. Boy, was I glad that I was not called out. The students were supposed to act exactly like witches, with their creepy voice imitations, which kept the rest of us in stitches throughout the lesson.

All in all, our recent literature lesson was a huge success, and as you can see, I have no further feedback to give as I wait eagerly for oour coming lesson. I can only hope that it will be quite as eventful as our lesson the other day...

Yours truly,
Sanjna~

LEARNING LOG 1

Cinquain poetry was our topic for these recent Literature lessons and I found this style of poetry especially interesting because it consisted of just five lines and gave me the opportunity to express my creativity in thinking of different adjectives to use for my cinquain.

Let me just tell you a little about cinquains in general before I delve into our Literature lessons. Cinquain, is basically derived from the word "cinq" which means "five" in French., Why is this so? Well, like I mentioned earlier, this type of poetry only consists of five lines, each line giving details and describing a particular topic. The best part? The poem does not have any rhyming scheme which offers more freedom in coming up eith various adjectives. Anyway, back to our Literature lessons...

After our class discussion, we were assigned to different groups to work on a group cinquain. I found this rather fun, especially because it was interesting to share with my group members each of our opinions on how to make our cinquain especially unique. Finally, we chose the topic "School" and decided to write all about the knowledge we gain and the challenges we face every day. I enjoyed listening to some of the other groups present their cinquains too. Some of the cinquains were exquisitely well decorated, while others seemed quite plain, but however, their cinquains itself were very well written. Out of all the cinquains presented, I have to say that I enjoyed the cinquain about "Money" presented by Fatimah's group the most. It was humourous and interesting at the same time.

Although I have yet to experience the "full blast" of our Literature lessons, I have to say that I was glad with the way our first lesson turned out, it was fun, knowledgable and interesting, which made it a very productive lesson all in all. I definitely learnt how to express myself more creatively on pen and paper, which built my English skills. I also learnt to work together and communicate well with my group members when discussing and collaborating our ideas for the project. My only feedback for the upcoming Literature lessons would be to probably have more interactive Literature-based games or quizzes which could polish our creativity even more. Apart from that, I thoroughly enjoyed the lessons last week and am looking forward to more fun times in the weeks to come.

Yours truly,
Sanjna