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

William Shakespeare: The Mastermind Of Literature

William Shakespeare was an English poet and playwright, widely regarded as the greatest writer in the English language and the world's preeminent dramatist. He is often called England's national poet. His surviving works, including some collaborations, consist of 38 plays, 154 sonnets, two long narrative poems, and several other poems. His plays have been translated into every major living language and are performed more often than those of any other playwright. Shakespeare was born and raised in Stratford-upon-Avon. At the age of 18, he married Anne Hathaway, who bore him three children: Susanna, and twins Hamnet and Judith. Between 1585 and 1592, he began a successful career in London as an actor, writer, and part owner of a playing company called the Lord Chamberlain's Men, later known as the King's Men. He appears to have retired to Stratford around 1613, where he died three years later. Few records of Shakespeare's private life survive, and there has been considerable speculation about such matters as his physical appearance, sexuality, religious beliefs, and whether the works attributed to him were written by others.Shakespeare produced most of his known work between 1589 and 1613.[5][d] His early plays were mainly comedies and histories, genres he raised to the peak of sophistication and artistry by the end of the sixteenth century. He then wrote mainly tragedies until about 1608, including Hamlet, King Lear, and Macbeth, considered some of the finest works in the English language. In his last phase, he wrote tragicomedies, also known as romances, and collaborated with other playwrights.

Many of his plays were published in editions of varying quality and accuracy during his lifetime. In 1623, two of his former theatrical colleagues published the First Folio, a collected edition of his dramatic works that included all but two of the plays now recognized as Shakespeare's.

Shakespeare was a respected poet and playwright in his own day, but his reputation did not rise to its present heights until the nineteenth century. The Romantics, in particular, acclaimed Shakespeare's genius, and the Victorians worshiped Shakespeare with a reverence that George Bernard Shaw called "bardolatry".[6] In the twentieth century, his work was repeatedly adopted and rediscovered by new movements in scholarship and performance. His plays remain highly popular today and are constantly studied, performed and reinterpreted in diverse cultural and political contexts throughout the world