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!