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Saturday, 19 May 2012

Online Task 4


Online Task 4





1. Think of at least 3 benefits of using speeches by famous figures, in the classroom.
-           to help demonstrate concepts of good speech / public speaking  in the class.
-           students get to know about the famous figures which they might never have heard of.
-           speeches by famous figures can inspire the students in some ways.

2. Go to www.youtube.com and find the audio-visual on the speech. In not  less than 50 words, state would the sudio-visual be any use in helping understand the speech better? State yoour reason.. 

The audio visual would be useful in helping students to understand the speech better. It gives the necessary variation and a change of pace in the lesson to help maintain students’ attention and interest, get students to use the language and promote greater student participation by asking students to perform a particular task with the help of the audio-visual either individually or in groups.

3. Who is Martin Luther King?
Martin Luther King is an African American iconic leader in the advancement of the civil rights in the United States of America using non-violent ways as he was a follower of Mahatma Gandhi.
Martin Luther King, Jr., (January 15, 1929-April 4, 1968) was born Michael Luther King, Jr., but later had his name changed to Martin. His grandfather began the family's long tenure as pastors of the Ebenezer Baptist Church in Atlanta, serving from 1914 to 1931; his father has served from then until the present, and from 1960 until his death Martin Luther acted as co-pastor. Martin Luther attended segregated public schools in Georgia, graduating from high school at the age of fifteen; he received the B. A. degree in 1948 from Morehouse College, a distinguished Negro institution of Atlanta from which both his father and grandfather had graduated. After three years of theological study at Crozer Theological Seminary in Pennsylvania where he was elected president of a predominantly white senior class, he was awarded the B.D. in 1951. With a fellowship won at Crozer, he enrolled in graduate studies at Boston University, completing his residence for the doctorate in 1953 and receiving the degree in 1955. In Boston he met and married Coretta Scott, a young woman of uncommon intellectual and artistic attainments. Two sons and two daughters were born into the family.
In 1954, Martin Luther King became pastor of the Dexter Avenue Baptist Church in Montgomery, Alabama. Always a strong worker for civil rights for members of his race, King was, by this time, a member of the executive committee of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, the leading organization of its kind in the nation. He was ready, then, early in December, 1955, to accept the leadership of the first great Negro nonviolent demonstration of contemporary times in the United States, the bus boycott described by Gunnar Jahn in his presentation speech in honor of the laureate. The boycott lasted 382 days. On December 21, 1956, after the Supreme Court of the United States had declared unconstitutional the laws requiring segregation on buses, Negroes and whites rode the buses as equals. During these days of boycott, King was arrested, his home was bombed, he was subjected to personal abuse, but at the same time he emerged as a Negro leader of the first rank.
In 1957 he was elected president of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference, an organization formed to provide new leadership for the now burgeoning civil rights movement. The ideals for this organization he took from Christianity; its operational techniques from Gandhi. In the eleven-year period between 1957 and 1968, King traveled over six million miles and spoke over twenty-five hundred times, appearing wherever there was injustice, protest, and action; and meanwhile he wrote five books as well as numerous articles. In these years, he led a massive protest in Birmingham, Alabama, that caught the attention of the entire world, providing what he called a coalition of conscience. and inspiring his "Letter from a Birmingham Jail", a manifesto of the Negro revolution; he planned the drives in Alabama for the registration of Negroes as voters; he directed the peaceful march on Washington, D.C., of 250,000 people to whom he delivered his address, "l Have a Dream", he conferred with President John F. Kennedy and campaigned for President Lyndon B. Johnson; he was arrested upwards of twenty times and assaulted at least four times; he was awarded five honorary degrees; was named Man of the Year by Time magazine in 1963; and became not only the symbolic leader of American blacks but also a world figure.
At the age of thirty-five, Martin Luther King, Jr., was the youngest man to have received the Nobel Peace Prize. When notified of his selection, he announced that he would turn over the prize money of $54,123 to the furtherance of the civil rights movement.
On the evening of April 4, 1968, while standing on the balcony of his motel room in Memphis, Tennessee, where he was to lead a protest march in sympathy with striking garbage workers of that city, he was assassinated.


4. Based on the questions below, analyse the features of the given written speech:
a. What is the purpose of the speech?
The purpose of the speech is to encourage the enactment of change amongst the American people, and government, in relation to their improper views towards different races or ethnic groups in their society.
 

b. What is the tone of the speech?
The tone of the speech is determination, perseverance, persistent and tenacity.


c. What interesting major feature(s) can you see from the speech? (i.e.Repetition of phrases, emphasis on certain things said etc)
Repetition of phrases:
  • “One hundred years later…” [paragraph 3]
  • “Now is the time…” [paragraph 6]
  • “We must…” [paragraph 8]
  • “We can never (cannot) be satisfied…” [paragraph 13]
  • “Go back to…” [paragraph 14]
  • “I Have a Dream…” [paragraphs 16 through 24]
  • “With this faith, …” [paragraph 26]
  • “Let freedom ring (from) …” [paragraphs 27 through 41]
Emphasis on:
·         freedom (20 times)
·         we (30 times), our (17 times), you (8 times)
·         nation (10 times), america (5 times), american (4 times)
·         justice (8 times) and injustice (3 times)
·         dream (11 times)


d. Any interesting facts that you can gather based on the background of the speech?
     -  As a result of the speech, Dr King was named Man of the Year by Time Magazine in 1963, and won the Nobel Peace Prize the following year.
     -  The speech was watched by more than 200,000 people assembled for the March on Washington, the largest march of the civil rights movement, as well as millions on television.
     - According to his co-authors, Dr King was so busy with the march that, 12 hours before the speech, he still did not have a firm idea about what he was going to say.
     Dr King drew his references from a wide variety of sources, including the Bible, the US Declaration of Independence and Shakespeare.
      -  It was ranked the top speech of the 20th Century by a poll of academics.
     -  It is said to have had several names and drafts, including “The normalcy speech” and “A Cancelled check”.
    -  The speech was delivered exactly 100 years after the Emancipation Proclamation was declared. The Emancipation Proclamation is an executive order issued by United States President Abraham Lincoln on January 1, 1863, during the American Civil War under his war powers. It proclaimed the freedom of 3.1 million of the nation's 4 million slaves, and immediately freed 50,000 of them, with the rest freed as Union armies advanced.


5. Suggest a while-reading activity that can be derived from this particular speech.

Group research – divide students into groups. Have each group research a specific interesting feature of the speech.


Friday, 18 May 2012

Online Task 3


Online Task 3 - A Bio-Poem of Nelson Mandela
Former leader: Mr Mandela with the World Cup trophy two years ago when the tournament was held in South Africa. He has rarely been seen in public since

Nelson Rolihlaha
Courageous, pious, righteous and virtuos
Son of Gadla Henry Mphakanyiswa and Noqaphi Nosekeni
Lover of Invictus, Amarhewu and long walks on the beach
Who feels hope with children, relaxed when boxing, at ease watching the sunset
Who gives freedom, chances and nonracial democratic South Africa
Who fears of letting his people down, success and to show that he fears
Who would like to see smiles on children’s face, peace and long live South  Africa
Who lives in Qunu, a small village in Transkei, in South Africa, where he spent the happiest moments of his childhood
Mandela



Please go to this link on a bio poem instructions - http://cuip.uchicago.edu/~adarice/cwsite/poems/poembio.htm#example

Mandela: His 8 Lessons of Leadership is a great inspiration for me in producing this poem.


Online Task 2


Online Task 2

Do we have a canon for Malaysian literary works? Let's say we do, who do you think are in it? Consider the fact that their works are well-known and most importantly included as part of the school syllabus- (both in BM and English)
1. Che Husna Azhari – Of Bunga Telur And Bally Shoes
2. Shirley Lim Geok Lin – Learning To Love America
3. Ali Majod – The Pencil
4. M. Shanmughalingam – Heir Conditioning
5. A. Samad Said – The Dead Crow

 
The poems by Erica Jong raises some feminist issues. What are they?
They are sex-positive issues, gender difference, gender bias, patriarchy and oppression of women, male dominance in love and family relationship, gender equality for women and women's rights and interests.

 
Do you think they are suitable to teach at the secondary school level? Explain.
In my opinion, Erica Jong’s poems can be used to teach at the secondary school level as a formal school programme for sex education. It is necessary to reduce risk behaviours such as unprotected sex, and equip students to make informed decisions about their personal sexual activity.
Open dialogue about physical intimacy and health education can generate more self-esteem, self-confidence, humour, and general health in students.

Is Hillary Tham's poem more suitable?
Hillary Tham’s ‘Becoming A Woman’ is not more suitable but equally suitable. It highlights the receiving of maternal wisdom. After all, it is necessary for students to know how a little girl goes through the phase of becoming a woman, to grow and chang in ways that prepare her to be able to have a baby

 
The short tale from the Native American group is about a girl who is unsatisfied with her life. How is this a universal experience? Can it teach our students anything?
More than too often most human being is not satisfied with what they have and pursue for something else which they think will make them happier. For example, almost every adult woman is trying to look prettier and younger than they are for they are unsatisfied with the way they look. The short tale from the Native American group teaches students to determine what does and does not give us real satisfaction.

 
From your findings about his background, tell me about the dilemma he conveys through the poem CROSS.
The dilemma is that the speaker is a slave or former slave who has a black mother and white father.  Being a bi-racial person in America during the 1900s was a tough position to be in.  The skin colour would represent closest to a light-skined African American, but to most African American Americans it represents the enemy, the white man.  The speaker voices anger towards his parents for making him an oddity.

I find "Dinner Guest: Me" laden with irony and sarcasm. Briefly state if you feel the same.
Yes. The speaker, being a formal dinner guest surrounded by lobster and wine he naturally would not have spoken to his white hosts as he would his neighbors and kin. “I know I am / The Negro Problem / Being Wined and dined, / Answering the usual questions / That come to the white mind “. He is Black, he is important at some level because people are trying to impress him, he is answering questions from White minds and hence must be the guest in a white house hold, he represents all Black in their eyes and is seen as a problem because they do not understand him. 

 
The experience in the poem Harlem is one that is true for many people. Do you agree?
It is true that having to postpone one’s deepest desires can lead to destruction.



Langston Hughes fights for the voice of his people. What is the movement called?
New Negro Movement - a bold eff ort to transform American images of African Americans through art and literature, while instilling race pride within the black community itself. Pursuing racial renewal through cultural diplomacy, the new Negro movement gave birth to the Harlem Renaissance (1919–1934).

Thursday, 17 May 2012

Online Task 1


Online Task 1
1. Folktale
a)  List some of the well-known folktales from Malaysia .
How Malacca Got Its Name
The curse of Batu Gajah
The Curse of Mahsuri
Bawang Merah Bawah Putih
The Princess og Mount Ledang
Sang Kancil And The Crocodile

b)  List some of the possible issues found in The Son of the Turtle Spirit
The issues found in The Son of The Turtle Spirit are:
-          Love – the true love between the maiden and the turtle
-          meaning of wealth - wealth is power
-          feng shui for wealth - dragon as a symbol of power and auspicious

c)  Are those issues universal in nature or are they only relevant in the Chinese culture?
The issues of love and meaning of wealth is universal in nature while feng shui for wealth is relevant in the Chinese culture only.


2.  Fables
a)  Morals that can be gotten from the other fables by Aesop
The Ant And The Dove – One good turn deserves another
The Dog And Its Shadow – Grasp at the shadow and lost the substance
The Bundle of Sticks – Union Gives Strength
The Ant And The Grasshopper – It is best to prepare for the days of necessity


3.  Myths
One well-known literary figure from the Elizabethan age used Ovid’s Pyramus and Thisbe as a model to one of his famous plays. Who is he and what is the play?
William Shakespeare - Romeo and Juliet


4. Legends
List some of the popular legends we have in Malaysia
Hang Tuah
Langkawi's Legendary Brawl
Magical Lake of Pregnant Maiden
The Seven Magical Wells
The Legend of Mahsuri
Kedah's Legendary Fanged King
The Adventures of The Singing Sea Captain
The Mysterious Giant Footprint
Mystical Cave of Stories
Sri Rambai, The Magical Cannon
The Tragic Tales of Buaya Sangkut & Upeh Guling
The Legend of Princess Santubong
The Mysterious Jugra Lighthouse
The Fairy Princess Of Gunung Ledang
The Kinabalu Dragon’s Gem
The Legend of Princess Sa'adong
The Tragic Tale of a Turtle Stone
The Dragon Of Lake Chini
Monsopaid the Legendary Warrior
The Kind Princess at Princess Hill
Legend of Perhentian Island
Legend of Kota Gelanggi Cave
Perak Royalty Rituals
The Isle of The Sleeping Dragon

1.  Who is Thomas Malory?
 Sir Thomas Malory (c. 1405 -14 March 1471) was an English writer, the author or compiler of Le Morte d'Arthur.

2. When was Le Mort d’Arthur written?
Le Mort d’Arthur was finished, as the epilogue tells us, in the ninth year of Edward IV., i.e. between March 4, 1469 and the same date in 1470. Malory probably started work on it in the 1450's while he was in prison. It was published in 1485.

3. How many books/ parts are there in LMDA?
There are 21 books in Le Mort d’Arthur

4. What is book 8 about?
 It is about Sir Tristram's life.

5.  Who were the two people who had an affair?
Sir Lancelot and Arthur’s wife, Guinevere.

6. Book 6 has a strong connection to a popular modern fiction which is now a movie. What is the title of the popular modern fiction?
King Arthur (2004)

7. State three well-known facts about King Arthur/ his time as a King
-           Arthur was betrayed by his greatest knight, Sir Lancelot.
-           Arthur's sword was called Excalibur.
-      Arthur married Guinevere and got the Round table as a wedding present from her father Leodegrance.


Think of 2 ways in which you can use folktales/fables/myths or legends in the classroom. Explain briefly.

      a) Using Graphic Organizers to Generate Genre Definitions
Using graphic organizers, students create definitions of a variety of story types, including fables, fairy tales, folktales, legends, myths and tall tales.
      b) Passport to Stories Around the World
Introduce students to six tales – one from each of six continents – and ask them to fill out passports about each continent. Students worksheet provided.


Tuesday, 15 May 2012

Research Paper


Finally
I submitted my RP more than a week ago from today. I was very surprised with Miss Dzeelfa for ‘okaying’ both of the template and the organization of my RP right on the first email. Could it be so easy? So I was on the right track though I doubted about myself? I wondered.
Some of the journals and articles I read along the process to produce my RP commented on how Jane Austen’s background, especially of her being unmarried and her failure in a few relationships, affected the way she portrayed relationships in her novels.
I understand perfectly that these comments are from a bunch of great people with great minds and most probably they are right for majority of the readers but I just cannot agree with them. I always believe that every individual has their own situation and sometimes fate sort of play with some people’s life. And I do not think that with Austen being not married has anything to do with the way she wrote because that’s her ways of viewing things and her perspective. 
There’s nothing new about the purposes of marriage in Austen’s novels and in real life. It could be for money, status, love and so on. It depends on individuals’ intentions and how other people interpret a relationship.

Friday, 4 May 2012

Green Light

This special green light indicates that I am on the right track and can proceed with my research paper. Hurray…(softly because it does not mean that I will get good marks for it, yet).
The phrase ‘research paper’ sounds so huge (a stranger to me, a bit scary and difficult) because I have never befriended with it before. Well, that is why I have to get to know about it.
Miss Dzeelfa’s notes in her blogspot have done a great help for me to produce a template of my research paper in order to get a green light from her. It is actually about choosing three texts by the same author or three texts with common concerns written by three different authors, focus on the similarities of those texts, choose one topic which sounds interesting (to myself and my reader, maybe) and has the potential to be researched on.
I have touched quite a number of novels and short stories in previous semesters and know about more than a handful of authors. Since I have obtained the green light, I have done some readings on the field that I am going to do research on, which is marriage, and found some useful materials from journals and articles which I think can be used for my research paper.
Dear Research Paper, I’m getting to know about you bit by bit.

Wednesday, 11 April 2012

Keats' Letters


Keats letter to Fanny Brawne is a passionate one and it seems he was head to toe in love with Fanny Brawne. The way he wrote the letter was as if he couldn’t live without her, that she was his air and lived under his skin.
Both Shelley and Keats were great writers. Keats letter to Shelley reveals that their relationship was quite close for Shelley would invite Keats to stay with him when he learned that Keats was going to Italy. Another evidence of the closeness of their relationship is that Shelley advised Keats not to publish his work, Endymion.
In his letter to Shelley, Keats wrote that ‘My imagination is a monastery and I am its monk.’ He implies that imagination is more powerful than most powerful thing. I’ve read some of his poems last semester like Bright Star, Ode To A Nightingale, Ode To Autumn and Ode On A Grecian Urn which he wrote about his imagination, the relation between thought and sensation and his own identity.
I think to be a writer like Keats, one has to ‘too frequently think too much’ and ‘think about a lot deeply’. It sounds a bit insane to me because thinking too much about what have happened and what is yet to happen is both very unhealthy. If we keep on dwelling with negative thoughts, we will feel depressed and it will become a habit which most people do not realize. Too much thinking and analyzing will just make any problem worse. I believe that today is wonderful and I want to live it in the present.
 

Labels

Autobiography (1) Essay (1) Fables (1) Folktale (1) Legends (1) Letter (1) My Journals (3) Novel (1) Online Tasks (4) Poems (1) Speech (1)
 

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