Thursday, November 1, 2012
multimodality and the short story
Read Significant moments in the life of my mother by Margaret Atwood. What multimodal possibilties are there for studying this short story? Also, what other thoughts do you have on multimodality in the Literature classroom?
Tuesday, October 23, 2012
Megalai's E Learning Assignment
I came across the British Council website which is very useful for a teacher as it provides a wide variety of resources comprising of lesson plans, activities and worksheets. Although the website is to assist teachers who teach English, there is a section called BritLit that provides resources to teach literature. I also feel that these resources are appropriate for secondary level students who will eventually be sitting for the GCE O Level examinations.
URL of Website: http://www.teachingenglish.org.uk/britlit
1) http://www.teachingenglish.org.uk/britlit/my-daughter-fox
This is an extremely useful pack of resources which I feel will be ideal to teach unseen prose. There are three activities for the students to complete, pre-reading, reading as well as post-reading which are well-focused on aspects like perspective and focusing on contextual clues which are skills required by students when they do the unseen. There is also an audio version of the text available, which the teacher can play while the students attempt the pre-reading activity, this injects fun into the lesson as students are engaged in the audio clip that dramatises the text. After looking at the prose, the post-reading activity offers other works in the same theme, a poem for instance, for the students to look at which is also helpful.
2) http://www.teachingenglish.org.uk/britlit/fish-swimming
This is based on a poem by Moniza Ali called 'Fish Swimming.' I would use this poem and the accompanying worksheets to teach students metaphors, similes and imagery as a result of that. There are links to two flash animation presentations done up by students from other schools on the site. These visually represent the poems and help the students to visualize it as well. This would enable them to grasp the concept of imagery easily. As the fish is compared to other things in the poem, they will be able to understand how these metaphors and similes contribute to imagery and hence meaning in the poem. The poem is not too long, so it is easy to work with. I would follow up the poem by getting students to use a photograph of their own and compose their own poems based on it. This lesson would have a creative writing element to it.
3) http://www.teachingenglish.org.uk/world-words/chain
This is an interview with author Keith Gray, who reads an excerpt from his novel, The Chain, and also goes on to talk about how he crafted the characters in his book. This activity could be done in a lesson to teach students about author's purpose and intention, which is a essential thing that they have to think about while reading in order to critically engage with the text. An interview with the author himself will help students think that books are accessible and relatable, therefore they do not need to feel intimidated while studying a text. Students will be able to understand after hearing from the author himself that there is always a reason and purpose for aspects of a text to be in a particular way.
Thank you.
URL of Website: http://www.teachingenglish.org.uk/britlit
1) http://www.teachingenglish.org.uk/britlit/my-daughter-fox
This is an extremely useful pack of resources which I feel will be ideal to teach unseen prose. There are three activities for the students to complete, pre-reading, reading as well as post-reading which are well-focused on aspects like perspective and focusing on contextual clues which are skills required by students when they do the unseen. There is also an audio version of the text available, which the teacher can play while the students attempt the pre-reading activity, this injects fun into the lesson as students are engaged in the audio clip that dramatises the text. After looking at the prose, the post-reading activity offers other works in the same theme, a poem for instance, for the students to look at which is also helpful.
2) http://www.teachingenglish.org.uk/britlit/fish-swimming
This is based on a poem by Moniza Ali called 'Fish Swimming.' I would use this poem and the accompanying worksheets to teach students metaphors, similes and imagery as a result of that. There are links to two flash animation presentations done up by students from other schools on the site. These visually represent the poems and help the students to visualize it as well. This would enable them to grasp the concept of imagery easily. As the fish is compared to other things in the poem, they will be able to understand how these metaphors and similes contribute to imagery and hence meaning in the poem. The poem is not too long, so it is easy to work with. I would follow up the poem by getting students to use a photograph of their own and compose their own poems based on it. This lesson would have a creative writing element to it.
3) http://www.teachingenglish.org.uk/world-words/chain
This is an interview with author Keith Gray, who reads an excerpt from his novel, The Chain, and also goes on to talk about how he crafted the characters in his book. This activity could be done in a lesson to teach students about author's purpose and intention, which is a essential thing that they have to think about while reading in order to critically engage with the text. An interview with the author himself will help students think that books are accessible and relatable, therefore they do not need to feel intimidated while studying a text. Students will be able to understand after hearing from the author himself that there is always a reason and purpose for aspects of a text to be in a particular way.
Thank you.
Monday, October 15, 2012
Merlion Creative Submissions
Hi All,
In the spirit of bringing our peer teaching to a close, this is what we hoped to do eventually with the students' submissions. We'd take pictures of it and post it up on the class blog for posterity. Thanks for the cooperation and the help with the session! You guys made it a lot more painless than it could have been! :D
Best,
Melissa, Jiamin, Jason and Brennan
In the spirit of bringing our peer teaching to a close, this is what we hoped to do eventually with the students' submissions. We'd take pictures of it and post it up on the class blog for posterity. Thanks for the cooperation and the help with the session! You guys made it a lot more painless than it could have been! :D
Best,
Melissa, Jiamin, Jason and Brennan
Tuesday, October 2, 2012
Book Review: The Colour of Magic
Terry Pratchett's The Colour of Magic, is epic. Terry Pratchett, needs no introduction. He is one of the most read contemporary writers of fantasy. The Colour of Magic is part of a series known as the Discworld. It was published in 1983 as a novel and in 1992 as a graphic novel. It is as a graphic novel that I read The Colour of Magic and I will be reviewing the graphic novel.
When I first read The Colour of Magic, we still called them "comics" rather than graphic novels. I feel this is a good text to teach in school at Upper Sec level, as it has different layers of meaning that might be a little too tough for Lower sec kids. Kids love reading comics/graphic novels, especially the Japanese-Manga ones, which can be quite complex. The Colour of Magic weaves a fantasy world that appeals to students, who seem to enjoy this genre, especially now with the Twilight generation.
The Colour of Magic is like an action adventure with two almost Quixotic characters going on a series of adventures. When a tourist from a more powerful universe comes to visit Ankh-Morpork, an incompetent and failed wizard is set by the ruler to take him around safely. As a result of a tavern bawl, the entire city burns down and the wizard Rincewind escapes with Twoflower, the tourist from the Agatean Empire. They embark on a journey that is quest-like and defeat different villains and help several people in the course of their journeys.
Unknown to the characters, they are being controlled by a group of gods playing a board game.
This text can be used to introduce many themes and values. One is of course the parody of the romance genre, where a knight goes on a quest and defeats villains in an effort to either win the favour of a lady-love or glory. This is more in the vein of a picaresque novel, with Rincewind as the picaro. The idea of the anti-hero can also be introduced through this novel, for neither the cowardly, inefficient RIncewind nor the whimsical Twoflower are what we would call, "heroes". They do not fit the category or the values of traditional heroes or even modern-day heroes and do not fulfill the criteria wherein one can look up to them in admiration.
They are at best misfits.
Another important point that can be covered here is the fact that Rincewind is always being reminded of his failure as a wizard. He was a drop-out and therefore was considered an inefficient wizard. However, gradually throughout the story, he gains in confidence as he learns to solve the problems and meet adversities. This is an important life lesson for our students, that we can use to connect to their own lives. Though sometimes, we feel that we are the pawns of destiny or bad luck or any such influence, one can overcome one's situation if one has enough perseverance and confidence in one's self.
Except for a few complexities, I feel this book could have been a great text for lower sec classrooms too.
When I first read The Colour of Magic, we still called them "comics" rather than graphic novels. I feel this is a good text to teach in school at Upper Sec level, as it has different layers of meaning that might be a little too tough for Lower sec kids. Kids love reading comics/graphic novels, especially the Japanese-Manga ones, which can be quite complex. The Colour of Magic weaves a fantasy world that appeals to students, who seem to enjoy this genre, especially now with the Twilight generation.
The Colour of Magic is like an action adventure with two almost Quixotic characters going on a series of adventures. When a tourist from a more powerful universe comes to visit Ankh-Morpork, an incompetent and failed wizard is set by the ruler to take him around safely. As a result of a tavern bawl, the entire city burns down and the wizard Rincewind escapes with Twoflower, the tourist from the Agatean Empire. They embark on a journey that is quest-like and defeat different villains and help several people in the course of their journeys.
Unknown to the characters, they are being controlled by a group of gods playing a board game.
This text can be used to introduce many themes and values. One is of course the parody of the romance genre, where a knight goes on a quest and defeats villains in an effort to either win the favour of a lady-love or glory. This is more in the vein of a picaresque novel, with Rincewind as the picaro. The idea of the anti-hero can also be introduced through this novel, for neither the cowardly, inefficient RIncewind nor the whimsical Twoflower are what we would call, "heroes". They do not fit the category or the values of traditional heroes or even modern-day heroes and do not fulfill the criteria wherein one can look up to them in admiration.
They are at best misfits.
Another important point that can be covered here is the fact that Rincewind is always being reminded of his failure as a wizard. He was a drop-out and therefore was considered an inefficient wizard. However, gradually throughout the story, he gains in confidence as he learns to solve the problems and meet adversities. This is an important life lesson for our students, that we can use to connect to their own lives. Though sometimes, we feel that we are the pawns of destiny or bad luck or any such influence, one can overcome one's situation if one has enough perseverance and confidence in one's self.
Except for a few complexities, I feel this book could have been a great text for lower sec classrooms too.
Sunday, September 23, 2012
Reading a YA novel
Hello all,
Here is the blog post for discussing your reading and teaching of a YA nove (to be completed by 3 October, Wednesday). Post as comments under this blog post.
After reading your YA novel, share if it is something that you would use in the secondary classroom. What are its potentials as well as pitfalls? Some guiding questions:
(1) How would you categorize this text (popular culture, classic etc)?
(2) Would you teach it to a lower secondary class? Why or why not?
(3) What are its possibilities as a set text? (e.g. thematic possibilities, areas of study, values education etc.)
(4) What problems do you foresee with introducing the text at lower sec?
Please feel free to include other thoughts about your reading and your thoughts on text choice and instructional practices.
Readings:
Applebee, A. N. (2000) Creating continuity and coherence in High School literature curricula. Research in the Teaching of English 34, 396-429.
Loh, C.E. (2009) Reading the World: Reconceptualizing Reading Multicultural Literature in the ELA classroom in a Global World. Changing English 16:3, 287-299.
NOTE: Other readings in course outline pertain specifically to The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas.
Here is the blog post for discussing your reading and teaching of a YA nove (to be completed by 3 October, Wednesday). Post as comments under this blog post.
After reading your YA novel, share if it is something that you would use in the secondary classroom. What are its potentials as well as pitfalls? Some guiding questions:
(1) How would you categorize this text (popular culture, classic etc)?
(2) Would you teach it to a lower secondary class? Why or why not?
(3) What are its possibilities as a set text? (e.g. thematic possibilities, areas of study, values education etc.)
(4) What problems do you foresee with introducing the text at lower sec?
Please feel free to include other thoughts about your reading and your thoughts on text choice and instructional practices.
Readings:
Applebee, A. N. (2000) Creating continuity and coherence in High School literature curricula. Research in the Teaching of English 34, 396-429.
Loh, C.E. (2009) Reading the World: Reconceptualizing Reading Multicultural Literature in the ELA classroom in a Global World. Changing English 16:3, 287-299.
NOTE: Other readings in course outline pertain specifically to The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas.
Tuesday, September 18, 2012
Jason's E-Learning Assignmet
(Whoops; forgot to post this from draft format from long ago!)
When it comes to poetry, I am an image-driven reader. For the longest time ever, I was interested in the intersection of photography and poetry (also known as photo-poetry); the picture and the poem are always related, but are never the same entity -- they simultaneously exist on different planes of meaning while gravitating towards and altering each other...
But that is a story for another time. Coincidentally, photo-poetry is also an incredible way of teaching imagery by providing a visual anchor for students as they embark on the poem. Most of such materials exist in hard-copy, but here are several online photo-poems that are great starters!
The first one is photograph and poetry by Lenore Horowitz. This resource would be good for introducing the concept of imagery to Lower Secondary students: the planes of meaning between photograph and poem are very close (ie both the image and the poem convey pretty much the same idea/message/notion); the poetry is not anything groundbreaking, but the pairings of photograph and poetry does perform the role of explaining each other quite adequately.
This photo-poem by Helene Fischman goes one step further by introducing personification to the interplay between poem and photograph. The poem itself is more dense, allowing for deeper levels of reading; the planes of meaning between poem and poetry are detached enough to allow for a greater number of possibilities in interpretation. Recommended for a Secondary 2 / Secondary 3 class.
This collaboration between Jillian and David Pattinson has brought about a striking photograph and an equally striking poem. The planes of meaning that the two elements operate on is on the level of the abstract; there is the process of addition and subtraction of meaning that is unique to the form of photo-poetry. It invites interpretation while resisting definition by maintaining a strong sense of ambiguity. A great poem to be used for the high-caliber upper secondary student or as introductory material to a Junior College student.
Monday, September 17, 2012
Jason's Reading Biography
It all started with Roald Dahl’s Matilda; after almost two decades and three house moves, the book by still sits on the bookshelf above my desk. It always occupied (and still continues to occupy) the prime location in my collection: leftmost slot on the bottommost rack. The original is long gone, of course – and through the years I bought several copies of the same book; I would come to some point where I thought I had outgrown its content and give it away, but each time I had done so I would never fail to purchase another copy on impulse when I was browsing at the book store.
I remember bringing the book to English class for show and tell when I was in upper primary, and I remember being asked to share why I liked the book. I remember that I stood up awkwardly and said: “The drawings.” My teacher asked why. “Because they are pretty and they make me feel happy.”
All of this is important: because beginnings are important – you never really leave behind what you start with.
My first formal encounter with a literary text was doing Julius Caesar in Secondary School. It is significant because it was the very first text that made my hair stand on end. As a student, the inaccessibility of the Shakespearean English was daunting, but there was also the thrill of working towards understanding the text, unlocking the different levels of meaning. It was like a puzzle box – if you tried hard enough, you could get it open and savor the treasures within. Julius Caesar was the moment I fell in love with Literature; because it was at the moment I learnt that the payoff was not only the intellectual stimulation that Sherlock Homes provided, it could also operate on the aesthetical and emotional level. There’s nothing quite as powerful as the invocation of pathos that leads into the act of catharsis. If there’s one reward I crave in the act of reading, it is to experience the moment where all your hair stands on end.
This passion solidified in the following years in Junior College, where I pursued the bard through Othello, King Lear and my all-time favorite: Antony and Cleopatra. The Shakespearean tragedies were of special significance to me, because through learning about the rise and fall of the tragic heroes I learnt what it meant to be honorable, what it meant to have a character flaw, and what it meant to make a mistake and have to pay for it. All in all, I learnt what it truly meant to be human. Much as how I benefited from learning the works of the bard through my schooling years, it is my wish that he remains on the required reading lists of generations of students to come. There is still no one who is able to encapsulate the human condition into a study of our humanity quite as succinctly as he did in his plays.
My course in English Literature at University exposed me to a wide range of works across the literary canon. I found myself drawn to the works of Gabriel García Márquez, starting first with Love and Other Demons, before moving on to Love in the Time of Cholera and One Hundred Years of Solitude. I was enamored not only by his brand of magic-realism, which seems to bring an added dimensions into perceptions of everyday life, but also in his intoxicating narrative style and his ability to render narrative landscapes in startling detail. Márquez taught me that there was magic in the everyday – if only you knew where to look for it.
Subsequently, I was exposed to the work of John Banville, reading The Book of Evidence and The Sea. Where Márquez painted vast narrative landscapes in great detail, Banville captured poignant portraits painted in watercolor. His books brought back the notions of pathos and catharsis through a prose style so lyrical you could feel the rise and fall of cadences on each line as he explores themes of love, loss and desire. My experience with Banville piqued my interest in Irish Literature, which led me to pick Ireland as the destination of choice for my exchange program. There, I fell in love with James Joyce; reading Dubliners, The Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man, Ulysses and Finnegans Wake under guidance through the semester. The allure of Joyce was not only from the intellectual frames of his work, but also the way the words as an embodiment of Irish culture and psyche. My contact with Joyce also brought around the concept of the musicality of literature to my attention -- the work both references musical pieces while being in itself musical.
My experiences with Joyce also acquainted me with narratives of the everyday and the mundane. Upon my return, I picked up Honoré de Balzac’s Eugénie Grandet and Le Père Goriot, finding their unrelenting realism and their multifaceted characters (whose moral ambiguities and complexities cast them as fully human) an intriguing study of human society. Seeking a more philosophical exploration of the human psyche, I then turned to Milan Kundera, reading The Book of Laughter and Forgetting, The Unbearable Lightness of Being and Immortality in quick succession.
Then, intrigued with the rendering of human desire in fiction, I read Valdimir Nabokov’s Lolita and Pale Fire, before embarking on Jeanette Winterson’s Oranges are not the only Fruit, Sexing the Cherry and The Passion. In Oranges are not the only Fruit, I was particularly intrigued by the interplay of the alternating chapters of fairy tales placed in between the main narrative, and how elements of both genres seemed to bleed into each other, juxtaposing an inner landscape of dreams and desires against the harsh realities of the world with all its expectations. While the feminist discourse and all their associated theories did engage me during these readings, my true inclinations through the reading of Nabokov and Winterson was to specifically to look at their writing technique. In The Passion, I rediscovered once again my affinity for the lyrical lines and imagery, a particular sublimity that made my hair stand on end. Their power came from the act of tapping on threads that go beyond intellectual stimulation into the realm of emotion -- they are set upon some aspects of the human condition that compel us to intrinsically feel, understand and empathize.
It is with those thoughts that I embarked on a reading of Anton Chekhov’s and Angela Carter’s short stories, which reside on my shelf in massive volumes that I have yet to complete. These short stories appeal to me, because they can border on the fantastical (as with Carter’s take on fairy tales in The Bloody Chamber), or on the realist mundane (as with Chekov’s works), yet they share the same quality of lyrical lines that seem to roll off the page into your mind, and they all illuminate some aspect of the shared human experience.
After my Honors Project, I read Matilda. Again. After all these years, I still quite like the pictures; but of course, this time I could see them existing not only in the illustrations, but also within the words on the page. I also discovered that the reason why they made me happy all those years ago is because as a child I could relate to Matilda, with all her aspirations and her naughty pranks. They make me happy now, because they are a reminiscence of those days, and they serve as a reminder; that for all the theories and the interpretations, it is the aesthetic beauty of the words on the line that brings forth the pleasure of reading and making meaning, things that make Literature what it is for me today.
I remember bringing the book to English class for show and tell when I was in upper primary, and I remember being asked to share why I liked the book. I remember that I stood up awkwardly and said: “The drawings.” My teacher asked why. “Because they are pretty and they make me feel happy.”
All of this is important: because beginnings are important – you never really leave behind what you start with.
My first formal encounter with a literary text was doing Julius Caesar in Secondary School. It is significant because it was the very first text that made my hair stand on end. As a student, the inaccessibility of the Shakespearean English was daunting, but there was also the thrill of working towards understanding the text, unlocking the different levels of meaning. It was like a puzzle box – if you tried hard enough, you could get it open and savor the treasures within. Julius Caesar was the moment I fell in love with Literature; because it was at the moment I learnt that the payoff was not only the intellectual stimulation that Sherlock Homes provided, it could also operate on the aesthetical and emotional level. There’s nothing quite as powerful as the invocation of pathos that leads into the act of catharsis. If there’s one reward I crave in the act of reading, it is to experience the moment where all your hair stands on end.
This passion solidified in the following years in Junior College, where I pursued the bard through Othello, King Lear and my all-time favorite: Antony and Cleopatra. The Shakespearean tragedies were of special significance to me, because through learning about the rise and fall of the tragic heroes I learnt what it meant to be honorable, what it meant to have a character flaw, and what it meant to make a mistake and have to pay for it. All in all, I learnt what it truly meant to be human. Much as how I benefited from learning the works of the bard through my schooling years, it is my wish that he remains on the required reading lists of generations of students to come. There is still no one who is able to encapsulate the human condition into a study of our humanity quite as succinctly as he did in his plays.
My course in English Literature at University exposed me to a wide range of works across the literary canon. I found myself drawn to the works of Gabriel García Márquez, starting first with Love and Other Demons, before moving on to Love in the Time of Cholera and One Hundred Years of Solitude. I was enamored not only by his brand of magic-realism, which seems to bring an added dimensions into perceptions of everyday life, but also in his intoxicating narrative style and his ability to render narrative landscapes in startling detail. Márquez taught me that there was magic in the everyday – if only you knew where to look for it.
Subsequently, I was exposed to the work of John Banville, reading The Book of Evidence and The Sea. Where Márquez painted vast narrative landscapes in great detail, Banville captured poignant portraits painted in watercolor. His books brought back the notions of pathos and catharsis through a prose style so lyrical you could feel the rise and fall of cadences on each line as he explores themes of love, loss and desire. My experience with Banville piqued my interest in Irish Literature, which led me to pick Ireland as the destination of choice for my exchange program. There, I fell in love with James Joyce; reading Dubliners, The Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man, Ulysses and Finnegans Wake under guidance through the semester. The allure of Joyce was not only from the intellectual frames of his work, but also the way the words as an embodiment of Irish culture and psyche. My contact with Joyce also brought around the concept of the musicality of literature to my attention -- the work both references musical pieces while being in itself musical.
My experiences with Joyce also acquainted me with narratives of the everyday and the mundane. Upon my return, I picked up Honoré de Balzac’s Eugénie Grandet and Le Père Goriot, finding their unrelenting realism and their multifaceted characters (whose moral ambiguities and complexities cast them as fully human) an intriguing study of human society. Seeking a more philosophical exploration of the human psyche, I then turned to Milan Kundera, reading The Book of Laughter and Forgetting, The Unbearable Lightness of Being and Immortality in quick succession.
Then, intrigued with the rendering of human desire in fiction, I read Valdimir Nabokov’s Lolita and Pale Fire, before embarking on Jeanette Winterson’s Oranges are not the only Fruit, Sexing the Cherry and The Passion. In Oranges are not the only Fruit, I was particularly intrigued by the interplay of the alternating chapters of fairy tales placed in between the main narrative, and how elements of both genres seemed to bleed into each other, juxtaposing an inner landscape of dreams and desires against the harsh realities of the world with all its expectations. While the feminist discourse and all their associated theories did engage me during these readings, my true inclinations through the reading of Nabokov and Winterson was to specifically to look at their writing technique. In The Passion, I rediscovered once again my affinity for the lyrical lines and imagery, a particular sublimity that made my hair stand on end. Their power came from the act of tapping on threads that go beyond intellectual stimulation into the realm of emotion -- they are set upon some aspects of the human condition that compel us to intrinsically feel, understand and empathize.
It is with those thoughts that I embarked on a reading of Anton Chekhov’s and Angela Carter’s short stories, which reside on my shelf in massive volumes that I have yet to complete. These short stories appeal to me, because they can border on the fantastical (as with Carter’s take on fairy tales in The Bloody Chamber), or on the realist mundane (as with Chekov’s works), yet they share the same quality of lyrical lines that seem to roll off the page into your mind, and they all illuminate some aspect of the shared human experience.
After my Honors Project, I read Matilda. Again. After all these years, I still quite like the pictures; but of course, this time I could see them existing not only in the illustrations, but also within the words on the page. I also discovered that the reason why they made me happy all those years ago is because as a child I could relate to Matilda, with all her aspirations and her naughty pranks. They make me happy now, because they are a reminiscence of those days, and they serve as a reminder; that for all the theories and the interpretations, it is the aesthetic beauty of the words on the line that brings forth the pleasure of reading and making meaning, things that make Literature what it is for me today.
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