10th September 2009 Parody

Though we had a rather short tutorial session today, nevertheless it was very enjoyable because today’s task has got to do with the one area that I am quite good at- making jokes and be humorous! We were asked come up with parody for a fairy tale or fable and thanks to Eunice my group came up with a parody of Rapunzel trying to save Snow White and Sleeping Beauty from a tower which was on fire. Our parody ended quite tragically because all the three princesses did not live happily ever after like the ones mentioned in fairy tales. Rapunzel lost her crowning glory and died of humiliation, Snow White fell to her death because she was just too heavy for Rapunzel’s severely-damaged hair while Sleeping Beauty had her hands amputated because they were bacteria-infested. Scary huh! But that is what reality is all about! Like what John Keats says in his odes- Reality is not a bed of roses. Nothing in the reality is beautiful and fairy tales were the attempts by some individuals to beautify the harsh reality which was too much to bear! I think it will be a great idea to introduce parody into the English Literature classrooms especially to teach works like ‘There’s been a Death at the Opposite House’, ‘The Lotus Eater’, ‘Looking for a Rain God’ etc. These works has one theme in common (in my opinion), that is- we cannot run from reality no matter how harsh it is and reality can be very ugly sometimes. If this is the theme we are suppose to teach our students, then I believe introducing parody into the lesson will at least bring forth element of fun in dealing with serious topics like death, human sacrifice and self-destruction. We can ask students to come up with their own parody on a fairy tale of their choice (just like today’s task) and then compare their parody with the misfortunate events mentioned in literary texts they are going to learn for the lesson. I think students will enjoy the fun of creating their own parody (just like how I’ve enjoyed writing mine!) and they will not only being link the literary texts to themselves better but they will also have a sense of achievement in writing and reading something created by themselves or their peers instead of having to read works written by people they are not familiar with!

For two consecutive lessons we are going to take turns to present our position paper and I am really grateful that I am selected to present on the fir

Again, today we continue to present our position paper to our fellow classmates. Seems like “A Great Injustice” gained popularity among my friends, so many of them are doing on this short story and the stands that they came up with are so controversial that the presentation session almost became a debate competition! Usually my classmates prefer to mind their own businesses during presentation sessions but all of us seem to be ‘awaken’ by the presentations. Everyone are throwing out their ideas and views, some are yelling on top of their voices so that their ideas can be heard, some shaking their heads so hard that they almost detach from their necks! However, this is what I look forward to every class. It is simply exciting to have people with different point of views standing up to defend their thoughts. In fact, I’ve learn a lot during classes like this, really, it is the difference that made each and everyone of us unique! Overall, it was an enjoyable presentation session and hopefully the following sessions will be this exciting too!

1st September 2009 PPP: Position Paper Presentation 1

For two consecutive lessons we are going to take turns to present our position paper and I am really grateful that I am selected to present on the first day (sigh in relieve)! Actually I have already completed the Power Point slides for my presentation ages ago and it is a 12-slides long presentation. Though Miss Dzeelfa only wants us to show our stand and the three supporting details to support our stand, I was too lazy to lessen the number of slides; which is why my presentation seems to be longer than that of my peers. Personally I think I presented well for this presentation as I have given ample elaborations on the points that I have placed in my slide show. The one defect of my presentation (I supposed) should be the large amount of time I took to present my position paper! (Sorry to those who were supposed to present after me) I learn a lot from today’s presentation session, not only from myself but also from my friends who presented well on their position papers. Some of them came up with simple but good stands which left a strong impact to the readers of their position papers. There are a few stands that made the whole class went a little chaotic because the stands were so controversial that each one of us have our own view and say on the topic! Nevertheless I am relieve because the presentation is over and the thoughts of handing in my assignment next Thursday made my day because one great burden is taken away from my chest at last. (Now I will have to start work on the research paper for this course, God please give us the strength to move on!)

17th August 2009 Thesis statement, stand, stance… What the heck?

It is good that Miss Dzeelfa gave us have some practices on writing good stands before we hand in our position papers. I really appreciate it because I realized that I did not have a good stand for my position paper after all despite the fact that I have already completed my position paper. (Imagine I’ve written a four page long position paper without a good start!) In fact, I still can’t differentiate between a thesis statement, a stand and also a stance (a term used in debate tournaments). I mean aren’t they the same? However, today’s tutorial session gave me a clear view on how a stand differs from a thesis statement and that I should use a stand for my position paper instead of a thesis statement. Overall, it was an enjoyable experience to write on a master piece by my favorite poet- John Keats, but to tell you the truth; I had a really hard time try to figure out a stand for my position paper and I really hope that this one will really work!