Dead Poet Society!

A movie that i can relate to,Dead Poet Society.

As being a future English and Literature teacher ,I find this movie to be very much connected to be as being inspiring at the same time.

Literature subject can be very challenging as many are not exposed to Literature and therefore bring the least interest in students,especially among the Malaysian students.

As we are all aware,Malaysia should to have literature study in school,as what i could recall being said by my parents who studied English Literature way back during their schooling years when the British colonized.

As the Malaysia heading towards the millennium, the Literature component was introduce in 2000.I am proud to say that i was in the first batch to be introduce to the Literature component in the English subject.

As to relate to this movie,Dead Poet Society... I wished i had inspiring teachers who could have made me love the subject and not being asked to memorize answers from the workbooks.

Literature should be taught with the heart and soul which will bring out the essence of life with the magic of literature.

In this movie,Dead Poet Society,the teaching methods of their new English teacher, John Keating (Robin Williams), are unusual by Welton standards, whistling the 1812 Overture and taking them out of the classroom to focus on the idea of carpe diem. He tells the students that they may call him "O Captain! My Captain!," in reference to a Walt Whitman poem, if they feel daring.

That was how Keating started his class with a bomb to the students that surely brought a lot of changes to their mind about Literature.

The revolutionary of the teaching of Literature has brought the students into the minds of enjoying as they did not before that. I believe that a teacher makes a lot of difference when it comes to teaching Literature to his/her students.

My personal review from the movie viewing:

1.What do you think of the movie in the term of entertainment value?

I think the portrayal of the teacher and students in a difficult classroom brought a lot of visual evidence in term if entertainment.I enjoyed watching the movie as there were sense of humour and rationale in it as well.

2.How does it affect you as you are taking B.Ed TESL course now?
As a future English Literature teacher,it does affect me,not little but a lot! From this movie,I am able to predict the situation that I might face being a teacher in future with students who have the least interest in Literature study.It shows that i have to be very motivated to inspire my students to enjoy the subject as well.

3.How does it affect you if you relate the story in the movie to the teachers whom you know in the past?
Comparing to the teachers that i had in the past,it does affect in a way for me to think that i was not given the right opportunity to understand what literature was about as exposure was at its least.Teachers themselves were not sure of what they were teaching me at that point of time as the Literature component was very new and teachers were not trained for the change of its syllabus.

4.What kind of practical/theoretical lesson that you learned after viewing this movie?
After viewing this movie,i have learned few strategies that would help me to make my Literature class to be fun.Firstly,I have to make my students comfortable with me. Then,find out about their interest about Literature.Then,make the class as interesting as possible with lots of interactive activities.Literature classes to be something stress-free for students ,so that they will enjoy it.

Goldilocks & The 3 Bears

When I was asked for my favourite children story,the only story that captured my mind at that very moment was "Goldilocks & The 3 Bears'. As a child,i was introduced to many children stories especially those from the Disney.

Well...here goes the simplest version of Goldilocks & The 3 Bears for those who are not familiar of it.
( Summary from http://www.dltk-teach.com/rhymes/goldilocks_story.htm )

Once upon a time, there was a little girl named Goldilocks. She went for a walk in the forest. Pretty soon, she came upon a house. She knocked and, when no one answered, she walked right in.

At the table in the kitchen, there were three bowls of porridge. Goldilocks was hungry. She tasted the porridge from the first bowl.

"This porridge is too hot!" she exclaimed.

So, she tasted the porridge from the second bowl.

"This porridge is too cold," she said

So, she tasted the last bowl of porridge.

"Ahhh, this porridge is just right," she said happily and she ate it all up.

After she'd eaten the three bears' breakfasts she decided she was feeling a little tired. So, she walked into the living room where she saw three chairs. Goldilocks sat in the first chair to rest her feet.

"This chair is too big!" she exclaimed.

So she sat in the second chair.

"This chair is too big, too!" she whined.

So she tried the last and smallest chair.

"Ahhh, this chair is just right," she sighed. But just as she settled down into the chair to rest, it broke into pieces!

Goldilocks was very tired by this time, so she went upstairs to the bedroom. She lay down in the first bed, but it was too hard. Then she lay in the second bed, but it was too soft. Then she lay down in the third bed and it was just right. Goldilocks fell asleep.

As she was sleeping, the three bears came home.

"Someone's been eating my porridge," growled the Papa bear.

"Someone's been eating my porridge," said the Mama bear.

"Someone's been eating my porridge and they ate it all up!" cried the Baby bear.

"Someone's been sitting in my chair," growled the Papa bear.

"Someone's been sitting in my chair," said the Mama bear.

"Someone's been sitting in my chair and they've broken it all to pieces," cried the Baby bear.

They decided to look around some more and when they got upstairs to the bedroom, Papa bear growled, "Someone's been sleeping in my bed,"

"Someone's been sleeping in my bed, too" said the Mama bear

"Someone's been sleeping in my bed and she's still there!" exclaimed Baby bear.

Just then, Goldilocks woke up and saw the three bears. She screamed, "Help!" And she jumped up and ran out of the room. Goldilocks ran down the stairs, opened the door, and ran away into the forest. And she never returned to the home of the three bears.

-THE END-

1.Tell the reasons you choose the story

Basically because it is my favourite.Plus,this is the story that came up my mind first.Plus i find it interesting the way the bears are described according to their gender role ,food and personal furniture.

2.What elements in the story that make you think that the story is interesting?

*The PLOT is clearly seen in the story,easy for children to understand the flow of the story

*The sequence of the Bears.Papa Bear---> Mama Bear ----> Baby Bear.

*Descriptions of the Bears & Goldlilocks

3. The portrayal of the character in the story.

* Goldilocks ---> Her name describes her well,a small girl with gold locks hair.

*Papa Bear ---> Man of the house who sits on a big hard chair,like his food to be hot and sleeps on a hard bed.

*Mama Bear ---> A soft character,mother in nature.Speaks very softly,sleeps on a very soft bed,eats cold porridge and sits on a very soft cushioned chair.

*Baby Bear ---> Similar to a child who likes to eat warm food, feels comfortable on not-so-hard & not-so-soft bed and chair.

The characters are well-portrayed which gives very good imagination for children of the characters.

4.The plot of the story

* The plot is easy to understand and for the understanding of young readers.It is suitable for amateur readers and gives slight suspense at the end of the story.

5.The suitability of the story as children story

I think this story is very suitable for children as it gives elements of entertainment and good moral values to children.With detailed description of the bears ,children will have a better imagination of the story in their mind.

Date of tutorial :6th January 2011

The Enormous Crocodile

On one fine day, an enormous crocodile goes tramping through the forest telling all the animals he's going to eat children.All the other animals tell him that it's a horrible thing to do but he tries to use his tricks to eat the tasty children. However, every time he tries, the good forest animals would come and save the children. At the end of the story, a giant elephant finishes the crocodile off by swinging him around in the air by his tail and letting him go until he flies into the sky and crashes into the sun.

That's the synopsis of the children story 'The Enormous Crocodile' by Roald Dahl which is creatively illustrated by Quentin Blake.

This is definitely another interesting children story that I'm reading in this semester.I wonder why wasn't i been introduced to this much earlier.I enjoy reading it,as much as a child would.

What i loved about this children story,The Enormous Crocodile:

* The rhymes are impressive.Catchy as it attracts the reader to sing along as they read.

*The animals are described very well,plus the colourful picture gives a clearer imagination of the descriptions,especially on the physically aspects of the crocodile.

*The invention of new words such as 'gollop & tommy-rot'. Some words might be bombastic for the children,therefore certain words are created for the children to go on easy with the storyline.

*The characteristics of each animals are clearly shown throughout the story.For an example,about how scary and dangerous can the crocodile be and hwo strong can the elephant be.

*The colourful pictures attracts the readers to follow the plot with a great interest.

Lecture date : 11th January 2011

The Gruffalo

Have you heard of this Gruffalo?

I heard it for the first time when Dr.Jaya was telling us this creative children story.Truly amazing,the way it was imagined to capture the hearts of the young ones. This children's book by Julia Donaldson was colourfully illustrated by Axel Scheffler

It's about a story of a mouse's walk in the woods.Being such a small animal in the forest,this little mouse is seen as being smart though small in size which the mouse managed to fool all the animals the mouse meets along the way.

and this how small the mouse looked and how horrible-looking the Gruffalo looked in this story...

There you go,the Gruffalo! Isn't it creative to invent a name out of one of the animal that we are familiar of,the buffalo and the spelling is almost the same.

What makes this a very good children story? Let me tell you what I have gather from my perspective.

1.Interesting illustrations,which attract children attention

2.The rhyming lines,familiar to their children rhymes

3.Repetition of the similar phrases which allows children to grasp the sentence structure

4. The creative creation of the Gruffalo.

5.Very descriptive on the creature,Gruffalo.

6.Introduction of the forest animals to the children through this story.

7.The story lines gives confidence to the children as the mouse is seen as smart and witty.

A big around of applause to Julia Donaldson!

Date of lecture : 4th January 2011

Edwina the Emu

This is was very much not expected,we started the course with this children story , Edwina the Emu.

Have u heard about it? If no,you should check it out as the story is simply appealing and i bet any children would enjoy this story,because i surely did :)

Well, here goes a lil gist of Sheena Knowles' story that i have gathered.
Edwina,the emu and her mate,Edward are the proud parents of ten little emu eggs. As Edward was shocked with his new ten children ,as he was worried about having enough to bear those children,Edwina told the stunned Edward, "Don't get depressed. I'll find a job, you stay on the nest," . And so Edwina sets out to find a job,but fails as she was an emu in the human job world.

One element that I certainly did not miss to notice was the rhythmic and rhyming verse that was repetitive, to help small children to enhance their understanding on the plot of the story.This is a plus point in helping children in their language acquisition in an early age :repetition & rhymes.

Not forgetting,the hilarious illustrations by Rod Clement made this an exciting story that would capture the hearts of many and positively,yours as well.As for me,i never knew what was an emu till i saw the story's illustrations. I bet it will be the same to others who did not know about the emu,a large bird found in Australia.Other than that,the pictures displayed the actions as well, describing the story as been told,very creative!

I have not been keen in dwelling into children literature as my exposure was more on traditional and rather conventional pieces of literature.As Dr.Jayakaran was narrating the story to us in class,with his enthusiastic storyteller role, i enjoyed listening to the story just as much a 5 year old would do.

Date of lecture : 3rd January 2011

New Year 2011 with EDU 3234

Welcoming myself & the whole lot of TESLian Cohort 5 to Semester 6,Year 3,Universiti Putra Malaysia with EDU 3234-Readings & Project Work For Teaching Lit in ESL Context

Well,first impression of this course "Gosh,why is the name of this course long??!!"

Well,that was the first impression but i have changed my mind about it and it is going to be a fun course with project work. In addition, knowing that the lecturer of this course is Dr.Jayakaran Mukundan is a plus point as i enjoyed his classes in the previous semester.

The first day class started very well with the introduction to the course outline and the expected tasks that should be completed by the end of the semester.As been told, the main concern of this course would be the Research Paper which carries a big 40% of total course.

As this EDU 3234 is expected to give extensive exposure to the traditional literary work with the production of position paper and project paper,I believe this is an preparation course in the project based research.I hope that this course will help me to be a better literature student in future.

I have just one expectation in this course------>I'm hoping to have a lot of fun learning and discovering many hidden knowledge that I have yet to uncover.

EDU 3234,here i come Semester 6 with a boost!