Reflection (1/10/12-5/10/12)

This week in english I've learnt on how to compare critically. Our discussions on juxtapose helped me to understand how to contrast different elements and I also learnt not to use psychoanalysis but I'm still not too clear on what exactly is psychoanalysis. I really enjoyed the edmodo homework on nominalisations as the article from the New York times is really fun to read. I even shared it on various social platforms. However, the article on poetic structure felt a little boring but was helpful as I learned about enjambement and poetic lines.

Working through the Hero's Journey structure was also fun but it did not show how I could contrast and compare in my essay. What I did learn the activity was how the Hero's Journey relate to so many other stories and often inspire other stories such as The Hunger Games. I could see my hero (Malcolm X) relating more to that structure and this makes me feel more ready and prepared to write structured, comparison essays.

Structure reflection

What have you learned from completing this exercise?

I've learnt to dig deeper when juxtaposing elements in a story. Through discussions, Praveen and I had manage to develop a creative juxtapose.

What made it challenging?

I was not sure how to observe the structure of Chapter 1. Is juxtapose a part of structure? 

What made it possible to complete it?

We were able to elaborate on the juxtapose of Chapter 1 but we did not observe the structure of the chapter at all besides the dramatic selection of Prim as tribute at the end of the chapter.

What have you learned about how to approach these kind of tasks?

To come up with rough ideas and to discuss thoroughly with others before setting ink onto paper( or in this case, typing onto the google doc)

Look at the success criteria. Do you have any questions about this learning before you can consider yourself successful?

I simply do not understand how juxtaposes relate to structure. Isn't the structure of a chapter suppose to be the eloquence of Collins' writing throughout Chapter 1? How we organize the flow of the story? What is a structure anyways? 

Reflection (24/9/12-28/9/12)

This week in English we had the chance to explore and dig deeper into the symbolic meaning of the Hunger Games foods. It has definitely been an interesting class as I really liked exploring symbolism. For example, as I was researching about the symbolic meaning of apples, I read about Adam and Eve and even got an idea that was sparked by Newton's apple revelation. Learning about the various definitions of a word also taught me that a poem can be easily misinterpreted if we are negligent towards factors such as time period, the author and theme while researching.

 As mentioned on the class discussion forum page, I am still unclear about some topics regarding poetry like how would we know which definition of a word did the author mean and why some sentences are oddly arranged. I am amazed by how much we have to do to understand a piece of poetry and this made me realize how much deeper it is as compared to first glance. In time, I hope I could understand poetry at a faster pace.

Poetry Prep

• What are your usual strategies for reading a poem?
• My usual strategies for reading a poem is to find the meaning of words that I don't know or am not familiar with and discussing the meaning of the poem with other people to look at different opinions.
• How many times do you read the poem?
• I would usually read it a couple of times to see if I had miss out on any important keywords or hints.
• Do you read the footnotes (if they exist)?
• Not really, no. :(
• Do you use a dictionary?
• Yes.
• Do you read the poem aloud?
• No.
• Do you take notes?
• Yes.
• What problems do you have?
• Understanding some words, but with a dictionary, poems are actually fun to read.

Reflection (17/9/12-21/9/12)

This week, the Figurative Rap rocked my socks off! I didn't think that we were actually assembling a lyric until we heard the song. I thought it was a really fun activity. Our exercises on simile, metaphor, hyperbole and personification were really comprehensive. I think that it was a good start to the idea of poetry with simple exercises as such as I am only warming up to the practice of using figurative language.

BTW THE ANSWER TO LAST WEEK'S RIDDLE IS WATER BOTTLE! :D

I would like to do writing exercises like the mini essay we did this week to apply this fresh knowledge as it will slip off my mind if I don't constantly practice using them. I am finding this topic to be more and more interesting as I'm exploring and learning about interpreting and digging deeper to find a meaning. I expect to improve in organizing the way I write and my interpreting skills through continuous, small writing exercises. It's been a great week! :)

Reflection( 10/9/12-14/9/12)

This week we reinforced our knowledge in producing an argumentative essay again. It's been a while since our Hero essays and as proven, I've forgotten to include many important factors such as topic sentences, zooming in to words and writing a conclusion. With a few nifty highlighters, I rewrote my essay. I do honestly enjoy writing essays for a change instead of typing them onto the laptop as it keeps my handwriting at practice. The only trouble is keeping it neat as I often cross out a lot of points and words. Regular short essay practices could seem like a great idea to help me build up on my essay writing skills as it took only a couple of months to flush some memories of producing a good essay down the toilet.

Today we also played a game similar to 'Taboo' that requires us to help our partners understand a word without using certain descriptive words. Great and simple game to see how we can expand our vocabulary as I find describing 'winter' quite a challenge when I'm banned to use the word 'season'. Creative writing has also never been this hard when writing about an inanimate object(check out my previous post!) but it was certainly fun to take on this new challenge. I hope to improve on this aspect of creative writing after seeing works of the previous Yr 11's  as it was certainly inspiring to see such brilliant works of creativity from them.

Familiar to unfamiliar

(Have fun guessing haha!)

Fit in my ravenous grasp. As I hold you near my lips. Keep me alive. I cannot get enough of you. Cool my body.  I long for the sight of you as I feel parched. Cool to my touch or warm according to your daily heart's content. One hand holding firmly onto your neck while the other clasps onto your waist, as we share a gentle kiss. Complying with all the necessary standards. Some of our relationships don't work out for a long time but if you are genuine on the inside, we will go far. Fill me up. I'll try not to put the extra heat on you. Let's meet up casually everyday. I'll be sure to keep you my by side.