Tales Used As Teaching Tools.....

Tales… every one of us must have listened to tales, myths or legends when we are young, either in the house, elementary school or primary schools. Since young, we are exposed to the story telling by our parents, grandparents or teachers. Many of us believe that tales, myths or legends are merely made up stories. However, we can’t deny the fact that there are moral values that can be derived from them. In addition, students are more interested in listening stories because of their childhood habit and this makes them to be imaginative. I would strongly recommend that teachers may use tales, myths or legends as a teaching tool in literature lesson or even language lesson. For example, if a teacher wants to teach moral values to the students, they won’t listen and learn. Therefore, if the teacher uses tales, myths or legends as a medium to convey the messages/moral values, students indirectly perceived the value especially beginner students who face difficulties with language. Thus, it would indirectly contribute to the students’ language learning.

In EDU3234, I have read few tales like Ovid’s ‘Daedalus and Icarus’ and ‘Pyramus and Thisbe’, and Aesop’s Fables like The Fox and The Crow. From these tales, one example is the teacher may use ‘The Fox and The Crow’ as a set induction in their lesson to teach literary devices such as plot, setting, characterization, theme and moral values/messages. In conclusion, student will be more interested if the teacher use visual aids to support their stories.

‘I Have A Dream’

If you were asked to give a speech in any occasion, what would you do? How do you prepare yourself before you give speech? Well, I would probably write my points on what am I suppose to talk and know who my audiences are. However, we can’t say that our speech is effective so that it may affect many people but I can say one person whose speech is powerful and effective. He is none other than Martin Luther King Jr. He led a massive protest in Birmingham, Alabama, that caught the attention of the entire world, 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". I had the opportunity to read the text courtesy of Miss Dzeelfa who discussed the speech and thanks to Jasmine’s group who downloaded the video of his speech. I was amazed to see the crowd and power that he possessed in order to not just attract but sustain their attention….Wow…

Furthermore, 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. Well, this man deserved all the honors because I can see the enthusiasm, vision and fire in him for his people while him delivering the speech. In Malaysia, our ex-prime minister Tun Dr.Mahathir can be said as a good speaker, as he has been invited to PBB to convey speech in PBB conferences. Students in ESL classroom should be exposed to famous speeches as it would encourage them to speak.

Alternatives: Jigsaw Reading using Newspapers

Newspaper articles have long been a staple item in both reading and conversation classes because they are generally short, predictable in style, timely in content, and easy to find and use. However, the traditional method of having students read silently, answer comprehension questions, and then discuss an article can become boring to both students and teachers. An alternative to this traditional approach is turning articles into jigsaw activities, in which any one student only has a portion of the information needed to complete a task.

The advantage of jigsaw activities is that students must depend on each other for their information, so they must interact to accomplish a given task. The technique described below for making jigsaw activities from newspaper articles structures activities so that students read the text, hear the text, master new vocabulary, paraphrase, and interact at all stages of the activity (not at just the discussion stage, as in the traditional approach). In my experience, pre-intermediate to advanced students have almost all preferred using jigsaw newspaper articles to the traditional approach. The general procedure described below can be used with other types of texts as well as with newspaper articles. The description below is for a discussion class, but I have also used it with introductory sections of chapters in books as a warm-up activity for long texts.

Select a newspaper article to suit your teaching purpose and student level. Decide how many sections into which you will divide all or part of it If possible, enlarge it on a photocopying machine to make it easier for students to read and for you to cut and paste. Generally you will want to omit the first paragraph of an average article because it contains all the key information. Also omit any other sections which give away too much information. The goal is to select sections that 1) have just enough information to arouse the student’s interest in the rest of the story, 2) contain some information that overlaps with other sections but also 3) contain important information not found in other sections. Dividing the article up according to these criteria presents information in a way that forces students to develop and share hypotheses and to depend on others for information. Thus, the task of reading becomes an interactive problem-solving activity.

‘The Ballot or the Bullet’

"I'm not an American. I'm one of the 22 million Black people who are the victims of Americanism.”

These are words from Malcom X from his speech ‘The Ballot or the Bullet’. Even reading it at this point today gives some sort of shiver in me. Just imagine listening to his speech live back in the 60’s and what impact would it create.

Miss Dzeelfa has informed us that we would be doing jig-saw reading on a speech by Malcom X. Although the name Malcom X seems to be familiar, I had no idea who is he. So I did a little research on his background before I went to the class. He seems to be an interesting person. Born as a Black Muslim, he propagates the idea of equality in human kind.

"The Ballot or the Bullet" is the name of a public speech by human rights activist Malcolm X. In the speech, which was delivered on April 3, 1964, at Cory Methodist Church in Cleveland, Ohio, Malcolm advised African-Americans to judiciously exercise their right to vote, but he cautioned that if the government continued to prevent African-Americans from attaining full equality, it might be necessary for them to take up arms. It was ranked 7th in the top 100 American speeches of the 20th century by 137 leading scholars of American public address. Wow...That’s really cool…

"The Ballot or the Bullet" served several purposes at a critical point in Malcolm X's life. It was part of his effort to distance himself from the Nation of Islam. It was also intended to reach out to moderate civil rights leaders. At the same time, the speech indicated that Malcolm still supported Black nationalism and self-defense and thus had not made a complete break with his past.

Malcolm X began his speech by acknowledging that he was still a Muslim, but he quickly added that he didn't intend to discuss religion or any other issues that divide African-Americans. Instead, he was going to emphasize the common experience of African-Americans of all faiths:
It's time for us to submerge our differences and realize that it is best for us to first see that we have the same problem, a common problem — a problem that will make you catch hell whether you're a Baptist, or a Methodist, or a Muslim, or a nationalist. Whether you're educated or illiterate, whether you live on the boulevard or in the alley, you're going to catch hell just like I am.

Puteri Bukit Serdang a.k.a. Puteri Gunung Ledang...

After having somewhat knowledge about what parodies are, we were assigned to come up with our own parody. It was indeed an exciting experience as we were supposed to come up with our own version of a fable or fairytale. At once, all of us agreed on doing a Malaysian tale... So we were practical squeezing our brains to find an interesting fable to be made fun of...And believe it or not we as a whole group agreed on doing Puteri Gunung Ledang. So what would our title be then?

We wanted to name our parody with something that is relative to us and we came up with the title; Puteri Bukit Serdang”. The main highlight of the original version of Puteri Gunung Ledang would be the seven demands proposed by Puteri Gunung Ledang to the Sultan of Malacca. So we used a little imagination of what would a princess demand in this era. Obviously seven trays of mosquito’s heart would not be enough. Thus, we came up with crazy demands such as Victoria’s Secret lifelong membership in the excerpt below;

Thus, Hang Tuah makes a video conference to the Sultan using his 3G phone...At once, Nenek Kebayan proposes her 7 demands...

Nenek Kebayan: (takes out a lengthy paper) First, I would like to be included in the
London Weight Management Programme...you know, since I still
have some weight to lose before my marriage... Second, a set of
collagen for face lifting only by LOREAL PARIS...Third, Victoria’s
Secret lifelong membership and TGV club membership with VIP
pass...Hmm...Next would be the most important thing- a Gold
Class credit card and also not to forget BMW 5 series with a husky
driver. Wait..Wait I forgot...there’s one more-the last but not the
least Tiffany jewellery set. Let me know once you are ready my
dear, Majesty.

We made it a must that technology must be made notice in our parody. Thus, we included sms, mms and video conferencing as means of communications. Yes, it was indeed fun! Thanks for the wonderful experience Miss Dzeelfa.

Position Paper: A Review

Firstly, this is my pioneer venture in writing a position paper. Although I have done different types of papers namely; Theme Paper, Explication Paper, Research Paper, and Project Paper, but this type of writing has somewhat brought the other side of me onto paper. The reason as to why I say so is because rarely do we write something that we believe in. Thus, position paper has indeed provided the privilege in doing so. The text that worked on was the play Oedipus the King by Sophocles. Oedipus the King is an ironic play where Oedipus who once was a man of power and wealth who suddenly falls destitute. From much great position, he was blinded and expelled from the land that he once ruled. Thus, there was the issue of who is to be blamed; Oedipus or his Fate that is predestined.
The first thing that I had to do is to choose a stand and turn it into a thesis statement. My thesis statement sounded like this; ‘Oedipus is solely responsible for his downfall.’ And in order to counter claim it I came up with something like this; ‘Oedipus is not solely responsible for his downfall.’ This is due to the reasons;
· fate has control over Oedipus’ life.
· the context of man being free, but at the same time, fated. (predestination to one’s life)
· Oedipus is free to run, but ultimately he cannot run away from himself.
In order to support my thesis statement, Miss Dzeelfa asked me to come up with supporting details. So those three supporting details are;
1) Oedipus chooses to blindfold himself in perceiving his own fate.
· Inability to see the truth
· Ignorance leads to unawareness
2) Oedipus’ impatience leads to the discovery of his origins.
· eagerness in wanting to solve the murder
3) Oedipus’ arrogance leads him to belittle other’s advices and opinions.
· role of hubris
· the act of neglecting of Teiresias’s advices

These supporting details are drawn from his three main his destructive character traits namely; ignorance, impatience and arrogance. Hopefully, everything goes well during the presentation…. Good luck everyone!

The Zoo Story...

Again and again I have to be thankful to Miss Dzeelfa and whoever that designed this course because it has and still is giving me a strong platform in understanding literary text. I must say that the ‘Zoo Story’ by Edward Albee has surely stunned me. Although Albee deserves credits in many aspects of his story but I truly appreciate the way he portrays his characters. Having experienced in writing script for my play for our theatre with Madam Juridah and also some of my own short stories, one of the most difficult things that I experience is to present the characters exactly how I want them to be read. And I believe that a successful writer or narrator is the person who able to create an imaginary character that ‘lives’ in the minds and hearts of the readers. Even though the text was quite lengthy (I was extremely sleepy due to lack of sleep for the past two days) but I managed to finish the story in a single reading with no pauses. I believe that even though there are only two characters, but they are well presented and sufficient for the development of the story. Jerry and Peter who are of two extremes seem to complement each other. Thus, these two ironically contrasting character seems to oppose each other and creates “friction” to the storyline. Albee had used a trifle object-the bench to expose the characteristics of Jerry and Peter. The dispossession of the bench has made the reversal of roles in the story. Reading this story has truly given another perspective for me into reading literary texts and would be very helpful in my future writings.