Monday, June 18, 2012

Closure

The course is basically about alternative readings and materials to teach literature in the language classroom. The small "L" is what you all are trained for, that is the teaching of language using literary texts as resource. In schools students and teachers only deal with the four main genres (poetry, novel, short story and drama). Here we are telling you that alternative materials exist and can be used effectively. Never underestimate the power of a simple fable or a folktale told before bedtime.

You are also given the task to select and adapt texts that may or may not be suitable in the language classroom. Be adventurous, I say. But you must always know what you are doing and what effect it will have on the minds of your students.

A good teacher can make a text come alive. A good teacher can make even the simplest text useful to the most difficult situation. A good teacher can make a text from the days of old relevant in the eyes of the contemporary society esp the young adults who are our main audience.

All the best teachers. We have the best job in the world teaching literature in the language classroom. Say it many times and you will eventually believe it. I already have.

Thank you!

A brief review

I can only afford a brief review for the assignments you have done. It's impossible to comment on each and everyone of your work but believe me you have awarded yourselves with what you deserve. Well done.

Position Paper 20 marks (Ranging from 18-10)

I've given you all a step by step guide on how to come up with a good position paper. You have sent me your titles/positions, and your arguments in 3 points, we've done revisions before I said yes.

Now, the thing is, writing a position paper, like any other paper that is academic in nature, is quite straight forward. Just elaborate the outline, elaborate the points of argument CLEARLY and you're there already. Most of you who didn't score gave me a hard time reading. You hardly guided me through your writing. You were so happy writing that you didn't care that there were some form and structure to abide to.

The title/position is a major thing. Most of you understood and did wonderfully in coming up with a clear strong stand.

The use of paragraph markers are important.

Emphasising the stand at the end of your introduction is important.

Having your points at the first sentence of the paragraphs is important.

Being language teachers, good writing is important.

If you have all that, then 18 marks is for you. 10 marks probably means you didn't even have enough points and the writing of the argument is not clear.

Blog 20 marks (Ranging from 20-15)

As I've mentioned earlier, I'm quite pleased with your work. There are people who have not written enough entries.

It's very easy to see if you have written things from your heart. The writing style is consistent.

Audios and visuals put on the blogs are impressive and suitable.

Online Tasks 20 marks (Ranging from 20-18)

The purpose of these tasks is to push you to explore a bit more on the different genres of alternative texts given in the modules.

I did ask you all to find your answers online, and copy and pasting is allowed just as long you are aware of the existence of these information. I leave it to God if you had merely gone to another person's blog and stolen answers from it. I do check, you see.

Some of you took pains to write sentences in your own words. Well done.

The persona poem were wonderful although I cannot understand why the template wasn't used by some of you. The reason for the template is to see the use of adjectives and noun phrases n your understanding of a character. Useful in a literature classroom! Did I find any plagiarised work? maybe I did.

Research Paper 40 marks (Ranging from 36-28)

 Since you are off campus, I'm not to strict about this assignment. As long as you know mainly how a paper is organised, that's enough. If you are planning to do a master's degree in the future, there is still so much to learn. I am not going to claim that with this assignment, you are ready for a thesis. I salute those who have done honest research and written the paper on their own. With the advent of technology it is hard to keep track of these things. On campus each lecturer is assigned maximum 5 students, who will come to meet us with several drafts before handing in. It's impossible to do the same with the 22 of you. But like I said, as long as you know the process and how a paper is organised, that's enough for this level, given the situation that we are all in.





Marks for Tugasan 2 and 3

Hello everyone, I'm sure everyone has taken a look at their results.

Due to some tardiness in submitting some earlier marks, tugasan 2 and 3 are combined in the SMP. Here are the list of the actual marks. What you see in the SMP is 20+40+40 but in actual fact it is still 20+20+20+40


Matric Number
Tugasan 1
Position Paper 20
Tugasan 2
Blog 20
Tugasan 3
Online Tasks 20
Tugasan 4
Research Paper 40
J34070

18
20

J34110

18
19

J36340

8
10

J36470

15
20

J38828

19
20

J38837

18
20

J38838

20
20

J38844

17
20

J38845

20
20

J38846

18
20

J38851

15
18

J38853

20
20

J38855

20
20

J38857

20
20

J38861

20
20

J38862

18
20

J38864

20
20

J38865

18
20

J38867

20
20

J38869

20
20

J38891

20
20

J38860

18
18

Wednesday, May 30, 2012

Blogs (and the 4 online tasks)

It's a delight to read the blog entries written by some of you, passionate people. It makes me happy that they sound genuinely written from the heart. (I have also checked for copy pasting).

I have no qualms giving near full marks for work that have been produced well.

Well done to those concerned.

Wednesday, May 16, 2012

Deadlines

Hello.

The deadline for keying in marks in on the 1st of June 2012.

Therefore I would appreciate that all RPs are emailed to me by the 25th of May 2012. That is a Friday.

Blogs should also be completed (including the four online tasks) by the same date.

Although I did mention earlier that I'll still be accepting RPs two days before the marks submission deadline, I think it's better if you get it out of your way ASAP. If you have any urgent matter to discuss concerning this, please email me quickly. 

I will be updating the RP submission list soon.

Sunday, May 13, 2012

RP Submission Updates

Zizie Ardina
Puteri Mostafa
Saria Limpot
Barisha Menon
Girija Ramkumar
Nurida
Kumaran
Gan Siaw Fui
Thayamal Raman
Sia Nga Yea
Yap Geok Peng
Yong Mei Sha

Online Task 4

This is the last online task that you will have to do.

SPEECH is one of the interesting alternative text to be used in the literature classroom. The speech provided for you in the module is one by Martin Luther King.

Question:
1. Think of at least 3 benefits of using speeches by famous figures, in the classroom.

2. Go to www.youtube.com and find the audio-visual on the speech. In not less than 50 words, state would the audio-visual be of any use in helping understand the speech better? State your reasons.

3. Who is Martin Luther King?

4. Based on the questions below, analyse the features of the given written speech:

a. What is the purpose of the speech?

b. What is the tone of the speech?

c. What interesting major feature(s) can you see from the speech? (i.e.Repetition of phrases, emphasis on certain things said etc)

d. Any interesting facts that you can gather based on the background of the speech?

5. Suggest a while-reading activity that can be derived from this particular speech.