Learning Log 7

This is my 7^th learning log and it’s about the literature project that we had over the last term and the starting of this term. For this project, we are supposed to act out the Act 1 Scene 5 for Shakespeare’s “Romeo and Juliet”. This is the scene where Romeo and Juliet first met and kissed each other.

We were grouped into groups of 10 last term and we had to rehearse our lines and prepare our props for the performance we had last Thursday. The performance is actually an examination and it will be videoed. Marks will be given based on the video and it is 70% of our literature end-of-year examination, hence everyone treated this as their first priority over other projects.

I think I had done well at the performance, although there were some mistakes. Although I could have done better, I am happy with my performance as I had already tried my best. My role was the serving man and there is one scene where I had to pass the sword to the angry Tybalt. However, I dropped the sword accidentally and I was very worried that I had ruined the whole performance. Luckily, after the performance, many of my friends said that it was good that I dropped the sword, they said that it looks like the serving man was really very scared of Tybalt and that was why he dropped the sword. One thing that I think I had really improved on was that I remembered when to enter which I always forgot during rehearsals.

My whole group’s performance was simply great! Every one of us improved a lot, the actual performance was so different from our usual rehearsals, it’s so much better. I can see that all of us put in our best efforts, especially Yuet Yan, our Juliet. She was very nervous before the performance, but she did not let that affect her acting. Li Yu too improved a lot from our first rehearsal to the last. Her hand was no longer soft and jelly-like; she could finally point with her hand straight! Jing Yan, our Romeo, also put in a lot of effort to improve himself. At first, he just could not smile properly and walk romantically, there was also always something wrong with the kiss. However, he practiced a lot of times and finally mastered all the actions we taught him, how to walk and also how to speak.

Although the performance was great, there were still some accidents that we never thought would happen during the performance. Firstly, the line on Yuet Yan’s mask was stuck on her hair. Hence, while waiting for Jing Yan to enter, she was pulling the line, which looked quite funny as we could see her hand but not the line. Secondly, we were too closed to the camera. In order, to have enough space for the people dancing behind the tables at the starting of the performance, the space between the tables and camera was very little. Hence, when Jia Yi, our Tybalt, was speaking, he was standing too near to the camera. As a result, his hair which was styled with a lot of effort could not be seen. Luckily, Mrs. Woo asked me to pull the tables and chairs backwards when I enter later. If not, Jing Yan’s hair also would not be able to be seen. For this, I am very grateful to Mrs. Woo. Thirdly, Diana said her second line first instead of the first. However, she was fast enough to change it without many people noticing. And I do not why, but Jing Yan suddenly went out of the door and started banging on the back door. And most importantly, Jing Yan and Yuet Yan went out of the space the camera was able to capture just before the kiss. We was so worried, the kiss is the most important part of the performance. Luckily, they moved back when they were about to kiss.

Once again, the performance was great and I hope we can all get good results. I like it a lot and I hope Mrs. Woo will show us the videos soon; I am looking forward to it.

I will definitely recommend this project to our juniors, who will be in secondary two next year.

My group had a lot of problems since the starting of this project and I once said that I will never recommend this to my juniors. We met up the most times compared to other 3 groups in our class; however, our progress was the slowest. Because of this, we were very stressed and tired. We felt like we were being forced to do this as the marks set for this is too high, if we do not treat this seriously, we will fail our literature.

For the first few meetings, or more than few, not everyone was there. Hence, we felt angry towards those people who always did not come. There were a lot of problems and there were people crying almost every meeting. I also found out that many of us cried at home after the meetings because we felt stressed. We had a lot of homework and tests; however, we sacrificed the time we normally used for revision for tests and doing of homework to meet up.

 Although, there is a lot of crying, there is also a lot of laughing. As the performance date drew closer, more people came for the meetings, even those who usually do not come; that was when we stopped being angry with them. We talked a lot during the meetings and that is what I like best during the meetings. Sometimes, the boys will start playing and slow down our progress, but it brings us lots of laughter. I liked the meeting at Wei Qi’s house the best. It was the meeting where there is the most number of people attending. We had fun talking while making the props.

After the performance, the whole thing was finally over. There was a mixture of feelings. I felt happy as we had done a good job and it was like a burden was finally put down. However, I felt sad too. A project that we had spent so much time and effort on was just over like that. Just like what Wei Qi had said: I will miss the group and the times we had together.

I received many messages from my group members after the performance, saying how happy, grateful or sad they are. Many of these messages says how sad they are and that they will miss the group very much, tears often flow from our eyes as we read those messages. 

Some of the following are taken from the messages, some from me and also some from what we said when we were talking about this project.

Wei Qi, thank you for coming for every single meeting and stopping us from getting too far off track during the practices.

Iqbal, thank you for being so patient with us. You have never scolded us although you are the director. And also thank you for never wanting to leave earlier except on that day when you hurt your finger.

Yuet Yan, thank you for practicing your actions so hard and for all the laughter that you had brought us. I'll miss your essay like messages.

Jia Yi, the way your nostrils become bigger when you are acting as Tybalt is so funny, and also the way you dance like a praying mantis is also very funny.

Diana, thank you for trying hard to come for practices although your mother do not allow.

Li Yu, thank you for coming all the way from Malaysia for practices. You tried hard to be angry and stop laughing when you are acting. And thank you for staying until 7pm with us.

Jing Yan, thank you for the repeated practicing of your actions. You had also brought us lots of laughter during the practices.

Brian, thank you for teaching Jing Yan and Yuet Yan. Your “you kiss by the book" shy face was so funny; everyone laughed when they saw your face.

Jasmine, also thank you for coming all the way from Malaysia. Thank you for learning the new music that we asked you to play during the performance within such a short time.

I think we had made new friends and also know our group members better through this project. I think the juniors will definitely like this project too.

(1425 words)

Learning Log 6

  From the lessons and booklet on literary devices, I had learnt about imagery and figurative language, sound devices and diction and sentence structure. Examples of imagery and figurative language are simile, metaphor, personification and symbol. Rhyme, rhythm and alliteration are some examples of sound devices. Lastly, connotation, oxymoron, hyperbole and paradox are examples of diction and sentence structure. I had learnt the meaning of those literary devices and how they can be used. They are commonly found in prose and poetry as readers will be able to connect and feel for the characters more if literary devices are used. I think that the easiest literary device to use is simile, which is to compare between two distinctly different things, indicated by the use of 'like' and 'as'. Some literary devices that i find interesting are alliteration, oxymoron, paradox and rhetorical question. An example of alliteration is: I'm Faster, I'm Faster than Fingers, much Faster. An oxymoron is a single image or idea, made up of contradictory images, an example is: thundering silence. Paradox is a statement that seems self-contradictory, but turns out to make good sense, an example is: "The more I love her, the more I hate her". Last but not least, rhetorical question is a question that does not expected an answer but to achieve an expressive tone different from a direct question. An example of rhetorical question is: how many times do I have to tell you? In conclusion, the lesson on literary devices is interesting and I had learnt a lot of new things.                                          ( 258 words )

Learing Log 5

From the booklet on “ The Unseen ”, I have learnt that an unseen poem or prose passage is one that I have not read or work in detail before. I have also learnt that we should make notes that are short and clear on the margin of the poem while reading it. When reading the poem, our feelings and emotions is also very important. Hence, it should also be written down. We should understand both the text and the questions before answering any questions. We should avoid saying if the poem is good or bad as it will be making a moral judgment. I have learnt two techniques to answering questions. The IBC model teaches us to write the introduction first, followed by body and finally the conclusion. The second model PEEL teaches us to write the point first, followed by explanation and evidence and lastly how our answer is linked to the question. We should also not quote long sentences as our evidence. The model for quoting is ABC, which teaches us to pick the word or phrase that catches our attention. It also teaches us to keep our quotation short and to contextualize our evidence.

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Learning Log 4

From the lesson on Macbeth Act One Scene One witches' performance, I had gained more confidence when I am presenting in front of my classmates. I had also seen the performance of other groups which most of them were better than my group, hence I think there is still a lot of room for improvement for my group's performance. I had also learnt that witches does not necessary look scary as many of our classmates look really pretty and some even looked cute.

For example, Mui Siew looked really cute with something like a pair of wings at the back of her costume. Melisa also looked very pretty with her very nice costume and hair band. Witches in Teophania’s group looked more like clowns than witches with their make-ups, their faces were white with huge red lips. Jia Le looked really funny too, there were a lot of colours on his face. However, I like his group best. Sanjna acted very well and sounded really like a witch. Their performance was very funny and entertaining.

In conclusion, the lesson was very fun and I enjoyed all of my classmates performance very much.

Learning Log 3

I have learnt that sometimes pridictions can also be true. Most of the time when we think about pridictions, we would think about pridictions that bad things would happen. However, there are also pridictions on good things too. An example of such pridictions mentioned in class during the presentation is Iqbal's story on his friend's pridiction that he would find a ten dollar note under his bed and he really did. Steffi's mother also dreamt that the picture of steffi's pelim oral examination was going to about a market, and it really turned out to be on market.
We had group disscusion on that lesson to write about a time when a pridiction came true. Although my group's story was made up, we had learnt how to make up a story in a short perid of time and it would benifit us in compositions writing.
Overall, I liked the lesson on pridictions.

Learning Log 2

    From the lesson on superstitions, I had learnt that people believed in superstitions because they do not know why some things happen. Hence, they choose to believe in superstitions. Some interesting superstition that I had found out from my classmates are: When three person takes a photograph together, the one in the middle will die first ; if the same pen used for studying is used for the examination, the pen will remember the answers. I like having group work as it allows us to share what we have found and get information from our classmates.
    I have also learnt some interesting things from the lessons on Macbeth scence 1 act 1. In Literature, when people laugh, they laugh with you because you did it instead of laughing at you. I have also learnt that witches have either very high or low pitch voices.
    The presentation was quite fun, but I was scared that I would be selected to present as I am still quite shy. I think that Mrs.Woo should choose people who are not shy to present. Although I know that by asking people who are shy to present can help them to overcome their shyness, but maybe we can do it in small group first instead of presenting infront of the whole class.

Learning Log 1

    From the lessons on Cinquain, I have learnt a lot of things such as how to write the Cinquain and what a Cinquain is. A Cinquain is a five line poem and each line must follow a rule. We will write the tittle with one word on the first line and the description with two words on the second line. At the third line, three actions will be written with three words and each word ending with 'ing'. Feelings are written on the fourth line with four words while our reflection on the tittle is written on the fifth line with one word and ending with a full stop.
    The lesson is quite interesting as we also have a group work to write a Cinquain poem. After sharing our poem with the class, Mrs. Woo would tell us our mistakes, so we can learn from our mistakes.
    I think that Mrs.Woo should give us more practices on Cinquain so that we can do well in our future exams or test if Cinquain is tested. I hope subsequent lessons will be as interesting and easy to learn as the Cinquain lessons.