Thursday, October 9, 2008

Yahoo!!! I have submitted my project paper!!!

I feel very relief today when I hand in the assignment to my supervisor. It feels like my head is 10 tons lighter than before. Even though that there are still about 3 assignments waiting, at least I can focus on the other assignments too.

Basically, my project paper is entitled ‘Violence of Survival in Patriarchal Society Resulted Women to Play Role of a Martyr in Her Kind by Anne Sexton and Aunt Jennifer’s Tigers by Adrienne Rich.’ There nothing much different of my points compared to the outline I have given before. But, of course I put adjustments here and there in my final product of the project paper.

Overall, there so much I gained from doing this assignment. The process of writing a 4000 words project paper is challenging. But, this is nothing compared to the knowledge I get. Other than that I also notice that this paper actually help me to improve my language especially in writing skill. Other than that, it also enriches my vocabulary. This assignment reflects of how difficult it is to write a thesis when I want to further my study in the future.

The Speech to Seek For Freedom

‘I Have A Dream’ by Martin Luther King, Jr. was delivered on the steps at the Lincoln Memorial in Washington D.C. on August 28, 1963.

One thing that I learnt from this is that a one of a good speaker characteristic is he delivers speech spontaneously instead of preparing his text of speech and read it aloud. A good speech is for intelligent listeners. Usually, we will find speeches that were prepared by another person instead of the speaker himself prepared his speech text. So, we cannot assume the same person to write their speech. This is because that some of them are not capable to do both skills. So, here I assume that we cannot respect people who cannot deliver his speech well especially when that person is one of the candidates to be our leader.

In Martin Luther’s speech, it seems like he uses lots of devices in preparing his speech. On of the devices is the use of contradiction or binaries that also provide connotation related to his intention of speech. Such as, the connotation of night is ignorance and suffering, while connotation of light is truth, knowledge and hope. Here is some example of binaries in the beginning of his speech:

Shadow – light
Daybreak – night
Island – ocean
Prosperity – poverty

His capability to use imageries in his speech amazes me. One of images he used in his speech is images of season. Other than that, he also uses repetition as to emphasize his point of the speech. Overall, his speech is focus on the pain and suffering they experienced because of discrimination. He describes the suffering as ‘unearned suffering’ in his speech. It is wonderful how he captures his listeners to support him.

Thursday, September 25, 2008

Yup!!! I can do limerick!!!

Yes, at first I did not know what was limerick, how to do one, and am I capable to do a limerick? These questions come to mind when we was taught about it.

Well, for those who do not have idea what is limerick, here I give you a brief description about it (of course this description is taken from our course book). A limerick is a five-line poem written with one couplet and one triplet. If a couplet is a two-line rhymed poem, then a triplet would be a three-line rhymed poem. The rhyme pattern is a b b a with lines 1, 2 and 5 containing 3 beats and rhyming, and lines 3 and 4 having two beats and rhyming. Some people say that the limerick was invented be soldiers returning from France to the Irish town of Limerick in the 1700’s. Limericks are meant to be funny. They often contain hyperbole, onomatopoeia, idioms, puns, and other figurative devices. The last line of good limerick contains the PUNCH LINE or “heart of the joke.”

There you go! It is a brief description about limerick. This limerick activity is very good to be conducted as group as it will promote creativity, cooperation, exchanging ideas and respecting others’ opinions (give and take). As to this activity’s response, the class move quickly and why don’t you try this with good Form 1 class first.

Well, now, let me share to you the steps on how we (as a group of 5) created a limerick as our class activity. First of all we need to name a place. As for my group, we chose Taiping. Then, for the last word of the second line of the limerick, we need to find any word with the same rhyming to the first word we chose (Taiping). At this stage, we come out with our friend’s name who is Siew Ching. Notice that the rhyming of Taiping and Siew Ching are the same? Then, using the examples and templates given, we complete the blanks with our own rhyming words. We complete the limerick as if we are telling a short funny story about someone. It our case, is a story about an old man from Taiping. Don’t forget that a limerick suppose to be written in past tense form. This is what we produced in couples of minutes.

There once was a man from Taiping,
All the while he hoped to marry Siew Ching,
So he went to propose to her in town,
And she coldly turned him down,
That poor old man from Taiping.

Here is our limerick! Well done!

Thursday, September 18, 2008

Reflection on 'Shooting an Elephant'

Foremost, I would say that I really like to read this short story. It seems like I can bring my emotion when reading it. I pity the elephant that had been shooting by the author. But one thing I that I want to talk about here is how successful Geogre Orwell (the author) to write and deliver this story with sensation. He himself never had been an elephant shooter before. He never experienced what it feels to live in burdensome duty. But, it is amazing that he can put himself in the situation and bring the reader to feel it also. This is what we call the fiction of fact.

I notice that the word ‘Empire’ in the story plays an important role to show what the author believes. In this story, the word Empire is actually refers to the British Empire. From this story we can see two types of people which are the colonial people (refers to the British) and colonized people (refers to the Burmise/local). From the story, we can see that the author perceives imperialism as ‘an evil thing’.


He also portrays what happened in prison in the second paragraph:

‘The wretched prisoners huddling in the stinking cages of the lock-ups, the grey, cowed faces of the long-term convicts, the scarred buttocks of the men who had been Bogged with bamboos—all these oppressed me with an intolerable sense of guilt.’

Other than that, we also notice his peculiar situation on how he sees himself as a colonial officer, in situation which he is controlled over.

Thursday, September 11, 2008

Teacher as AIR

When my lecturer asked our opinion on what is the suitable metaphor to symbolize teacher, the first metaphor comes to mind is the classical and traditional ‘candle’. This is because candle symbolizes sacrifice; it burns itself to light other people’s darkness. An individual without knowledge is like living in the darkness. But then again, on the second thought, I think that teacher’s role is more than that!

So, I come out with a metaphor that teacher is like AIR. Air is a vital necessity for the entire living creature, not to only human being. Imagine our life without air, we will die in minutes! See how crucial it is for us to have a teacher. It does not matter whether she or he is your formal or informal teacher. It does not matter if she or he teaches you in a classroom or just under a tree. It does not matter really! What is important is the necessity for us to have a teacher is just like we need the air. It does not matter if the air is polluted as long as you can live and go on with life! In short we need a teacher until the last breath we exhale.

Tuesday, September 2, 2008

My 3 Best Teachers


I can still remember my lecturer said that ‘Education teach us too lose our innocent’. When my lecturer asked the class who are our 3 best teachers, I have no doubt of my answers.

My best teachers that teach us the way of life are:
1. Parents
2. University
3. Books and Mass Media


My parents are the most responsible person of who I am today. They are the one who nurture me from the very first touch. I adore them so much that make me want to be just like them. Both my parents are teacher in Labuan. Even tough that they are teachers in primary school, this does not stop me to be an educator also. I can still remember my father said that being a teacher is like planting a fruit tree. Once the tree fruits, you can share it fruits to other people. The taste of the fruit will last in that persons’ blood as what we eaten will become part of us.

University life teaches me to be independent. Because, staying away from family and friends force me to be wise in handling life.

Friday, August 29, 2008

Define Education

This is how I will define education:

Education is a life long learning!

The reason why I say education is a life long learning is related to my post “Teacher as Air”. I believe that education lead us to survive in this world. We need education to seek for job. We need education to be a parent. We need education to buy food. Even until we are dying we still need education to ‘mengucap kalimah shahadah’ (from Muslims perspective). In short, we need education for every single thing in our life! Other people said that education is to use the knowledge for certain purpose. Well, that is undeniable. I agree with that. But how many of us really realize about this. Some people will use the knowledge they have to do bad things. So, in this case you yourself should be responsible on how you use the knowledge.

Sunday, August 24, 2008

Nelson Mandela: South Africa's Saviour

Reading Mandela’s autobiography ‘The Long Walk to Freedom’ really shows me how a superior leader he is. His struggles against Apartheid save South Africa from discrimination. The first thing comes to mind when I read his autobiography is ‘What is Apartheid?’ Basically, Apartheid is a situation when minority race lead the political power and the majority forced to follow the minority rules.


This autobiography tells us how Mandela gives up his freedom for the sake of his peoples’ freedom that is oppressed by the white people.
The line that really captures my attention is “Apartheid’s regulations extended even to clothing”. What is the significance of the clothes in this autobiography? This chapter shows us what some prisoners get or don not get.

“All of us, except Kathy, received short trousers, an insubstantial jersey, and a canvas jacket. Kathy, the one Indian among us, was given long trousers. Normally Africans would receive sandals made from car tires, but in this instance we were given shoes. Kathy, alone, received socks. Short trousers for Africans were meant to remind us that we were ‘boys’. I put on the short trousers that day, but I vowed that I would not put up with them for long.”

From the extract above, we can see the way of breaking down people’s spirit by treating them differently. The long pants show greater authority. Furthermore, short pants show immaturity as it is for boys compared to long pants for young-adult, or man.


Here is picture of Mandela's prison in Robben Island.

Wednesday, August 20, 2008

At Last! Final Product of Position Paper


For my position paper, I have decided to choose short story entitled The Son of the Turtle-spirit. My thesis statement is ‘Blind obedience rewards the son of the turtle-spirit honorable dignity.’

Basically, The Son of the Turtle-spirit by anonymous author is a Chinese tale. This short story is about a turtle, which was living in a pond in a noble-man’s garden and learnt to change his form into a handsome youth. The turtle fell in love with the nobleman’s daughter and persuaded her to entertain him every night until dawn and returned back to the pond. He left no trace behind him, and even the maiden did not know that he was a turtle, but thought instead that he was some student from the neighborhood. At the end of the year, the maiden noticed that she was going to have a child. Since they do not know who the man responsible for her daughter was, so, her mother instructed her daughter to tie a thread on to his coat without his information. The next morning, the turtle was killed and its remains were cut up in little pieces and thrown into a corner of the garden to rot. The maid noticed the white bones and put the bones in a yellow bag. She kept the bones. The son that was born to her in due time naturally bore no love for his grand-parents, because he was the son of a spirit. One day, the son of the turtle-spirit saw an advertisement that will rewards one thousand piece of gold and one thousand piece of silver to those who can place the casket contains the remains of the rich man’s grandfather in the dragon’s mouth. But, the son of the turtle-spirit’s mother asked him to put the bones of his father in the dragon’s mouth and hand the other bones on his horns. The son of the turtle-spirit obeyed his mother’s command and cheated the rich man. As a result, when the boy was ten years old, his appearance suddenly began to change, and he became quite out of the ordinary, and much cleverer than anyone else. Finally, he became Emperor, and the son of the rich man was his minister. With reference to this short story, this paper will demonstrate that blind obedience rewards the son of the turtle-spirit honorable dignity.

In this paper, I will examine three different perspectives of blind obedience which are from the viewpoint of the turtle-spirit itself, the mother of the turtle-spirit’s son, and the turtle-spirit’s son.

Before we discuss further about this topic and explain my stand, I will define important phrases that can be found in the thesis statement which are ‘blind obedience’ and ‘honorable dignity’. ‘Blind obedience’ can be defined as an attitude where one obeys to do something that will bring negative consequence or impact to oneself or other people. While for ‘honorable dignity’ can be simply defined as respectable pride or good fortune.

My first and foremost point regarding this paper will be the turtle-spirit’s blind obedience towards his lust. The turtle-spirit was happened to be able to turn him into a handsome youth. Unfortunately, he takes this advantage by having a forbidden relationship with the nobleman’s daughter until she got pregnant.

He said to himself: ‘As I can turn myself into human being at will, why should I not become a young man and court the young lady?’
(Paragraph 1, line 6-8)


As you can see from the textual evidence above, indirectly we will recognize that the turtle-spirit is just want to fulfill his desire towards the young lady. Notice that the writer uses the word ‘court’ that I have underlined? In some way, from this word we know that the young lady is forced to be with him. She did not asked to be with him in the first place. Another textual evident regarding to this point is taken from the second paragraph of the story itself.

So in the night he climbed on to the bank, turned himself into a handsome youth, and went to her room, where he persuaded her to yield.
(Paragraph 2, line 1-3)


Again the writer uses word that signifies the turtle-spirit’s insincerity toward the young lady which is ‘yield’. The definitions of the word ‘yield’ are include surrender, give away, and give up. The use of negative connotation word such as ‘court’ and ‘yield’ show us that the turtle-spirit is not genuine towards her. I would say that because of his blind obedience towards his own lust, the young girl became his lust’s victim that leads to the birth of their son.

Secondly, I will study from the son of the turtle-spirit’s mother perspective which is his mother’s blind obedience by listening to her mother’s command. As we read the story, we know that even though it seems like the turtle-spirit is not truthful towards the young lady, but she does take him as her lover. Through the story, we also know that from her personal point of view she perceives him even as her husband. This is proven through her own speech in the story.

She said to her maid: ‘It is true he was a spirit, but still he was my husband, so how can I leave his bones to lie and rot?’
(Paragraph 6, line3-4)


But, in this story it happens to be that she murdered her own lover by following her mother’s command. The textual evident of her action is as follow;

‘The man who comes to see you every night must be a spirit, but I have thought of a plan; when he falls asleep to-night, tie a thread to his abide and decide how to catch him. Don’t fail to do this, and to-morrow we will see what happens.’ Her daughter promised to do as she was told.
(Paragraph 3, line 16-22)


Notice that I underline one of the phrases above? The reason why I underlined this phrase is to show that the author already foreshadow the turtle-spirit’s death! Ironically, there will be no tomorrow for the turtle-spirit anymore. By blindly obeying her mother’s command, had resulted her to lose her lover. Who killed her lover? Her own parents! Even though that they know that their daughter is pregnant to the turtle-spirit’s child.

Thirdly, let us take a look at the son of the turtle-spirit’s point of view as the main character in this story which is, he cheats the rich man to blindly obey his mother. In the first reflection, it is undeniable that we must obey what our mother asks us to do with certain conditions. One of the conditions is as long as the request is not against the rule or law. In this story, we know that the mother taught her seven- or eight-year-old son to deceit other people to get success. As we know, cheating is not morally good behavior. It is against human’s law or even God’s law. In this case, the son of the turtle spirit cheats the rich man by placing his father’s bones in the dragon’s mouth and put the rich man’s grandfather’s bones on its horns. The rich man thought that the little boy succeeded his mission when he returned safely.

When the rich man and the grave-seeker saw that he had returned safely, they knew that their plan had succeeded, and they were very glad.
(Paragraph 13, line 1-3)


Sarcastically, this mission is a success for the son of the turtle-spirit but not to the rich man. He even gets special treatment from the man he had cheated. This element foreshadows his honorable dignity that he will get in the future.

They brought him back to their house, and gave him dry clothes and delicious food and wine, and when he had finished, they sent him home with one thousand pieces of gold and one thousand pieces of silver.
(Paragraph 13, line 3-6)


It is undoubtedly shows us that, the son of the turtle-spirit took the rewards after he blindly obeyed his mother to cheat the rich man.

Next, my last stand regarding to this paper will observe from the son of the turtle-spirit’s point of view again which is, he blindly obeys his mother and sacrifices himself just for the sake of the father’s bones. For most people who are still alive, when somebody died, life suppose to goes on. In this case, it is not just he forgo his life just to put the bones in a new place, he also never met and does not know who or what is his father actually is. So, in the first place, why should he need to juggle his own precious life for somebody he does not even recognize? In the other hand, he did the duty given by his mother successfully. This textual evidence proves us his mother’s demand to do his task.

‘These are the bones of your father. Take them to the bottom of the river and put them in the dragon’s mouth, and hang the other bones on his horns. Don’t forget to do this, and don’t mix the bones.
(Paragraph 11, line 6-9)


Notice that his mother purposely juggles her only seven- or eight-year-old child’s life just to place the bones in the dragon’s mouth. But paradoxically, this event causes the son of the turtle-spirit to live in an honorable life in the future. The writer uses symbolism in his or her writing to confirm this circumstance.

The boy took the two packets out of his breast-pocket, and threw his father’s bones into the dragon’s mouth, and hung the bones of the rich man’s grandfather on the dragon’s horns.
(Paragraph 12, line 7-9)


Notice that the last few paragraphs of this short story apply the use of the dragon’s mouth as symbolism of good fortune. The anonymous writer used symbolism of the dragon’s mouth to depict that the boy will become lucky in the future. As a result, the boy became Emperor, and the son of the rich man was his minister. This is what I mean with honorable dignity.

In a nut shell, it is proven that from these different perspectives of different character leads to an unpredictable ending of story. The story starts with the difficulties and obstacles the turtle-spirit, the young lady and the son of the turtle-spirit had to overcome. By the end of the story, things started to change and resulted to the next generation an honorable dignity ever after. All of these characters blindly obey their desire and other people’s demand without thinking about the consequences for oneself, but this had cause the son of the turtle-spirit to live in honorable dignity in the future. As conclusion, I would state firmly that it is proven that blind obedience rewards the son of the turtle-spirit honorable dignity when he becomes the Emperor and the son of the rich man was his minister.

Wednesday, August 13, 2008

My Project Paper Outline

I gave this outline to my supervisor as the first step to write my project paper. I only use two texts instead of three in this research paper.

TEXTS: 1) AUNT JENNIFER’S TIGERS by ADRIENNE RICH
2) HER KIND by ANNE SEXTON

TOPIC: Violence of Survival in Patriarchal Society Resulted Women to Play The Role of a Martyr.

1.0 Biography of Poets
1.1 Biography of Adrienne Rich
1.2 Biography of Anne Sexton

2.0 Introduction

3.0 Definition of Important Words and Phrases in the Topic
3.1 Definition of ‘Violence of Survival’

- Survive to search for freedom
· Aunt Jennifer’s Tigers; Freedom from fear, oppression, and terror towards her
husband – she expressed her desire for freedom only in her art.
· Freedom to be independent rather than clinging to abusive husband and broken
marriage
· Freedom of desire to seek the same freedom like men do
· Her Kind: Freedom from pressure of isolation and uneasy actions with particular
kind of traditional social expectation to suburban housewife

3.2 Definition of ‘Patriarchal Society’
- World dominated by male figure or a society in which men rule
- Exploration of power inequity – those who do not have power are ignored: they do
not count; they are not even “seen” in the social structure in the sense that no
account is taken of them when decisions are made (which is women)

3.3 Definition of ‘Martyr’
- Sacrificial victim
- Sufferer for a cause
- A person who exaggerates their difficulties in order to gain sympathy (Adapted from
Soanes, Spooner and Hawker (2001) Oxford Paperback Dictionary, Thesaurus, and
Wordpower Guide. Oxford: Oxford University Press)

4.0 Similarity on the way poets treat the persona
4.1 Word’s choice
4.1.1 The poets use negative connotation words that signify negative traits of the
personas.

4.2 Language chosen
4.2.1 The poets use oppressor language in their poem

4.3 Personas’ characterization
4.3.1 The poets characterize the personas as vulnerable, dependent, fragile, defenseless
and pathetic
4.3.2 Bourgeois imagery to women

5.0 Similarity on the way persona treats home as entrapment
5.1 Depicted through the way they describe their home and what they had experienced in
the house
5.1.1 The housewife describes her house as warm caves filled with worms and elves in
Her Kind
5.1.2 Aunt Jennifer’s Tigers: Aunt Jennifer is divorced from her social milieu
5.1.3 Aunt Jennifer was imprisoned but is perhaps imprisoned more, or as much, in the
prison of ego-psychology

6.0 Traditionally tied to long tradition of male authority and power
6.1 Women treated as outcast
6.1.1 Imagery of women as witch (represent female alienation from society and
perceived as subhuman) in Her Kind
6.1.2 Women treated as slave by husband in Aunt Jennifer’s Tigers

6.2 Personas dilemma in search of identity
6.2.1 Aunt Jennifer’s Tigers: Aunt Jennifer was burdened by the role as wife that she
needs to play because of her wedding band which binds her to her husband. Her
troubled marriage has kept her down
6.2.2 Tiger imagery is clearly masculine figure. Not only masculine, but heroic figure of
one of the most role-bound of all the substructures of patriarchy: chivalry.
6.2.3 Her Kind: Unconventional roles of women from the stereotypical roles society
places on women as contrast to the traditional role of women in society
6.2.4 Presents a search for self and meaning beyond the limits of conventional
expression and form

7.0 Implications Towards Education
7.1 Students will learn lessons of responsibility (including responsibility in family)
7.2 Aware that words and language can provoke and influence them to indulge in wrong
doings
7.3 Students can be taught to have love and respect towards opposite gender

8.0 Conclusion
8.1 Both poems play an important role in educating students in terms of responsibility,
respect, good judgments and as well as teaches students not to discriminate others.

9.0 References
9.1 Books
9.2 Internet

Monday, July 28, 2008

The First Meeting with Our Supervisor.

I was assigned with Dr. Nooreen as my project work supervisor with 7 other course mates.

During the meeting she briefed us with how a project paper suppose to be written, the specification on how our project paper will be given marks and many more. She even asked us about our topic of the paper. As for me, I told her that I want to do women’s position in society using three poems which are Her Kind by Anne Sexton, Aunt Jennifer’s Tigers by Adrienne rich, and Dulang Washer by Shirley Geok. She told me that it is a good choice of topic. But, who knows what will happen next, right?

I hope I can proceed to do my project paper on this topic. I was expected to apply all my knowledge through these semesters in UPM in this paper, especially in teaching literature. Plus, I was expected to insert it’s implication towards education.

Luckily, she gave us samples of project papers from our seniors under her supervision from previous semester. We really need a guideline to do this. Hope things goes well as I expected.

Good Luck to me!

Friday, July 25, 2008

The Fall of Icarus

Date: 24th July 2008 (Thursday)

Hi people!

It is time for me to write another blog. Today, I learn how to appreciate a picture or painting more by looking at Breughel’s “The Fall of Icarus”. It is interesting how one interprets what the message hidden in a painting. To be honest, I never thought that Icarus’ legs in the painting actually represents life must go on. When people like me think it is just an ordinary picture that illustrate Icarus’ incident, things that pops up in mind was “Hmmm, nice colour…” or “Is that Icarus in the lake?”. I never thought what the significance of Icarus legs is, or why the artist chooses certain colour and so on. Don’t be surprise if I say “It’s amaze me. And I want to love arts more!”. Maybe I will spend some time to go to the Museum of Arts.

I can still remember what my lecturer said in class about students. He said that there might be students who do not really know how to play with words but master on drawing. By learning to appreciate someone’s creative arts might help us as the future teacher to interpret their masterpiece. Yeah, I think that’s true. Never underestimate what this people can produce. This reminds me during my school time. We don’t really enjoy reading, but drawing is an interesting and beneficial activity as post reading activity.

Before I end my blog, I want to share what I’ve learn during tutorial classroom with my Iranian tutor. We had discussed about our first assignment, writing a position paper. My tutor gave us a list of prescribed text for this assignment, and I choose a short story by Heah Chwee Sian entitled “A Great Injustice”. He asked us to do a thesis statement for the text we have chosen. I have showed to him my thesis statement for the assignment and he did approve it. Now, I am working on the major points to support my thesis statement. I hope that I can do this excellently. Hope that I am healthy enough to finish the whole semester!
Well, that all for now. See you all next time!

Tuesday, July 22, 2008

Icarus' Teaching Procedure (PLOT)

Topic : Plot of The Fall of Icarus
Level of Proficiency : Some English Language Proficiency
Form : 4


SET INDUCTION
Procedure:
1. Teacher displays a painting to the class.


2. Teacher asks questions regarding the painting to the class:
What is this?
What can you see in the painting?
What do you think this painting is about?
What are the people in the painting doing?
Why didn’t the people do something to help the drowning person?


3. Students answer the teacher’s questions.
4. Teacher gives explanation about the painting to students.
5. Teacher moves on to pre-reading activity.

Rationale:
To trigger students’ schemata about the lesson.

PRE-READING
Procedure:
1. Teacher gives instruction to students on what they are supposed to do.
2. As the teacher read the text, students are asked to underline the events they can find in the story.
3. Teacher distributes a text of a story entitled The Fall of Icarus.
4. Teacher reads the text.
5. Students attempt the task given.
6. Teacher discusses the answers with students.

Rationale:
To ensure students understand what they are expected to do.


WHILE-READING (I)
Procedure:
1. Teacher asks students to proceed to the next activity.
2. Teacher asks the students to work with pairs.
3. Teacher reads the short story again.
4. As the teacher reads the story, students are instructed to identify the sequence of events(exposition, rising action, climax, falling action and conclusion) of the story.
5. Teacher asks students to transfer the information into the diagram given in the activity.
6. Teacher calls students at random to give their answers.
7. Teacher discusses the answers.

Rationale:
To ensure students understanding towards the text.

WHILE-READING (II)

Procedure:
1. Teacher asks students to work in group of 5.
2. Students are instructed to do next activity (APPENDIX 3).
3. Students attempt the task.
4. Teacher discusses the answers.


Rationale:
To ensure students understanding towards the text.

Monday, July 21, 2008

Icarus' Teaching Text

In pairs, we were assigned to develop a teaching package for a short story entitled The Fall of Icarus.

Our lecturer assigned us to come out with a 200 words passage as a reading text for students with some or high English Language proficiency. We need to leave out extra details that not necessary from the original text entitled Daedalus and Icarus.
This is the 200 words passage that we had done:

“Father! Help me, father!” cries Icarus as the deep blue water swallows him.
“Icarus, my son! Where are you?” Daedalus calls. As he still calling Icarus, he saw feathers on the water. The poor father curses his inventive skill and his longing for his own country. This is the time when he remembers the beginning of this tragedy as he set his mind to sciences never explored before.
He fastened the feathers together in the middle with thread, and at the bottom with wax. As his killer invention is ready, he prepared Icarus, his only son, to fly too.
Daedalus said, “You must fly between the sun and land, if you fly too high, the sun will melt the wax, or the water will make your wings heavy if you go too low.”
As Daedalus flew in front, Icarus, drown by his eagerness for the open sky, left his guide and soared upwards till he came too close to the blazing sun. The wax softened! He moved his bare arms up and down, but without the feathers, they had no purchase on the air.
Daedalus laid his son to rest in a tomb where the land took his name.

(199 words)

Monday, July 14, 2008

Finally!

Thursday, 10th July 2008 is the first meeting of EDU3234 course. As usual, it is the introduction class. There is nothing much to say in this foreword post. My lecturer assigned me to Dr. Nooreen as my project work supervisor. My first expectation of this class is that it will be a lot of reading needs to be done through out this semester. I am a bit worry because I am not really a fast reader person. I just hope for the best. Well, I think that’s all for now. See you!