Trifles light as air*

Tuesday, May 27, 2008

Recommended Reading List

Hello everyone! Holidays are here and what better way then to spend them reading useful books to widen your knowledge on Literature and hone your linguistic skills? Do consider reading any of the following below. If you would like to try something more advance (they are interesting, really), try the last segment. You will be bound to love these books!

Specifically for my sec 2s, I hope your play is progressing smoothly. We will try to keep Shakespeare simplified and easy to digest. Just perhaps 2 intensive sessions!

Here's the list:

Contemporary Children’s Literature:

Mark Twain's Adventures of Huckleberry Finn.
Mark Haddon's The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time
Philip Pullman's The Amber Spyglass
The Little Prince by Antoine de Saint Exupéry
Lemony Snicket (real name Daniel Handler): A Series of Unfortunate Events.
Oliver Twist by Charles Dickens

Other suggested readings/ Modern reading:

SIMON BLOOM, THE GRAVITY KEEPER by Michael Reisman
ELVIS & OLIVE by Stephanie Watson
The Calder Game by Blue Balliet
The Stolen Child by Colin Cheong
The Monkey’s Paw by W.W Jacobs
Sing to the Dawn by Ho Ming Fo

Further recommended reading:

TO KILL A MOCKINGBIRD by Harper Lee
1984 by George Orwell
CATCH-22 by Joseph Heller
ANIMAL FARM by George Orwell
ON THE ROAD by Jack Kerouac
TO THE LIGHTHOUSE by Virginia Woolf
AS I LAY DYING by William Faulkner
The Heart of Darkness by Joseph Conrad

Wednesday, May 14, 2008

Lit Projects

Thursday, April 17, 2008

Country Lovers + Shakespeare

hellooooos!

ive printed exact no. of copies for notes on Country Lovers. if you havent gotten one, download from here:

http://www.fileden.com/files/2006/11/29/437126/Country%20Lovers.doc

As we will be doing Shakespeare, i hope you have started on your respective plays.

it's Hamlet, Othello, MacBeth and Romeo and Juliet.

Friday, March 28, 2008

FILES!

hey all. please prepare files and complete your text.
i would like to correct and collect them by next lesson.
dont forget to do your group reflection!

Monday, March 17, 2008

Poem Assignment!!!

ok.listen up. it's ok not to always do well in Lit. What really matters is improvement. if you constantly improve someday you're gonna get that A. It just depends on how long but YES you will get there.

im sorry if you didnt do well for the last common test. i know i tried my best, but did you? and i HOPE the answer is YES, you have.

ok. so now's time to get that A you guys. In creating your poem, you MUST:

write sufficiently on the topic and have ample length
use Literary Techniques (L.Ts) e.g similies, metaphors, personification, alliteration, repetition, caesura, run-on lines, onomatopoeia...
in your explanation, explain the EFFECT of the L.T (e.g the use of run-on lines "..." seeks to mimic the fast/ swift motion of the killing of soldiers in the fields... or things like in the similie "like a devil's face sick of sin", the dying soldier's face is compared to something worse than monster as his face is so contorted by war and injury, to say he is a devil has become undermined for he is worse than it. It thus overall creates the effect that war has committed a lot of atrocities and that men have become dehumanized.
from the above, you can see that sufficient EXPLANATION and its EFFECTS, will give you greater credit.i. e higher marks.
use KEY WORDS: emphasize, highlight, enforce, stress, suggest, implies, amplifies..
dont forget to explain why the L.T used is effective. Dont just say "it's good." say why and how it contributes to the overall theme and atmopshere you want to create.
Point
Evidence
Explanation

the above points are just some helpful tips. the onus is on you to be creative! i look forward to marking your wonderful work =)

so Go get that A! This is due tmr as it will be my first lesson.

just a heads up, your next CA will be on PROSE. so you BETTER be paying attention and be diligent from now onwards if you havent. Feel free to clarify. CONSULTATION IS FREE.

Wednesday, February 27, 2008

All the fun's in how you say a thing---Frost

TONE

There are numerous and sometimes conflicting text book definitions of tone:
"The poet's or persona's attitude in style or expression toward the subject, e.g., loving, ironic, bitter, pitying, fanciful, solemn, etc. Tone can also refer to the overall mood of the poem itself, in the sense of a pervading atmosphere intended to influence the readers' emotional response and foster expectations of the conclusion." (Glossary of Poetic Terms from BOB'S BYWAY)

"The writer's or speaker's attitude toward his subject, his audience, or himself; the emotional coloring, or emotional meaning, of a work." (Sound and Sense: An Introduction to Poetry by Laurence Perrine)

"The word tone in literary discussion is borrowed from the expression tone of voice. Tone is the manner in which a poet makes his statement; it reflects his attitude toward his subject. Since printed poems lack the intonations of spoken words, the reader must learn to "hear" their tones with his mind's ear. Tone cannot be heard in one particular place since it reflects a general attitude, it pervades the whole poem." (Poems: Wadsworth Handbook and Anthology by C. F. Main & Peter J. Seng)

"Tone expresses the poet's attitude toward his audience. We all experience tone in everyday life. A speaker's placing of emphasis, his tone of voice, his facial expression, even his gestures all help the hearer to determine the speaker's meaning and attitude." (The Order of Poetry, An Introduction Bloom, Philbrick and Blistein)

Tuesday, February 19, 2008

Mary Had a little Lamb

i chanced upon an impressive analysis when i was researching for materials for my class.
it's an in depth analysis worth pondering over.
do check it out:
http://www.cannells.com/colin/archives/mary_had_a_little_la.php
hope lit test was ok=)