The issue of moral dilemma in my project paper

Moral dilemma; is the major issue being highlighted in my project paper. It is typical yet crucial to be discussed. I would like to deliberate the literal meaning of moral dilemma. According to Concise Oxford Dictionary, Tenth Edition, moral is an adjective that defined as “concerned with the principles of right and wrong behaviour and the goodness or badness of human character” or “adhering the code of behaviour that is considered right or acceptable”. Meanwhile, dilemma is described as “a situation in which a difficult choice has to be made between two or more alternatives”. i would rather said that this issue is an imperative issue that need to be given the greater importance on especially for the students in the stage of adolescent.

In both short stories “A White Heron” and “Hills like White Elephant” have brings out the issue of moral dilemma to the students and how the dilemma resolved; most importantly the students will look on how the action done by the characters based on the right decision made that will actually brings something prominent and would give a greater effects for their next coming future. Therefore, I am gravely believed and convinced that both texts are very reliable and very good to be used as the teaching materials especially for the secondary school. Firstly because both texts have encircle the most important basis of literature; where it fits well with the three literature model (personal growth, cultural and language model). Secondly for it provides vast of knowledge for the students to grasp some meaningful values emerge from the texts.

Approaching the end of the semester...

It was the second last class of EDU 3234 Reading and Project Paper for Teaching Literature in ESL Contexts. and i do learn about the great speech of Martin Luther King. It was tremendously terrific speech indeed. i was captivated with the usage of binary opposition he used in the speech that represents the dream and the hope of African American in the US. Hmmm..thinking of another week to go, i would definitely miss this as analyzing the language in literature class really prompt me into higher level of thinking that it would lead me to a broader horizon as it enables me to see things differently and understand things clearly.

What a teacher is?

This is definitely an interesting class of all. ~grins~ It was fun, entertaining and thoughtful. How each of us perceived what teacher is (the metaphor of a teacher) is creatively thought and differently seen by each of us. Well, I have listed few of the metaphors; most of them are common like candles and light in the darkness. Once it’s my turn, I then said the teacher is like “blood”. Everybody goes like “blood?” and they were laughing themselves out. Hello? I have reason and sturdy justification guys! Blood would be the indicator of sustenance that actually provides nutrition and nourishments to the souls of a student. Where it becomes the source to enable students to “breathe” and without the blood that circulating inside our body that bring oxygen, we would be dead. Without being educated, we are futile. Apart from that, after the class I think of another metaphor which I think it is better than blood, heh. A teacher is like an airplane. Airplane does bring us to further destination in quick time rather than any other transport. Here, teacher could be seen as a means that could figuratively leads students from the state of not knowing to the state of knowledge. Airplane flies in the sky, so definitely the views would be completely different. A long the journey towards, gaining knowledge, teacher actually show the way and giving us ample space of going to the same destination yet with different ways of looking at things. I believe this would be the greatest impact that the teacher would have on the students since the chance given to constantly looking at things in different ways, will establish who you are. How we think made who we are, and thoughts and ideas we utter show who we really are – through the endless guidance of the teacher.

Presentation on Position paper

Presentation of my position paper; I was relaxed at first yet I’m getting nervous being in front. I’m not sure why, but I just can’t control it. As I started to present, then things are getting better. Here are some of the points that have been highlighted in my position paper;

1. resistance towards bias perspective on gender
2. the clichéd labels on how girl should be
3. the womanly changes in her
4. her action against her dad

In her route of her journey into womanhood, those points above have actually prompted her into womanhood. How bliss I was after presenting my arguments!

The Road Home – inspiring!

This is a really interesting movie; well I guess it is so inspiring. It puts greater importance on the nobility of the teacher, how people surround thinks and rose highly of the role of a teacher. Teacher is very often not realized the long term effect that they might had in their students’ life. We may not know how we may affect people. Being an educator or a teacher, we have the most vital job of all by educating the students producing future generator of the nation.

“As I sit at my desk, I have learned a great truth; the answer for nation problem. The answer of all the problem in the world comes to single word. And the word is education”. Lyndon B. Johnson

To be a teacher, our role is not only to teach but to educate the students of the exact truth of life so they will be able to see things lucidly and act wisely.

Fun, fun and fun!

I was wondering why we need to change the room for the class. Then I was informed that we are going to have a speaker from England. So I guess it would be boring. Because sometimes speech doesn’t work well with me. I will attend to hear but it would 10 minutes of attentive listening. Then, I’ll be lost nowhere. Anyhow, to my surprised, wow~ I guess I’m totally wrong! It was the moment of pleasure! Meeting Kim Trusty and enjoying one and half hour of my life in the class is definitely defining. The activity was simple yet it was really meaningful and fun. It would definitely invoke my creativity of creating activities hopefully for my teaching of literature in future to be even more lively and exciting. I like the part where we need to read aloud and attempting on the task based on the poem of LULU – a nice piece of work. The most significant part of it is when we need to create a poem from three different points of view. It was really very fun and enlightening I would say. We come out with a poem entitled “I see”. I have already forgotten the poem but the last lines were “through the window I see” indicating a broad horizon of what Lulu saw from the wide open window. I did learn whole lots of new things from her from simple things of how to hold the microphone properly to how to really seriously engage to the students to the text. I’ve found out that Kim Trusty has a myspace account and I have drop a message to her. Yet, still waiting for her reply. Honestly, she rocks! Ha-ha.

Get ready to put ideas in written =)

I went to meet Dr. Noreen and hand her my draft. I was so happy that my draft was accepted. There are alterations should be made, the rest are all fine. =) . So here is my thesis statement:

“The issue of moral dilemma is ingeniously “crafted” through the symbolism and value conflicts represented by different style of writing in the short story A White Heron by Sarah Orne Jewett and Hills like White Elephant by Ernest Hemingway.”

Now, I am so really excited to write on the paper. Since these two texts are favorite texts (Jewett’s A White Heron and Hemingway’s Hills Like White Elephant), ideas keep on flowing on and on. So, here I am taking a break for being suffocated with bunch of ideas, heh. I just can’t wait to finish this and read the final product.

Andy Warhol

“We are going to watch a movie today”, devoid of knowing what to watch, I joyously said “Yeay!” well, I guess most of us were so excited to watch movies because according to our experience, watching movies in literature class is always fun and enjoyable. =) As the story starts, we were having some sort of sound problem that make us really frustrated since we could hardly hear the sounds. As the movies goes on, we started to yawn. I looked around and saw many heads were “nodding” and then, come the next yawn and it continuously happen on and on and out of sudden it stop when the movie was over. To be very honest, I was so not really keen on watching it. The only things I remember were the paintings of Campbell tins, Marilyn Monroe and description that could slightly be heard in the room. But, the most significant or the most vivid fact that I heard is that his masterpieces was fundamentally related to his religious belief. Andy Warhol was an American artist and a central figure in the movement known as pop art. He was definitely a genius in doing such amazing pop arts paintings. I was awe by his talent! The way of he looks at things could actually be seen through his masterpieces. The paintings of different angles of torn Campbell’s tin were incredibly great!

alteration after another

As I was working on the position paper, collecting info and thinking about it, I do make some alterations and amendments in the outline. When I revised back and satisfied with the points that I have written, I started to write the paper. In my paper, I talk about the issue that evolves around the unnamed girl which is her initiation towards maturity. I try to demonstrate the factors that actually brought her away from the state of innocence (lacking of knowledge) to the state of experience (gaining knowledge). The factors transpired are the girl’s inner and physical changes and her resistance towards stereotypical views on female behaviors. When I revised my work I sense that the essay was not perfectly suits the thesis statements since some alteration had been done before writing the paper. Again, I think of changing my thesis statement. Based on my arguments, I have finally found the correct words. So, my final thesis statement is “The girl’s resistance towards stereotypical views about female behavior and her feminine changes prompt herself into womanhood”. Hmm.. I guess I get the words! And gratefully, Mr. Omid had agreed with me.

A Flying boy?

We are assigned to read Daedalus and Icarus, and yes I really love reading the story. Icarus was a Greek mythological figure, also known as the son of Daedalus (famous for the Labyrinth of Crete). Now Icarus and his dad were stuck in Crete, because the King of Crete wouldn't let them leave. Daedalus made some wings for the both of them and gave his son instruction on how to fly (not too close to the sea, the water will soak the wings, and not too close to the sky, the sun will melt them). Icarus, however, appeared to be obstinate and did fly to close to the sun. This caused the wax that held his wings to his body to melt. Icarus crashed into the sea and died. Icarus pays a heavy price since he fails to listen to her father. Then we are asked to google on the painting of “The Fall of Icarus” or something related to Ovid Metamorphosis. What is more interesting is that how Auden’s Musee des Beaux Art relates to the painting. It was so nice to be able to read the poem and see it in the paintings.

About suffering they were never wrong,

The Old Masters; how well, they understood

Its human position; how it takes place

While someone else is eating or opening a window or just walking dully along;

How, when the aged are reverently, passionately waiting

For the miraculous birth, there always must be

Children who did not specially want it to happen, skating

On a pond at the edge of the wood:

They never forgot

That even the dreadful martyrdom must run its course

Anyhow in a corner, some untidy spot

Where the dogs go on with their doggy life and the torturer's horse

Scratches its innocent behind on a tree.

In Breughel's Icarus, for instance: how everything turns away

Quite leisurely from the disaster; the ploughman may

Have heard the splash, the forsaken cry,

But for him it was not an important failure; the sun shone

As it had to on the white legs disappearing into the green

Water; and the expensive delicate ship that must have seen

Something amazing, a boy falling out of the sky,

had somewhere to get to and sailed calmly on.

To be able to “read” a picture is something impossible for me before. But now, it is really an eye-opener for me to be able to see a lot of things narrated by a single painting.

Project paper, the starting point!

It was week four, and it the time to meet our supervisor for the project paper. I was excited to see Dr. Noreen to discuss about how it will be. We made an appointment with her at 9 in her office. During the discussion, we were given ample chances to ask questions and Dr. gives her opinion of how she wants the project paper to be. Then, she shows us the seniors’ paper as guidance or “prompt” towards the idea of what should we be working on. It was really nice to see and to read their papers as they had their ideas written very well. They were great! At that time, I already have the idea of what am I going to do – inspired by those grand works. I have chosen two interesting text which are Jewett’s A White Heron and Hemingway’s Hills Like White Elephant.”

Verbalizing my thoughts

Wow~ writing position paper is something that looks easy in spite of that, writing it and working on it may not be as easy as it seems. It is pretty hard. When all the topics prescribed were told, I was having some sort of dilemma – what text should I choose? Later, I have decided to choose Alice Munro’s Boys and Girls, it is a really interesting story and I enjoy learning it 2 years back. The issues that emerge seem in the story so strong and significant that I could still feel the “impact” of learning it during the yesteryears. =)

This was my first thesis statement; “A passage from innocent towards experience; a girl’s initiation towards maturity through the resistant against stereotypical ideas on how girl should be” Yeah, it sounds quite weird and odd. So then I met with Mr. Ovid and he asks me to change it. Not convinced by his response, I met Dr. Edwin. He he. Then as we were discussing, he help me out in constructing the thesis statement – “The girl in Boys and Girls, represents the changes and resistance towards stereotypical views about female behaviour”. Thus, it sounds even better and suits my outline very well. Thanks Dr!

Dark tale?

When I was first reading this story, I found that this is a common yet interesting tale. I was reading it with enduring interest. What makes it common is that the story involved human, animal and magic (I would say); makes me think of the story of “The Prince Frog”. How the story unfolds and evolves is somehow rather unexpected to me. Then, another startling moment I had when is when we were taught by Dr. Edwin that this story is not an ordinary tale, it is a dark tale. I was like “dark tale?” As we read the story in class then I noticed the so-called dark element of the story; firstly it was indicated by the line “…where he seized a knife and cut off the turtle’s head so that it died.” The portrayal of this gory act brought this tale to the resemblance of dark tale.

Later in the text, another dark element was presented. The mother said to her son “These are your 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” – this portrays the sinful deed of the mother who teach her son to deceit which is against morality. I personally think that tales have a lot purpose and advantages. It is the means of educating children where adult’s dream of childhood can be traced in the history of fairy tale. And apart, most valuable role of tales is that every cultural artifact has it cultural heritage thus exposing the students to a wider horizon of knowledge and diversity in life.

Tragic love story – Pyramus and Thisbe

We are assigned to come out with thesis statements for the story of Pyramus and Thisbe. It’s a nice tragic love story which full of ironic. Mr. Omid asks us to brainstorm in a group and comes out with our thesis statement. It was nice to read the story yet to actually see and “take out” the emerging issues were pretty tedious. Anyhow, we manage to come out with few thesis statements:

1. Unpermitted love will bring disobedience and suffering.
2. Pyramus and Thisbe died because of their forbidden love which resorted them to come up with a plan to be together that leads to death.
3. Ovid’s Pyramus and Thisbe is not merely a heart-wrenching lover’s tale but it is also serves as a reminder that lover’s hastiness is always their downfall
4. Forbidden love brings a moment of pleasure but a lifetime of regret.
5. Pyramus and Thisbe’s enduring love caused their tragic death

Each of the thesis statements highlighted the arguments on love and the tragedy that happens between the two lovers. Next steps, providing arguments and justifications! Because, argument without justifications is LAME ~ that is a very vital reminder for me while working on the position paper.

Encountering problems...

This was the first class with Mr. Omid, at first I myself encountered some problem to understand one word that he said at that time (which later I found out that few of my coursemates also have the same problem – trying to understand one word that he uttered). The word was “thesis”! So, basically on the first day of our meeting, we learned what thesis statement is. Many of us confuse on the term of thesis statements with the topic sentence. Mr. Omid had explained the differences between those two terms. In giving us to the better understanding, he gave quite a lot of examples of the best thesis statements which did at least make me understand what thesis statement is. So, basically, it is something that becomes the umbrella issue of the story which involves arguments and opinion on certain issues raised. Hmm…now it gives me the ideas on what and how am I going to do for my position paper ~

The first unexpected class

Today was the first class of EDU 3234 “Readings and Project Work for English Teaching Literature in ESL Contexts” lectured by Assoc. Prof. Dr. Malachi Edwin Vethamani. Basically for the first lecture of this subject, I didn’t expect many things. Anyhow, to my surprised, we were given the assignments of the whole semester! Wow, I was tremendously astounded. He actually gave concise explanation of this subject for the entire semester. I was quite happy to know that for this course, there will be no mid-semester exam and final exam, replaced by two assignments that carry major marks for this subject which are writing the position paper and project paper.

Not forgetting, the online assignment (writing blogs) does contribute 20% of the total marks. Well, apart from reading, I guess a lot of writing need to be done. Moreover, there will be an individual presentation of the position paper before its submission. Hurm…integration of three language skills; speaking, reading and writing. That’s grand! Apart, Dr. Edwin had assigned supervisors for our project work where I’ll be under Dr. Noreen’s supervision =). Dr. Edwin then introduced us to a PhD student, Mr Omid where he’ll be tutoring us for our “amali”. It was a funny thing happen when Dr. Edwin unintentionally called Mr. Omid as Ovid as in a title of a text, Ovid Metamorphosis. So, what else can we do? We were laughing out loud. Terrible, aren’t we? =D