Tuesday, January 23, 2007
Thesis statement
Remember the wish that I wrote in the last journal. On the second day, I went to see my tutor with my friend. She said yes to my thesis statement and she commented that there are a lot of points to write in the position paper. The moment she said the words 'Yes, I accept your thesis statement', all my worries and burden seemed like flying out from my head and my body became lighter as if I was floating in the air. Sound foolish right? Honestly that was what I felt. It had been bothering me. Finally, I got it right this time. Hurray! The next step is to think of the points to support my argument. Nobody knew that it was just a temporary happiness. On the following day, I had a tutorial class. The first thing she said was some of the thesis statements cannot be used because there have cause and effect in the statement. My thesis statement definitely could not be used as I used the word drive’. (Men in Blanche’s life drive her to insanity in 'A Street car Named Desire’ by Tennessee Williams)There goes my happiness. But luckily, I just needed to rephrase the thesis statement. I need to show my thesis statement in tomorrow tutorial class. I took one night trying to rephrase it, but…. On the second day, I went to consult my friend and my friend helps me to rephrase the statement.(Men in Blanches shattered her world of illusion in 'A Street car Named Desire’ by Tennessee Williams) Then I wrote it on the board. When the tutor looked at my thesis statement, my heart was pumping faster and faster and my limbs grew cold. Yes, this is a better. I regained the heat and everything became normal again. So, I can proceed to the next step peacefully.
Getting the thesis statement correct was really really hard. However, I learn not to give up easily. There are many hurdles in our life; we have to be tough in overcoming all the difficulties in life. In future, there might be a chance for me to further my studies. So, this experience is like giving me a preparation as I might do another or more position papers in future.
Remember the wish that I wrote in the last journal. On the second day, I went to see my tutor with my friend. She said yes to my thesis statement and she commented that there are a lot of points to write in the position paper. The moment she said the words 'Yes, I accept your thesis statement', all my worries and burden seemed like flying out from my head and my body became lighter as if I was floating in the air. Sound foolish right? Honestly that was what I felt. It had been bothering me. Finally, I got it right this time. Hurray! The next step is to think of the points to support my argument. Nobody knew that it was just a temporary happiness. On the following day, I had a tutorial class. The first thing she said was some of the thesis statements cannot be used because there have cause and effect in the statement. My thesis statement definitely could not be used as I used the word drive’. (Men in Blanche’s life drive her to insanity in 'A Street car Named Desire’ by Tennessee Williams)There goes my happiness. But luckily, I just needed to rephrase the thesis statement. I need to show my thesis statement in tomorrow tutorial class. I took one night trying to rephrase it, but…. On the second day, I went to consult my friend and my friend helps me to rephrase the statement.(Men in Blanches shattered her world of illusion in 'A Street car Named Desire’ by Tennessee Williams) Then I wrote it on the board. When the tutor looked at my thesis statement, my heart was pumping faster and faster and my limbs grew cold. Yes, this is a better. I regained the heat and everything became normal again. So, I can proceed to the next step peacefully.
Getting the thesis statement correct was really really hard. However, I learn not to give up easily. There are many hurdles in our life; we have to be tough in overcoming all the difficulties in life. In future, there might be a chance for me to further my studies. So, this experience is like giving me a preparation as I might do another or more position papers in future.
Sunday, January 14, 2007
My PoSitIon PaPeR
My first assignment for EDU 3234 is position paper. On last Tuesday lecturer briefed us about the first assignment. What is a position paper and what are we suppose to write in this paper. The first thing to do is to choose a literary text and then write a thesis statement. We have to show it to our tutor tomorrow. Writing the most difficult thing in this assignment commented by our tutor. I also agree with her. As I remembered during my year 2 of degree in teachers training college, one of my courses was expository writing. In this course, we learned how to write a thesis statement. At that time I did not pay much attention in learning how to write a thesis statement because I did not really like the course and it was boring. I think now I begin to feel a bit regretL. I had spent the whole night thinking how to write a thesis statement. At the same time I was thinking how I am going to get the literary text as I already sent back all my literature books back. It was really a hard night. At the end, I came out with a sentence which I think it was a thesis statement. On the second day, I volunteered to show my thesis statement in the class. Sadly it was not accepted. After looking at a few examples given by my course mates, I think I know how to write it already. I hope the next meeting with the tutor, she will grant a pass for my thesis statement. So, I can continue to the second step which is to think about the points to substantiate by stand. Nothing is impossible.
Tuesday, January 09, 2007
In today lesson, I learnt the use of tales, myths and legends in teaching literature. These could be used in the set induction. The main purpose is to gain students attention. As in my survey which I had done in one of my literature course, literature is rated as the most boring subject by a group of secondary school students. Therefore, I think by using tales, myths and legends is one of the effective ways to start an interesting literature lesson. As my own experience during in secondary school, sometimes my teacher told short stories following by the actual literature lesson. I could recall that everyone stopped talking and turned their attention to the story teller. Sometimes my teacher also used stories to start the English lesson. Stories will always interest us as we did not need to talk. Besides, tales, myths and legends can be used as a closure. This is new to me as I never had this experience before. Tales, myths and legends can serve as reward as students have fulfilled the tasks given.
Sometimes we might ask how can we use tales, myths and legends in a literature class when we are teaching in a high English proficiency students. they are so good and may be some of them even know more tales, myths and legends than I do. In my opinion, we adapt these to suit their standard. In a classroom, some of the students might not know them. So, those whose know can tell the stories to those who do not know. Besides, we can ask about their opinion about the stories they have read. I think both these ways can promote two ways interaction in the classroom. One is teacher to students interation and students to students interation.
We can use tales, myths and legends as everyone likes to listen to story for all ages people and different English proficiency. But remember do not use stories too frequent as students will be bored of story telling.
Sometimes we might ask how can we use tales, myths and legends in a literature class when we are teaching in a high English proficiency students. they are so good and may be some of them even know more tales, myths and legends than I do. In my opinion, we adapt these to suit their standard. In a classroom, some of the students might not know them. So, those whose know can tell the stories to those who do not know. Besides, we can ask about their opinion about the stories they have read. I think both these ways can promote two ways interaction in the classroom. One is teacher to students interation and students to students interation.
We can use tales, myths and legends as everyone likes to listen to story for all ages people and different English proficiency. But remember do not use stories too frequent as students will be bored of story telling.
