Mirror Mirror (Official short horror film)

link here 

This video is here for Bridging Tension and Suspense Wed 4th November. Please watch it and complete the given handout. We will be discussing this in class on that day.

Poetry Readings

Congratulations for having completed Unseen Poetry.

Billy Collins https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ahdMvjqdlsk

Singapore Writers Festival 2011: Arthur Yap's '2 Mothers In A HDB Playground'

Arthur Yap https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WTl7t1zGKk4

Its always good to hear them read aloud.

Assignment for Friday 25 September for Literature

Please download the poem and either print out your answer and hand it to me in hardopy on the 28th September or send the softcopy to my email address prss.jumiah@gmail.com

Read this poem carefully, and then answer the questions that follow it.

Bird in the Classroom by Colin Thiele

The students drowsed and drowned In the teacher’s ponderous monotone – Limp bodies looping in the wordy heat, Melted and run together, desks and flesh as one, Swooning and swimming in a sea of drone.	5
Each one asleep, swayed and vaguely drifted With lidding eyes and lolling, weighted heads, Was caught on heavy waves and dimly lifted, Sunk slowly, ears ringing, in a syrup of his sound, Or borne from the room on a heaving wilderness of beds	10
And then, on a sudden, a bird’s cool voice Punched out song. Crisp and spare On the startled air, Beak-beamed Or idly tossed, Each note gleamed Like a bead of frost	15
A bird’s cool voice from a neighbour’s tree With five silver calls – mere grains of sound Rare and neat Repeated twice… But they sprang the heat Like drops of ice.	20
Ears cocked, before the comment ran Fading and chuckling where a wattle stirred, The students wondered how they could have heard Such dreary monotones from man, Such wisdom from a bird.	25

(i)            What impressions do you form of the teacher and students in the poem?

(ii)          How does the poet make the scene vivid for you in the poem?

Support your answer by close reference to the words and images that he uses.

AGONY by Katy Towell

link

Agony by Katy Towell. Listen to the reading and then modify your ideas (if you need to)

What is Poetry by Benjamin Zaphaniah (British Poet)

I have found it really useful as a way into poetry. Zephaniah's biography and unique poetry help even the most anti-poetry pupils find their voice!

Dr Benjamin Obadiah Iqbal Zephaniah was born and raised in Birmingham, England. He cannot remember a time when he was not creating poetry but this had nothing to do with school where poetry meant very little to him, in fact he had finished full time education at the age of 13. His poetry is strongly influenced by the music and poetry of Jamaica and what he calls 'street politics'. His first real public performance was in church when he was 10 years old, by the time he was 15 he had developed a strong following in his home town of Handsworth where he had gained a reputation as a young poet who was capable of speaking on local and international issues. It was once said of him that he was Britain's most filmed, photographed, and identifiable poet, this was because of his ability to perform on stage, but most of all on television, bringing Dub Poetry straight into British living rooms. The mission was to take poetry everywhere, he hated the dead image that academia and the establishment had given poetry and proclaimed that he was out to popularise poetry by reaching people who did not read books, those that were keen on books could now witness a book coming to life on the stage. This poetry was political, musical, radical, relevant and on TV.

To begin, listen to Zaphaniah's ideas and make a list for yourself as you had done some poetry in lower sec as well. You can listen to his other poems as well to see that poetry can be seirous YET fun as well.

link

Money

Text: Money

Money make a rich man feel like a big man

It make a poor man feel like a hooligan

A one parent family feels like a ruffian

An those who have it won’t give you anything

Money makes your friend become your enemy

You start to see things very superficially

Your life is lived very artificially

Unlike those who live in poverty

Money affects your ego

But money brings you down

Money causes problems anywhere money is found

Food is what we need

Food is necessary

Let me grow my food

An dem can eat dem money

Money can save us

But yet we feel doomed

Plenty money burns in a nuclear mushroom

Money can make you happy

Money can help you when you die

An those who have it continually live a lie

Children are dying

Spies are spying

Refugees are fleeing

Politicians are lying

An deals are done

An webs are spun

An no one keeps the third world on the run

An the brother feels better than the brothers next door

Cause his brothers got money an his brothers got more

The brother thinks a brother’s not a brother cause he’s poor

When a brother kills another that is economic war

Economic war we call it economic war

It may not be the east and west anymore

But the north and south third world far lord

Coffee an isle

That’s what it’s about

Economic war

Economic war

Shots fired from the stock market floor

So we work for a livin’

An we try an we try

With so little time for chillin’

Like we’re livin a lie

Money makes a dream become reality

Money makes real life like a fantasy

Money has a habit of going to the head

I have some for the rainy day underneath me bed

Money problems make it hard to relax

Money makes it difficult to get down to the facts

Money makes you worship vanity and lies

Money is a drug with legal highs

The parents of poor kids

Some are not coping

Some are just managing

Books that need balancin’

Property is theft

No money means death

You pay for your rent

An then nothing left

Some will pick your pocket

Some will pay to stop it

Those who will pay to stop it

They happy cause they got it

Some go out an fight for it

Some claim they got the right to it

An people like my grandparents

Live long but never side it

Money made me go out an rob

Then it made me go looking for a job

Money made the nurse

And the doctor emigrate

Money buys friends you love to hate

Money made slavery seem alright

Money brought the Bible

An the Bible shone the light

Victory to the penniless

The gospel shows us

We come to mash those market forces

The paper giant called market forces

Unseen Poetry 01: DICTION in war poetry

The following lessons will focus on 2 short poems. You are advised to listen to both poems and think about the following.

DICTION : "The best words in the best order" Samuel Taylor Coleridge

Definition of Diction (Word choice) : It is the selection of words employed by poets or writers to convey ideas.

Poets must convey meaning within a small space, therefore they choose their words carefully. In order to better appreciate a poem, we need to look at why the poet chooses one word instead of another.

Method: The 4-Step Method

1. Read the poem, highlighting interesting words or phrases which attract our attention.

2. Think about why a particular word is used instead of another. "Why X and not Y?"

3. Examine what the word/phrase denotes (its literal meaning) and more importantly, what it connotes (its implied meaning)

4. Examine the word in the larger context, that is how it elaborates the underlying meaning or theme of the poem.

Watch this video that we will discuss in our class this week:

We will begin with Mood, Tone and Atmosphere

Dulce et Decorum Est by Wilfred Owen; read by Kenneth Branagh
link

You can download the text from the internet. This is a World War I poem by Wilfred Owen. It is one of the most recognisable war poems that ever came out of that war. It is also a PROTEST poem.

Dulce et Decorum Est by Wilfred Owen; read by David Roberts
link

Listen to both readings to see if the reader has given you different insights into the poem.

Note: you might like to go to this link for explanation of the various terms as well.

Fire on the Mountain

This chapter deals with 2 issues:
1. The nature of the 'beast'.
2. The goals of the society or community that Ralph has created.

We will be discussing the following questions in our lesson tomorrow:
1. What changes have taken place in the community in this chapter?
2. What are the goals of this society? Are they reasonable? How do they go about achieving them?
3. How is Ralph's government working?
4. What do you think the beast is?
5. What caused the out-of-control fire in your estimation?
6. What do you think happened to the small boy with a "mark on his face"?

Be prepared to present your opinions and have them challenged tomorrow in class.

Good Luck.

Lord of the Flies (LOTF) PPT Introduction

"Lord of the Flies is "an attempt to trace the defects of society back to the defects of human nature."  WILLIAM GOLDING

Now that you have looked through and read Chapter One, The Sound of the Shell, carefully, look at the ppt presentation Lord of the Flies, created by a school teacher Lina Ell. It provides you with important links on concepts and symbolism that are found in Chapter One itself. This would be useful for your lesson on 22 July 2015.

After going through this presentation and close reading of chapter one, you will also do the following:

Examine the characters of Ralph, Jack OR Piggy in terms of what they possess that link them with their past lives, and what their emerging roles on the island are. Is there any indication which of these characters may be advancing more rapidly towards savagery than the others? Support your conclusion.

Make notes in your notebook and you can refer to it in our discussion of chapter one Sound of the Shell in class.
GOOD LUCK

lord of the flies golding from Ampat Koshy

The masks that we wear

TASK 1: In LORD of the FLIES, the concept of masks, painted faces, colors and light play a significant part in the symbolism of the text. In your journey with Julius Caesar, this concept of 2 different selves  ring constantly throughout the text as well.

In your lesson today, you should have with you ALL the materials to create your own masks - of your public selves and your private selves. You are at perfect liberty to design this mask yourselves. Your mask can be 3D or 2D. You have just 1 period to complete this task.

NOTE: At the end of this period you need to hand in your masks to your teacher with a brief note of explanation  for ALL the elements of your mask - shape, size, colours, embellishments etc. This is a graded piece of work.

TASK 2: Refer to the poem We Wear the Mask by Paul Lawrence Dunbar as you are doing your mask and think about the questions that follow. By the end of the period, you would have to answer all the questions listed here in the comments section.

WE wear the mask that grins and lies,

It hides our cheeks and shades our eyes, -

This debt we pay to human guile;

With torn and bleeding hearts we smile,

And mouth with myriad subtleties.

Why should the world be over-wise,

In counting all our tears and sighs?

Nay, let them only see us, while

        We wear the mask.

We smile, but, O great Christ, our cries

To thee from tortured souls arise.

We sing, but oh the clay is vile

Beneath our feet, and long the mile;

But let the world dream otherwise,

       We wear the mask!

POST your thoughts on the poem, in pairs, in the comments section. You need to answer all. WRITE your name at the beginning of the comments.

1. What does it mean?

2. What do you know about the speaker and how do you know it?

3. How does the form of the poem relate to the meaning of the poem?

4. How does the poem relate to the Lord of the Flies?

This last question 5, you should answer in your own notebook.

5. How does it relate to you?