Term 3 Week 3

Monday:  As usual, Mr Chua arrived on time when the bell rang. He hurriedly settled down and began his lesson to prevent any wastage of time. He then continued his lesson on Elvis Presley play,"Are you lonesome tonight". He went through scene 1 text, explaining every detail of it. But before that, he randomly picked a few register numbers of the classmates and answer his questions without giving us time to think. Mr Chua then made us read scene 1, but not many people were reading, and he was disappointed. After reading through the text, he asked the class if anyone did not understand any words in that scene. Mr Chua was hoping that someone would speak up and ask questions, and a few classmates did. One of the students asked, "What is the meaning of crony?" Nobody answered, and Mr Chua called my name. I have to stand up and answer his question. I did not know the meaning, and he was disappointed of course. Mr Chua asked my if I read the text at home, and yes i did, but i did not thoroughly went through the text. He shook his head in disappointment then continued his lesson. He told us the meaning of crony - a person that befriend another and boot-licks him/her to gain benefits. But in the scene, Elvis former cronies were only after his money. Mr Chua also explained what is the meaning of Cadillac and chandeliers. I think that Elvis became very upset and depressed as everyone that he loves had left him. Thus, he turned into drugs to ease his pain, but it was only temporary. Reflecting on what today's Literature lesson was, I think that I have to put in more effort in revising the Literature text. I should not have just read and flipped through the text, but to get ahead of Mr Chua and thoroughly revise through the text. 

Just like Elvis, he placed his best efforts in his performance, to the people that loves him, his fans. I think that we should learn from him, placing our full efforts in learning Literature and analyzing what we had learnt, and willing to do more research on what we don't know and the background of the text.

Cadillac 1970s

Chandelier

Thursday: Mr Chua came in on time, as usual, never missing one Literature lesson. His main point for today's Literature lesson is that he want to make us THINK. Before that, he reminded us about the play and End-of year examinations again, 30% from the exam papers itself, the work that we've done and 70% on our play. So, he spent today's lesson on asking us questions, which is like a quiz. He told us to keep our files. He asked us some basic questions first, which most of us knew the answer and did not have to spend alot of time to think. After randomly picking out a few classmates to answer he went on to ask a much more challenging question,"Why was Redhead not given a proper name? Why was she called RedHead?" That required some time for us to think about it. He gave us around 3 minutes to think. I thought that she was called redhead as it might describe her features like having red hair. Mr Chua picked out a student, and the student answered, " I think that she was called Redhead as she was hot tempered." Mr Chua then picked another few students to share their thoughts. Some had not thought up of an answer, others were still thinking hard, while some are not. So Mr Chua picked out another few classmates who were not thinking hard enough to answer the question. He went through the text with us again, and we found out that she was not hot tempered at all. In fact, she cared alot about Elvis, but Elvis did not care about her feelings and thought that she was another crony and wanted his money. Mr Chua went on to explain and he told us that he wanted us to think more and jot down what we thought on our learning logs, instead of just re-capping on what we had learnt. So, what I think of today's lesson was, I think that Elvis should not treat Redhead this way, even if he was depressed. Redhead was just being caring compared to his other cronies, and prevented Elvis from taking the pills and to continue to deteriorate his health any further. He kept thinking that everyone wanted his money, and he is wrong. 

Term 3 Week 2

  There was no Literature lesson on Monday as it was a school holiday. Literature lesson resumed on Thursday. Mr Chua had to reprimand us whenever he stepped into class for every lesson as many people did not submit their assignment. After 15 minutes of scolding, we finally began our lesson. He distributed the text that we paid to the Literature representative. I flipped through the text, and found that it was about Elvis Presley. Mr Chua then introduced about Elvis Presley. He told us that he led a very dramatic life. He instructed us to take out a foolscap paper to jot down about what we knew about him, what we wanted to know and what I have learnt. I thought for a moment, then scribbled some points under what I know about him,"famous singer in the 1950s and 60s, genre: blues", what I want to know,"His background, career, lifestyle and other things he does besides singing" and what i learnt,"Best solo artist, american singer known as 'King of Rock and Roll', led a dramatic life and died at a very young age".

  After going through what we have discussed in class, he introduced drama. He went through  and explained the text. After that, he showed us a Elvis Presley music video."

blue suede shoes color". 

  We didn't managed to see the full video. It was all because that someone had turned the speakers volume to mute, and we wasted a lot of time. Mr Chua got angry of course, all because of that particular person. Mr Chua was really disappointed in us, and he told us to watch the video online ourselves. We had to reflect on our behavior.

"Love me tender"


  Literature ended, and I read through the text before the next teacher came in. I felt that most of the famous artist in the world had a very dramatic life. Michael Jackson is another example. Elvis died at a very early age, due to the addiction of drugs. Many of the famous artists died at the early age, and their life was full of drama. Is this their retribution of being famous? Is this their fate? I have not found an answer to it, maybe the next Literature lessons would help me find the answers to my questions.

Term 3 Week 1

  Monday: Today was the first Literature lesson of term 3. I couldn't wait for new interesting lessons to be taught. Our former Literature teacher took over the class. He came in as usual, and introduced the lessons that is going to be taught in this term.
 Our Literature teacher introduced two new plays that are going to be taught, they are "Are you lonesome tonight" and more. He instructed us to pay 25 cents each to the Literature representative to print out the texts for us. He also explained to us about the criteria on our end of year and the upcoming common test.
  Our teacher moved on to start the lesson. He introduced the plays that we are going to perform, Romeo & Juliet, and Merchant of Venice. He split us up into 4 groups, team Alpha, team Bravo, team Charlie and team Delta. I was appointed to team Bravo, along with my future groups members that I'm going to work with. They are Zaimah, Jalilah, Huzaifah, Karenjit, Wei Xiang, Reneita, Hui Jin, Ramadhan, Ding Hong and Hong Rong. Literature lesson was ending soon, so our Literature teacher assigned homework for us. We were supposed to do research about the roles of the theatrical production staff example, theartrical director, producer, make up artist, propert master etc. We have to place our homework in a box where the Literature representative have to take care of.





   Thursday: We got reprimanded for not submitting our assignment in the box. After the lecture, we assembled outside and went to the Aces gallery. We sat on the floor in our groups that we were assigned to, to confirm our roles in the play. Many people got lectured by our Literature teacher as they did not complete their homework. After much discussion, we had decided to act in Romeo & Juliet play as it was much interesting. 
Director: Zaimah
Actor 1 (IC): Huzaifah - Lord Capulet
Actor 2: Jalilah - Juliet
Actor 3: Karenjit - Romeo
Actor 4: Ebony(me) - Tybalt
Wardrobe 1(IC): Reneita - Nurse
Wardrobe 2: Wei Xiang
Wardrobe 3: Hui Jin
Set deco 1 (IC): Ramadhan - Cousin
Set deco 2: Hong Rong - Serving man
Set deco 3: Ding Hong - Benvolio


But before, we could hand up our work, the bell rang. So, we had to stay back after school to hand up our work and to confirm the roles again. I think that Literature is getting more interesting and meaningful every lesson.