Blog-Writing Prompt #5

         When I was in Primary 6 two years back, when it was after exams, my class took part in an activity called the Innomart. It was an activity where students think up of products or games to attract people to purchase or play, and the money collected will be for the charity. Each class was to come up with about 2 to 3 games or products. Our class came out with 2 games and 1 product. The product was called Moodz and our games were called Pingz and Pongz. Although I had tried to make a game myself, I was not successful and the game was not used for the activity.

          Even though my game was not chosen, I had a fun time as a volunteer at our game stall. It was quite fun when I see people playing our games and buying our products. During this time, every volunteer had to try their their best to cooperate with one another, to avoid some silly mistake like returning wrong amount of money to the customer or giving him the wrong amount of cards, used to exchange for items when they win a game. Also, the person who collects the money has to be very attentive and listen to the other people who will give him the money. It was very enjoyable except for some mistakes during the first day. We also won the best selling award and the best game award!

          Through the activity, I learn that I could actually speak up and persuade people to play our games. This was important as people might not know about our stall. Therefore, I feel that persuading people to play our games is one of the most important job. 

Reflection on the "Comic Strip"

    I like this exercise of using comic strips to enhance our learning. Not only is the comic strips creation interesting and fun, it also allows me to think more creatively, such as what plot I should use and so on. From the experience, I had learnt that there is many ways of presenting a story or plot, and it is not just limited to an essay or a composition. The use of pictures and comic is also available too. For me, I feel that the use of pictures or comic would be much better than a thousand word long essay, since a picture is better than a thousand words.
     I would definitely create more comic strips in the future, and hope that I would be able to create more creative ones, and I will really enjoy the process of creating comic strips.

2nd comic strip

Step 1: The message I wished to convey is that people likes to laugh at others, but they themselves have the same mistakes.

Step 2: It makes the reader feel that the characters are funny, and they might start to reflect on it.

Step 3: I think that I should put the background as an outdoor image, since I do not want it to be limited to just human beings.

Step 4: By using animals and plants, it can make it more funny, since it is a common thing for human beings to
laugh at one another.

Step 5:  This is my comic strip:

Create your own Toon

1. This is to create a more funny image for the readers, and allow them to reflect on their own actions and see if they had done something silly like the plants.
2. The images contributes to my setting because plants are found outdoors, while animals like being outdoors. This make the setting looks more neutral and relaxed, since the natural environment makes one feel comfortable.
3. I used contrast to contribute to my theme. Although plants and animals cannot talk (in human language), this will make it more interesting to read. 

2O4 Home Learning Online Lesson 24/1/11

Step 1:  Laziness of Singaporeans

Step 2: I want to make the comic strip about how lazy a student can be, and depends on the maid to help him. The comic can be humorous, but I want it to make people think about themselves and try to change themselves into someone who isn't lazy.

Step 3: Since it is a school, it will depict a setting where a teacher meets students, and is suitable to convey my message.

Step 4: The dialogue between the student and the teacher shows how frustrating the teacher can get, and that is due to the silly answers the student gives. 

This is my comic strip: 

1. The images are used from 1 picture, but i used some tools such as paint and Photoshop to edit them. This is because I like the picture as it can easily show what I want to convey.

2. The images contribute to my plot by making it more humorous, since it would be boring if I just put words in it. Also, it makes the character be able to be seen by readers easily, and they would not need to think able how the characters look like, and what actions, what things they are doing or holding. This will allow more focus on the plot and create less confusion.

3. I used the student as an example of a lazy child, who depends on his maid for everything. For the teacher, who seems to be fierce, she is used as an example of the world we are living in. If the child continues to be lazy, he might be a victim to the cruel world in which he lives in.  ( Note: I do not mean that all Singaporean children are lazy, just some of them  :D )

Learning Goals for this year

    There is a lot of goals that I want to achieve, such as improving relationships with my family members. However, for my learning goals this year, I have only three.

     Firstly, I want to improve on my grammar and spoken English. I am still not very good at pronouncing hard words, and I find it quite hard to try. However, I do not how I can improve on it, since I speak Mandarin with my family members. Also, the spoken English of my parents is not every good too. 

    Secondly, I want to improve on my comprehension skills. I found out last year that my comprehension skills were terrible! I almost failed all of the comprehension assignments! Thus, I would like to be better at it, especially the part on reading between the lines.

     Lastly, I want to be able to learn about Merchant of Venice. I had bought the book during the December holidays, but after reading for a while, I could not understand it. Thus, I hope that I can know what the book is about. 

     I guess that's all the learning goals for this year. Hope that I can achieve these goals. 

#1 LA ACE blog post

Question 2:  Have you ever been part of a group of people who were unkind to one or some individuals? What was the circumstance? How did you act? What did you feel? 

Answer: 

      In my Primary School life, there was once a time when our class, which was almost all Chinese, and we did not like a particular Indian girl. Then, we started to ignore her when she was talking to us, and we sometimes even hid her stuffs. Also, we even made fun of her and called her names. At that point of time, even though I felt that we were too unkind to a fellow classmate. For a while, I did not do what the others did. However, my "friends" threatened that they would not be friends with me anymore if I don't continue making fun of her or tell the teacher. Under the pressure of my "friends", I could only continue making fun of the girl. 

     This continued for months, and finally, the teacher founded out about the bullying case. The girl had been crying at home and her father finally knew about it. Then, her father reported the case to our form teacher. Our form teacher thus made us apologise to the girl and promise not to do it again. Our form teacher decided to forgive us since the girl had asked her to drop the case, since she saw our sincerity in apologising.

     Through this bullying case, I realised the importance of racial harmony and I should never had listen to my so-called " friends". Breaking my relationship with these fake "friends" would had been the best choice. I had really regretted what I had done and I hope that it will never happen again.

A poem that left the Greatest Impact on me

 The poem that left the greatest impact on me is "Fire and Ice" by Robert Frost.

Some say the world will end in fire, Some say in ice. From what I've tasted of desire I hold with those who favor fire. But if it had to perish twice, I think I know enough of hate To say that for destruction ice Is also great And would suffice.

     Since I am interested in finding when is the day Earth is gone, this poem caused me to be interested in it. However, I did not think that the world might end in fire or in ice. At first, I felt that it would be like wiping out the dinosaurs, such as comets or the Sun being covered up for too long. After that, I thought that it might be caused by Man's pollution, or the Earth crashing into other planets. 

      However, after reading " Fire and Ice", I realised that there might be more causes to Earth's destruction, such as Earth moving closer and closer to the Sun and maybe, the whole planet will be burned in to ashes. Also, there is a possibility of Earth moving further and further from the Sun, and finally frozen. In Robert Frost's poem, it suggested that Earth might be destroyed by fire or ice, and I think that it is very possible. However, I feel that Earth being destroyed by fire is more possible than ice, since there is global warming now and the Earth is getting warmer and warmer.

The Most Valuable thing I had learnt last year in LA

     I feel that the most valuable thing that I had learnt last year in LA is learning about poems. I thought that understanding a poem would be very hard when I first knew that we would be learning about poems. Therefore, I tried my best to understand it. It was quite easy if I understood the difference between words like metaphor and simile, assonance and rhyme, repetition and alliteration.

      It was quite hard for me at the beginning, but finally I was able to understand how to analyse poems. Analysing poems is quite fun, and I enjoyed the experience of learning how to analyse poems very much. It also left a very strong impression on me, since this was the first time I learnt about analysing poems. Therefore, I feel that learning how to analyse a poem is quite useful and is the most valuable thing that I had learnt last year in LA.

Favourite Book

         My favourite book is "Bang Bang You're Dead" by Narinder Dhami. The book is about a girl named Mia. One day, when a mysterious gunman takes a class hostage, the rest of Mia's school is evacuated. However, Mia decided to stayed behind, although she was afraid. She felt that she know who the gunman is, and therefore decided to find out if she is correct. As Mia overcome each and every obstacles that prevent her from "un-masking" the gunman, she soon realises that the gunman is not who she thought would be! And, finally, in the end, an even more interesting fact was revealed! Her "brother" was actually a "spirit" and the Jamie she called brother was actually the split personality of herself!
          The very interesting twist in the ending makes me feel like going "WOW!". That's why I would recommend this book since the words are quite easy to read and it is very interesting.
          The URL of this book on goodreads.com is http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/6395967-bang-bang-you-re-dead.

Shel Silverstein's poems

The Little Boy and the Old Man by Shel Silverstein:

Question 1: The relationship between parents and children, is often strained and poor, such as the old man and the little boy being "ignored" by their children and parents respectively. This tells us that we must always be filial  

to our parents.

Question 2: Shel Silverstein used repetition, and since the little boy and the old man's word are almost the same, this creates the image of how similar they are treated.

Messy Room by Shel Silverstein:

Question 1: The character in the poem thought that the messy room was somebody else's, and made many negative comments of the room. However, in the end, the character was told that it was his, and the forgetfulness of the character makes the poem humorous.

Question 2: The aspect of the human character is forgetfulness and untidiness.

Cloony the Clown by Shel Silverstein:


Question 1: Everybody did exactly the opposite of the reaction that Cloony wanted from them. For example, when he is trying to be funny by telling a joke, everybody's hearts were broken.

Question 2: Yes. It showed how tragic one's life could be, when people do not do what you hope they would do, and this might make one's life miserable and become unable to take it anymore and do something silly like committing suicide.

Question 3: The poetic devices are rhyme, repetition and aliteration.

I can identify with the poem Cloony the Clown by Shel Silverstein the most out of the three, since this poem is quite interesting and the way of writing is different from the first two. Also, I can visualise the imagery of the poem the easiest.

Narrative Activity - Answers to Big Fish

1. The phrase is an ironic phrase to me, showing the contrast between the fish and the pond. An example of such a contrast will be an eagle, thinking that it is a chicken and does not try to fly, and in the end, its wings will never be able to let it fly.

2. The purpose is to show he’s affection for his family, his love for his wife and wanting to impress his son.

3. William Bloom was amazed by his father tale and looked up to him as a boy. However, as he gets older, he starts to get unhappy and frustrated at his father for repeating the tale again and again.

4. He wants to improve the relationship between him and his sone by impressing him with the tale.

5. The relationship between Edward and William Bloom became more and more strained as William grew more and more annoyed at his father’s tale.

6. Exaggerated stories match this description. The effect of telling a story in this way might be causing people to not believe it, or suspicious of it.

7. It makes the story more unbelievable, since some parts of the bending or exaggeration might not be realistic and cause suspicion. Therefore, it is much less valid than a straight reportage of the facts.