Sunset

Sunset
Warmth veiled the boundless edges
Slowly dimming in the evening sun
Joy filled the heart
Slowly glowing beyond the golden hue

Serenity veiled the boundless edges
Glimmering in the evening breeze
Beauty spills around
Slowing glowing within the heart

Words can be expressed
Revealing the beauty of Allah’s creation
But no words to heave
The rhythms of my heart,
The melodies of my soul and
The serenity of my life…………

6.55pm 5th February2010












*sunset photos taken at bukit expo, in university putra malaysia

roses among thorns?

Drama is introduced in the new KBSM literature component for 2010 for the lower and upper secondary together with new poems and short stories. Rumplelstiltskin by Angela Lanyon is used for the lower secondary while Gulp and Gasp by John Townsend for the upper secondary. Will it be roses or thorns for the teachers as well as the students? It all depends on the teachers approach and the students acceptance. 

Teaching drama should be welcomed with open arms as it involves all four skills and provides a solid context for language learning, personal growth and culture understanding which can eventually enhance the intrapersonal and interpersonal growth. Besides that, it provides a touch of motivation element of joy and fun in the class room which can develop and stimulate students’ creativity and imagination. “Drama activities provide numerous avenues for group work and studies on second language learners show that using drama in the language classroom has increased students’ motivation, self-esteem and spontaneity.” (Edwin, 2004) Thus, it is a good idea to get the students involve in the role play for performance as they can comprehend better and eventually develop their love for literature as the most important concern is not the end product and artistic excellence but the students’ involvement in order that they can develop the cognitive and effective domains and as an amazing learning experience.

“Literary texts and drama activities can be used to teach language skills and also develop the cognitive and affective domains and meet cultural needs of the students. The utilization of drama activities will help bring back some of the important emotional content into the language learning experience which is often lacking in communicative language classrooms.” (Edwin, 2004)

“Tell me and I will forget, Show me and I will remember, Involve me and I will understand” Chinese proverb

Opening the door to the world of creative arts

Teaching literature is a challenging task if our students are not interested in it. Teachers have to give room to the students and opportunity to express their view and thoughts and appreciate their involvement. Feedback and comments from teachers do not have to be always positive, there are times we need to response to the students answers by asking them to support their stand with more textual evidence. Literature is pieces of creative writing, which can be also valued as work of arts, that can arouse interest in reading and also enhance language competency. Cultural models, language models and personal growth models for teaching literature can be applied when we teach literature in order to stimulate their interest and develop the cognitive and affective domains of the students.

“Teaching literature is a subject, and a difficult one. Doing it well requires scholarly and critical sophistication, but it also requires a clear idea of what literature is, of what is entailed in reading and criticizing it. It requires, in fact, some very self-conscious theorizing. But beyond the questions that ought to feed any serious critic’s sense of what doing literature might mean, there are questions about the relation between such sophistication, and the necessities of the classroom: what, how, and when are students more likely to learn?" (Levine,2001:14)