A few things that I have learned in Language Arts

This year, I have learnt a lot of things in Language Arts lessons by Mr Lundberg. In this blog post, I am going to share a few things that I have learnt.

Currently, we are learning how to understand and appreciate poems. Previously in Primary School, we were not taught about poems and this is a completely new topic for most of us. Unravelling the meanings of the poems is interesting and sometimes difficult. To find out the meanings of the poems, we have to understand the whole poem before looking into each line carefully. Most of the time, we have to link the lines together to check if our understanding is correct. We have to read in between the lines as information is not directly given in a poem. We have to work things out for ourselves from the clues given in the text such as its figurative language. There may also be puns in the poem. A pun is a " play on word " in which a writer either uses a word which has two( or more ) often contradictory meanings, or uses two differently spelt words which sound the same. There are also rhythms, which are controlled by the use of punctuation, rhyme, repetition and different line lengths.

Another valuable thing I have learnt is summary writing. Summary writing is important as it does not beat around the bush and just goes straight to the point. Although the summarised part may not be too informative, it is shorter than the passage and easier to digest. Summarising a passage is quite simple. The main thing is to highlight and take note of the important points in a passage. There is a limit to the number of words you can write in a summary. Write down all your points and count them to see if they exceed the limit. After that, you can start writing the summary. You should not miss out any main points in the passage as this is a summary and is supposed to contain all the important information in the passage.

Last but not least, I believe that my grammar and vocabulary have also improved. These are some of the things that are valuable to me that I have learnt in Language Arts lesson this year.

National Day

Today, which is the 9th of August, is National Day! This year is Singapore's 45th birthday. As National Day falls on a Monday, we are on holiday today as well as tomorrow. We had our National Day celebration in school on Friday and I thoroughly enjoyed it.

The celebration included performances by Wushu, NCC and also Gymnastics. The Wushu team performed their routines and also " fought " with each other. The NCC squad performed a precision drill. I enjoyed this performance the most as it was really very impressive. After they threw their guns up, all of them caught their guns at the same time and their hand positions were also the same. Suck accuracy would definitely needed constant practice and also teamwork. The gymnastics team performed somersaults and cartwheels. At the end of their performance, they out a trampoline in front of two people, after that, another guy would jump over them by using the trampoline. He will stand behind them after the jump. The number of people obstacles just keep increasing until eight people are standing in a row and someone jumps over them.

Other than the performances, we also had contests such as the SMS contest and the Singapore History contest. The Singapore History contest was for a four pairs of teachers and students. They were given questions about Singapore's History. In the end, everyone who participated got a prize. Next was the SMS contest. The SMS contest was open to everyone in the school. About six questions were asked and we were supposed to key in the six answers and send it to a number. After that, there was a lucky draw for students who got all the answers correct. Not only were these the only contests, there was also a " Don't Forget The Lyrics" for three teachers and students. The songs that were given to the participants were the previous years' national day songs. All except one of the participants walked away with a bag of lollipops and sweets.

In conclusion, I enjoyed the national day celebration very much and hope to celebrate it again next year.

Three or so

This is an analysis of the poem " Three or so "

Step 2: About a dozen things that come to my mind:

1) About three things or more

2) Numericals

3) Family of Three

4)Three things in a picture

5) Back Alley

Step 4: List of things that force their attention on me:

1) Is the child in the snapshot me?

2) The soul of her fled long ago.

3) Through the door in that tiny yard

Step 5: Assonance:

Woollen Dress, Broken Door, Tiny Yard, Sun, Photograph, Motorbikes, Scrawny cats

Step 6: The group of words:

1) Rough men on motorbikes, not to be looked at.

2) Scrawny Cats scratching, not to be touched

3) The real soul of her fled long ago

Step 7: There is no pattern taking shape.

Step 8: It is the author's memory of his/her childhood through snapshots.

Step 9:

a) The poet

b) It is the poet himself/herself

c) The poet was sincere as he was recalling his childhood memories

d) The poet is also the speaker

e) The poet first describes herself, before describing herself and then what she had heard

f) I get to understand the poem better

Step 10: She hoped that she could express her feelings and thoughts as a child.

June Holiday Reading 2

Another book I read during this June Holidays is a book named " Ten Short Stories " The author of this book is Roald Dahl. This book consists of ten short stories.

There is not a modern short story writer anywhere to be compared with Roald Dahl. Each of his stories is so clever and has such a startling twist at the end of it that it leaves the reader gasping. The ten short stories in this book may depict human nature at its darkest, but they are also brilliantly funny and definitely completely unforgettable.

One of the stories that I liked was " The Umbrella Man ". In " The Umbrella Man ", an old man went around on a rainy day exchanging an umbrella for one pound. As it was raining cats and dogs, the people waiting at the taxi stand were desperate for an umbrella.

The old man of about seventy years of age claimed that he had walked to the shopping mall but forgot to bring a pound for the taxi fare. He said that he did this everyday as he was too tired to walk back home.

The old man spoke politely to the author's mother and successfully completed the trade. Upon getting the pound, the old man walked off hurriedly to the opposite road. This led the author and her mum to get suspicious. He did not seem tired to them at all! They followed him until he reached a bar.

The old man hung up his coat and hat and ordered a drink worth one pound. After finishing the drink, he grabbed his coat and hat, and in a manner so superbly cool and casual, he took one of the wet umbrellas hanging at the coat-rack and went back to the shopping mall.He went on exchanging his new umbrella for another pound but when to another bar this time. He was very clever, he never went to the same bar twice.

Another story I like alot is " Parson's Pleasure " . Mr Boggis is a knowledgeable but not honest antique dealer. He disguises himself as a clergyman and claims to be the president of the Society for the preservation of Rare Furniture.He travels around the countryside to buy antiques far less than they are worth.

Mr Boggis parks his rather large estate car far away so as not to arouse suspicion. At one of the farmhouses, me meets three men: Mr Rummins, the owner, Bert, his son, and a neighbour named Claud. After alot of persuasion, Mr Rummins finally allows Mr Boggis to enter his house and have a look.

Boggis sees an extremely valuable and rare piece of furniture, only four of existence. It is a type of chest of drawers named The Chippendale Commode. Although Boggis is excited, he keeps his emotions to himself in order not to arouse the men's suspicion. He pretends to be scornful of the furniture. Eventually, he claims that although it is of very little value, the legs from the chest of drawers might be useful to him because he has a coffee table whose legs are damaged.

Boggis casually offers to buy the chest of drawers. In order to get the drawers at a lower price than Mr Rummins claims, he keeps persuading Rummins that it is a fake and merely a reproduction. After some bargaining, Rummins agrees to sell it at a price of 20 pounds.

Boggis immediately left to fetch his car,and the three men think that the furniture will definitely not be able to fit inside Boggis' car as clergyman will only have a small vehicle.

The three men decide to cut off the legs of the chest of drawers as they think this will save Boggis time instead of doing it himself. Afterwards, they still think that the furniture is too large to fit inside a car, so they chop it further into smaller pieces. At this point, with the priceless furniture in small pieces, they see Mr Boggis returning.

This story left me laughing away while the previous story impressed me. I would have never thought of such a clever way to get money. " Ten Short Stories" is a really interesting as well as funny book and I encourage all to pick up this book and read it. It really gave me a good impression.

June Holiday Reading

This is about a book I read during this June Holidays. The book is entitled " The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night- Time "

The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time is a murder mystery novel like no other. The detective, and narrator, is Christopher Boone. Christopher is fifteen years old and unfortunately, he has Asperger's Syndrome. He know a lot about maths and very little about human beings. In the book, Christopher took his A level Maths and got an A grade. What's more, he is only 15! He hates the colours yellow and brown and also being touched by someone else. In the early part of the story, he punched a policeman who grabbed his arm.

In the book, his neighbour, Mrs Shears, had a dog. One night, he wanted to go over and say hi to the dog as he loved dogs. Upon reaching the house, he saw a garden fork sticking out of the dog, and the dog was breathless. He decided to write a book on this murder case. He went around all his neighbour's houses and asked them if they knew of anything suspicious. His father scolded him for poking his nose into other people's business.

One day, his father spotted Christopher's book and read it from head to toe. After doing that, he kept it away in a shirt box. Desperate to get the book back, Christopher searched around the house one day. Finally, he found the shirt box inside his father's cupboard. Together with the book, he also found a bunch of letters. The letters were signed to him by his dead mother.

This was the second mystery in the book. The dates on the letters were way after his mother had passed away. On another day, he opened up the letters and read them. After reading them, he found out that his mother had never died and his father was lying to him all along. Christopher's mother had run away with Mr Shears as both of them could not get along with their spouse.

After learning about the truth, Christopher vomited and fainted in the bed. When his father came back, he saw all the letters around and immediately understood what had happened. When Christopher had awaken, he explained the whole thing in tears. He had no choice, he wanted to protect his son. His father also admitted that he was the one who had killed Wellington, the dog belonging to the neighbour.

Christopher went to bed straight but he did not sleep. He knew that his father had killed Wellington, and he was scared that he might have him killed too. He planned to escape the next morning. He went into the garden and spent the night there as he felt mush safer. The next morning, his father had come to the garden, but he was well hidden and his father drove of to find him.

He had no where to go, he knew he could not stay at home, nor could he stay with his teacher. He finally made up his mind to live with his mother. Christopher was on a difficult task, as he needed to travel all the way to London all by himself. After much difficulty, he found the train station and started his journey.

Apparently, his father made a police report and the police were looking for him. A policeman spotted him on the train and was planning to alight at the next stop. Christopher went to the toilet and when he came out, he hid in a shelf where commuters out their luggage on. He successfully arrived at London without the policeman in sight.

With the help of a map, he found his mother's house. No one was at home so he waited in the rain until he heard his mother and Mr Shears voices. He stayed in his mother's house for a few days before his father came knocking on the door. Christopher's mother had to settle something in his hometown so they made their way back, dropping by at his house to get some clothes.

The rented a small house somewhere else. A few days later after they reached, Christopher had to take his A level Maths exam. There were three parts to the exam and he went back for three days consecutively.

His father wanted to apologize to Christopher and bought him a golden retriever after the exams. His father wanted to spend time with his son everyday so that they will learn to trust each other more and get along better.

I have no particular favourite part in this story but i throughly enjoyed it. I recommend those who have not read this book to pick it up and read it now.

Poem- My School Day

During my primary school days,

I slept quite early every day.

I always had a clean shoe,

my CCA was wushu.

There wasn't a badge that time,

but now with a badge it's still fine.

Every Monday we had to wear a tie,

Drops of sweat dripped into my eye.

Sometimes I was real unlucky,

having bees buzzing around me

During the National Anthem.

My stomach would always churn.

Finally its time to go home,

I packed up and left my "throne"

I realized I had lots of homework,

but there was nothing else I could do.

Online Learning- Favourite Poem or Song Lyrics

The Simple Truth by Philip Levine

I bought a dollar and a half's worth of small red potatoes,
took them home, boiled them in their jackets
and ate them for dinner with a little butter and salt.
Then I walked through the dried fields
on the edge of town. In middle June the light
hung on in the dark furrows at my feet,
and in the mountain oaks overhead the birds
were gathering for the night, the jays and mockers
squawking back and forth, the finches still darting
into the dusty light. The woman who sold me
the potatoes was from Poland; she was someone
out of my childhood in a pink spangled sweater and sunglasses
praising the perfection of all her fruits and vegetables
at the road-side stand and urging me to taste
even the pale, raw sweet corn trucked all the way,
she swore, from New Jersey. "Eat, eat" she said,
"Even if you don't I'll say you did."
Some things
you know all your life. They are so simple and true
they must be said without elegance, meter and rhyme,
they must be laid on the table beside the salt shaker,
the glass of water, the absence of light gathering
in the shadows of picture frames, they must be
naked and alone, they must stand for themselves.
My friend Henri and I arrived at this together in 1965
before I went away, before he began to kill himself,
and the two of us to betray our love. Can you taste
what I'm saying? It is onions or potatoes, a pinch
of simple salt, the wealth of melting butter, it is obvious,
it stays in the back of your throat like a truth
you never uttered because the time was always wrong,
it stays there for the rest of your life, unspoken,
made of that dirt we call earth, the metal we call salt,
in a form we have no words for, and you live on it.

Reason Why I Like This Poem

I like this poem because it is simple to understand. Although it is a little wordy, it is easy to comprehend. I can understand what the author is mainly trying to say and the words she uses to describe are very nice.

Figurative Speech Used In the Poem

In the second line of the poem, the author mentioned boiling the potatoes in their jackets. The jackets she is referring to is the skin of the potatoes. In the fifth last line, the author said " It stays in the back of your throat like a truth". It is obvious that the thing she is talking about does not really stay in her throat, she is using figurative speech to say that she regrets what she had done and the thing keeps on bothering her, like something staying in her troat.