Peer Teaching Evaluation

So we have started the next micro teaching session. This time around, we need to conduct lessons for pre reading and while reading. Since we have been informed that the micro teaching will be held after the holidays, we had ample time to prepare for the worksheets and materials needed. However, I found out that most of us prepared only worksheets. I myself did the same. After several groups presented, I found out that teaching at this stage requires more than only worksheets. And again, technology does play an important role in a teaching session. For example, in the pre reading stage, to discuss what students have underlined while the teacher is reading the extract, we need to get a transparency to be displayed. We can discuss and communicate with students to get their feedback. Dr. Edwin had given us comments and critiques and I guess all of them are very important for those who have not presented in the sense that they might avoid the same mistakes done by the others. Moreover, part of learning is not to repeat the same mistake. So the session started with Amardev and Harveen as the first group. Through their presentation, I found out that they were able to come out with appropriate and comprehensible worksheets. What I like the most about their class is that they were able to grasp the students’ attention through a proper way of interaction, as well as having good voice projections. It is very important to have a clear voice so that it shows that we are comfortable to use the language and to a certain extend, we are telling the students that we are confident in what we are doing. Not only that, but when our voice can be heard, students will be able to listen and respond to the teacher. Another pair that shows a good example is Hairunnisa and Munirah. They have given clear instructions and so, their lesson flows smoothly. Giving clear instructions and asking good questions are very important in teaching. When you are a teacher, you can see your students’ reactions or perhaps the changes in their faces when they do not understand your instructions. So then, you have to repeat your questions by paraphrasing it or by all means, turn the instructions into a simpler phrase. The micro teaching session has given us opportunities to improve the way that we have presented last time.

Reflection on Micro Teaching

It was definitely not an easy task to plan a lesson. We are required to prepare a Set Induction session and our group had chosen the play Antigone by Sophocles and we focused on Character and Characterization. I was thankful that this was a task to be done in pairs. So we did not have much problems in generating ideas to plan for the set induction. During the first day that the micro teaching started, I found out some of my friend's weaknesses and as a result, my partner and I decided to change the lesson in which we had prepared. Thank god, we did the right thing. I was pretty sure that our first lesson plan would be rejected in the first place. So during the presentation everything went well. We were glad that we managed to plan and finally present well. Being among the later groups to go and present, we were able to analyze and improve whatever needed. Basically our set induction presents the relationship between Creon and Haemon in the play, through the song Perfect by Simple Plan. While presenting, I found out that it was not easy for a teacher to capture students' interest to the lesson. Having the advantage of using a song in which every one was familiar with, we managed to make them understand the relation between both characters, as well as being able to derive the characteristics depicted in the song as a representation of what is in the play. All in all, I think that the micro teaching has exposed us to different approaches and also at the same time knowing the right procedures in carrying out a lesson.

Elizabethan Theatre

Before we started reading Shakespeare's King Lear, Dr. Edwin gave us a lecture on the Introduction to Elizabethan Theatre. Gradually it has given me a better understanding of the play itself, where it has a lot of animal imageries, and the implication of the imageries. There are a lot of animal imageries depicted in the play. For example, both Goneril and Regan in the play were associated with the cuckoo bird and there is also a reference to the kite. Cuckoo birds were used to represent both characters as they did not have the courtesy to show their gratitude towards Lear, as their own father, which was very much the cuckoo bird’s nature. These animal imageries are significant ways in a Shakespearean play to tell the readers and audience about the characteristics of the characters in the play. King Lear was a very interesting play to read, and thanks to the notes (",) in our books, we were able to understand the play better. We also watched a movie; Shakespeare Wallah and from this movie, we are able to see how the casts of a play prepare themselves for a performance. Another Shakespeare's movie we had watched is Macbeth. I have never read the play before, and of course, I feel that by viewing the movie, it would be much easier when I want to read the play by myself. Macbeth is another tragic play. As for me, the most interesting part of the play was the appearance of the three witches. I feel that their predictions about what to happen to Macbeth functions as warnings to prevent him from doing the wrong things that he did. Macbeth remembers strongly what the witches told him yet he followed his heart but not his mind which later lead to his downfall. It was obviously a price to pay for he did all but the wrong things to be proclaimed as the King.

4:48 Psychosis

We went to KLPac to watch Gavin Yap's 4:48 Psychosis. It was my first time to watch a play. Before watching the play, I read the programme book, as well as some articles and reviews on the play. So, by understanding the background of the play and also the playwright, I was able to feel that watching the whole play was a 'trip through a mind'. The play was basically about a depressed nameless women who undergone a lot of medical treatments and in her mind, she tortures herself with thoughts of confusion, anger and insecurity. Simultaneously, I can feel what happens to a person's mind when they suffer a psychotic breakdown. Since the play was the presentation of those which happens in mind, we ended up watching a play in a dark room, and there's not much of the use of lights. And when we asked Gavin Yap why he did not use any props for the play, the simple reason was because it is something that happens within one's mind, thus, no props are needed. We were so lucky that it was the final performance of the show and, after watching the play, we had the chance to talk to the director, Gavin Yap and one of the casts, Susan Lankester. A group photograph with the director, Gavin Yap

Pygmalion-The movie

And so, we have finished reading Pygmalion in class. It was a great opportunity to get to watch Pygmalion the movie after reading the play. I was able to recall some of the lines while watching and understand the plot well. For me, the slight change in the plot at the end of the movie had given me a clearer reason of why the play is 'A Romance in 5 Acts'. Besides that, I get to know the actual sounds which Eliza had made. The movie was able to give me a better understanding of the play, because I get to see everything written in the text being brought to actions. The actors in the movie managed to portray the characters described in the play. The scene which I like the most is the part when Eliza met Higgins for the first time. Higgins imitated the way that Eliza speaks, and he managed to repeat the lines with the exact pronunciation as hers. It was quite a pity that our class brought the incomplete version of the text. So, while reading the play in class, there are some missing scenes. Only later, we managed to get the unabridged copy of the play. But this does not help much because we have to read the missing scenes in the earlier parts of the play on our own. Thus, this play was a helpful way in refreshing the sequence of events in the play i.e. what event happens after each scene. It was a classic black and white movie, yet I enjoyed watching it.

Theatre on stage

I have been watching several movies which depicts the real theatre during the earlier years. Among them are Phantom of the Opera, Shakespeare in Love and Moulin Rouge. Some of the movies are musical, yet I believe that these movies were able to present the real picture of what happened behind the scene and even what happens on stage, during the performance of the play. Besides that, the real settings, the production, the props being used, the lighting arrangements, the curtain falls and how the actors and actresses present themselves on stage, has given me a better understanding of drama, plays and theatre. The whole play, it really was a lot of hard work, from preparing the props, to managing the casts, and finally presenting the play. Theatre is very important and is part of the culture of the people of Rome, France, and England. The involvement of the audience during a particular play will indicate the success of the production. There are not much of these classical theatres being presented these days, and if there is any of such in Malaysia, I would not miss the chance to go and watch one!

Twist of the Myth?

After reading Ovid's Metamorphoses, finally I had a better view of Shaw's Pygmalion. Before starting to read the play, I expected Pygmalion to be one of the character's names, as Antigone in Antigone (and obviously I got that wrong). I love the way Shaw presented his very own version of Pygmalion as "A Romance in Five Acts". Basically both the myth and Shaw's Pygmalion presents the creation of a woman as what a man desires. Higgins is the 'creator' of Eliza as Pygmalion is to Galatea. What is different of the two is that both has different endings. Shaw had given a different way of presenting his own Pygmalion. In the myth, Pygmalion shows his love and how devoted he was to the sculpture he created and when it was brought to life, he married his creation. In Shaw's Pygmalion, Higgins did not show any affection towards Eliza, and their relationship was between a teacher and a student, with less personal feelings involved and this play can be considered as less romantic, as compared to the myth.