Miss Teratai's English Class

Extension to your COMPLETED Personal Legend

2009-07-26T22:27:00.000-07:00

Dear 1E2ians,

My sincere apologies over the issue of the computer laboratory. I am still checking with the IT Trainer on whether there are still computer labs that are available for our next lesson.

With that in mind and the discussions we had in class, you will now get an extension to your homework of 1E2 Book Of Legends. You can now email (msteratai@gmail.com) it to me

by tomorrow, 28th July, Tuesday, by 8.00pm.

If you are reading this, do email me your work and also the blog address of which your story will be published on.

Important note: You are NOT to publish your work as of yet as I want to do the marking for each segments. Only when we are done with all the marking and revisions, may you publish your work. I want you to publish your perfect work on your blogs as I will be advertising them to my fellow teachers and peers from other schools :) I am very proud of 1E2ians.

So don't forget about your homework - I am looking forward to your emails. I am very encouraged by your participation in class and the quality of your work too. So GAMBATTE!

Anyway, this will be my last week at Zhenghua so let's make it a happy one!

Peaced Out,

Miss Teratai @ Zhenghua

1E2 Book of Legends: The Ending

2009-07-26T20:18:00.002-07:00

Dear 1E2ians,

Today we will be completing your personal legend by writing the ending! Finally, we are here!

Some of you have been really hardworking and actually sent me your BODY+CLIMAX. So let's have a look at one that I really liked -

This is the BODY+CLIMAX done by Esther and Xinrui on The Legend Of Stacey Wu:

I think the climax really gave suspense to the readers. It is not perfect so writers take note of my personal comments and revised them. I hope that all of you will give me something to look forward to!

Now back to serious business, we are writing our Ending today.

Remember that you will need to include the following in your ending:

a) What happened after the climax?

b) Conclusion to the story?

c) Moral of the story.

For the format of the story, just follow mine below. I hope it gives you some ideas to the writing of your ending!:

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Instruction: To email this copy to Miss Teratai at msteratai@gmail.com

By, 27^th July 2009, Monday by 8.00p.m.

Name: Miss Teratai

Class:1E2

Date:27^th July 2009

The Legend of the Crying Banana Tree

Introduction

When we think of banana trees, we often think of the many evil ghosts that linger around the bushes. Even you are now imagining the horrid image of a white cloth flying through the air…

But have you ever heard of the legend of the Crying Banana Tree? It is a story set in an earlier Singapore, 50 years ago to be exact, about a girl named Suraiya. She was the most beautiful and kind person. But in the end, she was cursed for eternity - to be imprisoned inside a banana tree by an evil sorcerer named Abu.

Body

Every morning, at the first light of dawn, Suraiya would always sit by this particular banana tree and sang her heart out. Her fiancé, Bahrin, was away at sea and her songs were always depictions of her love for him. She had a beautiful voice that could stop anyone in his tracks. And on one particular day, an evil sorcerer, Abu, came by and heard her singing melodiously.

He was besotted by her. Quickly, he asked for her hand in marriage from Pak Leman but he was outrightly refused. Pak Leman did not think he was fit enough to be his son-in-law and rudely chased him out of village!

“Get out of this place, you fool!” bellowed Pak Leman.

Feeling humiliated by such treatment, Abu went out of the village as quietly as he could and everything went back to normal. Or so it seemed.

Climax

A week went by peacefully. Suraiya quietly walked over to her favourite spot beside a tree. RUSTLE RUSTLE! She heard the sounds of leaves being brushed aside and stones being thrown about. Her heart raced as if she was cut off air. What could that be? The sudden glint of a knife swept across her face. A black shadow!

Ending

The black shadow soon bore a face and it was Abu! Panic struck Suraiya and she sat rooted to the ground with her back pinned to the banana tree. The look of evil on his face was telling – he wanted to harm her!

“Your father humiliated me with such arrogance! Such contempt!” shouted Abu. “You will now pay for what he did!”

As those words screeched through the air, there was a sudden whistling of the wind. The banana tree began to sway and the ground started to shake terribly. Murmurings of a secret chant whispered through the banana tree plantation. Suddenly, a small black hole emerged in the centre of the tree and she felt herself being swallowed whole. Soon, her feet was gone, followed by her legs… her hands were scratching the ground to keep herself on earth. Her horrified screams shook the entire village!

“My daughter!” cried Pak Leman as he saw Suraiya fighting her life. He tried pulling her in with all his might. Alas, it was not meant to be. His daughter soon became the victim of the sorcerer’s bidding. She was forever cursed to be inside the banana tree.

Pak Leman never again whispered a single word in his life. He realized that words could cut deeper than any wounds could. And, his daughter bore the very brunt of his arrogance.

And sometimes, the villagers heard the murmurings of a girl softly crying in the banana plantation. There would be a puddle of tears at the foot of that very banana tree on rare mornings. As for the sorcerer, nobody knew where he went…

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I hope you can see the 3 different elements that are embedded in the ending: a) What happened after the climax?, b) Conclusion of the story & c) Moral of the story. I've gone through this in class - so you had better listened! But I've attached the analysis of my ending here for your reference:

I am looking forward to all your completed Personal Legends by tonight, 27th July, Monday 8.00pm.

Peaced Out,

Miss Teratai @ Zhenghua

1E2 Book of Legends: The CLIMAX!

2009-07-23T06:36:00.000-07:00

Hi 1E2ians,

Remember to make the necessary changes to your introductions.

Have a look in my comments in red,
Make your corrections and then
Delete my comments (right click and press "delete comments")

And continue with the BODY+CLIMAX of your story :) remember HEART ATTACK MOMENT! i am looking forward to the onslaught of 20 heartattacks next time.

And since all of you are so enthusiastic about the assignment and if you have listened in class, there is an extension to the homework deadline. It is no longer this saturday but next week!

So bring along your thumbdrives with your perfect INTRO+BODY+CLIMAX to class. It will be at the computer lab :)

Watch out for this space!

Peaced Out,

Miss Teratai @ Zhenghua

Updates on 1E2 Book of Legends: The CLIMAX!

2009-07-22T08:19:00.000-07:00

Hi 1E2ians ;)

Anyway here are some updates on your introductions to your Personal Legend.

So far, everyone seem to be doing alright. There are, however, some problems with the tenses still and grammatical proper sentences. But no worries, I have added personal comments to your works to help you improve on them. So make the necessary changes alright?

The marks given will show on how well your works are. If you received 5/10 and above, it means that you have fulfilled the basic criteria of introducing the 1) Who is the main character? 2) When & Where did your legend take place? 3) Introducing "Evil" Character. Half of the 10 marks are focused on the creativity behind your introduction.

Each of the segment i.e Introduction, Climax and Ending will be 10 marks each. So take note of that when you write the subsequent comments.

Here are some of the your works which I found incredibly interesting :)

These are their original works and do not contain my personal comments. As you can see, there are things that can be improved on i.e changing to simple past tense, shortening long sentences and even punctuations! So check out my personal comments on your work alright? It is only to make you write better ;)

Anyway, I shall not ramble on about your introduction. Let's concentrate on your climax today.

As promised, there will be another video - The legend of Bukit Merah!

Identify the climax and think of your own.
Is your climax as exciting?
If not, how can you make it better?

Remember, you will have to write the BODY+CLIMAX today. If you can't quite remember what should be inside these segments:

BODY: What happened? Why did it happen?

Climax: Should not be more than 6 sentences. Use any of the 4 strategies that I taught you

HINTING Danger - you never know what's next!
Varied Sentence length - making use of long and short sentences together
AS-IF method - using the phrase "as if" to make comparisons i.e my heart raced as if it was squeezed by a giant
Using QUESTIONS - intriguing your readers to imagine!

Use the format below (This is Miss Teratai's story until the climax!) Replace your words over mine but make sure the headings of Introduction, Body and Climax is clearly written.

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Instruction: To email this copy to Miss Teratai at msteratai@gmail.com

By, 25^th July 2009, Saturday by 10.00a.m.

Name: Miss Teratai

Class:1E2

Date:23^rd July 2009

The Legend of the Crying Banana Tree

Introduction

When we think of banana trees, we often think of the many evil ghosts that linger around the bushes. Even you are now imagining the horrid image of a white cloth flying through the air…

Body

He was besotted by her. Quickly, he asked for her hand in marriage from Pak Leman, her father and villagehead, but he was outrightly refused. Pak Leman did not think he was fit enough to be his son-in-law and rudely chased him out of village!

“Get out of this place, you fool!” bellowed Pak Leman.

Feeling humiliated by such treatment, Abu went out of the village as quietly as he could and everything went back to normal.

Climax

A week went by peacefully. Suraiya quietly walked over to her favourite spot beside a tree. RUSTLE RUSTLE! She heard the sounds of leaves being brushed aside and stones being thrown about. Her heart raced as if she was cut off air. What could that be? The sudden glint of a knife swept across her face. A black shadow!

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Remember to email me your INTRO+BODY+CLIMAX by this

Saturday, 25th July, 2009

at 10.00am.

I have all your personal particulars, don't make me call you up on the weekends!

I know you will do a great job!

Peaced Out,

Miss Teratai @ Zhenghua

1E2 Book of Legends

2009-07-20T06:19:00.000-07:00

Dear 1E2 Class,

I've gone through some of your work on the Re-writing of the Legend of Mahsuri and I'm quite pleased with what I've seen so far. I hope you will carry on with the good work. I will update this space for updates soon about this. In the mean time, have a look at the pictures of some of your work. They are very creative indeed!

For today's class on the writing of the Introduction to Your Personal Legend, we've gone through quite a bit. Remember that in the introduction you must have the following:

- Where and when did YOUR legend happen?

- Who was involved? (Main Character and the "Evil" one)

Anyway, if you are not sure of the format of the Introduction - please copy the one below!

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Instruction: To email this copy to Miss Teratai at msteratai@gmail.com by the end of today, 21^st July 2009, Tuesday.

Name(s): Miss Teratai

Class: 1E2

Date: 21^st July 2009

1E2 Book of Legends

The Legend of the Crying Banana Tree

Introduction

….

When we think of banana trees, we often think of the many evil ghosts that linger around the bushes. Even you are now imagining the horrid image of a white cloth flying through the air… But have you ever heard of the legend of the Crying Banana Tree? It is a story set in an earlier Singapore, 50 years ago to be exact, about a girl named Suraiya. She was the most beautiful and kind person. But in the end, she was cursed for eternity to be imprisoned inside a banana tree by an evil sorcerer named Abu.

…..

Wordcount: 98 words

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Copy everything except replace the italics with your own i.e your own introduction and word count. Remember the word count should be around 70 - 90 words.

I will be expecting to see 20 emails (msteratai@gmail.com) from your class by 5pm today. I trust that you would do a great job on this one as well!

For those who finished early and has kindly visited my blog, do have a look at the video of The Legend of Bukit Timah done by The National Heritage Board and Nanyang Polytechnic (or if you can't seem to watch the video here, just click on http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lE5D6VvMoLY).

Pick out the interesting bits and tell me what you would change to make the story even better.

Remember, we are doing the writing of the CLIMAX to your personal legend next week. So start thinking!

Peace Out,

Miss Teratai @ Zhenghua

Your Ending to "Driving Out a Witch"

2009-04-14T01:11:00.000-07:00

Dear Class 2E,

As what we have done in class today, please upload your narrative ending in the comments box by tonight. I will be checking for everyone's contribution!

In the meantime, do not hesitate to comment on your friends' work!

Miss Teratai