Learning Log 5

We have attempt Unseen Poems in Secondary 1, but i bet Secondary 2 Poems are going to be much more harder... And therefore, we need to have better analysing skills to score for Unseen Poems.

When we come across Unseen Poems, we have to read through the whole Poem thoroughly to understand briefly what the Poem is trying to tell the readers. But for the first step, we have to read it without reading between the lines, reading word by word or even reading in our hearts. We have to just scan through the passage first, neither noticing the tone of the Poem and the various literary devices used. In that way, we can briefly know what the Poem is about.

In my opinion, the next thing we have to do is to read through the questions, know what the setter is asking and why is the setter asking in that particular way. After that, read through the entire Poem again, but this time, we have to take note of the different expressions used, the literary devices and their purpose of using these devices.

This is also the reason why i suggest to read the question before reading it thoroughly. So that when we are looking at the entire passage for the second time, we can also look for the answers within the Poem.

When attempting the questions, they should not quote long sentences from the Poem unless necessary. Meaning to say, they would have to summarise if the question did not require them to 'state the sentence' or 'state the phrase'. That way, it will save them much time to attempt other questions. The format to answering the questions should be mentioning the Point first, then Explain on the particular point. Next, we would have to state the Evidence of where we get these points and if possible or required, we would also have to state the Link to the passage. This format has its acronym, PEEL. Like all teachers said, if a question is too difficult, do not ponder over it too long, attempt other questions first, or else you all wasting your time. But we must also remember to go back to the questions that we skipped.

This is the method to attempt Unseen Poems i guess. Like the section suggests, it's unseen. So it is least likely that we would encounter these Poems in our everyday lives. Therefore, practicing to attempt Unseen Poems is the perfect way of acting as a revision for Literature.

Many students nowadays thinks that examinations for Literature Writing are tiring because we have to write many things down, which in turn, thought that they require a lot of time. And because of this particular reason, they tend to rush in their writings. Therefore, they could miss out many crucial points and that would affect their scores. Its better that they do it slowly and with a good state of mind.