Holiday activity

Learn Grammar
http://www.learnenglish.de/grammar/noununcount.html

Graphic Novel Form 1

Teacher has to compare the details compared to our graphic novel since it differs here and there..

Further info :

https://leelachakrabarty.wordpress.com/tag/literature/

20000 league under the sea

Dear Mr Kilmer - Form 5 novel

Chapter 3, pg 29

• someone vandalised the tavern owned by Hannah Schermer's parents. They painted terrible things all over the walls.
• Hannah was upset - did not come to school that day
• The Schermers are originally from Germany. So some ignorant people thought it was patriotic to harass an innocent German family.
• The Schermers are actually loyal American citizens. Otto, their son, is now fighting for America in the war.

• Mrs Hansen brought a nice card with white flowers on it and written "with sadness".
• She wanted the students to sign on it  to express regret for what had happened.
• Abner refuse to sign the card , he thinks that the Schermers are German spies.
• Hannah is a fine girl , born in United States, Her parents have lived in the country form many years and they are upstanding members of the community.
• Blanche Freebold said when she went to Hannah's birthday party last year, everybody in her family sang German songs , even though the war was going on, as if they didn't care.
• Mrs Hansen said there is nothing wrong with singing German songs, it's their culture, and people cannot turn off their whole culture like a tap.
• Peggy Mason said thah Hannah thinks she is better than all of them, and she said Hannahthinks she has more culture.
• Harry Carver said Hannah won't help with math homework.
• Mrs Hansen was shocked to hear them talking like that ; She is just asking the students to sign a card expressing their sympathy because something terrible has been done to the Schermer family.
• Mrs Hansen cannot force the students to sign but whe would be very disappointed if they dont.
• All the boys feared that Abner and Harry would beat them up; The girls are worried that Peggy and Blanche would not speak to them anymore. So nobody signed the card. Blanche whispered at him, asking him not to sign. Abner and Harry cleared their throats loudly warning him.
• RIchard remembered Gus words "You've got to learn to fit in with other people, so if he signed the card , he would feel more of an outsider than ever.
• His reasoning : he is disgusted that people picked on her family just because the family sang German songs and spoke their own language.How would he feel if his family were picked on , he asked himself.
• Despite warnings from  Harry, Abner, Richard signed his name.
• Mrs Hansen was dissapointed because nobody show any sympathy toward those who deserve it
• It was obvious to Richard that the students felt that refusing to sign the card and defacing the Schermers' property was patriotic.

Dear Mr Kilmer -issues

The issue in the novel.
Questions.
1) Tell about what happen to Hannah Schermer in the novel.
2) Draw a dialogue between Hannah and Richard Knight.
3) Why did the people harass the family?
4) Why didn't Abner want to sign the card.

• Richard, a tenth-grade student
• Mrs Hansen, Richard's favourite teacher (besides History teacher) The school's only English teacher, strict , but cared a lot about what she was teaching.
• There are 18 students in his English class.
• The troublemakers : Abner Lewis and Harry Carver
•  One day, Mrs Hansen begins her class by reading a poem by Joyce Kilmer ,Abner Lewis commented that it was sissy stuff but Mrs Hansen said that Mr Joyce Kilmer , the poet , has volunteered for service in the Army and will go to the front and fight for his country. This shows that he is not a sissy. 
• At this moment , Richard found his new hero; a poet who felt the way he did about nature and also brave enough to go overseas and fight for his country. 

Chapter 2, pg 22 - 25
This chapter tells why Hannah is being harassed again and again.

• Hannah was a pretty, blue-eyed girl with blonde hair that looked like corn silk. Most boys would look at her twice - quite attractive to many boys.
• Someone had scrawled the words 'Dirty Hun" all over the book cover. (pg23) paragraph 3.

Chapter 3, pg 29

• someone vandalised the tavern owned by Hannah Schermer's parents. They painted terrible things all over the walls.
• Hannah was upset - did not come to school that day
• The Schermers are originally from Germany. So some ignorant people thought it was patriotic to harass an innocent German family.
• The Schermers are actually loyal American citizens. Otto, their son, is now fighting for America in the war.

Chapter 2, pg 23 - 24:  Why did some people find it okay to harass Hannah and her family.

Abner Lewis : She is a Hun. Her parents are both German.

Blanche Freebold : The Liberty Bonds posters tell that The Germans are Huns - which means they are barbarians who have to be stopped or they'll take over the world. (They cut people in two when they marched through Belgium)

Blance :

• The Schermers talk German, so for her , they might be plotting something and they don't want their neighbours to know what it is.
• and her Uncle Steve who is in the army said he will be fighting the Germans soon

Richard said it's just their language, so that is why they are using German language.

Abner said : he bet that the Schermers hope Germany will win the war.

Harry : His father went to the tavern Hannah Schermer's parents run and they are still serving sauerkraut, a German dish. Even though the name has been change to 'liberty cabbage' so as not to offend anybody. For Harry , he does not care what they call it, but it is still Hun food and it is unpatriotic to serve it while there is a war against Germany.

Richard : For him, being mean  to Hannah is not being patriotic also.

pg 26.
Richard went home, read the "Trees and Other Poems" and enjoyed reading the poems as he thinks  that the poems seeme to speak directly to him. He started to write a letter to Mr Kilmer.

Form 1 Material.

20,000 leagues under the sea
https://leelachakrabarty.wordpress.com/tag/literature/
Compliments to leelachakrabarty

Form 1 Material
This can be found using the link below
http://www.slideshare.net/fathen123/form-1-english-pbs-materials
Compliments to Fathen Suriati

FORM 1 - ENGLISH: SUGGESTED PBS MATERIALS from Fathen Suriati

A POISON TREE : LITERATURE : FORM 5 POEM

POISON TREE DISCUSSION -
Compliments to owner of 
1) enotes.com and
2) leelachakrabarty.wordpress.com
 for the use of their notes .
 Hopefully this entry will add more to students' understanding.

http://www.enotes.com/homework-help/topic/poison-tree  

https://leelachakrabarty.wordpress.com/2016/04/18/the-poem-a-poison-tree/

A discussion on the poem 'A  POISON TREE' by William Blake

A Poison Tree

I was angry with my friend:
I told my wrath, my wrath did end.
I was angry with my foe:
I told it not, my wrath did grow.

And I watered it in fears,
Night and morning with my tears;
And I sunned it with smiles,
And with soft deceitful wiles.

And it grew both day and night,
Till it bore an apple bright.
And my foe beheld it shine.
And he knew that it was mine,

And into my garden stole
When the night had veiled the pole;
In the morning glad I see
My foe outstretched beneath the tree.

Wiles	A trick to deceive A wile is a cunning trick. Here, it suggests that he may be planning some sort of a devious scheme for his enemy
Wrath	Extreme anger
Foe	An enemy
Outstretch	Stretch out/ extend/ spread out
Veiled	When the night veiled the pole A concealing cover
pole	North pole/ South pole
Watered it in fears and sunned it with smiles	he "waters" and "suns" his anger, much like one would water and provide sunlight for a tree. As the poem puts it, he "waters" the anger with his tears, and then "suns" it with the false smiles he offers his enemy. The poet means for us to see ourselves in the persona who nurtured his anger at his enemy by watering it with his "tears" and sunning it with his deceitful "smiles." If we stuff down our anger, pretend we're happy, and don't resolve our conflicts, our anger will grow and grow until it becomes like a poisonous plant that will hurt other people.
Till it bore an apple bright. And my foe beheld it shine.	Bore : to produce or yield             Past tense of bear            ( bear fruits) Beheld it shine : see it shining The narrator explains that the plant (his anger) grew "both day and night" until it produced fruit. The narrator says that it is an apple, but it's simply a metaphor for a lure.  The speaker uses that apple to lure his enemy into the garden and be poisoned. Then he grows angry at an enemy. Rather than communicate with his enemy and hash the problem out, he holds the anger inside. As the poem puts it, he "waters" the anger with his tears, and then "suns" it with the false smiles he offers his enemy. Eventually, this anger grows and grows until it becomes a tree that bears a shiny, poisonous apple. The enemy eats the apple and dies.

Metaphor-A growing apple tree is an extended metaphor for the growing anger and it shows how destructive anger can be. The title “A Poison Tree” is the central metaphor. The apple has become poisonous as it has been nurtured with anger. In other words, the tree grew with negative emotions. When we stay angry for a long time, we may become “A Poison Tree” (a person full of negative emotions).

 Setting-The persona’s garden. The garden where the apple tree grows. The apple tree that features the apple which lures the enemy.

Symbolism-The apple represents anger. The apple grows large till it ripens. Similarly, anger grows till it becomes vengeance.

Themes:

Managing Anger:  It is not totally wrong to be angry. However, it is rather important for us to know how to deal with anger. If we nurture our anger, it might grow and be harmful to us. In this poem, two ways of handling anger were shown with different outcomes. In the first scenario, the anger disappeared but in the second the anger grew into something aggressive and negative.

 Importance of Communication:  As shown in the poem, if the persona had communicated with his enemy, his anger would have been controlled. However, his refusal to communicate has allowed anger to become something that is very destructive. Therefore it is often better if we can communicate with people on the issues that is bugging us. The poet indirectly is trying to persuade his readers to talk about their anger. We can talk about it not only with our friends but with our enemies too. If we talk, the anger might just reduce and it might just ease our troubles. In turn, it will prevent us from causing hurt unto others.

 Moral Value

The poem tells us about the disastrous consequences of one’s own failure to communicate with another person.

Compliments to leelachakrabarty for these info :

https://leelachakrabarty.wordpress.com/2016/04/18/the-poem-a-poison-tree/

What is the poem about:

"A Poison Tree" examines the effects of unresolved anger. 

In the poem, the narrator or persona first gets angry at a friend. He talks to his friend and that dialogue resolves his problem so that he can forgive his friend. 

Then he grows angry at an enemy. Rather than communicate with his enemy and hash the problem out, he holds the anger inside. 

As the poem puts it, he "waters" the anger with his tears, and then "suns" it with the false smiles he offers his enemy. 

Eventually, this anger grows and grows until it becomes a tree that bears a shiny, poisonous apple. The enemy eats the apple and dies.

Our personal connection to poem:

The poet means for us to see ourselves in the persona who nurtured his anger at his enemy by watering it with his "tears" and sunning it with his deceitful "smiles." If we stuff down our anger, pretend we're happy, and don't resolve our conflicts, our anger will grow and grow until it becomes like a poisonous plant that will hurt other people. The poet shows us a different and healthier path in the first stanza, where the persona confronts the friend who makes him angry and works out the problem. The poem suggests that we have a choice about how we behave and that resolving our issues with others is far better than letting them fester. 

Sources:

http://www.enotes.com/topics/poison-tree/themes 

What is the moral of the poem "A poison tree?"

In this Blake poem, an individual who hides and nurses his anger is contrasted with a person who goes immediately and tells his "friend" why he is angry.  The person who confesses his anger is able to get over it and move on.  The person who buries it from his "enemy" pretends everything is all right. Meanwhile, beneath the surface, the anger festers. The man waters his anger with his tears and suns it with false smiles. By doing this he cultivates his anger so that it grows bigger and bigger.  Finally, the anger grows into a tree that bears poisonous fruit.  The moral of the poem is that we should not nurse our anger towards another person but confront the person who hurt us and work out our issues directly. Otherwise, we become something poisonous that destroys other people.

In the poem "A Poison Tree" why did the persona's wrath end when he told his friend about it?

In "The Poison Tree," the point of the poem is that the anger we hold onto grows into something ugly and poisonous that hurts other people.  Blake contrasts this to anger we get over. One good way to overcome anger is to talk about it with the person who angered you. If you can trust another person enough to confide in him and her, you can clear up misunderstandings and give the other person the opportunity to tell his side of the story and explain what happened. It also offers the other person the chance to apologize, because often people don't even know they have offended. With this kind of communication, forgiveness and reconciliation can occur. Then you can move on with your life. In contrast, as the poem shows, if you dwell on your wrath without trying to resolve it, it becomes bigger and bigger and more and more poisonous--Blake imagines it as a poisonous apple--and becomes  especially poisonous if you pretend to the person who offended you that nothing is wrong.

How did the persona of "A Poison Tree" deal with his anger while his enemy was alive? Give two things he did.

In "The Poison Tree," the persona deals with his anger while his enemy is still alive by nurturing it.  He does this in two ways. First, as Blake puts it, he "water'd it in fears / night and morning with my tears." This means that when the persona wakes up in the morning and when he goes to bed at night he remembers over and over how he has been hurt by his enemy. He dwells on his "fears": how his enemy could hurt him again, and he thinks about his enemy with "tears" over the original injury. The persona also pretends that nothing is wrong. Blake states it this way: "I sunn'd it [his anger] with smiles / And with soft deceitful wiles." Rather than confront his enemy or talk it through, the persona stuffs his anger down and pretends everything is fine. He smiles at his enemy. He is kind on the surface to his enemy. Meanwhile, the unresolved anger grows and grows. We don't know how the enemy injured the persona, but the poem leads us to believe that whatever it was, the persona blows it (or grows it) all out of proportion both by dwelling on it silently and by pretending publicly that he is happy. Sources: ·         http://www.enotes.com/topics/poison-tree/themes