Learning log 1

Dear Mrs Woo:

During my last literature lesson, I learnt about cinquains. A cinquain is a French word which is pronounced as "Cin-kuaine" in French and "Cin-cane" in English. The definition of cinquain is a short poem consisting of five usually unrhymed lines containing, respectively, two, four, six, eight, and two syllables. The first line of a cinquain is the title (one word), the second line is the description (two words), the third line is the action (three words), the fourth line is our feeling (four words) and the fifth line is the reflection on the title (one word).

A cinquain poem is challenging to write because we must follow the rules when writing the poem and we must not exceed the number of words each line has. The second, third, fourth and fifth line of the poem must be about the topic of the poem in the first line, otherwise different lines of the poem will not coincide with the first line. I found the lesson very interesting because everyone participated in group work activities, and I feel that by discussing your thoughts with your classmates, we can all learn better this way. However, the lesson could be improved if there were more group work activities.

There should also be a voting session so that pupils can vote for the group with the best cinquain poem and learn from their poem. The teacher should also prepare prizes for the winner, second and third place in the class. This would encourage pupils to participate more actively in group work discussions and would also look forward to other literature lessons in future. Colourful pictures could also be added to worksheets given out to pupils so that it would attract their attention and also, they would be more interested in doing worksheets and reading passages. Lastly, I also noticed that there were some pupils that were not paying attention when their classmates were presenting their poems; I feel that it is very important to respect your classmates and teachers when they are talking. Respect is also a value in our school. Pupils should also be committed in their work and be prompt in handing in work.