by Mr. Joshua A. Apolonio
ABSTRACT:
ABSTRACT:
A mysterious stone falls from the heavens, granting Ada the ability to transform into Zaturnnah, a superhuman warrior endowed with uncanny strength and remarkable beauty. As Zaturnnah, Ada fearlessly defends a small town from a giant frog, rampaging zombies, power-tripping extraterrestrial Amazons, and… well, you know the drill.
Adding color to this simple but riotous tale is the fact that Ada is a homosexual, proprietor of his own quaint beauty salon. With his frilly-mouthed assistant Didi and his objet d’amour Dodong, Ada reinforces his belief in acknowledging the decisions of Destiny, and begins to explore the potential fullness of life.
Also, this product of literature will now be a basis for teaching tertiary level. By means of making a learning plan, we will try to focus on how to plan our thoughts and insights regarding the graphic novel and how will we elaborate it, as educators, in front of the class. Literary standards may be tackled, too, wherein they will answer what qualities the graphic novel will contain.
KEYWORDS:
Social Issues, Graphic Novel, Learning Plan, Lesson, Literary Work, Literary Standards, Literature, Philippine Literature, College
INTRODUCTION: SOCIAL ISSUES IN THE FILIPINO INDEPENDENT LITERARY WORK
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irst and foremost, the main topic will try to revolve around the different issues of the famous graphic novel written by Carlo Vergara, especially all about the description of the character of the gay protagonist named “Ada”, and was also originally named by his father “Adrian”. Also, we will try to understand how to deal with the different areas of literature and how is the comic book related to it and how can each reader appreciate the whole product of Vergara’s wild imagination. However, since we will try to know how to teach Philippine Literature, we will try to use the product as the basis for making a learning plan to teach the youth about what is literally happening on the said graphic novel. As a part of the introduction and statement of the happenings of the story, Ada’s character was a beautician/ image stylist and was doing very well together with his beauty assistant, Didi, who has been his friend for a very long time. His objet d'amour, Dodong, has been his great fantasy but Ada ignores him because what he all knows is that this man will never love him back the way a couple should be. After her breakup with her former boyfriend, Lester, a big trauma has attacked his foolish heart and made his mind say that all boys are the same. So, this leads to the reason why Ada refuses Dodong to be his close friend or boyfriend because he believes that the man is similar to all boys even though Ada is secretly giving affection to Dodong. Mr. Carlo Vergara has made his creativity even more elaborated and expanded and made it even more realistic. Vergara made the comic book realistic to attract the readers’ wild imagination and make them think that everything that happens inside the story is really all possible. He was able to make Ada change and transform into a beautiful super heroine by swallowing a big pink magical stone from the galaxy with the characters written “ZATURNNAH” on it. After that, here has happened the transformation of Ada to Zaturnnah, also called by Didi as ZsaZsa Zaturnnah. Here, we may now say that we may compare the book to the one of the Philippines’ most famous comic book titled “Darna” by Mars Ravelo, wherein a woman named Narda found a white magical stone from the galaxy. The Darna is a reincarnation of America’s “Wonder Woman”. However, the Zaturnnah stone gives Ada the abilities of having invulnerability, super strength, super agility, and an indestructible chest. The distinct difference is the sexuality of her alter ego Ada, who is an effeminate homosexual male. The proprietor of a small town beauty salon, Ada receives a huge spiky stone that, when ingested, physically transforms him into ZsaZsa Zaturnnah. Ada seeks to prove to himself and his parents that he can make a decent living as a beautician, while remaining haunted by the memory of his father as well as a failed relationship marked by violence. His father vehemently disapproved of Ada's homosexuality, even going as far as dipping Ada's head in wet pig feed to emphasize his disgust. His life experience prompted him to turn inward, seemingly cold and unfeeling, while rebuilding his life from the point of his parents' deaths. Ada's previous relationship with a man named Lester ended dismally, with a punch to Ada's face which seemed to disconnect his jaw. However, the extra-terrestrial Amazonistas, together with their leader, Queen Femina Suarestellar Baroux, came to their place after being attacked by a giant frog and a horde of zombies. This Queen seemed to be the Valentina, a character from Darna, who is the antagonist of the story. ZsaZsa Zaturnnah triumphed on her fights with the previous monsters but Queen Femina was unique and has impressive abilities that Zaturnnah does not have. But still, the protagonist has won by proving that men are really needed in our civilization. By vomiting her magical stone, she instantly turned back to his original appearance as Ada, a gay beautician wearing the suit of a super heroine. The Amazonistas then were confused and the Queen just said that it was just a form of cloaking device and must be ignored and should not be deceived by the Amazonistas. But then, Ada laughed a bit and threw the magical stone and shoots it to Queen Femina’s mouth. When it was ingested, the stone has made her transform into a male pig and there, she had lost her crowning moment because there, she has lost her femininity.
THE ROLE OF THE LEARNING PLAN IN THE LITERARY WORK:
AN OVERVIEW
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irst of all, a planned lesson is just better. Not all planned lessons are fabulous and not all unplanned lessons are a disaster, but even a bad lesson will be less bad planned, and even a great lesson can be greater with a plan. If you are good at teaching unplanned lessons, you will be even better at teaching with a plan. The story of ZsaZsa Zaturnnah has been the subject of a number of academic essays. However, this will lead to our basis to make a learning/ lesson plan to teach Philippine literature. Since we all know novels are products of literature, which are on the branch of prose, we may continue to make one and prepare it for teaching. We must first master what is really inside the whole novel. We must know and understand the flow of the whole story so that we may be able to appreciate and comprehend the whole piece. Let us say for instance, we must always remember that ZsaZsa Zaturnnah comics should contain animated characters to entertain the readers more. The comic shows timeless universality and gives a wonderful lead to the readers that it contains realistic features. First, you will be setting your purpose for what will be your topic. You will be describing the overarching reason for this lesson. Here, the main idea that will be given emphasis is the graphic novel itself. Even though each student does not have the original copy, the professor must have the original one and have it photocopied, or the professor may provide his own ways on how he will share the whole idea of the topic. It will always depend on how the instructor will expound the whole piece. Moreover, today, we may have references to look for, so the teacher may no longer be tired of explaining the whole thing and the span of time will be shortened. The internet, however, is now one of today’s most common sources of information. There is a low possibility that the researcher cannot find what he is looking for. The next step that we will do on making a lesson plan is to introduce the key concepts, the topic, and the main idea. On making your key concepts, you will try to make your objectives and know the knowledge about what the learner needs to learn, the skills which are the students expected to develop, and the attitudes that is hoped that students will gain an appreciation for the lesson and for the whole literary work. On making your own objectives, you will try to think what the students may learn. Like for example, the teacher will set his objectives by writing, “At the end of the period, the student will have been able to: 1) Feel the reality that homosexuals nowadays are experiencing racial discriminations in the country; 2) Appreciate what Carlo Vergara has contributed for the equality of the society; and, 3) Try to make a collage which regards equality of persons around the world”. The objectives of a learning plan are truly a great help for us to engage students to have a better learning. If your objectives are on the right and correct path, then you will be having a correct content of key concepts and subject matter. Inside the subject matter are your contents of topic, references, and your materials. The topic must be explained clearly to the students. Since the topic is new and not that suitable for young readers, we must always remember to cut some unnecessary parts and we should try to tell and show the students how the story book is obscene. However, there are really some books that need parental guidance just like the novel written by E. L. James, the Fifty Shades of Grey, which contains full obscene works and vulgar topics. But, this graphic novel written by Vergara is a so small product of vulgarity that is why the author has already written on the front page that this book is only for mature readers because it contains some colloquialisms which is not appropriate for young readers. Next, the learning plan that you will make should have its learning strategies wherein it gives the correct flow of the class. Under your learning strategies is the routine, motivation, presentation, the development of the lesson, and the generalization. The routine contains the summary of the flow of the whole class, from the beginning to end. For example, the whole class will start with a prayer, and after that will be the teacher’s greetings. After that, the teacher will be putting the class into order. Then, the teacher will be checking the class attendance and he will then have a recap or review regarding the whole lesson. For the motivation, the teacher will show some pictures of both Wonder Woman and Darna. Here, we may now compare the photo of ZsaZsa Zaturnnah to the two famous super heroines. Also through here, we may now see their similarities and differences and how ZsaZsa Zaturnnah became a real super hero. We may now have the students identify the different characteristics and physical attributes of Zaturnnah. After that, the teacher may ask the students regarding on what they have seen and what they can say about the photo presented. And, the teacher may ask the students about their level of interest. After all of those, we will now try to have our presentation. The teacher will now present the book to the students entitled: Ang Kagila-gilalas na Pakikipagsapalaran ni ZsaZsa Zaturnnah by Carlo Vergara. Before they read and study the graphic novel, he will first present and introduce the background of the author. The next focus will be on the development of the lesson. You will be first having a pre-reading activity. Let us say for instance, here, you will be unlocking difficulties through knowing some unfamiliar gay words given by Ada in the novel. Of course, we all know that most of the readers or let us just say that majority of the readers/ students are straight men and women and only a few number of students are gays or can understand the gay language. Well, gay language, often referred to as the gay lingo, cannot be understood easily. The book contains gay languages which may be difficult for the readers. To unlock difficulties, we may use this activity to challenge the students on how strong their vocabulary is in terms of slangs and colloquialisms. After unlocking difficulties, you may now go to the peak part which is the reading activity. The teacher will now group them into two or three by means of counting. He will now be able to try to give the photocopied materials or copy of books to each group. The teacher will be assigning each of the group a respective leader so that each group will be well managed. The copy given to the group may be photocopied again so that all of the members have their copy. However, to be still on the state of frugality, the leader may read it alone and he may tell the whole story to the whole group based on his own understanding. After reading and understanding the whole novel for the whole hour, since the graphic novel can be read by only an hour, they should have to plan to have the scribe (who will be writing the output of the group); a detector (who will discuss and answer the following questions), and; a reporter (who will be reporting the outcome of the group). The activity may be done on the next meeting to avoid time hassles. The teacher will give fifteen minutes for the group to accomplish their task. After that, reporting will follow. After the reading activity will be the post reading activity. On this type of activity, you will able to have your creativity be applied. On the same group, have them draw their interpretation of the graphic novel’s message on a manila paper by making a collage. The teacher will give the students eight (8) minutes to draw the novel’s message. After that, reporting will follow. And the last part of the subject matter will be the generalization. Here, the teacher will try to generalize the students’ understanding by asking questions. Asking questions like what does the graphic novel imply? How come does it show equality? How the LGBT community does relate itself to the graphic novel? Why is Carlo Vergara able to make gay graphic novels since he is a straight man? So through here, we will be able to know the different answers to those questions by asking the students based on their own insights and experiences. Subsequently, you will be having your evaluation. By letting the students make an individual activity, also assessed by the teacher, you will be trying to evaluate the score of the students’ understanding. Let us say for example, the student will make a “Mystery Pyramid” to evaluate the students’ understanding. This is a game wherein the students will be choosing a number that they wanted to open. Each number has a mystery question which is answerable by TRUE or FALSE. Since you have already done your Evaluation, you may now proceed and make your assignment/ homework for the students. All you have to do is to make all things summarized as it is used to. Like for example, make sets of question which is related to graphic novel and should only limit to 3-5 sentences only. The students must always be reminded that they should always provide clear, brief, and concise answers so that their reactions will not be that so confusing. They will be scored on each number based on the following rubrics: Content – 4; Organization – 3; Development – 2; and Language – 1. And there you have it! You already have your lesson plan. But how will you present it to the class? First tip and goal, the teacher must pull the students into the excitement of learning. The students must gain the interest of the product of literature. Since the product is a graphic novel, the students are engaged to read even more due to its’ artistic effects and drawings. Aside from that, the author has made the book funny and it is able to make the readers to be entertained. If they are able to be entertained, they will have the enjoyment and they will have the ability to read the graphic novel again and again. If the students are not in the mood of excitement, they will not be able to have the interest and there will be a great possibility that they will not be able to learn as much as other students who gives interest to the literature. So, it is really important for a student to be called by a teacher’s attention. If a teacher says that this book is a comic book and is funny and entertaining, the students may be alive and they may be able to lessen their boredom and lead them to aliveness. And lastly, the teacher must make the learning relevant. If the teacher was not able to give the piece any importance, importance like of such giving emphasis and descriptions and explanation to every details, the study will do not gain any importance at all. The teacher must provide relevant ideas related to the topic so that the literary piece would not spoil. When planning, think about your students and your teaching context first. Prepare more than you may need: It is advisable to have an easily presented, light “reserve” activity ready in case of extra time. Similarly, it is important to think in advance which component(s) of the lesson may be skipped. If you find yourself with too little time to do everything you have planned. Keep an eye on your time. Include timing in the plan itself. The smooth running of your lesson depends to some extent on proper timing. Think about transitions (from speaking to writing or from a slow task to a more active one). Include variety if things are not working the way you have planned. Pull the class together at the beginning and at the end. End your lessons on a positive note. Planning enables you to think about your teaching in a systematic way before you enter the classroom. The outcome of your planning is a coherent framework which contains a logical sequence of tasks to prepare the field for more effective teaching and learning. Plans only express your intentions. Plans are projects which need to be implemented in a real classroom with real students. Many things may happen which you had not anticipated. In the end you need to adapt your plans in order to respond to your pupils’ actual needs. Planning is imagining the lesson before it happens. This involves prediction, anticipation, sequencing, organizing and simplifying. Lesson planning is a vital component of the teaching-learning process. Proper classroom planning will keep teachers organized and on track while teachings, thus allowing them to teach more, help students reach objectives more easily and manage less. The better prepared the teacher is, the more likely she/he will be able to handle whatever unexpectedly happens in the lesson. Each lesson plan sets a discrete, achievable goal – teaching the “target language” for the lesson – which you can aim for during the “presentation” phases and judge the success of during the “production” phases of the lesson. This fits in perfectly with the framework of creating discrete tasks, tracking accomplishments, and celebrating small wins outlined in the article above. A lesson plan keeps you on track and keeps the kids on track, but it also helps outside the context of the lesson itself. Lesson planning lets you track progress and problems. With planned lessons, you have actual paperwork of everything you’ve taught, so you can refer back to it later. If kids aren’t learning a particular point, you know which lesson plan to amend, which helps you learn from your own mistakes and missteps. If kids learn something really well, you can look at that lesson and figure out what about it really worked. You can start to learn to be a better teacher overall and for each particular class, and you don’t have to do it via memory.
ISSUES OF THE LITERARY PIECE REGARDING THE SEVEN LITERARY STANDARDS
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side from those previous procedures given and mentioned to have a learning plan for teaching Philippine Literature to students, we should also bear in mind the seven qualities of a great literature. As we may all know, this graphic novel written by Carlo Vergara really endures a great quality that is why we may say that a lot of readers would really love this writing. The seven qualities of a great literature or as we may say as the seven literary standards are the following: Artistry, wherein the literature appeals to our sense of beauty; Intellectual Value, wherein a literary work stimulates thought and enriches our mental life by making us realize fundamental truths about life and human nature; Suggestiveness, wherein the literature is associated with its emotional power and it moves us deeply and stirs our feeling and imagination, giving and evoking visions above and beyond the plane of ordinary life and experience; Permanence, wherein a great work of literature endures and can be read again and again as each reading gives fresh delight and new insights and opens a new world of meaning and experience and also, its appeal is lasting; Universality, wherein a great literature is timeless and timely. It is forever relevant, it appeals to one and all, anytime, anywhere, because it deals with elemental feelings, fundamental truths and universal conditions; Spiritual Value, wherein the literature elevates the spirit by bringing out moral values which makes us better persons. The capacity to inspire is part of the spiritual value of literature; and Style, wherein this is the peculiar way in which writers sees life, forms his ideas and expresses them. However, if we will be looking and reading beyond the lines, use our wild imaginations, this book by Carlo Vergara contains various qualities and standards. We may say that it has Artistry because the whole novel was expressed through the graphics and drawings that may attract the readers’ perception and have them engaged to a beautiful product of art. Another, it has also its Intellectual Value because it deals with the current situations and experiences of the society today, especially the truth about the life of gays. Here, the Intellectual Value refers to the LGBT community in the Philippine society today and how are they abused by men, the loss of gender equality and pride. However, we may also say that it has Permanence because since it is a comedy and is a funny comic book, it is really possible for the readers to read it again and again so that he may be able to be entertained since the comic book also has the quality of Universality because forever, we will be having the issue about this kind of situation. Gays are present at all times and in all places that is why it is impossible for us to forget and end this kind of matter. And of course, its Style, the writer expresses his thoughts and feelings through writing all of it through the characters’ lines. The author has made striking words and gay languages to attract the readers’ attention. The author has made the literary work more powerful and attractive even though he had made unusual words which are really not suitable for very young students to make the readers more excited, more enjoyable, and more thrilling.
SYNOPSIS OF THE PIECE
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o sum it all up, Mr. Carlo Vergara was able to give a wonderful literary piece entitled “Ang Kagila-gilalas na Pakikipagsapalaran ni ZsaZsa Zaturnnah” and has given the teacher a great help for the students to have a wonderful and great understanding regarding the piece. Here, we will now be able to understand the different Why’s and How’s about the provided literary work. Vergara has made a wonderful introduction of lines to make the readers realize that Ada is really a homosexual and he should be appreciated even though he is not that as usual as a normal person. But, his father disagreed about his gender and personality. To emphasize his disgust and make him as a real man, his father then dips his head on a pig feed. As he grew up, he had a relationship with a man named Lester, but the man then refused him afterwards and left him with a broken heart and a broken jaw due to a strong punch on his face. Together with his beauty assistant, Didi, also who had been his friend, lived together in a small town under the ownership of the landlady named as Aling Britney. His fantasy, Dodong, works as a bread seller in a bakery in front of their house. But then, Ada does not want to love or give any affection to Dodong because of his past. Few days after while he sings inside the bathroom early in the morning, a huge spiky stone has hit her head and as we may see, the stone would be called through the written characters, and it was written with the capital word of ZATURNNAH. Didi was the one who made the idea for Ada to ingest the Zaturnnah stone. Ada first refused but out of his curiosity, he has then seen and then tried the magical stone. When he has swallowed the stone, he then transformed into a beautiful woman with a pink hair and large size of chest. Out of Didi’s curiosity, he brought Zaturnnah into the woods early in the morning and tried to practice all of her skills. But then, they realized and saw that her powers are limited and that is, she cannot fly. After their training, they went back home and Didi gave Ada a super hero costume from their friend named Gwyneth. It was colored with pink and touches of gold. After a few moments, when Ada was trying to give Aling Britney a hairdo, a giant frog came to their small town. Didi tried to call him but at first, Ada feels that he is not that ready. But then, he tried to transform to Zaturnnah. She tried to fight the giant frog. At first, she was able to have the triumph but, she was accidentally swallowed by the giant frog. But inside the frog, she had the ability to shout and make the frog shake and make the frog vomit her. After her fight with the frog, the extra-terrestrial Amazonistas, together with their leader Queen Femina Suarestellar Baroux, was impressed and gave her another challenge. She told Zaturnnah to go to the cemetery the night after the fight with the frog. After accepting the challenge, she was terrified at first and has to fight back a horde of zombies. When Zaturnnah was trying to fight the zombies in the cemetery, Dodong tried to follow her. She tried to protect Dodong but then, she accidentally tipped herself into a rock and puke the Zaturnnah stone out and transformed him back into Ada and that is how he knew that Zaturnnah and Ada are the same. Ada let Dodong go away and he ingested the magical stone back again and transformed him again to Zaturnnah. She then called all of the townspeople and pleased everyone to go inside the church. Along with this, she asked Didi and Dodong to get all of the hair spray bottles in the beauty parlor. She pleased everyone to be united and face the zombies outside but everyone disagreed. And suddenly, Zaturnnah called Didi and made him as a great example for braveness and then, it has made the townsfolk alive and think that it will be fun to fight the zombies with unity. They planned to fill each of the hair spray bottle a holy water. After that, they all went out with unity and killed all the zombies. The day after the fight, Zaturnnah and Queen Femina met again. Here, Queen Femina introduced a new dress which is called as the “Vanessa Leon Battle Gown”. There, they have battled one on one, and even Zaturnnah versus the whole team of the Amazonistas. Queen Femina was unique and has impressive abilities that Zaturnnah does not have. But still, the protagonist has won by proving that men are really needed in our civilization. By vomiting her magical stone, she instantly turned back to his original appearance as Ada, a gay beautician wearing the suit of a super heroine. The Amazonistas then were confused and the Queen just said that it was just a form of cloaking device and must be ignored and should not be deceived by the Amazonistas. But then, Ada laughed a bit and threw the magical stone and shoots it to Queen Femina’s mouth. When it was ingested, the stone has made her transform into a male pig and there, she had lost her crowning moment because there, she has lost her femininity. And, that part would be the end part of the story because the Zaturnnah stone was no longer with him. Ada planned to leave the town and go to Metro Manila but Dodong refused him and told him that he would like to go with him. Ada asked and seemed to be confused. Dodong explained everything and told him about his affection to Ada. He accepted Dodong and decided to go to Manila with him.
OTHER PROCEDURES ON MAKING THE LEARNING PLAN
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owever, the procedures of making a learning plan were laid too. This will be very effective to those teachers who are interested to teach the graphic novel. Also, it has been a subject of a number of academic essays. Different titles were given to the study because a number of authors and writers have been making this popular and make their interests more profound. As making this as a basis for making a lesson plan, Philippine Literature will be more given emphasis because of the contents inside the graphic novel. The graphic novel contains such themes which can make the reader laugh and enjoy what he reads. Since it contains such themes like these, it may make the reader be entertained and make them laugh and it may have some of the seven literary standards. Upon making your learning plan, you must have your objectives. On making your objectives, you must have the HO-MO-HO (Hearts on, Minds on, Hands on). Also, upon making your subject matter, you will be writing your title for the whole topic, your references, and the materials needed inside your classroom. Moreover, after making your subject matter will be your learning strategies wherein the routine of the whole class will enter, the motivation for the class will be written too, how you will present the topic to the whole class, and also the development of the lesson which underlies here are pre reading, reading, and post reading activities, and after that was the generalization of the students’ understanding. After making your learning strategies, try to evaluate the understanding of your students by making own activities or evaluative methods that they may do. And finally, you will now be making your assignment/ homework. Since it is based from a graphic novel, the homework should be on an essay form and must be answered for about 3-4 sentences only. The answer must be limited, short, and concise, too. But before anything else, the teacher must always review the students about the topic so that the learner may not be able to be lost.
REFERENCES:
https://teachandlearnwithgeorgia.wordpress.com/2012/07/26/the-importance-of-lesson-planning/
https://docs.google.com/document/d/17H0IYY0ICX4PUtdpRGJXal_jemRhf2PIqpVK2U9TdcU/edit
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zsazsa_Zaturnnah
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