Book Review: Alandal

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Mother's Day 2026

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Book Review: No Man Manila

 

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Step by Step with Teacher Zee: Close Reading: A Way of Thinking While Reading

Today, I taught my student (she is in 7th grade) the Close Reading Strategy. I am sharing my method because, sharing is caring.

1. Explicitly taught the strategy first
   I framed Close Reading as a tool for comprehension and vocabulary acquisition, which gives my student a clear purpose for learning it. This matters because students engage better when they understand why a strategy is useful.
2. Used oral recall immediately after instruction
   Asking her to repeat what she heard strengthened processing and retention. This checks listening comprehension and helps transfer information from passive hearing to active understanding.
3. Moved into written articulation
   Having her write her own understanding was a good practice because it:
   • reveals misconceptions,
   • shows depth of understanding,
   • strengthens metacognition,
   • and reinforces academic language.
4. Provided corrective feedback without replacing her thinking
   Pointing out what she got right first and then strengthening incomplete ideas is how scaffolding works. Instruction is direct and I see where my student apply revision as another learning strategy.
5. Used the visual after conceptual understanding began forming
   I showed my student the Close Reading visual (AI assisted). The graphic came after discussion and processing, so it functioned as reinforcement and organization, not passive decoration. The visual consolidated the learning.

My student and I were able to work together following this process:

Explain --> Recall --> Rephrase --> Clarify --> Visual Reinforcement

I was also able to incorporate, although indirectly, the following skills:

• retrieval practice,
• formative assessment,
• metacognitive reflection,
• vocabulary development,
• and multimodal learning.

For a Grade 7 student moving into Grade 8, this is the kind of literacy foundation that supports:

• science readings,
• social studies texts,
• IB/MYP criterion work,
• evidence-based responses,
• and later research tasks.

For me, teaching the Close Reading strategy is not answering questions but, it is a way of thinking while reading.

The Lighthouse Diary #86: Learning the Types of Sources with Our Grade 8s

 

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CDrama Review: Identity, Intimacy, and Balance in Pursuit of Jade (3 of 3)

What makes the rendition of identity, intimacy and balance even deeper is its extension to community. After some challenges and intrigue from neighbors, newfound friends and the law, Yan Zheng and Changyu celebrate the lunar new year by writing couplets. This is another episode where I found my folklorist role activated.

The couplet scene is where intimacy becomes public because married life is part of community. And in this particular scene, Yan Zheng teaches Ning, Changyu's little sister, how to read and showing her how to write. The Marquis is not only a military elite. He is also a scholar and a poet. When the neighbors read Yan Zheng's couplet, they asked him to write for them especially at the time when the lone scholar left Lin'an for the capital.

I’m already smitten at Yan Zheng at this point. Seeing him interact with the village elders, men and women who cannot write well or express their beliefs and dreams found a scribe who can help them articulate their desired grace. Changyu is the luckiest girl in the world. Yan Zheng, aka Xie Zheng, the Marquis of Wu’an was inscribing himself into her world.

As our one true pair assimilates in community, we see a temporary equilibrium built on asymmetrical truths: she holds social legitimacy. He holds hidden power. And the romantic and moral tension thickens. That’s why when Lin'an was plundered, violated and destroyed it was a necessary rupture. Episode 17 was difficult to watch. Seeing Lin'an fall was tragic because it challenges the intimacy, identity and balance in an enclosure that allowed these themes and elements to grow.

Next post: Act 2 - Revelation in Love and Alignment in War

CDrama Review: Identity, Intimacy, and Balance in Pursuit of Jade (2 of 3)

As the episodes roll along, we get to know that Yan Zheng is a person of power and authority. He has a falcon that brings him letters. He can read and write. His gait, attitude and mannerisms are indicative of nobility. And, he was quiet and observant all along. We also see the exposition of Changyu's character. Spunky. Outspoken. Strong in spirit. She loves Lin'an like her own family despite the gossip, the prejudice and the dangers of war looming closer to home.

From the beginning, it was love at first sight. However, and this is beautiful to note, neither of them knows or recognize it as love. There is affection and it is strong. It is the couple Zhao who names the affection because they see it in the everyday ordinary routines between Changyu and Yan Zheng. This tension is wonderful to behold.

In the scene where Yan Zheng and Changyu assert their couple-hood, they stand at the doorway proclaiming themselves as man and wife sealing it with a kiss on the cheek from him to her and her to him. And then, they stand tall looking at each other. The tenderness leaps out of the screen. Yan Zheng looks at Changyu with wonder and reverence. She looks back holding his gaze unafraid and in all sincerity. The snow is thick in Lin'an but it is warm in their home and in the depths of my heart. This is when I told myself that I will root for this pair until the end of the world.

This screenshot of a scene in Act 1 is for me a formidable depiction of both intimacy and balance. In this episode, they were asserting their arranged marriage. They have not said I love you and are still coy with each other but there are scenes that show closeness, affection and intimacy.

In this moment, Yan Zheng is still limping. He holds a staff. He is weak. And Changyu is his strength. What a foreshadowing. The Marquis who hides derives strength from the village girl.

And isn’t this balance, too? Not just equality of power, but reciprocity. Not sameness, but complementarity. Dependence, too, is a form of balance.

They stand at the doorway. A liminal space between inside and outside, private and public, while holding each other in shared understanding. He leans; she steadies. He conceals, she grounds.

This is how their love begins. Not in declaration, but in the gentle, everyday act of holding each other where the other is lacking.