LEARNING ACTIVITY SHEET

QUARTER 2 / WEEK _2___

Name:____________________________________________ Score:__________
Grade & Section ___________________________________ Subject: ENGLISH
Name of Teacher: __________________________________ Date: ___________

I. Title: The VUCA World

II. Type of Activity: / Concept notes with formative activities

LAS for summative assessment ( Written Work

Performance Task)
III. MELC: Analyze literature as a means of understanding unchanging values in the
VUCA (volatile, uncertain, complex, ambiguous) world

EN9LT-IIa; EN9LT-IIb-15 (e) Analyze literature as a means of valuing other

people and their various circumstances in life.
IV. Learning Objective/s:
1. Identify the manifestations of the features of the VUCA world in
literary pieces
2. Relate pictures to literary pieces
3. Construct a slogan summarizing the theme of a poem
___________________________________________________________________
V. Reference/s
For Online Resource/s: (Please include website, URL and date accessed)
https://www.litcharts.com/poetry/edwin-markham/the-man-with-the-hoe
https://www.facebook.com/1240108339343409/posts/an-analysis-of-marxism-
the-man-with-the-hoe-poem-by-edwin-markhamthe-poem-the-ma/
1245996785421231/
https://www.scribd.com/doc/238914216/Analysis-of-Man-With-the-Hoe
http://www.getty.edu/art/collection/objects/760/jean-francois-millet-man-with-
a-hoe-french-1860-1862/
http://www.visual-arts-cork.com/paintings-analysis/man-with-a-hoe.htm
https://www.youngwriters.co.uk/types-acrostic#:~:text=An%20acrostic
%20poem%20is%20a,out%20the%20word%20or%20phrase.
https://www.writersdigest.com/write-better-poetry/erasure-and-blackout-
poems-poetic-forms#:~:text=A%20blackout%20poem%20is%20when,a
%20sort%20of%20visual%20poem.
https://www.rcampus.com/rubricshowc.cfm?code=L3CA8B&sp=yes
http://www.rrb3.com/breaker/poetry/poems%20by%20others/sonnet_29.ht

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 https://businessmirror.com.ph/2020/09/22/vuca-world-4-0-and-the-covid-19-
pandemic
https://www.britannica.com/biography/Edwin-Markham

VI. Concept notes with formative activities

In 1991, the US Army coined the acronym VUCA in response to the extreme
condition in Afghanistan and in Iraq that resulted to the total change in the nature of
warfare. The art of their war adapted to the VUCA: Volatile, Uncertain, Complex,
Ambiguous.
Volatility describes the world through the speed of change that occurs in it. As
things change continuously, the dynamic situation today transforms, in the turbulent
speed of light, to the unthinkable tomorrow. What is true today may not be any more
true tomorrow, and what happens next is relatively unexpected and unknown. The
more volatile the world is, the more and faster things change.
Uncertainty results from the degree by which we cannot predict the future. If what
is happening is not understood and when the basic cause-and-effect is unknown, it
lacks the predictability. While the event may be explained after the fact, making a
hypothesis or forecast of them is difficult. The more uncertain the world is, the harder
it is to predict.
Complexity is brought about by the situation that has many interconnected parts,
variables and relationships between them. High complexity makes it impossible to
fully analyze to lead to a clear conclusion. The more complex the world is, the harder
it is to analyze.
Ambiguity is a situation when information is incomplete, contradictory or
inaccurate to draw any rational interpretation. It results to the lack of clarity and
confusion on how to make conclusion. The more ambiguous the world is, the harder
it is to interpret.
The VUCA world has been here before Covid-19, but the pandemic has made
change faster and more volatile, harder to predict and more uncertain, more difficult
to analyze and more complex, and, more challenging to interpret and more
ambiguous. The whole of humanity’s adaptation brings about more and faster
changes, hence, volatile. No one is expert enough to help predict the future in this
unprecedented crisis of the modern times painting the gloomy face of uncertainty.

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The multifaceted nature of the crisis and the more complex human and institutional
responses come into play to make it extremely complex. And the novel coronavirus
leads to an expected ambiguity. We are in the VUCA world, indeed.
In these activity sheets, several literary pieces which mirror the reality of the
society are to be studied and reflected upon. One of which was written by
Edwin Markham, whose original name is Charles Edward Anson Markham, born
April 23, 1852, Oregon City, Ore., U.S. and died on March 7, 1940, New York City.
He was an American poet and lecturer, was best-known for his poem of social
protest, “The Man with the Hoe.”
On Jan. 15, 1899, the San Francisco Examiner published "The Man with the Hoe,"
49 lines of traditional blank verse inspired by Jean François Millet's painting. This
protest against exploited labor "flew eastward across the continent like a contagion"
and on around the world. Its popularity cannot be overestimated.

Task 1. You Can Do This

Instructions: Read the poem, Sonnet 29 by George Santayana. Based on the

poem, list down specific encounters in life or experiences that reflect the themes of
sonnet 29 using the chart below.

SONNET 29
GEORGE SANTAYANA (1863-1952)
 
What riches have you that you deem And my deep heart still meaneth what
me poor, they said.
Or what large comfort that you call me It makes me happy that the soul is
sad? brave,
Tell me what makes you so exceeding And, being so much kinsman to the
glad: dead,
Is your earth happy or your heaven I walk contented to the peopled grav
sure?
I hope for heaven, since the stars
endure
And bring such tidings as our fathers
had.
I know no deeper doubt to make me
mad,
I need no brighter love to keep me
pure.
To me the faiths of old are daily bread;
I bless their hope, I bless their will to
save,

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 (Love) My father works double time to earn extra money
for my studies
THEMES

Self-Pity,

Isolation,

Jealousy, love,

and Despair

Task 2

Instructions: One of the themes of Sonnet 29 is also about Love Vs Wealth. Below
is a graphic organizer showing two (2) arrows pointing downward and pointing
upward. Place what is more important to you by writing on the space provided
directed by the arrow pointing upward and the less important on the arrow pointing
downward. Provide a very brief but very substantial reason regarding your choice.

_____________________________________________
_____________________________________________
_____________________________________________
_____________________________________________
_____________________________________________

LOVE VS WEALTH

________________________________________________
________________________________________________
________________________________________________
________________________________________________
________________________________________________

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Task 3
Instructions: Write words, phrases, or other related quotations that you can
associate with the quotation below. Place your answer on the space provided.
“There is a destiny which makes us brothers; none goes his way alone. All that we
send into the lives of others comes back into our own.”
― Edwin Markham

1.Unity 6.____________________
2._____________________ 7._____________________
3._____________________ 8._____________________
4._____________________ 9._____________________
5._____________________ 10.____________________

Task 4. You Can Do More

Instructions: Describe the pictures below and provide a brief but substantial
explanation about their importance in our society using the space provided below.

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Task 5

Instructions: Illustrate (Draw) a figure of a man based on your perspective in the

society that you are living in right now then answer the question below.

Based on your illustration, what qualities do you think are related with that of the
subject in the Man with the Hoe?

_____________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________

Task 6
Instructions: Supply the missing information in the chart by making an example
based on your experiences or scenarios in life and integrate what you have learned
about the use of Modal Verbs.

MODAL MEANING EXAMPLE (Experiences)

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 CAN To express ability Before, I don’t know how to cook but when
corona virus strike us, I CAN already cook
and aside from that, I learned other
household chores making my family very
happy.
CAN To request
permission
MUST To express
obligation
SHOULD To express
strong belief
WOULD To request or
offer

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Task 7. Challenge Yourself
Instructions: Watch a short video clip through this link
https://stonesoup.com/post/covid-19-a-poem-of-hope-by-audrey-chuang-11/
Accomplish the acrostic by crafting precautionary measures to fight COVID19
Pandemic. Use modal verbs in this activity.

F- orces of the enemy CAN be expected__

R-_______________________________
O-_______________________________
N-_______________________________
T-_______________________________
L-_______________________________
I -_______________________________
N-_______________________________
E-_______________________________

Task 8

Instructions: Read and understand the poem “The Man with the Hoe” by Edwin
Markham. Identify five realities of the VUCA world portrayed in the poem.

The Man with the Hoe

BY EDWIN MARKHAM
Bowed by the weight of centuries he leans
Upon his hoe and gazes on the ground,
The emptiness of ages in his face,
And on his back the burden of the world.
Who made him dead to rapture and despair,
A thing that grieves not and that never hopes,
Stolid and stunned, a brother to the ox?
Who loosened and let down this brutal jaw?
Whose was the hand that slanted back this brow?
Whose breath blew out the light within this brain?

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 Is this the Thing the Lord God made and gave
To have dominion over sea and land;
To trace the stars and search the heavens for power;
To feel the passion of Eternity?
Is this the Dream He dreamed who shaped the suns
And marked their ways upon the ancient deep?
Down all the stretch of Hell to its last gulf
There is no shape more terrible than this—
More tongued with censure of the world’s blind greed—
More filled with signs and portents for the soul—
More fraught with danger to the universe.

What gulfs between him and the seraphim!

Slave of the wheel of labor, what to him
Are Plato and the swing of Pleiades?
What the long reaches of the peaks of song,
The rift of dawn, the reddening of the rose?
Through this dread shape the suffering ages look;
Time’s tragedy is in that aching stoop;
Through this dread shape humanity betrayed,
Plundered, profaned and disinherited,
Cries protest to the Judges of the World,
A protest that is also prophecy.

O masters, lords and rulers in all lands,

is this the handiwork you give to God,
This monstrous thing distorted and soul-quenched ?
How will you ever straighten up this shape;
Touch it again with immortality;
Give back the upward looking and the light;
Rebuild in it the music and the dream;
Make right the immemorial infamies,
Perfidious wrongs, immedicable woes?

O masters, lords and rulers in all lands,

How will the Future reckon with this Man?
How answer his brute question in that hour
When whirlwinds of rebellion shake the world?
How will it be with kingdoms and with kings—
With those who shaped him to the thing he is—
When this dumb Terror shall reply to God
After the silence of the centuries?

Five Realities of the VUCA World

1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
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Task 9

Instructions: Read each line and respond to the questions that follow.
Bowed by the weight of centuries he leans
Upon his hoe and gazes on the ground,
The emptiness of ages in his face,
And on his back the burden of the world.

What emotion is being manifested in these lines? Explain briefly your answer.

O masters, lords and rulers in all lands,   

is this the handiwork you give to God,
This monstrous thing distorted and soul-quenched?
How will you ever straighten up this shape;   
Touch it again with immortality;

Who are the representations of masters, lords and rulers in your society right now?
How did they depict same characteristics which are mentioned in the poem?

Task 10. Task 10 Level Up

Instructions: The poem, The Man with the Hoe presented themes like Anger,
Despair, Perseverance, Self- Pity, Isolation and even Jealousy. Explain briefly but
substantially your understanding on any of the themes of the poem. Are these
themes reflected in your life? In what way?

Task 11
Instructions: One of the qualities of the Man with the Hoe is perseverance. Create
a comic strip showing perseverance among the front-liners of COVID-19 pandemic.

Task 12
Instructions: Read and analyze the theme of The Man with the Hoe and create a
four-line slogan generalizing what you have learned from it. Place your answer on
the scroll provided below.

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