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The 7 Ds Of Narrative Writing In Primary Schools (iv) Describing Action

On December 6, 2013   /   Articles   /   3 Comments

(How to) Describe Action(s)?

Actions are the life blood in story writing. It need not be action-packed from paragraph to paragraph, but what the characters do must be consistent with the composition topic and serve as linkages which must be logical and lead to a satisfying conclusion. Writers use figurative language by incorporating the correct forms of verbs, adjectives and adverbs in grammatically structured sentences. Better writers would also include similes, idioms and proverbs to spice up the actions and entertain the reader.

Consider these examples :
– two angry boys grabbing and tugging at each others’ already torn and tattered shirt
– leaping two steps at a time, he fell clumsily like a log, landing in a twisted heap at the bottom of the stairs
– walked menacingly towards her, inching closer every minute and sending a cold shiver down her spine
– roared with laughter until their bellies ached, unable to stop wiping away the tears which had turned their vision blurry
– struggling on all fours, he lifted himself up ignoring that throbbing headache only to collapsed back into his pool of disgusting vomit
– kicking the door open in one swift movement, a sharp pain shot through his ankle but the bloody mess and chaos he saw up close shocked him to the core



Further Reading:
(i)Introduction
(ii) Describe the Scene
(iii) Describing People (Characters)
(v)Dscribing Feelings (Emotions)
(vi)Using Dialogues
(vii)Be Different (Beginning & Ending)
(viii)Detecting Errors (Nothing Is Perfect)
(ix)Conclusion

Mr. James Chow (Nov 2013)
English Tutor
Kent Ridge Tutors @ Jurong

For more information, please contact us via

Jurong West Branch (KRTC@JW)
Email : jurongwest@krtc.com.sg
Hotline : (+65) 6397 0444

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The 7 Ds Of Narrative Writing In Primary Schools (iii) Describing People

On December 5, 2013   /   Articles   /   5 Comments

(How to) Describe People (Characters)?

The people in the story are the characters. There may be just one main character or a few. A good description of the person(s) brings the story to life, connects the reader to the plot and enables one to ‘feel’ for the characters. It is quite common for students to just gloss over the character(s) without sufficient details which can be improved upon with just a little more effort.

Here are some examples:
a man

– with a sallow and dull complexion framing a cold and expressionless face
– an unusually slim face with sunken cheeks covered with a sea of pockmarks
– beneath his T-shirt were broad muscular shoulders resting on a well built body

a boy

– in a stained T-shirt with clumps of damp hair in a tangle mess, partly hiding his face
– grinning ear to ear was a chubby and adorable school boy with an angelic face
– a bespectacled and shy boy looking smart in neatly pressed pants and shirt

a woman

– looking elegant and sophisticated with sparkling jewellery like a Christmas tree
– with visible strands of white hair and wiry wrinkles betraying years of toiling
– her snow white complexion and almond shaped eyes attracted many stares



Further Reading:
(i)Introduction
(ii) Describe the Scene
(iv)Describing Action(s)
(v)Dscribing Feelings (Emotions)
(vi)Using Dialogues
(vii)Be Different (Beginning & Ending)
(viii)Detecting Errors (Nothing Is Perfect)
(ix)Conclusion

Mr. James Chow (Nov 2013)
English Tutor
Kent Ridge Tutors @ Jurong

For more information, please contact us via

Jurong West Branch (KRTC@JW)
Email : jurongwest@krtc.com.sg
Hotline : (+65) 6397 0444

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The 7 Ds Of Narrative Writing In Primary Schools (ii) Describe The Scene

On December 4, 2013   /   Articles   /   6 Comments

(How to) Describe The Scene?

Whatever composition topic is given, a story must happen somewhere; that is the scene. It could be a market, the canteen, a shopping mall or a park. It is important to bring the reader into this scene, even though everyone knows what a market or a park looks like. It requires the writer to be more creative and move away from a too simplistic description of the scene as this is the start of the story and everything develops from this starting point.

Some better alternatives are :
beach scene

the sky was an huge expanse of blue, dotted with clumps of white cotton clouds, drifting lazily from left to right, just like in a postcard

outdoors

I was gladly greeted by arrows of bright morning sunlight breaking through the thick leaves covering the forest and tiny creatures of every sizes stirred in the thick foliage.

encounters

The journey home felt cold, long and lonely. The street and pavement stood empty except for shiny pools of rainwater. Suddenly she heard noises close behind her. Sue realised that she was not alone in the dark and slippery alley. She knew it could not be stray cats. Many frightening images flashed through her mind.

Further Reading:
(i)Introduction
(iii) Describing People (Characters)
(iv)Describing Action(s)
(v)Dscribing Feelings (Emotions)
(vi)Using Dialogues
(vii)Be Different (Beginning & Ending)
(viii)Detecting Errors (Nothing Is Perfect)
(ix)Conclusion

Mr. James Chow (Nov 2013)
English Tutor
Kent Ridge Tutors @ Jurong

For more information, please contact us via

Jurong West Branch (KRTC@JW)
Email : jurongwest@krtc.com.sg
Hotline : (+65) 6397 0444

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The 7 Ds Of Narrative Writing In Primary Schools (i) Introduction

On December 3, 2013   /   Articles   /   8 Comments

Narratives are stories about characters in fictitious situations. In such writings, the writer is like a film producer, trying to capture the readers’ attention through words and sentences that convey actions, plots, meanings, feelings and connections in a skilful manner.

In schools, students are given different composition topics to practise which require them to generate logical and interesting ideas, develop their language competencies and experiment with various styles of developing good story writing skills. Writing is more than just stating what someone did at a certain place due to certain circumstances. More than that, writing must ‘enlighten’ and ‘illustrate’ the action, people and scenario like a movie does.

If a student writes – ‘The boy tripped and fell into the big drain’. A reader or a teacher would want to know more :

what kind of a boy is he? – naughty, playful, athletic, careless or clumsy
how does he look like? – skinny with spiky hair and huge bookish glasses
what tripped him? – a rock, his shoe laces, a cat or was he day dreaming
what kind of drain? – smelly, dirty drain with disgusting and filthy rubbish
where is this drain? – beside a busy road, in front of the shops or near home
how would he feel? – foolish, terrified, embarrassed, stunned or bewildered

The following pointers serve to provide and imbue beginning and intermediate young writers with some useful tips on writing well and writing meaningfully in class or for exams.

1. Describe The Scene
2. Describing People (Characters)
3. Describing Action(s)
4. Describing Feelings (Emotions)
5. Using Dialogues
6. Be Different (Beginning & Ending)
7. Detecting Errors (Nothing Is Perfect)

Which I will further elaborate in the following posts.

Further Reading:
(ii) Describe the Scene
(iii) Describing People (Characters)
(iv)Describing Action(s)
(v)Dscribing Feelings (Emotions)
(vi)Using Dialogues
(vii)Be Different (Beginning & Ending)
(viii)Detecting Errors (Nothing Is Perfect)
(ix)Conclusion

Mr. James Chow (Nov 2013)
English Tutor
Kent Ridge Tutors @ Jurong

For more information, please contact us via

Jurong West Branch (KRTC@JW)
Email : jurongwest@krtc.com.sg
Hotline : (+65) 6397 0444

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Mindmapping for Primary Maths & Science

On November 17, 2013   /   Articles   /   Leave a comment

To Empower my students to Gain a Successful Advantage by Learning Concepts that make Difficult Questions Easy.

Mind Mapping is a great technique that will improve our thinking skills and memory. Our brain has the ability to learn and remember large amounts of information, but only if these ideas are connected systematically and logically together. By mimicking how nature and our own brain works, ordinary people like all of us can be genius in a sense!

Many of my students’ first encounters with mind mapping are either in some expensive enrichment program or in a few special science lessons in their primary schools. However, when asked whether they apply it in their daily school work, they would probably say no. And why not? Simply because constructing a mind map on paper is just too time-consuming and troublesome. Sadly, just a few lessons are unlikely to make any significant long term impact.

Since 2010, I have been constructing MindMaps of the primary school syllabus for Maths and Science using a mindmapping program. After many refinements with feedbacks and valuable contributions from my students, it has been completed and available for all my lessons. Now my students can truly enjoyed the full benefits of MindMapping without spending too much time constructing them on their own.

The Mindmapping experience so far for many of my students is almost miraculous. Every lesson became alive in big screen with colours, graphics and sometimes videos. Difficult concepts became easier. Time spend on each topic was reduced by half, so in-depth discussion time doubled. Results within a few months improved significantly as they gained new-found interests in the topics they used to find boring. Join in my classes now to experience it yourself!

By Mr Oliver Chan
Primary Science & Maths Tutor
Kent Ridge Education (KRTC) @ Jurong

For more information, please refer to the tutor profile

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Teacher, I learnt and I understood what you taught, but now I forgot everything!

On November 13, 2013   /   Articles   /   Leave a comment

Many students have given this reason, over the years, for not being serious with their studies until it’s closer to the exams period. Their reasoning is, if I’m going to forget everything, why study so hard now? Wouldn’t it be a waste of my effort?

I’d like to share from my experience, both as a teacher and a student, some facts to dispel this myth:

1.Some students are really just using this as an excuse :p

That’s the real reason why some students are not starting earlier. If that’s you, start being honest with yourself yeah 😉

2.Even if you forget everything, it was not a waste of effort!

If you put in the effort, you expect to see results. It makes total sense. And so you did – you put in good effort, listened in class, did your practices, asked a lot of questions, and you feel like you want to take the exam (for this topic) now! But of course, exam’s not until a couple of months down the road. Two weeks later, your friend asks you what you learnt two weeks ago – that topic that you were so good in – and you don’t even remember what the topic was! Finally when you remembered what the topic was, you could only vaguely remember what was in it. You go into panic mode – have I forgotten everything? Aarrghh!!!

Ok, wait, wait. Don’t panic. You need to recognise that other than that subject that you worked so hard in, you also have many other subjects, and you learn new things everyday. It’s normal to not be able to remember that topic two weeks ago, even though you were so good.

But, when it comes to tests and exams, you will realise that you take a much shorter time to revise than someone who has not gotten only weak understanding of the lesson back then. And so, you will progress much faster and better. That’s what will separate you from the rest, the A student from the others.

3.Boost your revision power with effective note-taking

When I was a student, I discovered that making my own notes, to summarise the contents of each topic was something that was very powerful when it came to revisions. Everyone communicates and use words differently, so how nice would it be, if you could have someone who thinks and talks exactly in the same way as you do, to teach you for the coming test or exam? Yes, it’s possible to have that person, and that person is YOU!

When you have a good set of notes done when you are learning, that’s what it would do for you. When it comes to revision, it would be as if the you from the past (who had understood thoroughly the topic) are teaching the you now (who has forgotten most of it), in the way that you would understand best.

So then, when it comes to lessons, listen really attentively and take notes. After the lesson, look through it and tidy it up (correct and reorganise as necessary). When doing practices, you might want to take down new discoveries or important areas that you tend to overlook, or common mistakes that you often make, that you might remind yourself later what to look out for.

So here you have, some simply yet effective ideas that will help you go a long way – not just where you are studying now, but for all your days as a student and beyond, whenever you are learning something new. So the next time you realise that you have forgotten what you’ve learnt, remember that you have had fun listening, learning, taking notes, and so you don’t have to panic yeah 😉

Article by : Mr. Ng Hai Wei
Secondary Mathematics Tutor
Kent Ridge Education

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PSLE English 2015

On November 2, 2013   /   Articles   /   Leave a comment

Changes To PSLE English Language – Implications and Perspective

The MOE announced recently changes to the assessment components in PSLE English as part of the overall review of the English curriculum and language instructional processes in schools. The changes are 1 year away to give schools, students and teachers ample time to gradually prepare and implement the new assessment modes in class.
The changes are not critically major and should be viewed as a refinement of learning outcomes and enhancing language teaching and testing in schools.

What It Means

One must remember that PSLE is a summative assessment of learning taken place over a total period of 6 years, so the acquiring of language competencies begin quite early in a student’s learning experience and not just a few months before. To be prepared and confident for PSLE, a student’s capacity and competence must be developed through a range of reading, oral, writing, thinking experiences and be equipped with the skills to use language as tools for various forms of expression of thoughts.

A good grounding in vocabulary and grammar is essential but a student’s performance will be just limited to the structures and forms of language rules. The student will not be able to perform at a higher level if he/she is not able to through language, generate ideas, interpret contextual clues, understand information relationships, identify causes and consequences and reframe facts through articulation and writing logically. And that is what PSLE aims to determine with the current and future changes in English assessment.

The Changes in 2015

Continuous Writing – instead of two questions with fixed scenarios for candidates to choose from to write a narrative, one topic is offered which can be approached from any one of several perspectives. To help candidates think about the different perspectives of the topic, visuals will be provided.

Comprehension – a new Visual Text Comprehension in Paper 2 in the form of multiple choice questions (MCQs). One such example would be questions based on a poster.
In Comprehension Open-ended section in Paper 2, the types of questions will now be varied and could include, for example, tables which candidates will fill in using information from the passage.

Oral/Conversation – will be replaced by the Stimulus-based Conversation component. Students will give their personal response to a visual stimulus that is thematically linked to the Reading Aloud passage. Students will then move on seamlessly to a discussion on a relevant topic.

Listening Comprehension – will have more items with graphic representation compared to
the existing paper

Moving Forward

Students preparing for the changes in PSLE should not be unduly stressed or be worried. Early preparation, sustained practice and greater focus on the higher skills sets necessary for language mastery would ensure success at the end.
Competent students seek to understand the intricacies of the language and consistently reinforce learning and application in purposeful activities. I would urge students to concentrate on an English programme of sustained effort, focused practice and developing confidence in a positive learning experience. This will imbue the student with a repertoire of skills for success and construct effective mental models to tackle different levels of reading, listening, writing and speaking performance tasks however challenging at PSLE.

James Chow
English Tutor
Kent Ridge Tutors @ Jurong

For more information, please contact us via

Jurong West Branch (KRTC@JW)
Email : jurongwest@krtc.com.sg
Hotline : (+65) 6397 0444

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Message from an English Teacher

On September 1, 2013   /   Articles   /   Leave a comment

I started teaching in MOE schools and Junior Colleges over thirty years ago. I came from England where I had trained as a teacher and was sent to teach the Pre-U classes in Raffles Institution in 1979. I moved over to Raffles Junior College when it was formed in 1981. My last MOE posting was five years at National Junior College. I really enjoyed these JCs. I retired from Government service in 2000. Since then I have been teaching in private schools, International schools and in tuition centres.

The main difference between teaching in mainstream schools and tuition centres is, of course, the class sizes. In schools classes can be over 20 students, sometimes even larger. It would be far less than that in a tuition centre. AT KRTC Jurong West, my largest class is six. I have other classes of one, two and three students. Of course, the other difference is there are no school uniforms and normally no homework (though that varies because if a parent or a student requests homework I will set it and mark it). In the early days of MOE schools, there was no air conditioning in either the classrooms or staffroom. Some teachers actually smoked cigarettes in the staffroom. Can you believe that? We had ceiling fans in class, which, if they were old and worn out, could be very noisy. It could get insufferably hot in the afternoons. Now we take air conditioning for granted in our classrooms.

Students like to have fun while they are learning, so in my KRTC classes we have language games in the lessons as well as practising all the old grammar and MOE syllabus stuff.

I feel the best way to boost the students’ vocabulary base is not just to get them to read but to get them to be enthusiastic about reading. Every lesson we read an interesting young person’s novel in serial form. The students really enjoy this. We have just finished reading The Silver Sword by Ian Serrailier.

Each student has different strength and weaknesses and the monthly mock test helps me to identify what these are. Because the groups are small it is easy to explain to students what they are doing right and what they are doing wrong. Once they realize where they are going wrong and work on putting things right, they can really boost there grades.

However, there is no magic wand that can be waved to improve a person’s English overnight. Because English is the working language of Singapore and the medium of instruction in education, most Singapore students have an excellent level of spoken English. Problems arise in written English. Common problems are verb tenses, prepositions, subject verb agreement, spelling, punctuation and essay writing skills.

How to put these problems right? First they need to be identified by the teacher who then tells the student where he or she is going wrong. The student needs to edit his or her work before handing it in for marking, with particular attention to look out for the type of mistake he or she is prone to make.

Like everything we do in life, practice makes perfect. The more we read and write the better we will become. Reading is an excellent way of learning correct English. I recommend students to go to the library, find an interesting story book and read it for twenty minutes before going to sleep. If the book turns out to be boring, take it back and change it. Reading before you sleep will relax you as well as help improve your English.

Peter Burgess Henry
Secondary English Tutor
Kent Ridge Education @ Jurong

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