Wednesday 29 January 2014

Homework and Preparation for Term 1 Week 5

Comprehension Practice
Deadline: 5 Feb (Wed)
The CHIJ Prelim 2013 Paper 2 has been distributed to the class on 29 Jan (Wed). You are required to complete the paper and submit it for marking on 5 Feb (Wed). Complete the paper as a timed practice on your own without any external aid such as dictionaries. 

Since your class has not completed the Gan Eng Seng Prelim 2013 feedback (which will be done on 4 Feb (Tue), you are advised to complete Sections A and B first and do Section C after the feedback. The answers to Section A can be found here.

Corrections and Reflection for Diagnostic Test
Deadline: 4 Feb (Tue)
Read the feedback for your diagnostic test here. Complete the Metacognition Reflection Sheet with the help of the Metacognition Guide for Essays. Both documents have been distributed when your essays were returned.  You will also need to refer to the documents listed in the sidebar of this blog under “Assessment Rubrics”

In addition to your metacognitive reflection, you are required to do corrections for your language errors. You are encouraged to correct all your errors but you are required to choose 5 of them to be presented to me to be marked. These 5 errors should be the ones that you may not be so sure about, rather than the easy ones. Please follow the format found here to present your corrections.

Submit your essay reflection and corrections stapled together in the following order:
1) metacognition reflection sheet
2) correction of language errors
3) original essay

Students who have been asked to redo your essays, you can skip item 2.

Reading Programme
Deadline: 4 Feb (Tue)
The files you have submitted this week will be returned on 4 Feb (Tue) during assembly. Please use your recess to get ready this week’s reading tasks for submission by the end of the day.  You are to do the following Reading Tasks this week:
(a)  Read the article titled “How to eat ice cream” and answer question 3.
(b)  Read the essay by Benjamin Lo found here and answer the application question.

Language Skills Handout

Bring the Language Skills handout I gave you 2 weeks ago (the one with the Word Choice exercise). We will be using it in class.



Monday 27 January 2014

Follow-up on lesson on Question Analysis

No lesson summary is required for this lesson. Please work on the required question using the tool chosen by your group and post your work as a comment to this post. You are required to do two things:
(a) Write down the ideas generated by the tool chosen by your group.
(b) Based on the ideas generated, write down 3 points that will address the question. These points should be written in the exact phrasing as they would be if you wrote them in your essay.

The deadline to complete this task is 29 Jan Wed.

The slides for today's lesson can be found here.

Tuesday 21 January 2014

Reading Programme: Feedback + Admin Matters (17/01/14)

Focus of lesson: Feedback on Reading Programme Assignments

Key Learning Points: (more information below)

Content Learnt:
• Finding the "main focus" of the passage given. E.g. : Why is reading so important

Vocabulary/Grammar Rules: None.


~***~


Admin Matters:

• Grade D is the passing grade
• Everything needed for the English Reading File can be found in a special Google Document File found on the English Blog
• All instructions on what to complete for each reading task is on the English Blog
• Reading Assignment due every Monday, unless it's a Pubic Holiday
• Always fill in ALL columns for content page
• Content Page must always be at the top
• Reading File should only contain reading assignments given, not any other homework related to reading.
• Each task must be written on separate sheets of paper per task. No combining 2 or more tasks into one piece of foolscap.
• Corrections: Look out for comments [Not all will have] and correct them

Feedback:

- Finding the points
- Using personal examples to support/refute found point(s)
- For Text 1:
* Look out for points relating to why reading is important

Friday 17 January 2014

Word Choice - 17/1/14

Word Choice

Previous Lessons : 

1. Failed States (eg: Somalia) 

Meaning : Failed states can no longer perform basic functions such as education, security, or governance, usually due to fractious violence or extreme poverty. 

Source : http://www.globalpolicy.org/nations-a-states/failed-states.html

2. Emerging Economies 

3. Rogue States (eg : North Korea, Iraq) 

Meaning : "International Gangsters" 

- Mavis (1) 

Homework and Preparation for Term 1 Week 4

Reading Programme
1. Read the 2 articles assigned for silent reading this week:
(a) The End of Serendipity
(b) Why a 'fat tax' won't work in Singapore

For each article, identify one key point made by the author and write a paragraph stating if you agree or disagree with the author. You are to support your opinion with your own examples.

2. Read the excerpt from "The Machine Stops" given out to you in Term 1 Week 1 and complete all the questions given. For Question 7 (the extended response question), you response should be about one paragraph long and should be supported by your own examples.

NOTE: A paragraph is expected to contain at least about 150 words. Some of you are giving me very short paragraphs and are not developing your points properly.

Deadline: Monday of Term 1 Week 4 (All Reading Programme deadlines will be Monday unless Monday is a school holiday)

For submission instructions, please read the English Language Administrative Guide and pay particular attention to the sections "Reading tasks submission binder" and "Grading system for reading programme".

Preparation for Lessons
Complete the Gan Eng Seng Secondary School Paper 2 Prelim 2013 given out as your Sec 3 year end holiday homework if you have not already done so and bring it to class for lessons. 

Thursday 16 January 2014

Follow-up for lesson interrupted by fire drill on 17 Jan 2014

Feedback on Term 1 Week 1 Reading Tasks
Please complete what we didn't manage to do in class under comments for this post. To recap, each group chose a section of a text to work on and you were supposed to:
(a) Write down the main point from the section of the text your group chose (you can rephrase the text if needed)
(b) Write down at least one example which might be applied to the point (either to support or refute it)
(c) Write a short explanation to explain how the evidence you provided proves or refutes the point.

Item (c) is an additional task which we would have discussed in class if there wasn't a fire drill.

The 6 sections of the texts were:
T1 p3 - 4
T1 p 5 - 7
T1 p8 to end
T2 p1 - 3
T2 p4 - 6
T2 p7 - end

Please start your comment by stating which section your group is working on. One comment per group. Complete by tonight.

Friday 10 January 2014

Homework and Preparation for Term 1 Week 2

Homework: Reading Programme
Read the 2 articles assigned for silent reading this week:
(a) Is reading really that important?
(b) A tweet could derail your college application.

For each article, identify one key point made by the author and write a paragraph stating if you agree or disagree with the author. You are to support your opinion with your own examples.

Deadline: Monday 13 Jan

For submission instructions, please read the English Language Administrative Guide and pay particular attention to the sections "Reading tasks submission binder" and "Grading system for reading programme". Do take time to read through the other sections of the guide as well for general filing guidelines.

Preparation for Lessons
No preparation is required for Lesson 1 and Lesson 2. For Lesson 3, please read the excerpt from "The Machine Stops" given out today and answer all the questions.

Something useful to proposal writing

You might find this article useful for proposal writing.

Proposal Writing (Class work on 10 Jan 2013)