In-class compre answers

Here are the answers for the comprehension we just did in-class.

Just a repeat of information regarding the EOYs, plus some extra tips...

• Like this paper, your EOY will be a 40 mark paper, with compre - 17 marks; vocab - 5 marks; summary - 18 marks
• Summary - need to give 8 content points, 10 marks will be for language/own words
• Marks will be deducted from the compre side for poor language use
• Take note of mark allocation as a clue to what kind of answer is required
• Don't be lazy in the vocab section - check how the word is used in the passage

2008 CCT answer scheme

Please see here for the comprehension answer scheme.

You are encouraged to try the comprehension out on your own, but if you really lack the time, please try to look through the passage and the answers at the very least.

All the best!

KS Bull (issue 2) orders - Please follow link and respond!

Hi all,

Apologies for the very late notice. I'm taking orders for the new volume of KS Bull (RIJC's publication of expository essays) and the list needs to be submitted by tomorrow - can you please proceed to indicate your orders on this form? Nil replies are required.

http://spreadsheets.google.com/ccc?key=0Am9ilpq19UlDdEc5SnlheW1hU1l0Y0x6bjN4Q2VrMXc&hl=en

Highlighted cells indicate scholars, who have already placed their orders via Mr Kelvin Yap, so scholars do not need to respond to this.

I will close off editing tomorrow morning and submit the list, so please make your mark by tonight.

Some sample essay titles...

1. “Celebrities make the worst role models for today’s youth”. Comment.
2. Is investing in the arts every worthwhile? Discuss the question with reference to your country.
3. “To lodge all power in one party and keep it there is to ensure bad government.” (Mark Twain) Do you agree?
4. “Globalisation makes the world a better place.” To what extent is this true today?
5. Is ambition always to be encouraged?
6. Should euthanasia be legalised in Singapore?
7. “More government intervention, not less.” Is this the best way to solve the problems we face in the world today?
8. “Countries have every right to respond with aggression when provoked.” Do you agree?
9. In your opinion, is your country doing enough to protect the environment?
10. “Foreign aid is ineffective and wasteful.” Is this true?
11. What is wrong with organ trading?
12. “Popular culture has destroyed the true meaning of love and marriage.” Do you agree?
13. “The best argument against democracy is a five-minute conversation with the average voter.” (Winston Churchill) To what extent do you agree?
14. “The book is dead. Long live the Internet.” Discuss.
15. “Humanity is acquiring all the right technology for all the wrong reasons.” Comment.
16. “Ours is a nation of immigrants that should continue to welcome immigrants.” Discuss this in relation to Singapore.
17. “If you’ve got it, flaunt it.” How far is this statement a reflection of societal attitudes today?
18. “A study of history will only make us more pessimistic about the future of the human race.” Discuss.
19. “Religion divides rather than unites.” Discuss.
20. “New forms of media have made mainstream media redundant.” Discuss.
21. To what extent does technology enhance the arts?

Final reminder for competitions

A final reminder regarding the Youth Writers Award Asia 2010 - this is (probably) the final competition still running this year that will be counted for your competition participation. If you have yet to submit your entry, please submit it here.

If you have already participated in an English Language/Literature competition this year (and are able to provide evidence for this), you will not be required to submit an entry for this competition.

You can check here if I currently have a record of your competition participation. If you still have a copy of your entry, you may forward it to me and tell me which competition it was used for. Otherwise, if you'd submitted the entry via the school, please let me know which competition it was and I will check it against our records.

I will need this done by the end of September. Your competition participation (or lack thereof) will be submitted to the school at the end of the year, and it will be reflected in your APR.

Comprehension answer scheme

Hi all,

Here are the answers for the optional holiday assignment. If you have attempted it, you can evaluate yourself on how you have done. In addition, below is a short presentation with 2 alternative strategies you can use for paraphrasing.



Feel free to email me if you have any specific questions about this.

September break

Dear all,

It's finally the September break! Just 2 things.

1. Please remember that you need to participated in an English Language/Literature competition this year - the list of students who have (and have not) participated will be submitted to the school at the end of the year. You can check if I have recorded your participation here - just email me with the relevant details (and evidence, e.g. competition entry) if you've participated in something but I've not recorded it.
   
   If you've not participated in anything yet, the Youth Writers Awards Asia 2010 is still open (until 30 September), please do attempt it during the September holidays (or DMP period).
   
   
2. I've uploaded a comprehension assignment (optional) for you to attempt, I will share the answer scheme at the end of the holidays for you to check your answers against.
   

Summary answer scheme

Your class's answer key

Highlighted in yellow are the paraphrasing that we'd found questionable, but did not have the time to remedy. You should be able to give yourself a (rough) mark for your attempted summary with this guide.

For comparison, here's the version generated by the only class I'd managed to complete the exercise with - 3L's answer key

Debate preparation feedback

Hi all,

Would just like to seek your opinions on whether the pre-debate lessons were useful in helping you to prepare for your assessed debates. You may want to take a look at the lesson recaps to jog your memory on what'd happened.

Faced with having only 3-4 periods to work with, I'd opted to focus on debate preparation, getting you to make an argument on an issue and to counter each others' arguments via electronic media, and then attempting to get your teams working on generating arguments and pre-empting the opposing viewpoints in class.

Time constraints and technological hiccups aside, I was wondering if (from the students' point of view) you'd found this to be a fruitful exercise. Please take the time to respond to the quick survey below!

(If for some reason the embedded form doesn't load, you can do the survey here as well.)

Commentary 2 due W9 Thu

Hi all,

Just a gentle reminder that the second assessed commentary will be due in a week's time (Week 9 Thursday, 27 August). It is essentially the same exercise as the timed commentary you did in the computer laboratory last term, except that we have left the selection of topic completely to your own discretion.

Just a recap of what's required (slightly modified so you don't need to print it off your blog, don't worry if you've done that already though).

1. Choose one article on any social issue from the internet, newspaper or magazine. Cut out, print or make a photocopy of the article.
2. Write a commentary on the issue using Microsoft Word (Word limit: 600 words). Print this article.
3. Post the commentary on your personal English blog.
4. Submit, stapled together in this order
• ERP task sheet
• Printed commentary
• Article/Copy of article
  

Take note that to avoid the late penalty, you will need to have submitted the required documents as well as have uploaded it onto your blog. Your English blog should also be accessible to the general public.

Debate lineup

(Week 9 topic has been released.)

Please remember to bring your 'What abjudicators are looking for' set of handouts (with attached assessment rubrics and debate judgement sheet).

I am still open to mutually-agreed swaps and suggestions for the motion (you might want to check Google for some suggested motions), but keep in mind that if you change it later, you will essentially have less time to prepare for it. Please remember to CC the opposing team if emailing me about this.

W8 Mon (17/8)
Motion: This House believes that video games are a waste of time.
Proposition: Nay Myo, Cheng Sin, Rohan Gupta
Opposition: Wei Ren, Bernard, Melvin

W8 Thu (20/8)
Motion: This House believes that new technology has added little in terms of quality to the education system.
Proposition: Sheng Yi, Zheyuan, Yechen
Opposition: Jae, Jerome, Yuan Jing

W9 Tue (25/8)
Motion: This House would allow the teaching of Intelligent Design as an alternative to the theory of Evolution in school Science lessons.
Proposition: Simon, Wilson, Jonathan, Nishanth
Opposition: Yao Yang, Xin Chen, Jovan, Kelvin

W10 Wed (2/9)
Motion: This House believes that unemployment benefits do more harm than good.
Proposition: Farhan, Izhar, Guoxiang
Opposition: George, Aditya, Wasiq

Debates #3: E-debate debrief

I've looked through your trial debates, and realised that many of the groups had not quite managed to engage in a proper argument. Hopefully this is due to the limitations of the environment and reduced interaction with the electronic debate. Regardless, I hope that there have still been some takeaway lessons from this.

1) Working with your team - Hopefully this chance of splitting the work has given you an inkling of how to divide the research/preparation for the actual debates.

2) Planning your debate - Somewhat related to the earlier point, but you'll need to think about what points you expect to make during your oral debate, and preferably pre-empt some of the opposing team's arguments and prepare rebuttals for them.

3) Generating rebuttals - Some of you might not have got to this stage, but it is quite an experience to hear an unexpected point from the opposing team and attempt to generate a response on the fly.

In-class debate practice

Look at your assigned debate topics below and discuss among your groups your three (or more) major arguments. You may want to look at the existing comments on the blog to get some ideas for your argument points. You might also want to pre-empt what arguments your opponents might come up with, and prepare some rebuttals for them.

This house believes that the sale of graphically suggestive pillows should be banned in Singapore

Love in 2-D

Proposition: George, Aditya, Wasiq
Opposition: Jae, Jerome, Yuan Jing

This house believes we should not waste our resources on useless technology

Midori-san, the blogging houseplant

Proposition: Nay Myo, Cheng Sin, Rohan Gupta
Opposition: Wei Ren, Bernard, Melvin

This house believes that restaurants in Singapore should be required by law to serve complimentary water

All stirred up over drinking water in restaurants

Proposition: Farhan, Izhar, Guoxiang
Opposition: Sheng Yi, Zheyuan, Yechen

This house believes that restrictions on research unduly hinder the progress of science

Scientists Worry Machines May Outsmart Man

Proposition: Simon, Wilson, Jonathan, Nishanth
Opposition: Yao Yang, Xin Chen, Jovan, Kelvin

Sample debate videos

Hi all,

Do take a look at these clips (extracted from a training video from the Debate Association Singapore) - if you don't have time to look through them all, you might want to just take a look at the relevant speaker's role that you are preparing for (click on the left/right selection buttons on the embedded video player). The format of the debate is closer to what we'll be doing, just that they have a lot more time with their speeches than you will.

If you are really short on time, I would advise you just take a look at the first video for examples of how Point of Information is offered at 3:30 and 5:45. She is actually first offered one at 2:05, but rejects that (and quite a few others) - take a look at how this is done rather fluidly.
--

Motion: This House believes that the media has become too powerful.
Courtesy of the Debate Association (Singapore)

Debates #2: Dissecting the debate

Thanks to Mrs Albar for these slides.

These slides will serve as a good resource when preparing for your assessed debates (when complemented with the handouts you already have). I have attempted to convey the essence of it to you in class, but you may now take a look at them at your own pace.

Competition participation

Just a clarification about the Youth Writers Awards Asia 2010 and your annual competition requirement.

If you have already participated in an English Language/Literature competition this year (and are able to provide evidence for this), you will not be required to submit an entry for this competition.

You can check here if I currently have a record of your competition participation. If you still have a copy of your entry, you may forward it to me and tell me which competition it was used for. Otherwise, if you'd submitted the entry via the school, please let me know which competition it was and I will check it against our records.

Your competition participation (or lack thereof) will be submitted to the school at the end of the year.

Debate assessment clarification

Please take note of the rubrics for the debate attached to 'What adjudicators are looking for'. One will be used by me to assess each individual speaker (Debate Rubric, 25m), and the other will be used by the student judges to decide which group wins the debate (table with 'Chairperson:____________ near the top left).

The teachers are still in discussion whether or not to amend the assessment mark to include the team strategy component, but as previously stated, the emphasis is primarily (or solely) on your own performance.

In addition, for the three-speaker groups, the choice of having a reply speaker will be optional. The reply speaker's role is actually not as easy as it seems - he will have to condense the 6 previous speakers' points into a rather short summary, as well as explain why his team's case is stronger than the opponent team's.

As mentioned before, a speaker who chooses to double as a reply speaker will not be penalised if he performs poorly for one role.

Debates #1: In-class blog discussion

1) Visit this website - Preparing de bait

2) Select a preferred article and read it.

3) Write a 2-3 paragraph comment on the WordPress site as a response to it. Your response should carry a title (first line of comment) and make an argument regarding an element in the article. You are free to choose to go in any direction with this, but suggestions are listed under the 'tags' for each article. Avoid making a balanced viewpoint at this stage - you will need to leave some room for the next step.

4) Write a reply to an existing comment (click 'Reply' below the commentator's name to reference that comment), disagreeing with what was said. You should give examples or arguments to show why their viewpoint was incorrect.

p.s. WordPress seems to believe that all the RI Com Lab users are a single entity (probably due to IP address), so you are advised to write the comments out in Notepad/Word prior to posting.

Pre-debate admin instructions

1) As mentioned today, you will need to start forming your debate groups already. It is not confirmed that this will be your final debate assessment group (I have not yet received finalised instructions regarding this), but for the time being you should just assume that it will.

I will settle the groupings in the same way I did with the Social Advocacy ones - via email submission, first-come first-served. Since I am looking for 6x (groups of 3) and 2x (groups of 4), you might be asked to re-organise your group should the quota for either type be already met at the time of your submission.

I will probably post the groupings on this blog as well, and inform you if you need to re-organise your group.

2) In addition, please keep in mind that your Social Advocacy package is due this Friday. As you have been given much time to prepare this already, I will be stricter with applying the late penalty should it not have been submitted by Friday's last period. The package should include your final proposal, the group members' individual reflections, and any appendices you wish to attach (e.g. documented correspondence).

GEB Literature Seminar

Brochure (Link expires after a week)

The Gifted Education Branch is holding the annual Literature Seminar soon and our Secondary Two and Three students have been invited to attend, as well as showcase any projects or drama performances that they have.

The details are as follows:

Date: 29 August 2009
Time: 8.30 a.m. to 5.30 p.m.
Venue: Nanyang Girls' High School

If you are interested in attending or showcasing a project/performance, please let me know by this Wednesday.

The Power of Persuasion (Unit Recap)

From Week 2-4 we went through a unit on Persuasive Speeches, culminating in your presentations for your Social Advocacy projects. Here's a brief recap of what we've gone through.

1) Thank You For Smoking, use of logos/pathos/ethos.

2) Rhetorical devices worksheet - Examining a list of rhetorical devices that could be utilised for a more impactful speech.

3) Practice analysing the Obama speech.

4) Social Advocacy Presentations - Utilising what we have covered in this unit, along with your content from last term's Social Advocacy proposal, you made a presentation meant to persuade the listener to adopt your proposal. This was your assessment for this unit.

Preferred topics?

Hi all,

As discussed, the next unit for EL will be on debates. I would like to seek your cooperation in suggest topics you think you'd enjoy discussing - I'll try to pick from this pool and incorporate them into the upcoming lessons.

Anonymous feedback is allowed, in case you were worried about seeming 'uncool' for wishing to discuss, so feel free to comment away!

Reminder to submit

You might remember that you were instructed last term to submit an essay for the Youth Writers Awards Asia 2010. The due date is 30 Sep 2009, so there's no rush yet, but if you are wondering how to go about submitting it, this is how you can do so.

1) Submit your entry online at this site.

2) After you have done so, you can email your actual entry to me for verification. I will not be grading this, but will take note of your participation for record purposes.

Presentation rubric

The mark allocation is 15m for individual, 5m for group. The rubric shows how you will be graded, but not how the marks will be allocated.

You can see that PowerPoint is meant to be optional, so I will not be deducting any marks if you don't use any (or if they are not good), but good visual aids will possibly net you extra marks.

Link to rubric (expires after a week)

Social Advocacy Presentations

(This is an expansion on the presentation instructions/rubric that has been given out to you.)

As you know, the social advocacy presentations will be done next week. The objective of the presentation is to pitch your proposal to your class, pretending that they are the organisation you hope to convince. For example, assuming that you have written to LTA to suggest the construction of an overhead bridge, you are to present your proposal to the class as though they were the relevant authority.

The structure of the presentation should follow the basic structure of an exposition - with an introduction, main body and conclusion. Credit will be given for appropriate use of persuasive styles (e.g. citing the accident statistics for the road in question as logos), rhetorical devices (e.g. use of anaphora when listing reasons to build the bridge) and evidence of tailoring your speech to the audience/purpose/context (e.g. for a presentation to the LTA, the use of Singlish will probably not be advisable).

PowerPoint slides are not required, but for a presentation of that length (minimum 2min per person), visual aids will probably be useful. After each presentation, the class will have the opportunity to ask the groups questions - the Q&A is not graded, but it's a good opportunity for you to grill your fellow classmates =D

I will be giving you time on Monday (20 Jul) to discuss this with your group, but you should begin this over the weekend already. The actual presentations will be done on Wed/Thu (22/23 Jul). Feel free to contact me (by commenting or emailing) if you have further queries.

TH National Creative Writing Competition (extended)

Just a note that the deadline for this competition has been extended to 1 Aug 2009.

Temasek Hall (NUS) is organising a creative writing competition and is seeking short stories (max 1500 words) featuring main characters grappling with current socio-educational issues in the Singapore school setting. Cash prizes include S$500 for distinction works and S$250 for merit works.

Requirements:

• Original work not exceeding 1500 words, typed double spaced
• Each entry should have a cover page with the writer’s name, school, email address, telephone number and word count.
• Writers’ name should not appear on the pages of the story.

Email story to: tehbox1@nus.edu.sg

ERP information

The upcoming ERP assignment (Wed 8 July) will be an expository piece comparing a specific idea in your two books. The details will only be unveiled when you get the questions on the actual day.

This assignment will be marked in a similar manner as the commentary assessment you did last term - I've uploaded the Expository Writing Rubric from that assignment as a quick reference. The actual rubric will differ slightly, but should be pretty similar.

You may bring in your books and refer to them while doing the assignment, but no extra notes will be allowed.

More subscribers wanted!

Subscription rate is still less than optimal, if the class has some sort of mass email account (yahoogroups?), is it possible for someone to help notify the rest of your classmates to please come by and subscribe?

Instructions can be found here if required.

Summary Exercise Answers

Here are the answers for the summary exercises. They're currently set to go offline after a month, so please save/print them now if you'd like to keep a copy.

The first one (Ex 3 Answers) demonstrates the method I'd suggested about writing each point you identify in your own words prior to writing your actual summary, which is an approach you might find useful, depending on your style.

Summary Ex 3 Answers
Summary Ex 4 Answers

Back to school

See you guys on Tuesday!

Start brainstorming...

For your next lesson (Thursday), you will be given time to brainstorm and discuss about your social advocacy project, in your project groups.

In the meantime, you could start thinking about what you might like your group to embark on for the project. Past year project include proposing the construction of an overhead bridge in an accident-prone area and installation of solar panels in RI. Some of these proposals were actually accepted and acted on (like the overhead bridge) - such projects are likely to score near-full marks, as they have demonstrated a good choice of issue and effectiveness of persuasion.

The scope can range from a very broad issue to a very specific one - however, specific issues tend to be more trivial (affecting a smaller population) and broad issues tend to have a lower chance of succeeding (difficult to implement a change in laws that affect the whole of Singapore, for example). The trick is finding a balance between the two - more advice will be provided by your teacher as the weeks progress.

Youth Writers Awards Asia 2010

Since the take-up rate for EL competitions so far has been rather poor, your teachers have decided to make this one compulsory for all of you. The deadline is 30 Sep 2009, so you'll be able to work on it over the June holidays.

Essentially, you are to write a short story (500-800 words) describing "the nature of individual love and passion for sport(s) including values such as friendship, honesty, fair play, hard work etc".

The top 30 entries will be published in a book that will be distributed to the participants of the Singapore 2010 Youth Olympic Games. In addition, the winners will receive a copy of said book, a return air trip to a location in Asia (top 5 entries), a pair of tickets to the Youth Olympic Games (top 5 entries), or a Reader's Digest book (other 25 entries).

Submission can be done by mail or online. You can download a copy of the full instructions here (PDF format). This is also available on Ask n Learn.

More competitions!

1. Youth Writers Awards Asia 2010
a. Organized by NLB and Reader’s Digest to commemorate the Youth Olympics
b. Open to youths 14-18 yrs old
c. Short story (500-800 words) describing the nature of individual love and passion for sports, including values such as friendship, honesty, fair play etc
d. 30 winning short stories to be published in a book which will be used to promote the Youth Olympics
e. Prizes: Top 5 winners who are non-Singapore residents get a trip to SG; Top 5 winners who are Singaporeans get a trip to a destination in Asia!
f. Deadline: 30 September

2. NZPS Open Junior and Haiku Junior Competitions
a. Open to students 17 years or younger
b. Details can be found at www.poetrysociety.org.nz
c. Internal deadline to school: 25 May

3. Express your Best Self Contest
a. Organized by Julia Gabriel Centre
b. Open to all
c. Entries must answer the question: How do you express your best self?
d. Can fulfil any of these categories: Performance Arts (in a video or sound recording of not more than 3 minutes), Visual Arts or Literary Arts
e. Can submit via email at contest@juliagabriel.com (remember to CC to teacher)
f. Deadline: 30 June

Incentive for winning essay competitions

International Competitions / Prizes:

-Full marks to be given to 1 assignment (of a similar nature to the competition piece) for any kind of accolade received on an international platform. For example, if a student wins a poetry competition, one of his creative writing assignments or portfolio pieces may be given full marks. If he wins a speech competition, one of his oral presentation assignments may be given full marks. Special Mention / Commendations (e.g. Commonwealth Essay Competition) should also be given similar credit.

-No bonus marks should be awarded for participation.

Local Competitions/ Prizes:

-Students winning any of the top 3 prizes in a local competition will receive full marks.

-Commendations or merit prizes will be rewarded with a GP of 4.0 (80%) for 1 assignment of a similar nature.

-Certificates of participation will not be awarded any bonus marks.

UNSW English / Writing Competition

-If a student wins a medal for either the English MCQ or the Writing competition, he will be awarded full marks for 1 assignment of a similar nature.

-Students receiving a High Distinction for either the English MCQ or Writing will be awarded a GP of 4.0 for 1 assignment of a similar nature.

Note: Teachers of each level should decide and agree on which pieces of assignment to reward with full marks or 4.0.

Oral Presentation

Topics:
Sheng Yi's group - Reciprocity + Self-satisfaction
Wilson's group - Reciprocity + Obligation
Yao Yang's group - Hamilton's rule + Moral conscience
Yuan Jing's group - Hamilton's rule + Natural behaviour
Simon's group - Reciproicty + Rules/laws + Religion

We will be doing an oral presentation next Wednesday - it is not graded, but will be the only proper practice you'll get prior to your graded one in Term 3, so take the chance to receive some feedback on it!



In your social advocacy groups, orally present two points (just 5 minutes - no need long essays!) The overall thesis statement should tackle the question, "should we do good?"
1) Give your opinion on either Hamilton's Rule, or the idea of Reciprocity, as suggested in the article.
2) Alternative opinion - One other reason to do good. Alternatively, one reason we should not bother doing good. This could come from any of the reasons discussed today, or any other ideas you might have regarding the matter.

The structure of an oral presentation can be done pretty similarly to what we have covered earlier with commentaries - Start and end with a bang, if possible. There will be some time given to discuss this oral presentation on Monday.

So, just email me your preferred topics (for parts 1 & 2) before class next Monday. I prefer that the topics be spread evenly, so they will be allocated on a first come, first served (link for mini-grammar-lesson) basis. I will update the confirmed topics on this post as I receive your emails.

Unveiling your timed commentary

Alright guys, the time has come to post up your assessed commentary for all to see! Simply post whatever you'd emailed to me earlier onto your blog. Now.

Even though I'll still be marking the email copy, this forms part of your portfolio and isn't particularly difficult to do, so please get it done soon!

Groupings for Social Advocacy unit

Current groupings
Non-scholars
Simon, Wasiq, Jonathan, Aditya, Rohan George
Bernard, Sheng Yi, Kelvin, Jerome, Wei Ren
Yao Yang, Nay Myo, Guo Xiang, Xin Chen
Yuan Jing, Nishanth, Izhar, Farhan
Jovan, Jae, Gupta, Wilson
Zheyuan, Yechen, Melvin, Cheng Sin

Scholars
Billy, Lukas, Wei Herr, Julius (Need to split into pairs)

Personal Response Task

Write a personal response on your blog (minimum 100 words) to the article The Evolution of Goodness (Handout 4). The suggested response question is given below, but you are free to respond in other ways as long as the topic is relevant to the article.

Drawing from this article and your personal experience, say why you believe human beings are willing to do good to others.

USP-Piper Introductory Creative Writing Workshop

This workshop counts as 12h towards your DMP requirements.

Calling all writers!

The USP-Piper Introductory Creative Writing Workshop is here! This is a 3-day workshop that will be held during the holidays, from 8-12th June, 9am -1pm.

We have been sending our writers there for the past 2 years and everyone has enjoyed it tremendously. There will be chances to meet other writers and to learn from each other.

If you are interested, please do these 2 things:
1. prepare a portfolio and apply via the portal (details linked below)
2. send an email to me to let me know that you are applying (include your class and full name please)

Deadline for application:
Tuesday 28 April

Click here for more details
(scroll down for application/payment procedure)

TH National Creative Writing Competition

I understand that each of you is meant to take part in at least one writing competition this year. I will post details of such competitions here and you may want to consider participating in them.

For competitions that only allow a certain number of entrants per school, or those that require an entrance fee, you should submit your entry to the teacher. For those that can be submitted directly (such as this one), you may send it in by yourself - just remember to email/CC a copy to your teacher as well (for record purposes).

Temasek Hall (NUS) is organising a creative writing competition and is seeking short stories (max 1500 words) featuring main characters grappling with current socio-educational issues in the Singapore school setting. Cash prizes include S$500 for distinction works and S$250 for merit works. More details here.

More on streaking

A*STAR scholar, Swede charged with appearing nude in public

Since so many of you seemed to enjoy commenting on streaking, here's another recent case of a public act of indecency. It's not just the mainstream press that's obsessed with this, though - as you can imagine, with any incident involving nakedness, the local blogosphere's rather interested in the whole affair.

Who is Eng Kai Er?

You might want to take a look at the comments posted there, and re-evaluate for yourself whether Singapore is ready to legalise streaking. I'm not making any judgements here - please do form your own opinions.

I would also just like to caution you that if you are ever on a Singaporean scholarship in the future (as I'm sure a number of you will be), you might like to be careful of what you do...

So, what do you think about the whole affair? Feel free to leave comments if you like.

Commentaries #6 (Lesson Recap)

In this lesson you have been briefed on how to spice up your introductions and conclusions with two specific methods - the brief story, and the interesting statement.

Time had been spent working on your introductions, with you exchanging opinions with your peers regarding your introductions. Finally, you were given time to edit the introduction once again, with your peers' comments in mind.

You were shown how you can refer back to the motivator, in your conclusion, in order to conclude with a clincher.

Note: I will not have time to go through each and every one of your commentaries, but I will entertain special requests to do so (just email me using the link on the right, or leave a comment), or general queries regarding commentaries.

Did you enjoy Commentaries #6?

Assessment tips

For the next lesson, you will be sitting through a timed assessment where you will be asked to write a commentary based on one of the three articles Mr Kelvin Yap had posted onto Ask n Learn, or one of your own (your choice). You are therefore advised to read them all before bringing them into the class, and be prepared to attempt a commentary on at least one of them.

A commentary should convey your opinion, so don't be afraid to use the personal voice - "I feel that...", "I think that..." are all valid statements to use.

Note the rubric used for the assessment - predicting a counter-argument (for your opinion) and rebutting it is expected. For a good score, the following structure is suggested for your essay.

Introductory Paragraph
-Motivator
-Thesis Statement
-Blueprint

Body Paragraph #1 (Argument)
-Topic Sentence
-Specific Support
      -Evidence
      -Explanation of Evidence

Body Paragraph #2 (Rebuttal)
-State possible counter-argument to your thesis statement)
-Explain this counter-argument
-Topic Sentence (refute the counter-argument)
-Specific Support
      -Evidence
      -Explanation of Evidence

Concluding Paragraph
-Reworded Thesis Statement
-Clincher

Commentaries #5 (Lesson Recap)

In this lesson you would have had some hands-on experience attempting to decipher your peers' commentaries. This allowed you more practice in reading commentaries, and provided you with feedback on whether your peers found your commentary accessible or lacking in any way.

The rubric for the coming assessment was also disseminated. Using it to grade each others' commentaries would have given you some understanding of what we are looking for, as well as the tough job that your teachers often face. =P

Note: I will not have time to go through each and every one of your commentaries, but I will entertain special requests to do so (just email me using the link on the right, or leave a comment), or general queries regarding commentaries.

Did you enjoy Commentaries #5?

Commentary comments

Somehow the title of this post amuses me greatly. Yes, even teachers have their puerile moments.

Anyway, I didn't dwell too much on your first argument task since I'd initially planned for you to guess which appeal your peers have gone with, but dropped it due to time constraints. Most of you seem to have gone with Logos, which is great since that's the style you need to utilise when writing your essays.

Below are some general comments for your commentary task.

1) You might want to revisit the slides for Commentaries #3 to study the examples of the various components of the Hamburger Essay.

2) In starting your commentary, assume that the reader (a.k.a. Mr Louis Tan, or perhaps one of your classmates) is a complete doofus who doesn't know what's going on. It would be good then to explain the context a little (100 words?) before actually stating your stand.

3) Watch out for fallacious arguments. Coming from yourself. After planning your arguments, it might be worthwhile to read through the Fallacies handout (especially the logical fallacies) and check that you haven't committed any of those.

4) This is not compulsory, but since a commentary is meant to convey your opinion, a personal voice (use of "I feel..." etc.) might be appropriate. Take care not to become too informal either - although this is a blog, it is still ultimately an academic piece of writing (sigh...)

Ask n Learn update

Please take note of Mr Kelvin Yap's latest announcement on RI Ask n Learn - it describes the timed assessment for the Commentaries unit and what you need to do to prepare for it.

Your assessment will be conducted on Week 3 Thursday (Apr 9).

p.s. Because you are mostly disobedient students who have yet to subscribe to this blog, please pass this message to your classmates as well!

Writing a commentary (Task)

Choose a topic from one of the three sets of readings provided (Orchard Road facelift, Streaking, Stem Cell Research). After reading the first article (at least), make an opinion regarding the topic. Write a (simplified) commentary on the topic supporting your stand, which is the thesis statement of your essay.

Introductory Paragraph
-Thesis Statement
-Blueprint
Body Paragraphs (x2)
-Topic Sentence
-Specific Support
    -Evidence
    -Explanation of Evidence
Concluding Paragraph
-Reworded Thesis Statement

Your commentary should be about 300-500 words in length. This commentary will be used in the next lesson, so be sure you have it ready in class by Mon (Apr 6). I will be going through your blogs to comment on Sat (Apr 4) so you might want to have it ready by then.

Commentaries #4 (Lesson Recap)

In this lesson the Hamburger Essay structure was briefly reviewed, with some elaboration on how you might attempt writing a commentary. After which, you were assigned to a practice task where you were asked to write your very own commentary.

Did you enjoy Commentaries #4?

Commentaries #3 (Lesson Recap)

Anonymous comments have been allowed, so you can now comment without letting anyone know who you are.

In this lesson, you would have been exposed to the Hamburger Essay structure. You would also have had some practice picking out the structural elements from an essay about mountain climbing. You would also have attempted to skim an article in a short timeframe in an attempt to extract its gist, utilising the knowledge of the general structure of an article.

Did you enjoy Commentaries #3?

Sorting through the papers

Just to clarify the huge stack of handouts you should have received.

- Teaching Focus (Single sheet, summary of this unit)
- Exposition (Check your blog post on exposition)
- Persuasion in Commentaries (Thick stack with notes on Logos, Ethos, Pathos on front - please bring to your classes)

(Treat the following as general readings, to help you gain the necessary general knowledge to tackle essay questions on these topics. You will be tasked to gradually write a commentary on one of the topics, so you might want to skim through these first)
- Readings on Streaking
- Readings on Orchard Road facelift
- Readings on Embryonic Stem Cell Research
- Matters of Morality
- Perfect Designer Child

Your first argument (Task)

1. Choose one of the following topics.
a) Students should be allowed to set their own rules
b) School promotes “correctness” over “creativity”
c) Scrap the CCTs

2. Decide whether you agree or disagree with the topic.

3. Create a new post on your blog. Start with your thesis statement (explaining your stand as derived in point 2), then continue with a 70-100 word paragraph arguing for your stand.

In this argument you should try to focus on one of the persuasive appeals. Remember what it was you'd attempted to focus on, but do not state which appeal was used within your blog post (i.e. allow the reader to make a guess on which was used).

I would like you to have done this by the next lesson (this Wednesday) so that I can give you further instructions on what to do.

Commentaries #2 (Lesson Recap)

In this lesson, you would have been acquainted with the three appeals of argument - Logos, Ethos and Pathos. These are methods by which to appeal to the audience when putting forth your argument. You would have had some practice identifying these appeals from texts and film clips from Thank You for Smoking (2005).

Finally, it was explained how arguments are used in a commentary, and you would have done an in-class practice on writing an argument.

Did you enjoy Commentaries #2?

Commentaries #1 (Lesson Recap)

I will be posting summaries of each lesson I go through with you. In order to find out what worked for you and what didn't, I expect you to vote in the poll at the end of each recap. You may also comment on the respective recaps (such as this one) to elaborate further.

In this lesson, you would have come to appreciate that different parties have different points of view (POVs) when approaching the same topic. These differing POVs may colour their opinion when reading a commentary piece, and it is likely that the author would have tailored his writing for specific audiences (with respect to their POV).

You would also have been briefly introduced to Paul's Wheel of Analysis. This is a tool that can be used to evaluate a text, such as a commentary. Paul's Wheel will be revisited in the following lessons.

Did you enjoy Commentaries #1?

Subscribing to this Blog Portal

I'm hoping to use this blog as an alternative way for me to communicate with the class, since we'll all be making use of blogs during the commentaries unit anyway. In order for this to be an effective tool, I need all of you to check this blog regularly.

That can be quite annoying if the blog's not all that frequently updated, so here are two easy ways to subscribe to it.

1) Subscribe by email. Simply follow instructions on this link, or use the sign-up form at the top right of this blog, to receive email notifications whenever a new entry is posted here.

2) Subscribe by web feed. Follow this link to access this site's web feed. You may then follow the blog using Google Reader, Bloglines, or whatever feed reader you may be familiar with.

Requirements for your personal EL blog

Hi 3B,

I would like you to set up a personal blog for EL, as previously instructed by Mr Kelvin Yap. Many of you have done so already, I've posted a list of those who have not. However, here are a few requirements I hope you can abide to.

1) You are free to title your blog as desired (within limits), but please add your two-digit register number in brackets at the start. Alvin, for example, might want to rename his blog to "(06) English Blog".

2) I'll encourage using the default themes - I won't be grading you for design. I know some of you might prefer using custom themes (here's looking at you, Bernard), but I will require that the theme link to the RSS feed of your blog. If you don't know what that means - well, just stick to one of the default Blogger themes!

3) Enable comments for your blog, and make sure individual posts can be commented on.

4) Your first blog post should be a short entry addressing the question "What is an exposition?" This doesn't need to be too long - perhaps a minimum word requirement of 50 words will suffice? I will probably be asking you to improve on the post later in the unit, though.

That's it at this stage, hope all of you can create a blog and make your first by Term 2 Week 2!

Gearing up for Term 2 - Expository Writing and Beyond!

(This post is a mirror of Mr Kelvin Yap's instructions on asknlearn.)

Dear Sec 3s,

OK, this is the mini-task that you will need to accomplish over the March holidays - it's so mini that you will laugh and cry at the same time - with happiness. :D

Firstly, you will have to go to https://www.blogger.com/start. You will be prompted to create your blog and have to go through certain steps to get started on becoming a blogger. I've managed to create one too, and if I can do it (ahem!), then (almost) anyone can. Double LOL.

Next, create your personal blog account in this format, when asked for the URL of your blog:

2009RI3A01 (for index number 1 of Sec 3A, who is Chang Kai Feng I think, and so on - keep it all in caps)

Your URL will then appear in this format: http://2009RI3A01.blogspot.com/

After this step, when you are ready to blog, your first blog-post will be based on this guiding question: What is an exposition?



OK, piece of cake. When you guys return for Term 2 with your friendly neighbourhood English teachers, we will go into greater detail to explore the rudiments, condiments and excitement of expository writing - and beyond.

Cheers! :)

Mr Kelvin Yap