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.