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?

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.
   

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).

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!

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.

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.

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.

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)

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

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!

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

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!