All About English Composition
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csc:
Thanks csc... yes I intend to get Anthony Horowitz's books for DD to read as I've heard so much about his books on KSP forum.Beats me too. But my nephew is really a voracious reader and reads all kinds of books...his grammar and vocabulary are average but the ideas are good.
Sorry...i can't mention it here lah...because what is trash to me may not be trash to others lor.
I can mention some good reads - Roald Dahl's books (start with the simple and thin one first)
- books by Anthony Horowitz
- classics like Charlotte's Web, Black Beauty, Animal Farm, Watership Down etc..
- books by Enid Blyton (the secret sevens, the five-find outers..etc)
- Hardy Boys' series, Nancy Drew,
- Alfred Hitchcock (three investigators) My son will read all my old, yellow and tattered books.
One day.. he chanced upon my Adrian Mole's books (actually the content not very suitable for his age then) but he enjoyed the humour of the story and went on to read all the books written by him.
- a little out of topic here, supposed to be on writing ...sorry
Oh yes, I love Alfred Hitchcock, Secret Seven, Famous Five and Nancy Drew's series... my all time favourite. I wonder if they do sell Alfred Hitchcock's books, as I don't seem to recall seeing them at the bookstores.
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A friend of mine has a child who was a voracious reader and could write very well all on his own. However of late, I understand that his compo is getting shorter and shorter (the marks have fallen as a result too). Apparently, his teacher makes him correct his mistakes by re-writing the entire compo. So the child ends up reducing the length of his compo so he wouldn’t have to rewrite so much.
From this, I do think that forcing a child to write and re-write may not be such a great idea. I personally would hate it and treat it as a torture rather than a lesson.
On TAS, DS1 is now with TAS. So far happy becos they do cover grammar and vocab in a far more effective way that I can. For a couple of weeks now, DS1 has got dictation - this is probably the essay memorising bit. But he usually has to do half the essay (I think 6-10 sentences). Not perturbed by this and will wait and see how things go - he’s only in P1, he won’t be at that creative writing stage as yet. In all, DS1 is still happy to go for class each week. -
[quote]If there is a need to model, make sure you model the masters of writing.
[/quote]Roald Dahi is one great master. Just pay attention to how he described Sophie's meeting with the giant without ever identifying the creature until much later. (taken from BFG )- This is one skill of developing suspense. :lol:
On a side note, I do feel a little sad that the art of writing has been reduced to using 'good phrases' and copying compositions by some of such tuition centres.
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hquek:
I tend to agree. Recopying a compo is a bad idea. It's worse than recopying word lists for spelling. When The Daughter was in the USA, her teacher made her copy one word 10 times. I was horrified that such primitive mind engagement methods were still being used in the USA. But since the teacher insisted, I got her to type out the words on the computer and cut and paste 10 times, and pass up.A friend of mine has a child who was a voracious reader and could write very well all on his own. However of late, I understand that his compo is getting shorter and shorter (the marks have fallen as a result too). Apparently, his teacher makes him correct his mistakes by re-writing the entire compo. So the child ends up reducing the length of his compo so he wouldn't have to rewrite so much.
From this, I do think that forcing a child to write and re-write may not be such a great idea. I personally would hate it and treat it as a torture rather than a lesson.
On TAS, DS1 is now with TAS. So far happy becos they do cover grammar and vocab in a far more effective way that I can. For a couple of weeks now, DS1 has got dictation - this is probably the essay memorising bit. But he usually has to do half the essay (I think 6-10 sentences). Not perturbed by this and will wait and see how things go - he's only in P1, he won't be at that creative writing stage as yet. In all, DS1 is still happy to go for class each week.
Copying is a mindless and boring activity. It doesn't engage the mental processes. The more you do it, the dumber you get. The human brain is more powerful than we think. Most people study in ways that bore the brain. When that happens, the brain switches off and you're not as smart as you could be.
I don't even get Little Boy to recopy Chinese compos, let alone English. He reads, he understands, he explains and naturally, he'll remember. And if there are Chinese characters he does not know, he'll list out the hanyu pinyin and test himself ting xie once or twice... and then move on. So that the brain has no chance to fall asleep.
We're all smarter than we think. -
[quote]Oh yes, I love Alfred Hitchcock, Secret Seven, Famous Five and Nancy Drew's series... my all time favourite. I wonder if they do sell Alfred Hitchcock's books, as I don't seem to recall seeing them at the bookstores. [/quote]
You are right, Happy Mama...I have never seen them around too. My children only get to read my own old copies which I intend to pass to my grandchildren, if any Just joking lah. -
Chenonceau:
So true, the best way to get the mind to switch off.
Copying is a mindless and boring activity. It doesn't engage the mental processes. The more you do it, the dumber you get. The human brain is more powerful than we think. Most people study in ways that bore the brain. When that happens, the brain switches off and you're not as smart as you could be.
But this may be a good way to get the kids to mediate csc:
Share the feeling...
On a side note, I do feel a little sad that the art of writing has been reduced to using 'good phrases' and copying compositions by some of such tuition centres.
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Copying or memorising compo wholesale is a big no for me. This is plagiarism and should rightly be graded zero. In university, plagiarism can lead to expulsion. Getting a child to copy other’s work in primary school is a bad start.
For me, I got my daughter to do several drafts of her compo some of the time when she was in primary and secondary school. I will give her my comments, in terms of how to improve the sentence structure, how to build up the plot or approach the topic etc. She’ll have to rewrite and improve on it in her second draft and we can continue into a third draft if necessary.
She’s now in her second year in a US college, and I find that they’re doing the same for essays under the communications module. They do a first draft, have it reviewed by their peers before completing their final draft for submission and grading. Doing so allow you to rethink what you’ve written and consider your views from other perspectives.
Btw, I was slowly moving her from writing narrative or descriptive compos to argumentative / expository when she was in upper primary / lower secondary. I feel that the skills in writing expository compos are essential in surviving college. It also hone the mind in thinking skills. -
I didn't know how to coach my DS properly when he was P2. I started of by telling him the following rules when he was introduced verbs, adjectives, adverbs, similies & metaphors.
1. Do not start your compo with \"One day...\" Best to start of with dialog as this makes the intro more interesting.
2. Must include an adjective or adverb in each sentence.
3. Must include a similie or metaphor in each paragraph
4. Do not use same words like 'say', 'then', 'and' more than 2 times in the whole compo.
5. Must have at least 4 paragraphs
6. Must include something interesting/special in the compo.
Luckily, my DS is quite teachable and he loves to read. He aways scores high on the compo by following the rules above though he didn't have much beautiful phrases. Teacher always commented that his compo is interesting and this is what he enjoys most - he always includes a small paragraph that is out of the blue which entertains himself and the teacher. He giggles a lot when he does his composition writing
When he was in P4, I came across this book from Casco publications - \"Zoom in vocabulary for creative writing\" for all 6 levels. I find it pretty good. They have great phrases in the model compo and the compo is re-written with fill-in-the-blanks and MCQ questions. Those good phrases are reinforced 2 times and I noticed that he is using more of those phrases or vocab in his compo writing. And he is getting more mature now, I started to give him more rules like - having different types of introductions and ending according to what teacher has covered.
As for my girl who was P2 last year, she was exposed to the same book. My girl has great memories. She tends to follow the phrases and forcefully put those phrases she learnt into her compo writing. She scores high on her writing but not for the content. I am working on her content now but I can see that the rules helps her writing a lot too.
Hope this helps for self-guide mummies. -
sleepy:
Hi sleepy,
It's precisely because of the positive feedback on KSP that I decided to give TAS a try. But I think too much hype la, like learning lab :roll:24hr-mum:
oh u mean the TAS not effective? the first time i heard not positive feedback. can tell me how tas teach compo, sleepy?
wat abt the compre?
TAS asked students to memorise the essay. I don't see any value add in this case. I have tonnes of model essays & award winning books at home. Good essays with personifications, tension building, etc. If I want my dd to learn creative writing through memorising essays, I do not need to send her to classes, right? I expect more than this from TAS.
And I noticed TAS took a long time to cover one theme. Sometimes as long as 4 to 5 weeks on one theme, basically memorise over & over again. I'm not impressed la.
Compre is not satisfactory either. Usually only the first few questions were covered in class, the rest as homework. I am fine with homework if they went through the compre thoroughly and were taught the technique to tackle compre questions. I don't see that le. End up I need to sit with my dd to coach her how to answer every single question. Frankly speaking, if I have to go through every question with her, how is it different from asking her to do assessment books at home? I also sit with her.
TAS teachers are passionate about teaching. This I agreed. It is a valuable attribute so I think TAS did a great job in hiring teachers with right attitude.
Just sharing my opinion la. TAS supporters please don't hammer me
Thanks for your honest sharing. I am surprised to hear that the compre was not completed during class. The samples I saw were marked and corrections made, so I pressumed it was all done within the lessons. If that's not the case, then the lessons may not serve much purpose.
I understand the normal English program includes Grammar, Comprehension, Vocabulary and Creative Writing. How about the Creative Writing course that focuses on writing alone? Any idea if writing is taught the same way as the normal English program? -
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