All About English Composition
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Memorising good phrases is essential if the child does not know how to ‘create’ them initially as they get the ‘hang’ of it, i believe they can create yr own creative phrases.
But certainly not memorising the entire essay… memorising part of the compo is also ok for me.
My ds a avid reader and he reads anthony horowitz book’s and many other books too… his vocab is good but his compo writing is only average… and he does not enjoy writing comp… -
Herbie:
Second that wholeheartedly! My son can write but he doesn't seem to enjoy it. When his P1 teacher first started him on journal writing last year, he would write at least 2 pages. But soon, it dwindled to just 3 sentences ... Here's something he wrote last June.Memorising good phrases is essential if the child does not know how to 'create' them initially as they get the 'hang' of it, i believe they can create yr own creative phrases.
But certainly not memorising the entire essay... memorising part of the compo is also ok for me.
My ds a avid reader and he reads anthony horowitz book's and many other books too.. his vocab is good but his compo writing is only average... and he does not enjoy writing comp...
The sensors focused. As I snuck inside the base, other machinery focused on me. Behind the reflective material was Alexander. I have known him for many years and we have shared perilous secrets. We called base. Nearly ready. 5.4.3.2.1. I took out EXPLOSION 1 BASE 22 and stuffed it inside a few sensors. We made it out just in time and got inside the machine and flew away seconds before the explosion.
I'm hoping there are some classes that will inspire him to enjoy writing.
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chamonix:
Chamonix, if he can write, then it is even easier to make him like. It boils down to motivation strategies... not compo training. You, as the parent, would be more effective to make him LIKE than a compo class...
Second that wholeheartedly! My son can write but he doesn't seem to enjoy it. When his P1 teacher first started him on journal writing last year, he would write at least 2 pages. But soon, it dwindled to just 3 sentences ... Here's something he wrote last June.Herbie:
Memorising good phrases is essential if the child does not know how to 'create' them initially as they get the 'hang' of it, i believe they can create yr own creative phrases.
But certainly not memorising the entire essay... memorising part of the compo is also ok for me.
My ds a avid reader and he reads anthony horowitz book's and many other books too.. his vocab is good but his compo writing is only average... and he does not enjoy writing comp...
The sensors focused. As I snuck inside the base, other machinery focused on me. Behind the reflective material was Alexander. I have known him for many years and we have shared perilous secrets. We called base. Nearly ready. 5.4.3.2.1. I took out EXPLOSION 1 BASE 22 and stuffed it inside a few sensors. We made it out just in time and got inside the machine and flew away seconds before the explosion.
I'm hoping there are some classes that will inspire him to enjoy writing.
May I know how you respond to his completed compositions? And what do you do when he is in the process of writing? You can PM me if you want. I'll see if I can troubleshoot your motivation style and environment.
That is... if you wanna. -
Chenonceau:
Of course, I'd love to have your comments and advice! I have been following your posts silently and even showed my son Little Boy's blog.Chamonix, if he can write, then it is even easier to make him like. It boils down to motivation strategies... not compo training. You, as the parent, would be more effective to make him LIKE than a compo class...
May I know how you respond to his completed compositions? And what do you do when he is in the process of writing? You can PM me if you want. I'll see if I can troubleshoot your motivation style and environment.
That is... if you wanna.
He was rather quiet after reading his posts. I believe he was digesting Little Boy's style of writing quietly.
Thanks for offering. I'll drop you a message soon.
:thankyou: -
chamonix:
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:sleepy:
[quote=\"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?[/quote]Hi Sleepy,
Haha, I like and support TAS but no one will hatam you lah, you are just being honest and I believe no one centre can meet the needs of every child.
Maybe I could share a bit about how my child has been learning. He has to memorise key parts of the compo but not the whole compo but for lower primary, if I am not wrong it is the whole compo. For P3 and above, it is usually important parts. The memorisation helps because he does not have that rich vocabulary to write well so now when he writes, I notice his vocabulary is much better.
But above the memory work, what I like is the teaching of how to use different ways to write a sentence, the teaching of personification and the teaching of how to build tension. My son's compo has improved a lot in his content because of this. His teacher also recently commented that she can see a lot of improvement in his composition.
For compre, my son comes back with work always marked and done in class. There are only a few times where there are 3-4 questions not done, they have been gone through already in class but he needs to finish it for homework.
The way of teaching compre at TAS is also very interesting. My son tld me they are supposed to read the qns first and think of possible answs when they read so when they read the passage they have some idea of what to look out for and also it sharpens their inferring skills. He likes the teacher going thru the compre as she will keep asking inferring qns to make them think.
Hi Chamonix,
I think the creative writing class alone does creative writing, should be taught in same way as normal class just no grammar, compre and all.
Your son seems to write very well from what you have shown, does he still need creative writing classes? -
chamonix:
Wow! This is very good work - way beyond pr level.
The sensors focused. As I snuck inside the base, other machinery focused on me. Behind the reflective material was Alexander. I have known him for many years and we have shared perilous secrets. We called base. Nearly ready. 5.4.3.2.1. I took out EXPLOSION 1 BASE 22 and stuffed it inside a few sensors. We made it out just in time and got inside the machine and flew away seconds before the explosion. -
Herbie, I 100% agree with you. My ds reads Roald Dahl, Andrew Noriss and Anthony Horowitz is the latest craze. I dare say he doesn't read trash but maybe he's not matured enough yet to intelligently translate what he reads to writing. True, he enjoys reading much much more than writing.
To me, memorising phrases or parts of compo is a quick and dirty way, and okay for me. Some people like to eat durians, some people don't so I am not concerned ds does not enjoy writing if he can write well enough to get 30-35/40 for compo.
chamonix, I can't write like your ds ! The paragraph you quoted is good and gripping ! wow !
Btw, TAS is not the only place that teaches creative writing via memorising ?
Regarding reading widely and writing well - I believe that is no argument about that e as reading widely is the only way to have a good grasp of the language. However, there are children who read widely but the writing skill is not emerging yet (hopefully it will later on but not quite yet). Due to our academic system, there is the pressure that they write and this is where all the writing classes and memorising of phrases all come in. I mean, we can allow/get the child to read and read (ok, not trash) but the writing is mediocre (not failing but average), then what ? -
[quote]If a child has not been reading extensively, then no creative writing class can help.
[/quote]Agree with this. If a child has been reading widely and extensively, no English tuition is even necessary. There is no need to teach comprehension skills even. They could just score full or almost full marks most of the time. And it is the same with the cloze passages. It is just natural to fill in the blanks with the appropriate words as they are so used to seeing and understanding the contextual clues given in the passage.
Guess the best investment for my children is on the number of books I've bought for them and the amount of time spent bringing them to the library and reading to them since they were babies.
It's really worth it! -
csc:
I believe in what you say cos this happen to my ds2.I have a nephew whose parents are Chinese-educated. He does not attend any writing classes. I was surprised when I chanced upon his essays...his style is unique and natural and ideas are original and creative.
But he reads very widely (not trash) ....and that's how he picks up his writing skills and ideas....definitely not by memory work or handwriting exercises. -
csc:
Agree with this. If a child has been reading widely and extensively, no English tuition is even necessary. There is no need to teach comprehension skills even. They could just score full or almost full marks most of the time. And it is the same with the cloze passages. It is just natural to fill in the blanks with the appropriate words as they are so used to seeing and understanding the contextual clues given in the passage.[quote]If a child has not been reading extensively, then no creative writing class can help.
Guess the best investment for my children is on the number of books I've bought for them and the amount of time spent bringing them to the library and reading to them since they were babies.
It's really worth it! :D[/quote]
I totally agree that there is no need for English tuition, and no need to teach comprehension and cloze. I find that I don't even need to teach grammar and vocabulary. My kids just seem to know what is correct, because they have been reading extensively. I just let them learn in their primary school and that is more than enough.
I also think that books are the best investment and I paid a lot less than the fees of English enrichment classes.
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