Important tips for students who are weak in essay writing

[jamestancx997]

Hi,


As a fellow educator, I would like to state that I have read through this set of tips very carefully, and I am in full agreement with all of it. Amanda is clearly a highly experienced tutor who thoroughly knows her material, a true rare gem in today’s local private education landscape. It is a great pity that she has to take this hiatus.

I salute Amanda with heartfelt respect and admiration!

[pixiedust]

Hi Amanda, thank you for sharing your insights.. It took me a while to \"digest\" and understand your article. Your passion in essay writing is evident. I saluate your decision to help dyslexics children. I wish you all the best in your career - are you training with DAS ? I have a friend who went through part of their course.


Sides notes :
1) what is your opinion of the touted essay book you bought from T*S ?
2) Regarding your side query to parents about breakdown of cat1-4 in vocab lists (indeed I am one of those parents with quite a few), I will take a good look and feedback if you are really keen, I can't tell off-hand right now.
3) Your comments about O levels and GP essays made me :yikes: I myself didn't do well for my GP. How to avoid the pitfalls you mentioned for my ds ? (currently primary school). Does the current Secondary School programme equip students with the required thinking skills ? or it is like primary school - tuition tuition...more tuition ?

[jamestancx997]

Hi pixiedust,


If I may "intrude" a little bit on your conversation… I just want to try and offer some personal insight for your 3rd point.

It really depends. I was in RI GEP. I had teachers who not only did not help develop our thinking skills, but stifled us in that respect. I have heard (and personally know) several neighbourhood school teachers who do it well, and try to foster some critical thought in their classes – as for the degree of success that is another issue, lol. But they try.

It’s really hit or miss. But very clearly, for some years now, the system has been inadequate. That’s why all my peers in the industry can exist, and even thrive – because all of you parents sense your children’s needs, and try to find a solution. Unfortunately… those are hit or miss too…

[pixiedust]

James, no intrusion at all…appreciate your insights.


So the battle continues to Secondary Schools and even A levels. I am surprise even GEP programmes lack the required training or perhaps it teacher-dependent (which shouldn’t be!)

I wonder how Secondary and A levels students of today develop the required thinking skills to write a good O level or GP essay then ?

[Sun_2010]

Thanks for that informative writeup .

phppsmss:

I found that I could understand the frustrations and perspectives of underperforming students. In addition, I deem greater satisfaction and challenge from teaching them.

:salute:

[jamestancx997]

pixiedust:

I wonder how Secondary and A levels students of today develop the required thinking skills to write a good O level or GP essay then ?

Short answer: all too often, they don't.

I basically am a firefighter, have been for the last 8 years. Parents always used to get me to come in and have me be a statue of Buddha for their kids to hug my feet.

But there are some things I cannot do, because these things simply take time and motivation. I cannot \"upload\" general knowledge and an interest in such matters, via USB cable, into their brains.

I am now in the process of getting my books published, and some of them will deal with these areas of general knowledge. Basic things that I think we as human beings, living in a globalized world, should know.

The history of civilizations. The overall history of the world. Theories about the universe. Different cultures and beliefs. Significant events through the ages (vast majority of those are wars, lol). The slow rise of scientific thought, epoch after epoch.

They should understand that the way of thinking they may have grown up with is not the only one. This is especially hard to achieve with the kind of stunted political and intellectual maturity in this country, but many of us try all the same. They need to know *why they believe what they believe*. So even if people end up with vastly divergent views -- as they should in any democratic society -- we can at least discuss such issues on the *same level*, approaching them with similar intellectual tools.

Instead they just want to emulate \"model essays\" for GP -- as if such things really exist. A relatively ignorant A-level candidate thinks he can score well by writing like an Angus Ross prize winner?

To paraphrase Felix Dennis, \"It is like watching a millionaire point his finger at the sky, then running out to write books with titles like 'How to Become A Millionaire by Pointing at the Sky', when all along the millionaire was just trying to show people the glory of the sunset.\"

Or as Bruce Lee admonished, \"Look at that, the sky. Don't rook at the fingerr! Or you will miss alllll the heavenry grory.\"

[buds]

jamestancx997:

To paraphrase Felix Dennis, \"It is like watching a millionaire point his finger at the sky, then running out to write books with titles like 'How to Become A Millionaire by Pointing at the Sky', when all along the millionaire was just trying to show people the glory of the sunset.\"


Or as Bruce Lee admonished, \"Look at that, the sky. Don't rook at the fingerr! Or you will miss alllll the heavenry grory.\"

HILARIOUS! :laugh:

[pixiedust]

jamestancx997:

Short answer: all too often, they don't ...

This is especially hard to achieve with the kind of stunted political and intellectual maturity in this country, but many of us try all the same.

Sad scary truth and it seems there's not a lot we as parents can do either.

[jamestancx997]

well, I wonder how much I can do.

[phppsmss]

Gone for a week and I am more than surprised to see such vibrancy in my post I thank all for your flattering compliments. To all who saluted, allow me to return a salute! :salute:


@pixiedust:

-My opinion of TAS book? It really depends. I have been telling parents not to use that book as a bench mark for composition writing. The essays in that book are mainly contributed by the cream of the crop and do not reflect average writing ability among Primary school students (it is afterall a model essay book). In fact, if the parent is really jumpy about his/her child's performance in essay writing, I would discourage the parent from purchasing it to prevent further fraying of nerves.

Initially, I did not appreciate the pictorial mnemonic strategies that the book had provided. It made no sense to me. Upon teaching dyslexics however, I really understood the need for such strategies and I will be using TAS book to demonstrate to parents the value of such strategies.

The book did not provide much useful emotive vocab to me. However, that is understandable due to the following reasons:

1) I teach essays using emotive vocab as an essential focus. On the other hand, I am of the impression that many creative writing centres/compo guidebooks/etc place greater emphasis on scenario descriptives (drowning, fire etc). In fact, if I recall correctly, in my previous post, there was a parent who was enquiring the type of picture compo scenarios that her child should be ready for. As such, the book is jam packed with beautiful vocab and descriptives catered towards scenario descriptives.

2) Primary school composition standards -technically- do not require a whole chunk of emotive vocab. Just provide a sentence or two to demonstrate how the character was feeling and move on with the story. Since that is the accepted norm, there is little emotive vocab available. HOWEVER, there is a good mix of vocab from all categories. Cat 2 vocab- a rarity among guidebooks - is especially evident. Cat 3 vocab is a little on the low side.


3) Underperforming students have different needs as compared to their counterparts. For students who love writing essays, cat 4 vocab –situational vocab – comes easily. That is why essay guidebooks stuff so much cat 4 vocab. Their target audience are students with average or good essay writing ability.

On the other hand, underperforming students should minimize character interaction with the environment to increase predictability and universality of vocabs across essays. Like I have mentioned in my article, cat 2 vocabs are consistent across essays.

In fact, a typical essay written by a high performing student might have the character interacting with his/her environment most of the time. The student might give vivid descriptions of the character’s actions, peppering his/her story with extensive vocab and difficult words. An essay written by an underperforming student who mastered emotive vocab templates will almost entirely portray to state of the character’s mind. There will be very little interaction between the character and the environment.

Many individuals think that the latter –emotive vocab controlled essay- is much more challenging to write as compared to the former. I can assure you that it is the opposite.

[I know this seems like a lot to take in. I would love to write an in-depth article on this… but time is a luxury now : ) )

-Secondary schools fostering critical thinking? … I had tuition till JC and even then, attempts to think critically were mostly a personal endeavour. Like what James said, there are some teachers who made admirable attempts but effectiveness is not guaranteed. In fact, my P5 Chinese teacher pushed for critical thinking during lessons. However, it also translated to harder examination questions set by him and the usual happened – SA results for the batch (except my class) slumped, complains by parents and students, and my teacher was told to set less challenging questions from them on.

In JC, I was highly fortunate to be taught by a veteran GP teacher (she transferred from another JC) majoring in Political Science and Philosophy, who made us highly critical thinkers – which thankfully provided me the right direction and saved my GP grades. Her teachings however did not conform to the school’s flawed GP lesson plans and there was a massive clash of ideologies and she was probably ostracised (not like she cared).

Ultimately, it boils down to the individual. If the individual is resistant towards venturing beyond his/her worldview, the individual will never, EVER be critical.

“How Secondary and A levels students of today develop the required thinking skills to write a good O level or GP essay then ?”

That’s easy to answer. Majority don’t. Those who manage enter Universities face difficulties in writing good critical essays and probably graduate with stunted thinking. Others just drop out of the rat race at A levels, with GP deemed insurmountable.

On the bright side, uncritical graduates are still able to survive in the working world. But the ignorance that perpetuates is at times unbearable.