Networking Group - JCs General
-
Teacher Aaron:
Well the important thing is that you've gotten your students to read! I'm very fortunate in that my mother forced me to read the newspapers when I was in primary school, so I grew to like current affairs early on. I haven't tried Newsloop and News Republic, but I have the BBC app on my phone and it's great.
Reading is a habit that's hard to come by in students today. They prefer to be glued to their gadgets, so I've modified my approach to my upper secondary and JC students. I get them to download quality news apps and tell them to use the apps for about 30 minutes a day. The apps I recommend are: BBC News, News Republic and NewsLoop (NewsLoop covers local news as well).
The Economist is a good magazine, but I think it is too tough for most JC students. They write for an audience who is well-informed about current affairs so the articles does make some assumptions that the reader will know certain things. Many of our current students are unfortunately not very well-informed, so they will struggle with the content.
The Atlantic and New York Times are also in my favourite reads list. The only problem with New York Times is that they will deny access after you have read ten stories for the month, and you have to pay to read more. I have a way to overcome that, though. Just make sure you use Private Browsing (Firefox) or Incognito (Chrome) modes when you read NYT. They use cookies to determine the 10 article limit and private browsing/incognito modes discard cookies data the moment you close them, so you get to read another 10 articles again!
Their coverage is decent and normally quite fair-handed (as with AP and AFP).
I agree that the Economist is pretty difficult to read, but it's well worth the effort if people are interested! It's also a good way of demonstrating how economics can be incorporated into an analysis. They do target the well-informed audience though, and it helps if one understands the basics of Economics as well. NYT is more accessible to the average JC student.
!!!! That is an amazing tip! I will give it a go - thank you for sharing!
-
Really appreciate your sharing, micko07. Thanks.
-
Thanks, Teacher Aaron for sharing the Apps. Will definitely get DD to download them!
-
micko07:
Since you appear rather well-informed, let me throw a spanner into the works. Be mindful that all these publications you read are very American-European centric and they very subtly reinforce certain ideologies in their content to normalise them. If you've not been trained in critical thinking, then think about what I'm trying to say about all these publications you've been reading.
Well the important thing is that you've gotten your students to read! I'm very fortunate in that my mother forced me to read the newspapers when I was in primary school, so I grew to like current affairs early on. I haven't tried Newsloop and News Republic, but I have the BBC app on my phone and it's great.Teacher Aaron:
Reading is a habit that's hard to come by in students today. They prefer to be glued to their gadgets, so I've modified my approach to my upper secondary and JC students. I get them to download quality news apps and tell them to use the apps for about 30 minutes a day. The apps I recommend are: BBC News, News Republic and NewsLoop (NewsLoop covers local news as well).
The Economist is a good magazine, but I think it is too tough for most JC students. They write for an audience who is well-informed about current affairs so the articles does make some assumptions that the reader will know certain things. Many of our current students are unfortunately not very well-informed, so they will struggle with the content.
The Atlantic and New York Times are also in my favourite reads list. The only problem with New York Times is that they will deny access after you have read ten stories for the month, and you have to pay to read more. I have a way to overcome that, though. Just make sure you use Private Browsing (Firefox) or Incognito (Chrome) modes when you read NYT. They use cookies to determine the 10 article limit and private browsing/incognito modes discard cookies data the moment you close them, so you get to read another 10 articles again! Their coverage is decent and normally quite fair-handed (as with AP and AFP).
I agree that the Economist is pretty difficult to read, but it's well worth the effort if people are interested! It's also a good way of demonstrating how economics can be incorporated into an analysis. They do target the well-informed audience though, and it helps if one understands the basics of Economics as well. NYT is more accessible to the average JC student.
!!!! That is an amazing tip! I will give it a go - thank you for sharing! -
Teacher Aaron:
Fair comment, although I'd say that most publications in the world reveal some sort of inherent bias, some more blatantly than others (cough Fox News cough). I read more widely than the publications I mentioned and I definitely don't buy everything they say either (one does spend an awful lot of time deconstructing and criticizing arguments as a Humanities student after all). That said, I agree that students should definitely be made to examine and evaluate an article's arguments (and if memory serves me right, isn't that exactly what the AQ portion of the comprehension section in GP requires?)
Since you appear rather well-informed, let me throw a spanner into the works. Be mindful that all these publications you read are very American-European centric and they very subtly reinforce certain ideologies in their content to normalise them. If you've not been trained in critical thinking, then think about what I'm trying to say about all these publications you've been reading.
If anyone is keen on non-Western perspectives, I personally find Al-Jazeera to be a good complement - it generally provides an interesting but quite fair-handed perspective. Xinhua's probably the Chinese equivalent, although they can be pretty biased in certain areas.
The purpose of my original post was to cherry-pick a few good magazines/ newspapers to recommend to bakababa; I don't think the average JC student would have much time to explore other resources and so didn't bother mentioning them. I did, but that was because I liked reading (I also justified it on the basis that I was \"studying\" for GP) and my Humanities tutors didn't believe in piling on tons of homework. -
micko07:
Your comment already speaks volumes of your critical thinking and writing abilities. I'm impressed. Your foundation is strong and will serve you well through life.
Fair comment, although I'd say that most publications in the world reveal some sort of inherent bias, some more blatantly than others (cough Fox News cough). I read more widely than the publications I mentioned and I definitely don't buy everything they say either (one does spend an awful lot of time deconstructing and criticizing arguments as a Humanities student after all). That said, I agree that students should definitely be made to examine and evaluate an article's arguments (and if memory serves me right, isn't that exactly what the AQ portion of the comprehension section in GP requires?)Teacher Aaron:
Since you appear rather well-informed, let me throw a spanner into the works. Be mindful that all these publications you read are very American-European centric and they very subtly reinforce certain ideologies in their content to normalise them. If you've not been trained in critical thinking, then think about what I'm trying to say about all these publications you've been reading.
If anyone is keen on non-Western perspectives, I personally find Al-Jazeera to be a good complement - it generally provides an interesting but quite fair-handed perspective. Xinhua's probably the Chinese equivalent, although they can be pretty biased in certain areas.
The purpose of my original post was to cherry-pick a few good magazines/ newspapers to recommend to bakababa; I don't think the average JC student would have much time to explore other resources and so didn't bother mentioning them. I did, but that was because I liked reading (I also justified it on the basis that I was \"studying\" for GP) and my Humanities tutors didn't believe in piling on tons of homework.
-
Augmum:
Are students allowed to drop from H2 to H1? If so, at which point? J1? J2?[Zbear,
Oh yr dd intends to drop to 3 H2? U mean now or wait till end of the yr?
Which subj she wanna to drop ?
For subj like econs, heard fr their T that it is not \" worth\" to drop to H1...
as scope n content is abt the same as H2 if u compare to other H1 Subjs which are usually Half the content of H2...
Has she talk to her FT yet ?
Also, it depends on what are the courses she wanna to read in Uni as some of these courses do require certain H2 subj as prerequisite ....(i think u know abt it)...
Both my children are taking 4 H2s, 2 of which are Sciences. I wonder if it is wise. -
Fairy:
Yes you can drop to H1 from H2. Usually at the end of J1, if you can't cope, the school will not allow you to continue with the subject at H2 level.
Are students allowed to drop from H2 to H1? If so, at which point? J1? J2?
Both my children are taking 4 H2s, 2 of which are Sciences. I wonder if it is wise. -
jtoh:
Thanks, jtoh.
Yes you can drop to H1 from H2. Usually at the end of J1, if you can't cope, the school will not allow you to continue with the subject at H2 level.Fairy:
Are students allowed to drop from H2 to H1? If so, at which point? J1? J2?
Both my children are taking 4 H2s, 2 of which are Sciences. I wonder if it is wise.
In the event that they decide to drop after June in J2, do you think they are still allowed to do so? -
I’m not sure about that Fairy. Depends on whether they’ve registered for the subject already for A levels too. Maybe someone with experience can share.
Hello! It looks like you're interested in this conversation, but you don't have an account yet.
Getting fed up of having to scroll through the same posts each visit? When you register for an account, you'll always come back to exactly where you were before, and choose to be notified of new replies (either via email, or push notification). You'll also be able to save bookmarks and upvote posts to show your appreciation to other community members.
With your input, this post could be even better 💗
Register Login