Preparation for Term 4 Week 4

S4-08

No preparation required. Just bring your LDs to class for the remaining two lessons.

S4-06

1. Complete the SCGS Prelim paper found here and mark your work using the answer scheme found in the same folder. After you have done so, complete the feedback survey found here by 5 Oct (Mon) 2359h.

2. Bring your LDs for all remaining EL lessons.

Consultation

I am only free this week at the following slots. 

Mon - Night Study time

Tue - Afternoon

Thu - Up to 2:20pm

Fri - After farewell assembly onwards

During your study break, you may also book slots in the morning or afternoon to meet me for consultation. 

Preparation for Term 4 Week 2

Both S4-06 and S4-08

1. Bring your prelim essays to class. We will continue to do some work on them. 

2. Complete the BPGHS Prelim 2015 paper, mark your work using the answer scheme found here (scroll all the way to the end) and complete the feedback survey found here by 25 Sep (Fri) 2000h. 

We will not be going through the BPGHS compre in Term 4 Week 2 but you are likely to receive another compre for next weekend. So you are advised to complete this as early as you can. 

S4-08 only (Tue's lesson)

For each of the following questions from the GCE O-level 2014 paper, prepare a complete essay plan.

1. Which features of Singapore and its citizens make it a major tourist attraction for people from all over the world?

2. Which person has the greatest influence on your life at the present time, and why?

3. 'The best things in life are free.' Write about some of the occasions when you have found this to be true.

Summary of Brainstorming skills

Dear students,

For your convenience, please click here for a one-page summary of the brainstorming skills.

Preparation for Term 4 Week 1

All classes

Please do complete essay plans for the 4 prelim essay questions. We will be doing feedback for prelim Section C in Term 4 Week 1. The questions are as follows in case you have misplaced your paper.

1) Describe some significant experiences during your growing-up years. How have these experiences shaped your values?

2) Modern teenagers are slaves to trends. Do you agree?

3) Promises should always be kept. Discuss.

4) What do you consider to be your country's greatest achievement? Why does it mean so much to you?

S4-08 only

Lesson 1

We will be doing feedback for Prelim Paper 1 Section B. Please read, analyse and grade the following sample before coming for lesson. Bring your Prelim scripts. 

(a) Sample Script

(b) Marking Rubric

(c) Question Paper 

Revision during Sep holidays

1) Revise all the skills taught to you over the whole year. If you don't remember where you have placed your notes, the two places to find everything are:

(a) The Lesson Materials folder

(b) The Cohort Drive 

2) Read up on a few common areas / areas of interest to you so that you have some content for the essay paper. Sources of information are:

(a) Class mindmaps

(b) Reading Programme articles

(c) Cohort Facebook group

3) Do compre practice. You can obtain the past year papers with the answer scheme at the following places:

(a) NEW!! Other schools MYCT 2015

(b) Practice Papers on cohort drive

(c) Pre-Prelim package (if you haven't complete it)

(d) June holiday Practice (if you haven't completed it)

You are reminded that the papers are strictly for your own personal use as a Sec 4 student of SST. If you use it for any other purposes, including but not restricted to tuition, dissemination to your juniors or friends from other schools, you may run afoul of the relevant copyrights regulations.

Prelim Feedback and Situational Writing Practice

Prelim Feedback

Please refer to the following links for the answers to the editing section and the Listening Comprehension Section. You are the only classes which have not been returned these sections in class and you will get them on Mon when we are checking the other sections. Please use this to check your answers to ensure that they were marked correctly. 

1. Editing

2. Listening Compre

Situational Writing Practice

This will be the last piece of marked situational writing piece you are writing in Secondary School. Please do the 2014 GCE O-level situational writing piece found here. 

1) Your response must be typed written on Google Doc in Arial Font, Font size 12. You should have a margin of 2.5cm all around. Leave a blank line when you start a new paragraph. Submissions in the wrong file format will not be marked.

2) You should write no more than 500 words. This is in line with the 2014 Cambridge examiner report that students who "...wrote in excess of the suggested word limit...did not necessarily increase the effectiveness of the content and frequently resulted in a rushed or incomplete Section C."

3) Upload your response here . 

Update on Project Ace and Project Beta 2nd submission

Those of you who submitted for the second submission for Project Ace and Project Beta, I intend to mark it and return it to you. You will get it back in time before I set the very final piece of written work for the class. My apologies for the delay. 

Preparation for Term 3 Week 9

S4-08

For Lesson 1 and Lesson 2, we will be doing preparation for the GCE O-level oral examination. No preparation is required. Please note that Lesson 2 will take place on 26 Aug (Wed) first period. 27 Aug (Thu) first period will be Bio instead.

For Lesson 3, we will be doing feedback for Prelim Paper 1 Section B. Please read, analyse and grade the following sample before coming for lesson. 

(a) Sample Script

(b) Marking Rubric

(c) Question Paper 

S4-06

Lesson 1

We will be doing feedback for Prelim Paper 1 Section B. Please read, analyse and grade the following sample before coming for lesson. 

(a) Sample Script

(b) Marking Rubric

(c) Question Paper 

Lesson 2

For each of the following questions from the GCE O-level 2014 paper, prepare a complete essay plan.

1. Which features of Singapore and its citizens make it a major tourist attraction for people from all over the world?

2. Which person has the greatest influence on your life at the present time, and why?

3. 'The best things in life are free.' Write about some of the occasions when you have found this to be true. 

Pre-prelim comprehension package

Dear students,

The answers to the comprehension practice package distributed in class can be found here. You can find the question papers in the same folder if you need them.

Two papers do not contain Section A. They came to us that way, with missing pages. So it is not a printing error.

This set of 5 practice papers should last you till Term 3 Week 9. You should aim to complete 3 papers before prelims as revision, and do the other 2 after prelim. 

Preparation for Term 3 Week 5 & 6

S4-06

T3W5 Lesson 1 (50 min)

Feedback for Writing Test on Family and Young People. Please bring your LD. 

T3W5 Lesson 2 (40min)

Do the Yishun Town Sec Sch paper distributed in class, mark your work using the answer scheme found here, and complete the feedback survey found here by 28/7 (Tue) 9pm. 

T3W6

No preparation required. Lessons in T3W6 will be used to do feedback for the comprehension paper you submitted for marking this week. We will also need to spend time preparing you for the GCE O-Level Oral Examination. The oral examination for your class will start on the last day of Prelim. So we cannot wait until after prelims to prepare for oral. You will need your LDs for lesson in T3W6. 

S4-08

T3W5 Lesson 1 (50min)

As previously mentioned, bring your LD to class with your holiday homework mindmaps on Family and Young People. Ensure that you have at least 2 free mindmaps on Mindmeister. Bring writing paper as well.

T3W5 Lesson 2 (40min)

Do the Yishun Town Sec Sch paper distributed in class, mark your work using the answer scheme found here, and complete the feedback survey found here by 28/7 (Tue) 9pm. 

T3W5 Lesson 3 (40 min)

Feedback for Writing Test on Family and Young People done during Lesson 1. Please bring your LD. 

T3W6

No preparation required. Lessons in T3W6 will be used to do feedback for the comprehension paper you submitted for marking this week. We will also spend some time doing early preparation for the GCE O-Level Oral Examination. Please bring your LDs. Your class will have your Oral Examination after the Prelims and we will have time to do more preparation then. 

Preparation for Term 3 Week 4

Assignment Deadline

You are to complete the comprehension paper given out early this week and submit it to my pigeon hole via your EL rep by recess on 20 Jul (Mon).

Preparation for S4-06

Lesson 1

For questions which you did not attempt for Term 3 Week 3's planning test, analyse all the questions and do essay plans for them. This lesson will be used for feedback for the planning test done in Term 3 Week 3.

Lesson 2

Bring your LD to class with your holiday homework mindmaps on Family and Young People. Ensure that you have at least 2 free mindmaps on Mindmeister. Bring writing paper as well.

100min lesson

As mentioned last week, the required preparation for the 100 min lesson in Term 3 Week 4 can be found here. Draw up essay plans for all the Situational Writing papers  found in the folder. There are a total of 7 papers, and it should take you under 2 hours to complete the planning.

Preparation for S4-08

Lesson 1

As mentioned last week, bring your LD to class with your holiday homework mindmap on Environment. Ensure that you have at least 1 free mindmap on Mindmeister. Bring writing paper as well.

Lesson 2

For questions which you did not attempt for Lesson 1's planning test, analyse all the questions and do essay plans for them. This lesson will be used for feedback for the planning test.

100min lesson

As mentioned last week, the required preparation for the 100 min lesson in Term 3 Week 4 can be found here. Draw up essay plans for all the Situational Writing papers  found in the folder. There are a total of 7 papers, and it should take you under 2 hours to complete the planning.

Early Prep for Term 3 Week 5

Bring your LD to class with your holiday homework mindmaps on Family and Young People. Ensure that you have at least 2 free mindmaps on Mindmeister. Bring writing paper as well.

Preparation for Term 3 Week 3

Lesson 1

For questions which you did not attempt for Term 3 Week 2's planning test, analyse all the questions and do essay plans for them. This lesson will be used for feedback for the planning test done in Term 3 Week 2.

Lesson 2

This lesson will be used for feedback for the ACS (Barker) 2015 MYCT paper. You are to mark your answers using the answer scheme found here. The question paper is also found at the same link for those of you who did not receive the paper. You are to complete the survey for the paper found here by 2100h on 13 Jul (Mon)

Lesson 3

S4-08, Lesson 3 will be on 21 Jul (Tue) for your class

Bring your LD to class with your holiday homework mindmap on Environment. Ensure that you have at least 1 free mindmap on Mindmeister. Bring writing paper as well.

Early Prep for 100 min Lesson in Term 3 Week 4

For those of you who want to prepare ahead, the required preparation for the 100 min lesson in Term 3 Week 4 can be found here. Draw up essay plans for all the Situational Writing papers  found in the folder. There are a total of 7 papers, and it should take you under 2 hours to complete the planning. 
 

Preparation for Term 3 Week 2

100min lesson

You need your LDs for this lesson. S4-08, please note that you will have visitors from New Zealand observing your class. 

All files needed for this lesson can be found here. You will need this link during the lesson as well. In addition, ensure that you have your mind map on Sport done for your holiday homework for this lesson. 

1. We will be working on the question below for this lesson. You are to individually analyse the question and come up with a plan of the essay with at least 3 points. Upload your individual essay plans in the relevant folder found here. Name your file as follows: Index No._Name_title of essay. Deadline: 2200h the day before this lesson. 

 

Is it realistic to expect fair play in sport today?    

2. As a group, select your focus for the lesson by choosing one set of articles found here. No more than 2 groups may choose the same set. Comment on this post with your group number and choice of set. First-come-first-served.

3. For the focus chosen by your group, each individual is to do your own research to find more examples. Place the link to your research in the file below beside your name. Note that antisocial students who attempt to freeload will be barred from the file. Deadline: 2200h the day before this lesson.

S4-06 sharing

S4-08 sharing

1st 50 min lesson of the week

No preparation required. 

2nd 50 min lesson of the week

Ensure that you have completed the Bukit Panjang Govt High Prelim 2014 paper given out this week and mark your work using the answer scheme found here. Complete the survey here by 6 Jul (Mon) 2359h.

Use of Mindmeister for sharing of mindmaps

In preparation for the GCE O-level Oral Exam and essay paper, we will be building up your content knowledge as a class. I have created a new folder where materials will be added gradually. The folder can be found here. 

We will be using Mindmeister rather frequently but you are not required to purchase the license for the app. I will convert all mindmaps produced by the class into images and upload them on the folder above. 

However, please note that you are only given 3 mindmaps for the free account. Therefore, you are required to ensure that by Friday each week, you have at least 1 free mindmap available for your SST email account. I will be using this account to invite you to collaborate on the class mindmap. 

Preparation for Term 3 Week 1

Survey on holiday homework

Please complete a very short holiday homework survey found here by 29 Jun (Mon) 2359h.

Lesson 1

Bring your LD to class with your holiday homework mindmap on Science and Technology. Bring writing paper as well. 

Lesson 2

Ensure that you have completed the ACS (Barker) Prelim 2014 paper given as holiday homework and mark your work. Complete the survey here by 29 Jun (Mon) 2359h. 

Lesson 3

No further preparation needed

June Holiday Homework and Project Ace reminder

Project Ace reminder

You are reminded that Project Ace is due this weekend as mentioned in the blog post here. Those taking the MTL exams, you may submit on Wed after your exams.

As instructed in class, you are to make use of the skills learnt in Creative Persuasion this week (see slides here) to improve your essay. You should at least aim to make your introduction and conclusion interesting, and have a 12 word persuasion to end your essay. If you need to revise the basics of writing introduction and conclusion, click here. If you need to revise the creative methods taught just before you mid year exams, click here. 

June Holiday Homework

1. Comprehension Practices

I have distributed 10 sets of comprehension practices in class. You are to complete all 10 sets during the holidays and mark your own work (do 1 comprehension paper every 3 days). The answers can be found here. 

2. Mindmap

The objective of this project is to prepare you for some of the common essay and oral topics that are tested in the GCE O-level examination. Your detailed mindmaps will help you to deal with any questions in the prepared topics if they are tested.They will help you cut down on thinking time needed and help you to generate ideas. Please refer to the instructions found here. 

3. Project Beta (Second Submission) 

The second submission for Project Beta is due in Term 3 Week 1. Please pay attention to the instructions found here, particularly point 3, 4 and 5 (which were often ignored), and point 7 (which I just added). Upload your completed essay to the relevant folders found here. Note that
(a) you are not allowed to change the question you wrote for your first submission.
(b) you are to work on the feedback given for your first submission and make improvements. Failure to do so may result in your essay not being marked.
(c) students who did not submit the first time round should choose a question and submit for this submission.

Preparation for Term 2 Week 10

Lesson Preparation 

No preparation is required this week. Lessons in Term 2 Week 10 will focus on tools which will help you add style to your writing, assuming that your essays have substance. Please have ready access to your MYCT Paper 1 scripts (which will be returned to you) and your Project Ace scripts. 

Self-direct learning for focusing adverbs

I introduced the concept of focusing adverbs this week (recall the word 'indeed'). I have put together a handout for you to read up more on your own. The handout can be found here. Please seek clarification if you are unable to understand the handout.

Project Ace (Second Submission)

The second submission for Project Ace is due on 31 May (Sun) 2359h. Please pay attention to the instructions found here, particularly point 3, 4 and 5 (which were often ignored), and point 7 (which I just added). Upload your completed essay to the relevant folders found here. Note that 

(a) you are not allowed to change the question you wrote for your first submission.

(b) you are to work on the feedback given for your first submission and make improvements. Failure to do so may result in your essay not being marked. 

(c) students who did not submit the first time round should choose a question and submit for this submission. 

Preparation for Term 2 Week 9

For S4-08, both Lesson 1 and 2 will run on Tue from 2pm to 4pm. 

Lesson 1
Anaylse the questions and do detailed essay plans for Q3 and Q4 of your MYCT Paper 1 following the format taught in class. The planning table can be found here. Upload your preparation on the relevant folder found here. 

Lesson 2
I am trying out something new in order to help us learn better and get more practice for Paper 2. It is therefore essential that everyone does the preparation and follow the instructions here carefully.

1) Complete the NCHS MYCT 2014 Paper 2 found here. You may choose to work on the softcopy or print a hardcopy on your own. There is no need to upload your work any where. 

2) Mark your own work using the answer scheme found in the same folder above. It is essential that you do your work first and then mark it, and not just simply look at the answer scheme. Otherwise, you will not learn anything 

3) Complete the survey found here by 9pm on Mon as prove of completion of your work. I need your inputs to plan the lesson for the following day. 

Preparation for Term 2 Week 8

Lesson 1 (MYCT Paper 1 Situational Writing Feedback)

1) Read the question for situational writing for your MYCT paper found here and fill in the table found here. 

2) Grade the sample scripts found here using the rubrics found here. You are to label R1 to R4 for the requirements of the question on the samples, give marks for TF and L, and write down some comments to justify the mark you gave. 

3) In your respective class preparation folder found here, create a folder and label it with your name. In this folder, place all your preparation work from items 1 and 2 above. 

Lesson 2 (S4-06 only)

Do detailed essay plans for Q3 and Q4 of the essay questions of your MYCT paper found here. Place your preparation in your respective class preparation folder found here. 

Organising your personal electronic files

Dear students,

I have been looking at some of your personal electronic files and I would like to address those of you who have been rather conscientious in your filing so far. 

Even among the most conscientious students, I have noticed that there is insufficient organisation of your files. You have simply parked all or most of your files in the existing master folders I have created for you. This will eventually result in an untenable mess as the number of files you have continue to increase. As a good housekeeping practice, you need to periodically reorganise your files into sub-folders. And you are free to create your own under the existing master folder structure I have set up for you! 

If you are clueless about how this can be done, refer to the class materials folder. Take a look for example at the writing folder found here. You can simply follow the structure I have set up to organise my materials for the class.

For those of you who are not keeping up with your filing, please start to do so after your common tests. I will be doing another round of checks from Week 9 onwards and I will contact your parents directly this time if I find that your file is not up to scratch. It is important that you maintain your files because you need your materials for revision. 

Fwd: Preparation for Term 2 Week 5

Reading Tasks

In view of the upcoming MYCT, Reading Tasks will be temporarily suspended.

Editing Practice

Please complete the following Editing Practices by 2300h on 20 Apr (Mon).

Editing Practice 2

Editing Practice 3

Editing Practice 4

Editing Practice 5

Lessons

We will do feedback for Project Ace and the CHIJ St Joseph's MYCT 2014 Paper 2 which you just submitted this week.

Those who did not submit Project Ace are to submit your work here. I will only mark these late work after the deadline for the second submission is over.

Those who have not completed the comprehension, ensure that you have done so by the second lesson of the week. 

Disciplinary actions will be taken against the recalcitrant. 

Preparation for Term 2 Week 4

Comprehension Practice

The full comprehension practice distributed in class is due on 14 Apr (Tue). The EL rep is to collect the comprehension as a class and submit it to my pigeon hole by the end of recess. 

First 50 min lesson

No preparation needed. I will share another useful skill for the spoken interaction component of the oral exam. You need to bring your LDs. You also need to make sure you have at least 2 free mindmaps on mindmeister under you SST account. You can check by clicking here. 

Second 50 min lesson

Lesson on  Attitude & Tone which you already prepared for Term 2 Week 3. 

100 min lesson

1. Balancing the essay - Read the handout found here and prepare your answers for all the practices. Upload your preparation in the relevant folder found here.

2. Tools for Writing Intro & Conc - Read the handout found here and analyse all the samples given. Upload your preparation in the relevant folder found here.

3. Do complete essay plans for the following questions and upload your plans here:

(a) Parents often believe it is better to be safe than sorry. Do you consider young people to be too protected? (Cam 2013)
(b) 'The way we dress reveals who we are.' What are your views? (Cam 2013)

NOTE: For all the work you upload as preparation for lessons, please ensure you use "Shift Z" to park the same set of notes in your Personal Electronic File.