PRIMARY 3 & PRIMARY 4 COMPOSITION - HOT WEATHER & EUREKA!

The pictures for today's composition:

This is not a usual theme that we see in school; as such, some pupils may find it quite challenging to write such a story. Nonetheless, I believe that it is beneficial to get the pupils to do this exercise for a couple of reasons:

1. It is good to get them to write some non-examination type stories, to expand their repertoire.

2. It can get boring to write the same type of stories over and over; so writing a story that is not typical of what they usually do spices up the exercise for them.


The story is also pretty straightforward so I won't be doing a picture analysis. Instead, for the first video, I'll zoom straight into the first focus or theme for this week: How to describe hot weather.



Hot Weather


Many pupils like to begin the story by describing the weather. As the weather in Singapore is typically hot, it would be useful to know various ways of describing hot weather.


For example, instead of saying 'It was a hot day.' -- so boring! -- you could say 'It was a sweltering day.' Watch the video to find out other interesting ways of describing hot weather.






Eureka!


In many stories, there would be a point where a character gets an idea and then the story proceeds. Again, it is so dull when you just say 'I had an idea.'


Watch the video to learn 8 different ways to say 'I had an idea.' and spice up your writing.






Sample Story

PRIMARY 3 & PRIMARY 4 COMPOSITION - LINKING WORDS TO MAKE SENTENCE STRUCTURES MORE INTERESTING

Using the same sentence structure again and again is boring


A common problem amongst beginning writers is they tend to use the same sentence structure throughout their writing, resulting in a monotonous and boring story.


The sentence structure most commonly used is:

Subject + verb + object

This problem is easily resolved by adding some linking words/phrases in front of the sentence. Linking words/phrases are simply words and phrases that link what you want to say in the sentence to the previous sentence.

Using linking words/phrases at the start of your sentence will add some variety to your sentence structure, making your writing more interesting. Not only that, they also help your story to flow more smoothly and make your story clearer to your reader (by showing cause and effect, sequence of events, etc).

Some linking words/phrases that you can add to the front of your sentences:

To describe an unexpected happening Ø Suddenly Ø All of a ____________________ Ø Out of the blue Ø Abruptly	To describe an exact moment Ø Just at that moment Ø Just at that instant Ø Just then
Phrases to show passage of a short period of time Ø After a short while Ø Within a few minutes/A few minutes later Ø Not long later/Soon Ø In no time	Phrases to show Immediately Ø Immediately Ø Instantly/Instantaneously Ø Without further ado Ø In the nick of time
Phrases to show passage of time Ø After some time Ø Some time later Ø Later in the…, Ø Finally Ø In the end Ø At last	Using Adverbs as Linking Words Ø Unfortunately/Fortunately Ø Coincidentally Ø Quickly
Words/Phrases to show two actions going on at the same time Ø While Ø at the same time Ø as… Ø concurrently	Using Emotions as Linking Words Ø Out of curiosity Ø To my shock Ø Filled with delight
Words/Phrases to show cause/Reason Ø Due to… Ø Because… Ø As Ø Since…

Here is the story for this week. Note that linking words/phrases used at the start of the sentence are in pink.

A note about content

This story is a little outdated. I first created it for my pupils in 2008. It was very popular because at that time, Mas Selamat had just escaped from prison and was still at large.

Still I decided to use this outdated story because I want to stress a point. You know the point I keep hammering about writing an original story, a story that is different from what your friends and classmates will write?

A way to do that is to use current affairs in your news. What are the current events that have captured the public's imagination? What comes to mind: the Chinese tour guide and the rich widow, City Harvest trial, etc.

Of course, to be able to do this means that you have to keep abreast of current news, which means that you need to read the newspapers.

So please do so. Not only will you improve your English, who knows, you may be able to use the news that you've read to make your story original and entertaining.

If you want to, you can download this week's assignment and sample story here.

PRIMARY 3 & PRIMARY 4 COMPOSITION - FOOD POISONING

This week's story is a picture-based story about food poisoning.

Video 1 - Picture Analysis

The pictures are ordered in the correct sequence (unlike the new format) but it's not a big issue because most pupils have no problems arranging the pictures in the new format.




Video 2 - Vocabulary of a Trip to the Clinic

The theme for this week is the vocabulary associated with a visit to the doctor's. This vocabulary will come in handy when you have to write a story about:

• falling ill after being drenched in the rain
• having a tummy ache after overeating
• breaking a bone from a fall; and numerous other possibilities in which a character in the story has to see the doctor.

Video 3 - Sample Story

The assignment for the composition can be downloaded from the link provided below.

Resources

Assignment

PSLE COMPOSITION - A CRAB AT THE BEACH

I mentioned in the previous post that I visited the KiasuParents PSLE forum recently. It was a very fruitful trip as I saw there firsthand the sort of questions that parents and pupils were grappling with in the run-up to the PSLE.


Was it coincidence? Or the law of synchronicity? For this week's composition, I was going to go through this PSLE picture composition:

Then I saw this interesting discussion on KiasuParents, where tutor_ng mentioned that the highest mark he ever gave for a PSLE composition was 39. He went on to add that the composition was so impressive that he remembered the storyline up till the point of posting the comment.

So what was so impressive about the storyline? He said that it was written from a different perspective. The narrator of the storyline was an animal. This is exactly what I've been stressing about each time in the Picture Analysis videos -- if your storyline is different from what your peers are doing, it's easier for you to stand out from the crowd and score well for your content. Of course the caveat is that your storyline must also be logical. No point writing a story that is different from others', but it doesn't make sense. In that scenario, your composition will be considered out of point and you'll do worse than your peers who write the typical boring story.

From further clues here, one can tell that the picture he is talking about is the one with the elephant in the zoo drenching a man holding a camera. You should know which one I'm talking about. If you don't, you've not been studying hard enough. (If you really don't know which picture I'm referring to, please watch Video 1; I've embedded the picture in Video 1.)

For myself, the PSLE composition that scored 40/40 that I know about was also a picture composition. I can't remember which year it is from. If you have old PSLE booklets, you can try to check it out. It was a picture depicting a rainy day, two schoolchildren taking shelter under a bus-stop, and a car zooming past, splashing water at the children. Again, in this instance, the writer took an unusual perspective; the narrator was a raindrop witnessing the event!

So you see, scoring 40/40 for your composition in the PSLE is possible, albeit rare. I should add that needless to say, for these 'perfect' compositions, not only were the storylines unusual, the language used in the stories was also of the highest standard, with perhaps only a couple of minor careless mistakes.

Now I don't want everyone rushing out to write compositions with non-human narrators for the PSLE composition next week.

Why?

Because it is a risky venture. To do well in such stories, the writer must find the right 'voice'. That is, the narrator must come across as a credible non-human. This is challenging for many 12-year-olds. If the 'voice' is not done right, the exercise could end in disaster. So unless you're supremely confident, I'll say: Don't take the risk.


That said, this week's sample composition done by me is actually such a story -- the narrator is the crab in the story. You could just take it as a reference to how it is done. I'll also give three other sample stories, the better stories done by my students in class. The ones done by the students have a human narrator though. What they did was to use the inclusion of details and humour to make the storyline richer.


That was a long preamble. So without further ado, let us start on the first video.


 Video 1: Story Analysis





Sample Story

Video 2 - Describing Pain





Resources

Assignment - The sample story is in the worksheet itself.

Sample stories by students

PSLE COMPOSITION - FATHER'S BIRTHDAY CELEBRATION

Two more weeks before the PSLE English paper.


This week, we're doing yet another PSLE picture composition, the picture composition from either 2012 or 2013.

Video 1 - Picture Analysis

Is the storyline as simple as a pair of children giving their father a surprise birthday party? Or can we add more plot points to make the story more interesting?




Video 2 - Sample Story

Quite a long story this week, but don't worry. As you know, if you miss anything, you can always stop the video and replay the bit that you didn't catch.




Video 3 - Figures of Speech

There are dozens of different types of figures of speech out there. But at the primary school level, we're only concerned with the more common ones. Previously, we've done one type already - metaphors. Today, we'll revise that and cover some new ones.

This video is quite long, in excess of 23 min. I tried to keep it as short as possible, but there are really too many things to cover in this segment. I hope that the length doesn't deter you from watching the video and that you find it useful.




Resources

Assignment

Figures of Speech


Note:

In Video 2, when I went through Paragraph, I mentioned the ellipsis, a punctuation mark that is denoted by 3 full stops (...).

To recap, ellipses have a couple of functions:

1. They are used to indicate missing words, and we use the ellipsis for this function very often in our sample stories.

2. They are also used to indicate an unfinished thought or speech. And this is their function in the last 3 ellipses in Paragraph 1. Hence, the last 3 ellipses in Para 1 should be written out as they are seen; that means instead of replacing them with words, write out the 3 full stops as you see them. They are used to indicate the incomplete sentences when Faye and John spoke, as well as the last sentence in Paragraph 1 trailing off as we leave the timeline and return to the beginning of the story.

PSLE COMPOSITION - SHOPLIFTING

It's now September, and getting closer than ever to the PSLE. Hope your revision is on track and that at the same time, you are getting sufficient rest and exercise.  :)


This week, we have another picture composition from the PSLE past papers. This one is quite a bit older than those we've been doing the last few weeks. This is from the 1997-2001 booklet if I'm not mistaken.


Video 1 - Picture Analysis



This picture shows a boy running away with a bottle of juice from a void deck minimart. Obvious conclusion: Shoplifting.


Video 2 - Sample Story



Going through the sample story for pupils who like to have a model story to follow. For pupils who prefer to write their stories independently, feel free to just use the picture.


Video 3 - Vocabulary & Conclusions of Shoplifting





For resources this week, there is only the Assignment.  The Vocabulary and Conclusions for shoplifting are printed in the Assignment itself.


Resources

Assignment

PEA OF HAPPINESS

This week's composition is based on a recent PSLE question, probably from 2013 or 2012.  Can't remember which.


Again it's the picture-based question. My personal preference is usually question 3, the one whereby you have to continue the story given a opening scenario. Even as a PSLE candidate many many moons ago, I never chose picture-based compositions, whether it was in the actual examination or during practices.


My preference for open-ended questions simply stems from the fact that such questions usually give you more rein for creativity than picture-based ones. However, I've noticed since I began teaching that more than half the students prefer picture-based ones, mainly because they find it easier to stick to a story based on the picture, and also because it's less likely that they will go out of point when they do picture-based compositions.


I've also noticed that in the last 2-3 years, the picture-based composition is getting more difficult. This is because the picture presents a very simple event like birthday celebrations. Such events may be simple to describe but that is also their main problem -- they are too simple. How are you going to score high points for content when describing a birthday celebration?


The idea is to make the story more complex by:

1. adding emotional depth (like what we did here)

2. putting obstacles into the story (perhaps there were some difficulties during the preparation of the party - hence the lack of a birthday cake and dishes?)


This week's format is the same as the previous week's. The first video will analyse the picture and present the storyline we are doing.


Video 1 - Storyline




The second video will go through the sample story.


Video 2 - Sample Story




In the third video, we'll present a list of words and phrases that can be used in the description of happiness.

Video 3 - The PEA of Happiness




Notes:

1. In Video 2, Paragraph 3, second last bullet, 'packed' should be 'pack' because of the modal 'would' in front of it. If you remember, a verb after any modal (can, could, will, would, etc) must take the base form; that means no past tense, past participle or singular form.

2. In Video 3, Action -- one of the actions people do to express their happiness is to pump their fist in the ear air. Sorry for the typo in the video. And it's really tough to re-do the video, so I'm putting the correction here instead.


Resources:

Assignment

PEA of Happiness

PEA OF SADNESS

We've done anger and fear.


This week we're doing sadness.


I've divided the video this week into three parts.


The first video will analyse the picture and see what storyline would be suitable for the picture. (Do note that this is not the only acceptable storyline. In writing, creativity and imagination are paramount.)




In the second video, we will go through the sample story. Once again, the sample story is not cast in stone. It is only meant as a point of reference. Feel free to explore and use your own ideas.




In the last video, we cover the theme of the week: the PEA of Sadness. You'll learn how to describe sadness in your writing here.





Resources for this week:

Assignment

PEA of Sadness

PEA OF ANGER

This is this week's composition. I've split it into two videos as it came up to almost twenty minutes despite my best efforts.


The first video will go through the outline of the story, and in the second video, we go through how to describe anger.


The first video (I tried to embed the video, but being rather technically unsavvy, I'm having problems, and I'm in a hurry, so will leave it as a link instead, and come back to fix it later). Edit: Embedded already. Whoo hoo! Learnt a new trick today. Who says you can't teach old dogs new tricks?

A Short Story - Stall No. 51

We just posted a short story set in Singapore on A Quiver of Quirks.


This story was runner-up in a Writing The City competition. Head over, read it and let us know if you like it.  :)

A Short Story - Jasper

It has been a long time since I posted.


In today's post I would like point out that there is a free story Jasper posted on our sister blog, aquiverofquirks. The story is meant for students in Primary 5 and above. It's the hols and in case you're wondering for things to do, this is one way for you to pass your time.


For the avid or curious reader, click here.


After reading the tale, feel free to give us feedback. You could comment on the story or tell us what kind of story you would like to read next.


Adieu till the next time.