A Composition A Week - Situational Writing (Formal Letter)

In Semester 1 Week 8, instead of Continuous Writing, the Advanced Composition pupils did a piece of Situational Writing instead. They were asked to write a formal letter.

For the uninitiated, the writing component in the Primary School Leaving Examination (PSLE) has two components: Continuous Writing (a narrative consisting of 40 marks) and Situational Writing.


Situational Writing consists of 15 marks and pupils would be asked to write one of the following:

• email
• letter
• report
• postcard
• notice
• note

A quick browse of the PSLE booklets reveals that overwhelmingly, pupils are asked to write an email or letter. Pupils have been asked to write a postcard only once since the new (okay, not so new now) format of the PSLE English examination was introduced in the early 2000s. Likewise for the report, if I'm not mistaken. And it makes sense because the email and letter are documents that are used to a great degree in our daily lives. So we should make sure that our children are conversant with them.

Thus for this post, I would like to cover the proper format required for the formal letter in the PSLE English examination.

The proper format for a formal letter is:

Spelling Lists for Semester 1 Week 8

Advanced Composition

1. commence
2. conclude
3. announce
4. preference
5. substitute
6. peruse
7. convey
8. We have put together a team of professionally qualified
culinary experts to ensure that our dishes meet the expectations
of our discerning customers.

Book Review: CROOKEDSTAR'S PROMISE

Crookedstar’s Promise by Erin Hunter

Crookedstar’s Promise is set in the world of the cats, in which cats have Clans which they live in, and they hunt and live in the forest, away from the humans. There are five Clans: ThunderClan, WindClan, RiverClan, ShadowClan and StarClan; the last Clan is not a Clan of living cats like the others, as StarClan is made of the cats who died in the past (in short, the ancestors of the other Clans). Crookedstar’s Promise is set mainly in RiverClan, with the protagonist being Stormkit, a kit who is born at the start of the book in the midst of a storm.

**SPOILERS AHEAD**

A Composition A Week - Honesty is the Best Policy

In Learning Partners, composition writing is a very structured process. Each week, the pupils are given a theme to write on. We discuss the general structure for a story based on the theme before zooming into the exact content and vocabulary that would be used. Then the pupils are taught how to use the vocabulary given. Only after they have been taught the vocabulary do they begin writing.

We do this for a couple of reasons:

1.         Our pupils come in with varying standards of English. Some are excellent writers already. Such pupils are looking for ways to hone their skills. And then there are those who can barely string together a grammatically sound English sentence. Such a process helps to reinforce the structure of the English sentence for these pupils. Our experience shows that, generally, even very weak pupils show a marked improvement in the structure of their sentences within 6-9 months.

2.         Many pupils, even those with a firm grasp of English, do not know what to write. Other pupils have the tendency to recount an event in a very straightforward manner. Hence, if left to their own devices, they would finish a story in less than 100 words. There are also pupils whose understanding of the world is still immature and distorted. Such pupils tend to produce plots that are unbelievable or plain impossible. Thus the process they go through in Learning Partners is actually assuring and motivating for them because in the process, they not only write, but write a long story with all the bells and whistles. This actually boosts their confidence and at the same time, allows them to imbibe the story format along with the ideas and vocabulary for that particular theme.

Yet, this means that most pupils end up writing very similar compositions, which doesn’t say much for creativity. How we try to overcome that is to encourage the pupils who are stronger in English or who have a flair for the written word to personalise the story as much as they could by adding in more details/descriptions or using their own vocabulary. This week’s One Composition a Week is a great example of that – how an above-average writer customises the template that she has been handed and in the process, creates a stronger story than the original. The words in black are from the original template whereas the writer’s additions are in bolded blue.

Honesty is the Best Policy

Composition: Hardworking Sentences

I came across an interesting article recently. It was an online Wall Street Journal contribution by Karen Thompson Walker, author of newly published and critically acclaimed novel ‘The Age of Miracles’.

In the article, Walker talks about something that is very insightful for writers. She talks about ‘hardworking sentences’. ‘Hardworking sentences’, according to Walker, do at least more than one of the following tasks:

Spelling Lists for Semester 1 Week 7

Tip of the week:


'Plead' & 'Sympathise'


To 'plead' is to request earnestly. It's a nicer word than 'beg' which implies a greater degree of grovelling.


'Plead' can be used in two ways:


When the bullies cornered Adam, he pleaded for mercy.   OR


When the bullies cornered Adam, he pleaded with them for mercy.


In other words, :

• 'plead' + for + mercy/pity/one more chance/etc.

• 'plead' + with +  

Then what happens after Adam pleaded with the bullies? Surprise, surprise, maybe the bullies have hearts of gold and they sympathised with him, thus letting him go!

To 'sympathise' (spelled 'sympathize' in the American way) is to feel someone's suffering and hence feel sorry for them.

This is the word that appeared in Semester 1 Week 6's composition and which I noticed many pupils having problems with.

Please remember: We always 'sympathise with' someone, i.e.

'sympathise' + with +   !

Book Review: CLOCKWORK ANGEL

Clockwork Angel by Cassandra Clare

Clockwork Angel is the first of the Infernal Devices Series, prequel to the Mortal Instruments Series (however, it is not necessary to read one before the other; each series can be read alone without any prior background knowledge).

**SPOILERS AHEAD**

A Composition A Week - The Mystery Story

For Week 6, the children were asked to write a mystery story.

The task turned out to be a huge challenge for those who opt to write independently. So for One Composition A Week this time round, we’ll look at some of the pieces and see what we can do to improve them.

A good mystery story has the following traits:

• The identity of the perpetrator is only revealed towards the end of the story. This keeps the reader in suspense and urges said reader to continue reading to find out who the culprit is.

• Clues are given in the story. A well-crafted mystery story provides clues to the reader, inviting the reader to solve the mystery before the investigator in the story does so. This challenge, I suspect, is what makes many a thriller so difficult to put down.

• More often than not, there will be twists in the stories. Red herrings are thrown and surprises are pulled out like rabbits from a magician’s hat.

Even for a 300-500 word composition (which is about the average length we expect for a PSLE composition), a child can incorporate most of these traits into the short story.

The difficulty for many of the pupils is that they are unable to determine what sort of clues are appropriate for the story. Let’s take a look at two samples.

Spelling Lists for Semester 1 Week 6

Tip of the week:


I've been thinking about the word 'unfortunately'.


It is a very useful word for school compositions. With a single word, the writer can signal to the reader that there is a turn in the story and that the bad things are going to happen soon, making the reader sit up in attention. So learn how to spell and use 'unfortunately' in your stories. For maximum impact, use it at the start of the paragraph that describes the problem/conflict in the story.


Younger children who find it difficult to spell could use the easier variant 'unluckily' instead.


End of tip. Now see below for your spelling lists. :)

Book Review: DIVERGENT

Book Review: Divergent by Veronica Roth

***SPOILERS AHEAD!!!***

Divergent is similar to many other books that have been released lately – Torn, The Hunger Games and City of Bones, to name a few. What distinguishes these books from one another is the world they are set in, and the characters that populate the stories. Divergent is not a book without flaws, but its world and its distinctive characters add up to make this a good, satisfying book.

In Divergent, the people are divided and live within five different factions based on what suits them best – Dauntless for the brave, Amity for the peace-lovers, Erudite for the knowledgeable, Candor for the honest and Abnegation for the selfless. A child is born and raised in one of these five factions, and when they reach the age of sixteen they get to take an aptitude test which finds out which faction is most suitable for them, and choose to either stay with their faction, or join another faction which suits them more. Each faction promotes the virtue they think is most important, for example, in Candor all are expected to tell the truth, in Dauntless they do things like jump off moving trains and buildings, and in Abnegation people cannot have selfishness or pride, since that would go against the idea of selflessness. Once the child has chosen a faction, he or she will then undergo a period of initiation tests during which they are judged. Those deemed fit to join the faction will enter formally while those who fail are then forced to leave and join the “factionless”.

The story’s protagonist is Beatrice Prior, a sixteen-year old girl living in Abnegation. Despite sixteen years of life there, she is clearly unable to conform to its requirements – the people in Abnegation do not to look at themselves in the mirror as it shows self-indulgence, or ask questions since curiosity is unnecessary to selflessness. Beatrice has problems with both. Right at the start of the story, we see her peeking at herself in the mirror as her mother cuts her hair, which she’s not supposed to, and throughout her time in Abnegation we see her questioning her parents and brother Caleb on many things, showing a powerful curiosity.

During the aptitude test, however, we find out that Beatrice is unique – she has an equal aptitude for Abnegation, Dauntless and Erudite, which makes her a “Divergent”. The person testing her, a Dauntless member, is aware of what she is and hides her results, thus hinting that there is more than one of these Divergents.

Spelling Lists for Semester 1 Week 5

We are now entering the second week of school for 2013. Here's hoping that everyone had a great start in the new school year.

Without further ado, here's the Spelling Lists for Semester 1 Week 5:

Book Review: GONE

Review: Gone by Michael Grant

The first book in the Gone series, Gone is set in the fictional English town of Birmingham Beach. At the start of the book, every human who is fifteen or older vanishes, leaving behind everyone who is younger than fifteen, and the town and surrounding areas are encased in a dome (later named the Fayz) that hurts to touch. As the novel progresses, several of the youths in the town are found to possess superpowers, such as super speed and telekinesis. Not only that, other animals are also found to be mutating – coyotes gain the ability to speak and snakes grow wings and start flying. The town children’s problems multiply when children from the Coates Academy, a school for troubled kids, start to take over the town.