Secondary School Chinese

[chenlaoshi]

qms\" post_id=\"1952905\" time=\"1576138402\" user_id=\"5718:

chenlaoshi\" post_id=\"1952125\" time=\"1575776731\" user_id=\"162894:

For CL, majority of the school teachers will no go through 10 year series. If they do, it's usually practices on specific components, such as Paper 1 email writing. Thus, it's better to do on your own.

My son's Chinese teacher said that the publisher's answers do not really meet the O Levels standard. Doing the ten year series yourself and using the publisher's answers as a guide may not be good enough.

The school' s Chinese Dept came up with their own answers to help the students prepare for exams.

Yeah, it's similar situation to the answer sheets provided in past year school exam papers, esp. for 阅读理解二 Q25 & Q30 and 片段缩写 (for HCL). The suggested answers act more like reference for points/ideas towards answering the questions. So ideally, it'll be good seek advice on checking/grading those questions.

[phtthp]

Inside some Secondary schools booklist, they ask students to buy 250 Chinese idioms.


May we know for what purpose?
Are these 250 idioms going to help students in zuowen (Paper 1 ) or in Paper 2 understanding vocabulary ?

[Estéema]

phtthp\" post_id=\"1953168\" time=\"1576333461\" user_id=\"35251:

Inside some Secondary schools booklist, they ask students to buy 250 Chinese idioms.

May we know for what purpose?
Are these 250 idioms going to help students in zuowen (Paper 1 ) or in Paper 2 understanding vocabulary ?

It is MOE’s requirement for sec students to acquire those 250 Chinese Idioms as a minimum. This will booklet use up to sec 4.

[chenlaoshi]

phtthp\" post_id=\"1953168\" time=\"1576333461\" user_id=\"35251:

Inside some Secondary schools booklist, they ask students to buy 250 Chinese idioms.

May we know for what purpose?
Are these 250 idioms going to help students in zuowen (Paper 1 ) or in Paper 2 understanding vocabulary ?

There are several reasons behind the learning of these 'compulsory' idioms.

- they can appear as options in some of the cloze passage questions
- they can appear as part of the comprehension text
- understanding + correctly applying them will allow student to express himself/herself better, more accurately/clearly (一针见血) in oral, email writing, compo writing - esp. discursive & argumentative, as well as evaluative/discursive question under OE comprehension for related themes and topics, for e.g. gratitude 知恩图报、饮水思源; kindness 雪中送炭; arrogance/overconfidence 班门弄斧 不自量力 perseverance 百折不挠 持之以恒; hardwork & effort 不劳而获 不务正业 按部就班 一步登天 etc.

example from O'Level HCL & CL papers:
https://i.ibb.co/r0v5S3h/secclidioms.jpg\">

[GTGT]

Chen Laoshi

?
Can you recommend a good model composition book for HCL Year 1 IP student?

[chenlaoshi]

GTGT\" post_id=\"1953242\" time=\"1576395615\" user_id=\"4212:

Chen Laoshi
?
Can you recommend a good model composition book for HCL Year 1 IP student?

Hi GTGT,

This one published by Wellington Publisher is suitable for lower sec CL/HCL - majority of the others on the market are actually quite 'simple/normal' (I guess they have to cater to the majority's level/standard ).

https://i.ibb.co/1shhyj6/lowerseccompo.jpg\">

You can try looking around (friends, relatives, neighbours or even Carousell ) for various school's annual publications for your child's further reading too. Some of those includes:

MGS 美苑
Raffles Inst. 鹰的天空
Hai Sing Catholic 海星拾贝
Commonwealth 学耕
SCGS 绿州
Nan Hua High 论文集 学术幼苗计划
CHIJ St. Nicholas Girls' 蓓蕾
Serangoon Garden 展翅

[yo2sg]

Hi, Chen LaoShi,

Can you recommend a good Chinese assessment book for 2020 Sec 1 CL? Background: My boy used to be pretty good (Like A/A*) in CL in P3 & 4 but dropped tremendously (B or C) in P5 as he disliked the CL teacher However, we did a lot of PSLE Qn spotting and he eventually got an A for PSLE which shocked me. I suspect it’s a low A. I know Sec 1 CL gonna be difficult for sure. I would like to cultivate his interest in CL, I know it’s hard. But I hope to build up the foundation. What else do you advise besides getting a good assessment book/s?

[Giggler1]

Hi all, I’m receiving conflicting views about the importance of Chinese in secondary school. Some said that it’s not important as it’s just one of the other subjects while others said that it’s important esp for entry to JC. Any thoughts on this?

[chenlaoshi]

yo2sg\" post_id=\"1955530\" time=\"1577361699\" user_id=\"96404:

Hi, Chen LaoShi,
Can you recommend a good Chinese assessment book for 2020 Sec 1 CL? Background: My boy used to be pretty good (Like A/A*) in CL in P3 & 4 but dropped tremendously (B or C) in P5 as he disliked the CL teacher However, we did a lot of PSLE Qn spotting and he eventually got an A for PSLE which shocked me. I suspect it’s a low A. I know Sec 1 CL gonna be difficult for sure. I would like to cultivate his interest in CL, I know it’s hard. But I hope to build up the foundation. What else do you advise besides getting a good assessment book/s?

Hi yo2sg,
Congrats on your son's effort and improvement to achieve A in PSLE!

I will recommend the following books based on their respective purpose:

135 compulsory idiom for CL
https://mlxmnhcomj8p.i.optimole.com/w:auto/h:auto/q:75/https://www.sapgrp.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/06/3215788_Cover-copy.jpg\">
- Reasons to master the idioms as stated http://www.kiasuparents.com/kiasu/forum/viewtopic.php?f=29&t=8835&start=520#p1953195
- For most of the idioms, you'll be able to find videos on related stories/origins on YouTube. It'll help reinforce understanding and can also increase interest due to stories' content & how relative they are to use & application
- Can easily split into ~3 idioms per week (e.g. in my Sec 1 HCL class, I split 250 into 5 per week so after Year 1, would've covered all the idioms. Subsequent years is about consolidation and/or covering proverbs and quotable quotes etc.)

Topical revision for CL
(Sorry, don't have pic of the CL version on hand, do take note to get CL one if you are getting this)
https://i.ibb.co/Vmgcmhb/wklysec1.jpg\">
- Used to revise and strengthen understanding of syllabus related text upon the completion of school's coverage of each chapter from the textbook

Comprehension practice
https://i.ibb.co/fqhTx6h/excel-in-compre-sec1.jpg\">
- To tackle questions that require students to elaborate upon sentences with underlying meaning as well as questions that require critical thinking/analytical skills

Cloze passage practice
https://i.ibb.co/h8Y0NVf/clozepassage.jpg\">
- Whereas the topical revision assessment book has cloze passage exercises too, they are syllabus text based. This one covers words/phrases suitable for Sec 1 level that are beyond textbook syllabus. This is especially important in the long run as O Level CL is not like PSLE CL in terms of coverage based on syllabus text. To put it bluntly, simply knowing words/phrases learnt from textbook is not enough
-Helps expand range of vocab when checking up the meaning of the options in each questions that he/she is not sure of

For additional reading material, you can https://www.kiasuparents.com/kiasu/forum/viewtopic.php?f=29&t=8835&start=480#p1914805. To maximise the use of the books recommended in that post, it is advisable for you to be involved with your son initially (need to be more mature to be able to digest and probe further alone), using the articles to strike up conversations and discussions in a casual yet constructive manner.


http://www.kiasuparents.com/kiasu/forum/viewtopic.php?f=85&t=93860

[cwwsim]

Hi,


I am looking for Chinese tutor to tutor my son in Sec 1 Express stream.

Location: Central or Bukit Timah/Holland/Clementi area
Preference:
-Ex MOE/Current MOE teacher
Please PM me.

TIA!