Anyone tried TLL’s P6 English Composition Excellence Workshop? It’s a 10-weeks programme starting in February. Thinking of letting my girl attend but fees are ex.

New students: $825.00*^ + GST
Existing students (10% discount): $742.50*+ GST

Anyone compared between TH compo class and Busybee compo class for Pri 4 before? I know that TH compo class covers Oral too but not Busybee. Besides this difference, any advice on which one is better? My girl is taking Higher Chinese but her compo writing is not that good.

Was about to sign up for next year’s class but realised that TWC doesn’t give out model compositions for students to refer to. Should this be a cause for concern?


Anyone can advise on whether model compositions should or shouldn’t be given to students in the learning of composition writing?

If you go to their Toa Payoh branch, you can view their materials which is on display. They claimed their materials are aligned to the MOE syllabus. However I didn't compare them hence can't comment on this part..

[quote]How about their worksheets/ materials-wise, for PSLE preparation? Are they in-line with moe syllabus and sufficient to prepare a student well? Thanks.[/quote]

Hello everybody!


I’m new to this thread. Didn’t know it exists haha. Nice to meet all of you.

SA2 just ended. How did your children do?

May I check, does your children’s school release English and Chinese Oral, Listening Compre and Compo marks to the students? Mine doesn’t. I wonder why…hmm…

Hihi Coolit,


Thanks for your insight. For upper primary classes, are model compos always given to students to memorise key parts before they write their own versions? Just wondering if this is the strategy they use for all levels and classes.

coolit:

My 3 older kids have been at tas, many of my friends' kids too. I think their way of teaching compo could be a bit different from what you are looking for or expect? They do not correct every mistake. I used to seek the teacher's advice after ever lesson when my kids were new in tas. They explained to me that when the child first join, it is unrealistic to expect them to be able to write a good compo just based on techniques taught and so there needs to be model compos for them to learn from. Even then most students are not able to write with variation and so they get them to memorise key parts of the compo. For younger ones, they even memorise more parts as their application skills are weak. In class, they break down the compo as they teach and then after that, the kids will write parts of it out. The written parts could be very similar to the model compo as they have memorised those key parts. Then as time progresses, they will show them how to apply. They do not correct much of the compo - meaning rewrite what is wrong because we can see where they have gone wrong when compared to the model compo. Also later on as they deviate from the model compos, by that time, the kids are quite well versed in the techniques and can catch what is wrong. And for my kids I have seen the results, my oldest caught quite fast and soon could write compos that were good and were a variation of the model compo, my other two took a while longer. But all of them scored well for their compo exams so I guess its effective for them. So your issue could be with the way they teach.

When my oldest who had a teacher in school who used to correct most parts of his compo, he was quite demoralised and he felt he also did not understand why he was wrong, in tas he says he understands because of the techniques taught.

But this type of teaching may not suit your child or may not be what you are looking for..so good to ask the teacher more questions but if you feel this is not suitable then good to look for something else..

Hi hquek,

Yup went for a makeup lesson by another teacher on another day, but my child mentioned that the teacher had problem managing a student in the class. Won't elaborate here on how she handled the student but it wasn't a pleasant class to be in. No other teachers are teaching in the centre for that level unless I changed centre but timing don't fit.
Yup considering other alternative centres after attending The Alternative Story.
Anyway my purpose was just to share my experience. Read through the past entries in this forum and realised that other parents have faced the same issues before. I should have researched more.
Nevertheless, I feel it's important to look through your child's work. Cannot just leave it to the teacher, centre and child and presume everything is alright. The 2 hours and money could have been put to better use doing other things.

hquek:

Hi JJ2, eh, I'm not sure if the teachers my kids have are the one that you are encountering. Anyway, I don't look through my kids' stuff generally - only glanced at DS2's stuff and that's how I found out. So better not count on me. You mentioned there was another teacher who re-marked what the other teacher did not catch, why not try that other one then? else perhaps you can look for other schools?

Hi phtthp,

I haven't received your pm leh...weird.

phtthp:

hi JJ2,

had sent u a pm

Hi phtthp,


I'm appalled by what your child had experienced in TAS. Now I wondered if this is the same teacher.

The current fees is still $46.90. So far my child only have experience with this teacher and one other teacher during the make up class. I asked my child which one is better, she can't tell me.

So in the end you withdrew your child from TAS? Where did you send your child to after that? I'm also looking around for other alternatives....

phtthp:

Hi jj2,

Last time, at TAS (Marine Parade branch) on 10th floor Sat morning, for P2 moving up to P3 Pure composition class -
My daughter also had a similar Tr as you, lazy to mark the entire class composition grammar, sentence structure, just return the child's answer scripts without any comments.

Many parents inside my kid's class are expecting Tr to breakdown the score into
- content component : how much ?
- language component usage : how much ?

We are expecting this basic marking scheme from TAS Tr, because this is exactly how school Tr in primary schools will mark English composition, during SA1 and SA2.

If TAS Tr do not breakdown like that, how do you expect students to improve in English compo, without the child realising : is it their content flow weak, or is it their language usage weak ? Or both parts, also weak, need to buck up ?

That time, back then, each pure compo P2/P3 lesson costs around $ 46, per session.
Why should parents be paying so much per lesson, when the answer compo script returned to the kids : are not even marked properly ?
In the end, leaving us parents to figure out where are our own children mistakes. Ridiculous, isn't it ? We parents paid so much to send our kids there, in the end become our job & task we parents got to mark, spot our own kid's grammar, compo mistakes, mark back our own kids essay. Why are we parents doing the job, for that Tr ?

That Tr lazy, and take the short cut out.

We won't mention the Tr name here, but TAS management should go and find out : who are the lazy Tr around, take short cut out, inside TAS ?

So, what now ?
If you feel that there is no value addedness or being short-changed, by remaining inside this class for your kid, Try to see whether other TAS Tr at the same level as your kid's current class, do mark their essays properly, or not.
If u can find another TAS Tr that do mark essay properly, request to Transfer your child to that other class, instead. If you can change to another better Tr who mark the essay, then ok

Otherwise, if the same level other Tr also behave like your current Tr, then perhaps is time to withdraw, look for other better tuition centre elsewhere , that can help your kid to improve. There are a few parents who withdrew from TAS, during my time.


FYI
Since you mention this Tr merely ask the kids to Copy model compo in class, note that copy compo does not work on all children.

It may work on some kids, but not all kids, after a period of time. So, Do monitor your own child closely, in case you find yourself throwing money down the drain, compo class not effective in helping your child to improve. Bottom line, most important is : your kid must show improvement, after sometime. That shows he / she is learning

Hihi Hquek,


Yup I've feedback to the teacher before, but still notice spelling errors and incorrect sentence structures not corrected. There was once my child went for another make up class on another day by another teacher. The teacher spotted mistakes in the Paper 2 booklet which wasn't corrected by the original teacher, so she corrected it. There was also an answer in the comprehension question that wasn't accepted by the original teacher but accepted by the make-up lesson teacher. So confusing.

Anyway, I feel that all mistakes should be corrected, otherwise how would the child learn? In school exams and PSLE, markers won't be that forgiving and encouraging. Any mistakes in spelling, grammar and sentence structure will be marked down under \"Language\".

Hquek, do you know which teacher in TAS is good?

hquek:

Hi JJ2,

My kids don't have very much life experiences. My kids were never bullied in school, never did something that he regretted badly, has secrets but not those that are worth writing a compo about. If not for the model compos, I doubt DS1 would have scored as high as he did for past exams. When writing a compo for last year's exam on regret, he was able to draw on one done in TAS and he did pretty well. Important thing is that he is able to apply what he had seen/done before during exam setting. I can't imagine if he can dream up something in that very limited time.

I saw some of DS2's compos and agree that the teacher did not mark on spelling, and sentence structure. My hazy understanding is that the teacher wanted to encourage the kids to write and not be hampered by their spelling or sentence making ability. Not really sure how this works but then somehow DS2 compos are well regarded in his school.

If you feel uncomfortable, perhaps you may like to talk to the teacher? or consider a change in teacher/school. I'm not sure how other schools teach compo writing. Hope you find something that works for your child.

To Fantasylanddreams, I kinda suspect that TAS uses the same method whether its in creative writing or normal english class. DSes ever attended makeup class in cw sessions and they told me that they already covered this in their regular eng class - thus was bored or had to do something else during that time period.