EL Noticeboard (4Q/4R)

All the best!

2012-05-24T13:00:00.000+08:00

Hi guys,

Wanted to reveal this in person, but somehow it just kept slipping my mind (maybe I was focusing too much on Showcase Portfolio towards this week).

I'll be leaving RI at the end of the term - thus, I will not be following you for the rest of the year. It's really already the final lap after the June holidays, though, so I'm sure most of you will do just fine. Not too sure what the arrangements will be for next term, but you should have another teacher coaching you through the final revision period. Perhaps you will be joining the rest of 4Q and 4R for that period?

If you want to get me a last-minute goodbye present, please sign up for Dropbox via this link (and install the program) if you haven't done so already ;P

In the meantime, however, you might want to work on these practice compre papers (in particular, the RI ones) in your own time - the answer schemes are also available online so you can check your responses there after attempting the paper. At the same time, you might want to check some tips I'd given your seniors last year for essay and compre sections - might come in useful. Finally, do feel free to contact me at tan_kok_wee_louis@moe.edu.sg in case you have any other further questions over the June holidays.

T2W9-10 Compre answers

2012-05-23T15:30:00.000+08:00

Hi all,

Here are the answers for the compre practices that were given to you in these two weeks. Please check your answers in your own time.

2011 MYCT (Plagiarism)
2011 EOY answers (Crowdsourcing)

Showcase Portfolio submission

2012-05-21T15:17:00.000+08:00

Deadline: T2W10 Thu 2359hrs

Can submit by email, but for files >5MB, use third-party sites such as Dropbox, YouSendIt, wetransfer to send to louis.tan@ri.edu.sg; the RI mail server is likely to reject your emails otherwise.

Submit hardcopy items to me on Tuesday during English lesson (preferred) or to my pigeon hole before the deadline. Try to minimise the number of hardcopy items as far as possible.

You might also want to check all the previous posts on this blog related to Showcase Portfolio to see if there's anything helpful there.

Reading Programme SA submission

2012-05-11T08:43:00.000+08:00

In case you needed clarification on what exactly you are meant to submit next Monday (during EL lesson) - choose your best blog entry, format the actual post + (at least one) friend's comment(s) + one response for printing, and submit it (attached with the rubrics and declaration sheet) for assessing.

I will be away from school on Monday, but hand it in to your English reps (Christopher + Shanicus) who will put it into my pigeon hole. I'll come back to school around 6.30pm or so to pick up the scripts - if it's not in by then, it will be considered to be late.

Final showcase portfolio

2012-05-11T08:06:00.002+08:00

Showcase Portfolio Overview

Your portfolio should include the following:

A contents page
An introduction

· Write an effective introduction which should provide a good snapshot of who you are and your ability to metacognise;

· The rationale for your chosen title and theme should also be elucidated.

1^st submission (Metacognitive Reflection 1 + EL Goal Organiser for 2012)
2^nd submission (Metacognitive Reflection 2)
A goal organiser for the whole year, including gap semester

· The organiser may be in any form, eg table, timeline, flowchart, etc;

· This organiser is not the same one as the EL Goal Organiser for 2012 mentioned in item 3 above;

· The section on your gap semester may stem from what you have written in your 2^nd submission (item 4).

6. Dialogue with an adult critic on an artefact and your reflection based on the adult critic’s comments.

· Please ensure that the artefact has been included in your portfolio.

In addition, at least 2 more pieces of metacognitive reflection on your academic work or on your non-academic experience at RI

· Remember to include evidence or artefacts (written documents, photographs, certificates, etc) of your achievements.

· Think quality, not quantity. Carefully select the artefacts that best communicate the ideas that you want to put forward.

Gender equality discussion

2012-05-08T12:46:00.003+08:00

Summary of today's discussion. Lots of room for improvement!

JL:

female equality - same advantages and disadvantages
currently: legal and social advantages of females
e.g. reaction to entering female toilet by accident
SG: custody of children, get assets for divorce, alimony
Single men cannot adopt, single women can!

Chris:

Unfair for women
e.g. of women taking the male surname.
Powerful CEOs mostly male
Gender % of congress imbalanced
imbalanced earning$

JF:

Re-emphasis on division of assets in divorce (repeatedly)
Illustration of 'hard work' by males in creating child.
Idea that women should stay home and take care of children

Sean:

Male opinion that women are unsuitable leaders (e.g. subject to PMS)
Difficult for females to succeed in male-dominated job space
Polygamy -> unfair for women.

EL files + Prep for next Tue

2012-05-02T14:07:00.001+08:00

1) Unfortunately I keep forgetting to collect the EL files, but I really need them in by this week - please bring them to Com Lab 3 this Fri when we go there for lessons.

2) Next Tuesday, we will conduct another discussion forum based on the topic that there has been enough done for female equality (in developed countries). Please be prepared for this (at least take a look at the readings you've been given) - you have already been assigned to either support or dispute this statement. We will decide who're speaking on Tuesday itself - everyone should be prepared to come up and speak if appointed to do so. Those not speaking should offer their prepared points to the speakers to use.

EL files

2012-04-27T11:13:00.001+08:00

Hi all,

Please ready your EL files for collection this coming Monday. In addition to organising all your materials, please ensure that corrections have been done (including those for your writing pieces - please rewrite any problematic sentences that were highlighted in your MR1 / Blog Entry 1).

The Women's Crusade (article)

2012-04-26T12:50:00.001+08:00

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/08/23/magazine/23Women-t.html

Came across this article on the New York Times. A good read if you're interested in the topic of gender.

Open House student ambassadors

2012-04-24T13:41:00.000+08:00

Hi all,

Just want to check if anyone's interested in being a student ambassador for Open House (19/5 Sat). The criteria are that you:

speak confidently
carry themselves well
are non-CEC members and prefects (I assume you have other jobs to do)

There will be training sessions on 9/5 (12pm) and 18/5. If you're interested, just email me at louis.tan@ri.edu.sg and let me know if you'll prefer to take the 0730-1200 or 1100-1600 shift. Also, let me know your HP number and whether you've done this before.

Blog assignment submission date - W9 Mon

2012-04-19T08:49:00.001+08:00

Submission date for the Blogs assignment has been shifted to Week 9, Monday 14th May. This is in light of the Mother Tongue assessments going on in Week 8.

Preparing for MR2

2012-04-07T15:13:00.000+08:00

This Monday we will go to Com Lab 3 and start working on your Metacognitive Reflection 2 (summative piece, due next Mon). I will suggest some ideas you can work with, and you will be able to start working on it during the lesson.

It would be best to come prepared - even if you haven't finalised your choices yet, it would be good if you can acquaint yourself with the course menu and think about what you'd like to pick (and why). If I'm not mistaken, it should be available on http://gapsemester.ri.edu.sg

2012-04-03T21:16:00.004+08:00

During English Week (next week), one English period will be set aside for Ad Mad - we will go to LT3 to do this. In short, the class will work together to present an advertising campaign for an item that will only be revealed on the actual day.

I will elaborate more about this in class, but since the next lesson is only next Monday you you might want to take a look at the following documents first. I believe this will be done with your main classes (i.e. 4Q and 4R separately), so the CEC might want to take special note (or let your CEC know about this).

Task sheet
Rubric
Class schedules

Process Writing

2012-03-23T10:59:00.000+08:00

Process Writing Task Sheet 12'
Here is the task sheet for the argumentative essay [rubric] (you will receive both documents on Monday). You should choose your topic and think about what you'd like to write over the weekend - we'll start on the first draft in Com Lab 3 on Monday.

Metacognitive Reflection 2

2012-03-23T10:55:00.001+08:00

Showcase Portfolio Overview
Here are the instructions for the Showcase Portfolio - it includes the instructions for the second Metacognitive Reflection [rubric] due on W4 Wed. The topic is new, so I don't have any examples that you can compare against, but you may want to take a look at the previous year's examples again just for an idea of the depth required in your reflection.

Remember, the ultimate aim of this reflection is to understand more about yourself in analysing how you'd made (or are planning to make) your choices for the Gap Semester. Be a little more detailed in your analysis!

Get working on your Reading Programme blog

2012-03-15T11:33:00.002+08:00

Before the break started, I'd asked everyone to make a new blog post on the Reading Programme blog by the start of Term 2. Just to clarify - the final submission is due only in T2W8, but you will need to have 5 blog entries (among other requirements) before then in order to receive the full participation marks. Currently most of you only have 1 blog entry up, meaning you will need to post an average of once every 2 weeks to achieve this - I recommend you get started as soon as possible. It would be a pity if you lose out on these 'free' 5 marks just because you started late!

You might want to check the documents you'd received earlier (also available on the front page of the Reading Programme blog) for further details.

Reflection on speech

2012-03-09T13:46:00.000+08:00

Please remember to look at your speech videos and fill in the metacognitive reflection table that you'd received. This should be handed in when school reopens. I'm currently holding on to Kai Xun's, but haven't collected anyone else's yet.

Social Issue Speech videos

2012-03-08T10:59:00.000+08:00

Here are the class's speech videos. You might want to use a service such as KeepVid to download a copy of the MP4 file. You are supposed to complete the metacognitive reflection (the table given out in class today) by next Monday.

4Q
21 | 22 | 23 | 24 | 25 | 26 | 27 | 28 | 29 | 30

15 | 22 | 23 | 24 | 25 | 26

Mark allocation update

2012-03-05T20:10:00.003+08:00

This doesn't affect any of the assessments you've done, but just to let you know:

Showcase Portfolio (final submission) weighting has been increased to 8%.
Metacognitive Reflection 2 weighting has been dropped to 3%.

Additionally, for your blog entry - not sure if I've mentioned before, but the blog entry you choose for your final submission cannot be the first blog entry that you'd done in class.

Compre FA (Gender) answers

2012-03-05T15:31:00.002+08:00

Some of you missed the lesson today where I went through the summary answers, so I'm uploading the answers for you to check at home. I've also uploaded the earlier compre answers in case you want to double-check what you've noted down previously.

Summary answers
Compre answers

For the summary, a lot of you don't seem to be picking out the points. I know we've mentioned that we don't need to pick out examples, but when the question is asking you specifically for 'how they are created and reinforced', they are asking you to list the many ways in which this is done.

Also take note of the following:

We are probably being very strict with the summary word count - make sure you do not exceed the word limit at all, since the excess words will be cancelled out.
Most of the points can be extracted directly from the passage, so look for them there. If you're not too sure how to paraphrase it, it's probably better to retain the original text (and score the content mark) rather than to rephrase it incorrectly and lose it.

On another note, remember that your Compre SA will be done over the remaining two English periods this week. Please let me know earlier if you won't be in class either tomorrow or Friday (for English lesson).

Oral summative rubric

2012-03-01T13:30:00.000+08:00

Hi all,

Please remember to bring the rubric (print from here if you can't find yours) for your speech tomorrow. Also, be prepared - videos will be taken again.

SAT compre practice answers

2012-02-24T09:28:00.001+08:00

http://www.scribd.com/full/49218449?access_key=key-1r9r6goh5lkw9sct9g6m

Can take a look here if you want to check the answers (and the rationale) in greater detail.

EPL in YouTube videos

2012-02-24T09:26:00.001+08:00

We recently looked at this video, and the response to it, in class. Patrick Condell's speech is quite offensive, and his content will likely not be tolerated in Singapore, but he manages to incorporate some persuasive elements into his speech. His video has (understandably) provoked a number of responses, one of which is gothatfunk's more straightforward video reply. Here is a summary of the points regarding their use of persuasive styles.

Social issue speech

2012-02-21T12:47:00.000+08:00

Instructions
Rubric

Please take note that aside from the actual speech (to be done in W9), you are required to produce 2 readings that you have used in preparing for your speech. I will collect it together with your reflection on the speech (to be submitted in W10).

Counter-argument slides

2012-02-13T15:30:00.000+08:00

Here are the slides that were used to illustrate some suggested counter-argument/rebuttal techniques.