And so on to Primary Three...

On 11th Dec, I gave a talk to about 180 parents at Suntec City on making the transition from primary 2 to primary 3. The session also gave me an opportunity to talk about the primary 3 materials that I’ve worked on with Marshall Cavendish and a team of writers. Judging from the response and the questions asked, I could see that there was a lot of anxiety among parents about how the lower primary curriculum will prepare their children for primary 3. I empathise with them but I don’t think they should worry too much. From my own experience working with schools and with holistic assessment strategies, I am confident that students will be well prepared. Having said that, I would also add that what will probably vary is the degree of preparedness, and this is unavoidable since schools and teachers are never homogeneous.

What parents worry about is how well their children are trained for formal exams since there will be fewer such formal tests in the lower primary. I assured parents that teachers worry about this too. Learning the test format is not difficult. Learning to finish the tasks within a prescribed time will take a while but it’s not impossible. Knowing what to do is also teachable. What is most difficult is to ensure that students have the necessary basics that will enable them to do the exams and by this, I mean the literacy skills.

Students must have learnt the basic reading and writing skills in the lower primary to ensure a smooth transition into primary 3. The gap between primary 2 and 3 is considerable; just check the texts, tasks and learning outcomes stated. Without a sound foundation, children will struggle and they won’t be able to cope with the everyday tasks, let alone exams. Parents should ensure that their children are reading well by the end of primary one, although I must also add that children learn to read at different ages and there’s no magic age for when they should be able to read. However, if they are still not reading well by the beginning of primary 2, some intervention is crucial.

At the end of primary 2, students should also be able to write the basic sentence structures, and good writers will be able to use adjectives and adverbs to elaborate on their sentences. They will be able to write simple compound and complex sentences using appropriate vocabulary. Some students can write long stories at this stage but I don’t think that’s typical of a primary 2 pupil. The ability to write good sentences is a good goal to work towards; telling a story in sequence is a bonus. A child who can write a good sentence is already exhibiting good grammar knowledge. As long as the meaning of the sentences and the story is clear, I don’t worry too much about the grammar, especially the tenses. They have a whole school life to learn how to do that well and when adults still struggle with agreement and tenses, why should primary 1 or 2 pupils have to master these well at their age?

A knowledge of the basic letter-sound system is essential too and this means being able to spell the basic words or to approximate the spelling of these words. My teachers know that I always complain about the unrealistic spelling lists that primary school children get. They should learn and spell words that they need to write, not words that they don’t need. These words, e.g. surgeon, are unlikely to appear in their writing although they should recognise and read them. A word like surprise however, is more common and useful for writing and its spelling should be learnt.

Good penmanship is also important and the ability to form the letters correctly and well is the first step towards learning how to write in cursive. Cursive writing allows students to write faster and more efficiently. Children who are still printing letters in the upper primary will be hindered in the exams because they cannot write as fast. So parents should not neglect penmanship or do the handwriting tasks for their children.

The lower primary STELLAR programme focuses on a rich reading curriculum and a supported writing programme that builds on children’s oral language. Twenty five years or so ago, we had a similar programme called the Reading and English Acquisition Programme (REAP), and it has been the only literacy programme we’ve had that produced positive results that were documented in research papers. REAP was a revolutionary literacy programme that laid the foundation to much of the English curriculum in the later years. STELLAR brings back the best of the REAP strategies. But although STELLAR is a sound programme, its success is dependent on how well teachers are trained to deliver the contents. All teachers do get the necessary support but there are teachers and teachers. We must remember that the curriculum itself is inert; it’s the teachers who bring it to life. So, I would say don’t worry about the curriculum. Think instead of how teachers are teaching your child in class because no matter how hard the MOE works, there’s no way they can teacher-proof the materials. And I must add that just because a teacher is not doing what another teacher is doing does not mean that she/he does not know what to do. Good teaching is fluid, and it changes and flows with the rhythm of the classroom and the pupils.

As for the new holistic assessment (HA), I can only say that I support it. Having worked closely with a school on their programme, I can say that HA provides useful feedback for teachers and parents. Teachers are also guided by HA to know what they should be teaching. If HA goes wrong, it’s often because it’s not well implemented. Implementation requires careful thinking through of what the learning outcomes should be for each term and each year, and also what teachers should do to ensure that these learning outcomes can be achieved.

So, for all parents of young children, I will still say that you need to ensure that the basics are in place. By the basics I mean reading and writing skills and these in turn are dependent on a sound knowledge of the alphabet and the alphabetic principle. But these alone are inadequate. Children need to also develop a love for reading and learning, a curious and critical mind, the ability to ask and answer questions, to focus on a task at hand, and to have the discipline and attention span to see them through many different tasks. They also need the ability to work together with others, to have compassion and respect for those who are different, and integrity and honesty to make it through their little classroom and school world. These soft skills are increasingly more and more important for success in school and life and they should first be learnt at home.

At home, parents should focus on being parents first and not be too worked up about “teaching” their children. Regardless of our own educational backgrounds, there’s a lot we can do to help our children do well in school, and these do not even require textbooks or assessment books. For instance, reading and talking to your child are two very significant and useful school preparation activities. Remember, although you are your child’s first teacher, what you choose to teach him or her can make a lot of difference in your child’s life.

Finally, I must mention the Society for Reading and Literacy (SRL) whose mission is to promote reading and literacy in Singapore. SRL sells an old but useful DVD on how to read with your child. This made-in-Singapore DVD shows Singapore parents in action and includes some useful notes for those who are not sure what to do.

ADVERTISEMENT: Workshops for 2011

If you are looking to book a workshop for your school or your PSG next year, please refer to the calendar in my website here.



All Wednesdays in Semester 1 have been taken up; the earliest Wednesday is in late July. Other available slots are indicated in the calendar. Please book early to avoid disappointment. Thank you.

A Jakarta Jaunt

Last week, I went on a 3-day trip to Jakarta to officiate at the opening of the new Adam Khoo Learning Centre there.

I’ve been in and out of Jakarta before mostly on business so this is my first extended trip there and I was not disappointed. Immediately upon my arrival, I was whisked away to do a 2-hour interview which will be published in Kompas, the largest circulating newspaper in Indonesia. Being interviewed was a strange experience for me because it involved reviewing and recalling many personal aspects of my life, including memories of events that I have almost forgotten. The gentleman who interviewed me was very interested in my literacy work; apparently reading and writing are not taken seriously there.

I also conducted a workshop for teachers and visited some bookshops and an art gallery. The malls in Jakarta are huge and very impressive. Outside, the traffic crawled and horns blared loudly. Inside the malls, it was cool and full of lovely displays of expensive local and imported products. Indeed, Jakarta was full of pleasant surprises. The food was delicious, the service, friendly and the people I met were incredibly hospitable. I don’t think Singaporeans show the same level of hospitality that the Indonesians displayed; indeed, I would say we don’t understand what real hospitality means.

There are loads to shop for and the batik was especially lovely. Unfortunately, this was not a shopping trip for me so I will have to go back again. On the way to the airport, we stopped for a foot, leg, hand and back massage which went on for one and half hours and all for a princely sum of S$5.

I was glad to have made this trip. Although it was a short visit, it gave me some insight into the Indonesian way of life, and I came away with a deeper appreciation of the people and their culture. I know I am very glad to have made some new friends in Jakarta.

Cruising down the Yangtze

It's autumn on the Yangtze River. The leaves on the trees and bushes are turning a vivid red and yellow and by winter, the hillsides will be ablaze with red. A barge loaded with sand(?) chugs slowly down the now peaceful river.

On the way, we stop for a visit to the Fengdu ghost city. Its location on top of a hill is breathtaking but the ghosts were missing. I think they were visiting Haw Paw Villa.


An example of the amusing Chinglish found at Fengdu and elsewhere in China. The guide explained that the Chinese rely on Google for translation from Chinese to English. With interesting results, I must add.

Another cruise ship, much like ours, passing by. In the back, the steep hills of the gorge tower above the emerald green waters of the river.

Many villages and towns were "drowned" when the Three Gorges Dam was built. This is one of the new towns, rebuilt higher along the coast of the river.

A view of the Three Gorges Dam. It was a foggy day. The Dam is an amazing piece of engineering and everyone has their view about its impact on the region.

The ship locks where boats and ships enter and drop almost 100 metres to pass the dam into the next stretch of the river.


The world's fastest train. We travelled on it from Wuhan to Guangzhou. The highest speed reached was 345 kilometres per hour.

In the outskirts of Wuhan, we saw three dogs, stripped of their skins, hanging from a rack along the roadside, ready for the cooking pot. That took away our appetites but not for long. We had a dish of beef cooked in chilli and served drowned in chilli oil. Although it was fiery red, it was not hot and was the most delicious dish we had on the trip.

In Guangzhou, we stayed on Shamien island. This area has a distinctly European influence with wide leafy boulevards and little traffic. Beautiful life-like statues dotted the lovely parks there. Brides and models were out in full force that weekend.

Young people had their fun with the sculptures too. I had a great holiday. Three days and nights on the river with no Internet, intermittent TV reception, a pleasant cool nip in the air, and a ship full of Chinese tourists- well, maybe fewer Chinese tourists would be ideal but we had some interesting cultural exchanges over dinner and wine.

How To Study

Get over the idea that only children should spend their time in study. Be a student so long as you still have something to learn, and this will mean all your life. Henry L. Doherty



I guess this post is a bit late because the exams are over and the holidays are here soon. Nevertheless, this can be information for you when thinking about your children’s study habits and may help you plan what you can do to help their learning in the coming year.

The New York Times published an article on Sept 6, 2020 entitled “Forget what you know about good study habits” and in it, Benedict Carey dismissed some long cherished notions about how we should study. Here is a summary of the key findings:

1. Psychologists have found no support for the belief that children have specific learning styles i.e. they are either visual or auditory learners or they are left or right brained learners. Catering to their specific learning styles does not help learning.

2. Studying consistently in a specific place, room or quiet corner of the library does not promote learning. Scientists found that students remember better when they study in different locations. They believe that with a change in contexts, the information to be learnt is enriched and that slows down forgetting.

3. Students who study different types of material or different subjects in one sitting recall more information than those who study just one subject at a single sitting. So, it might be better to do a bit of each subject than just all of one subject.

4. Intensive immersion in a subject does not help retention. It’s better to space out the studying, for example an hour a day, an hour over the weekend etc. Such spacing out of the learning allows the brain to pack the information in carefully and gradually. Students don’t have to put in extra effort and they end up remembering more.

5. Testing helps recall because tests not only measures knowledge but they change it. Students who studied some material twice, in back to back sessions, did well on a test given immediately afterwards but they also forget the material after a while. Those who studied the material once and did a practice test in the second session, did well on a test two days later and another given a week later. So there’s something to be said for the teach-test-teach model.

6. The harder the material is, the harder it is to forget. Don’t let difficult material scare your children.

These are interesting claims, and there may just be some truth in them. But some of you may say that we grew up with the old ways of learning and we did okay. True. Indeed, nothing can take the place of motivation and the hunger to succeed when it comes to getting good grades. Without the motivation, these insights may just well be a waste of time. But then again, these ideas may just be what your child needs to go the extra mile.

On a separate but related topic, read what Dr Marvin Marshall has to say about sitting up straight. This is taken from his newsletter Promoting Responsibility and Learning.


When you were growing up, your mother may have told you to sit up straight. She gave good advice because good posture helps you look confident and make a good impression.

It turns out that sitting up straight can also improve how you feel about yourself, according to a study in the October 2009 issue of the European Journal of Social Psychology.

Researchers asked college students to rate themselves on how good they would be as job candidates and employees. Those who were told to sit up straight before filling out a form gave themselves higher ratings than those instructed to slouch while filling out the rating form.

Once again, Mom was right.

Source: MarvinMarshall.com

Once again, we have much unlearning and re learning to do.

Mabuhay!

Miss Philippines and Miss Singapore at the parade of nations

I’ve just returned from a trip to Manila where I presented a plenary paper and conducted a workshop for teachers. That was not my first time there; indeed, I’ve lost count of the number of times I’ve been there but this was probably the second time in Manila itself, and that means along Roxas Boulevard, the Orchard Road of Manila. The other times were outside Manila or in the suburbs.

I’ve known the folks at the Reading Association of Philippines (RAP) since my days in the Society for Reading and Literacy (SRL), and have kept up a friendship with them through my involvement in the regional literacy group, International Development in Asia or IDAC. IDAC is affiliated to the International Reading Association (IRA). The Philippines make many people nervous because of the many negative stories about terrorists and kidnappers. The truth is every country has its bad places. I remember the years when I lived in Oakland, California. Oakland was then known as the homicide capital of the US because of the number of drive-by shootings. But my family and I had a good stay there and never once met a bad guy, if you don’t count the homeless guys along Telegraph who only wanted a quarter for coffee.

Whenever I am in the Philippines, my friends there make me feel safe and I don’t do anything silly to endanger myself. It helps that everyone there thinks I am a Filipino. People don’t just come up and ask if I were a Filipino; they just speak to me straightaway in Tagalog. I am used to this having had the same experience in other parts of the world, even in Europe. My friend, Merlene, taught me a couple of Tagalog words to use as retorts like talaga, which means “really” or “is it?” which I toss out every now and then with the appropriate intonation.

The conference was held at Manila Hotel, which is the Raffles Hotel there. It’s historic and majestic with an old world charm. Filipinos are always warm and friendly and Filipino teachers show their appreciation by taking pictures with you. Filipinos are crazy about photo taking. So for the two days, I acted like a celebrity and was posing for photographs here and there. Some teachers also remembered me from my last visit there several years ago and that was gratifying although I had great difficulty responding to comments like, “Surely you remember me? I was the one who gave you the answer about comprehension.” Sometimes it takes me a while to recall a face; other times, I’m afraid this old brain has too many holes in it. Do forgive my lapses in memory.

Filipino teachers, as you all know, are not well paid but despite that, they participate actively in professional organisations. As part of the activities at the conference, I was able to help sponsor some literacy programmes as well as two teachers to become members of the International Reading Association. It made me think about how few Singaporean teachers find the need to join any professional organisation although they can well afford it and the subscription fees are low. Perhaps being an MOE teacher is already enough since MOE provides everything, but does this mean that professional organisations here like SRL and ASCD have no hope of ever growing a strong membership base among teachers? In a poor country like the Philippines, the Reading Association was able to celebrate their 40th anniversary and their past president, Sally Labanda has the distinction of being the first Asian board member at IRA.

We have such success at ASCD, and Dr Ang Wai Hoong and Miss Betsy Lim have been past board members at ASCD International. But we have a lot more support and resources than the Filipinos. Every time I am at an international event with them, I am constantly impressed with the way the Filipinos present themselves. You can’t mistake the sense of unity and fierce pride they have of their culture and country. Filipinos I meet often sigh with some envy and longing when they hear I am from Singapore; it’s the land of milk and honey for them. Sadly, when I am home, I hear nothing but grouses, whines and complaints.

At the opening of the conference, a group of adorable kids paraded in the costumes of the different nations. Miss Singapore, as you can see in the picture above, really looks the part. Check out the attitude. Miss Philippines also represented the country well. Check out the big smile and the costume.

My Writing Process or 8 tips for getting the writing done

It’s a great relief to be almost done with the books. I mean the textbooks and the supplementary materials that I’ve been working on for P3 pupils. I did enjoy doing them although there were tedious moments of reading and rereading the manuscripts. And it didn’t help that everything had a short deadline. But they’re done and now I am free, hurray, until we get started on the P4 books.

In the meanwhile, I’ve been thinking about this blog. I have many things to write about but I don’t always have the time. And sometimes when I have the time, I prefer to read a book. Writing is hard; reading is more fun and easier. But I don’t hate writing. I used to when I was younger, but after years of slogging at it, writing comes easier to me now. I also write to earn an income so I often have to write stuff that I won’t write under normal circumstances. But when I have to do that, I try to find the enthusiasm for it too and when I do, I feel good about the writing.

So after doing the books, I wrote a draft piece on writing for students. I did that in a weekend, and it was a satisfactory draft, considering that it’s about a dull subject like sentence structure. But since the beginning of the month, I’ve been working on a piece for a conference in early November. I’ve been invited by IDAC (International Development in Asia) a regional literacy organisation to be one of the plenary speakers at their conference in Manila on the theme Educating Teachers of Literacy.

I must admit that I have not written a long paper for a while. The longest piece I’ve written, in recent memory, is less than 2000 words, compared to the five to seven thousand word pieces I used to churn out in my other life. Writing a couple of thousand words isn’t that hard if I knew how I want to angle my paper. Unfortunately, that’s the hard part.

I began, like always, by looking up material that I might want to use or that’s related to my topic. So, I dragged out all my older publications, googled and checked out recent material on the topic. I had no intention of writing a serious research piece. Plenary presentations can be very boring for participants (I have been to many of these) and I thought something personal and a little light-hearted but with a couple of solid ideas should be good. Well, that’s easier said than done really. I finally wrote three versions, and versions 1 and 2 are completely different from the final version. I guess this is because I began with an idea in my head and I wanted to make the idea work and it wouldn’t. I tried two versions but I must add that within the two versions are numerous revisions. When the second version did not happen, I put the whole thing aside for a week and spent time with my sister who was visiting from KL. We cooked, shopped and chatted and I did nothing related to the paper for a whole week.

After she left, I began work on the student piece on writing. But on Saturday evening, I had dinner with my husband and over a Peranakan buffet, I told him about my paper and what I wanted to say. And suddenly, it’s all there. On Monday morning, I wrote 5 pages of my third version and there it was! Something like a plenary was finally shaping up. I put that aside for another week. You would have guessed by now that I have given myself a lot of time to work on this paper. I thought about bits of it on and off while doing my other chores, and on Saturday, hurriedly jotted down two points which came to me in a flash while brushing my teeth, and rushed out to town for an errand.

On Sunday, I printed out a draft but got distracted by a book I had begun reading, and decided to finish reading that first instead of working on the paper and that led me to today, Monday.

I have just looked through the paper and added the two points to it as well as a bit of a conclusion. That came up to 3544 words. Now, I will put it aside for another day or so before looking through it for a final print out for next week. But that’s not the end, of course. I will still be tinkering with it and working on bits here and there till the moment I stand in front of the podium and start talking about it. This time, I’m not even doing a final copy with references and all because I am not looking to publish it, well, not immediately anyway. It will take me another day or more if I have to put in the references as well. Regretfully, the piece is not as light hearted as I wanted to make it (can literacy be light hearted anyway?) but I guess I’ll try to present it in a light hearted manner. More importantly, it has something significant to say and the several solid ideas I needed.

Why am I writing this in my blog? Well, many of my friends write or are published writers. We often talk about writing and while I do believe there’s good writing and not so good writing, I also have a lot of respect for people who actually sit down and get it done. I am one of those who have not got down to writing many stories that I’d like recorded. In my mind especially are two great stories about my childhood with my siblings which I have entitled, Mushrooms soaked in virgin’s urine and Three blind mice. Then there are all those stories about my parents. I believe that my time has not come for doing this. I am too busy with other work and other writing at this point in my life. And I’m still looking for the best way to tell the stories.

But I know it can be done. So I am sharing here my tips for getting the writing done, and I don’t care what writing it is.

8 tips for getting your writing going

1. Begin by doing some research and thinking. You have to do this or else you won’t have anything to say. I reread my previous related papers. I read other books and journals to check on what has been written about the topic. I go online to search for resources. I make copious notes, usually on the back of used envelopes (Don’t follow this example of mine!)

2. I make an outline. I begin by writing something like, In this paper, I want to …. And I write down what I want to achieve in the paper. It helps me narrow the focus.

3. Talk to a lay person about it. I talk to my husband who is not in education. I run the arguments pass him and I ask if they make sense to him. I talk to as many people as I could about the paper and ask them for their feedback. Talking about the ideas help me understand what I am trying to do. They also make me obliged to finish the paper as people will ask about it!
4. When I have read enough, and this is a tricky concept, I start writing. What is enough? Some people I know never get started because they claim they have not read enough. Enough for me is when I have some idea of what I want to say and of what other people have said about the topic. I then get started on writing. I don’t want to delay the writing because writing helps concretise the ideas in my mind and help me sort out my own thinking too.

5. When I run into trouble with the writing, I stop and give myself a break. If not, I’ll carry on regardless of the quality of the writing. Sometimes, I make myself write 1000 words before I stop. And if I don’t like what I’ve written, I begin a new paragraph and start again.

6. Always have time to put the writing aside. I often give myself at least 4 weeks (without much work in between, let me add) to write a big paper. And I put aside a whole morning or afternoon every time I sit down to write. Don’t write when you have to rush off here and there for errands or other tasks.

7. Reread and revise. Don’t hesitate to throw away chunks of stuff that do not meet your needs. I sometimes save stuff that I can’t bear to delete but I’ll put that in a separate file. I have sometimes opened that file and rescued little bits for other papers. I don’t always aim for several thousand words. Instead, I aim to fulfil my objectives and I check these against my writing all the time.

8. When all is done, check your references thoroughly. If the paper is to be published, check the format that the paper needs and consult your publishing manual for the necessary style. Get a friend to read your paper and proof read it. Mistakes are unavoidable and the spell check will not pick up every mistake.

There you are. A lucky 8 points. These are my ways of getting started and may not be everybody’s way.

If you have a good idea about writing to share with others, let us know. As my yoga teacher often says, “If you know something and don’t share it, that’s a crime.” Another variation of this is, “If you have the knowledge and don’t use it, that’s a crime”. She’s talking about yoga of course but I think it applies to many aspects of life too. Billy Graham put it well when he said:

We are not cisterns made for hoarding, we are channels made for sharing.

Write on, everyone!

Are you listening?

Listening is a magnetic and strange thing, a creative force. The friends who listen to us are the ones we move toward. When we are listened to, it creates us, makes us unfold and expand.
— Karl Menninger

There is a little quiz going around on the Internet in which you are asked to draw various body parts on to a cat. From your drawing, its size and its location, some pronouncement is made about your character. That was where I learnt that I don’t listen well enough because I had drawn small ears for the cat. Well, perhaps there’s some truth in that. I don’t know but it did help me to be more aware of myself as a listener when I am in the company of friends and family.

I am ashamed to confess that I often complain about poor listeners. You know, the people who need you to repeat your address and your post code 5 times before they can take it down correctly. I often put this down to the fact that in school, we encourage our students to develop bad listening habits. No? Well, see how you do on this checklist. You just have to answer yes or no to these questions.

Do you
1. Repeat yourself in class all the time because your students don’t hear everything the first time you said it?

2. Patiently echo the answers as many times as is needed so that all your students at the back of the classroom can hear them?

3. Speak slowly and wait patiently for students to laboriously write down word by word the instructions you are giving orally?

4. Always talk above the noise in the classroom, competing with your students’ chatting instead of waiting for silence first?

5. Often talk when someone else is speaking instead of listening to what is being said and think that this is acceptable practice?

If you said yes to 5 in particular, chances are you condone this practice in your class too. But hey, if you have 3 yeses there, you could just be guilty of helping your students grow up to be poor listeners through your very actions and behaviour.

What can be done? Well, for one, you can read the following:

10 tips for helping students to develop better listening habits.

1. Before giving any instructions to your students, make sure they are all listening to you. Wait if you have to, for them to focus on you before you begin speaking.

2. Never repeat instructions after giving them. Instead ask a couple of students to repeat your instructions to the class. If they get them wrong, have other students correct the information.

3. Speak clearly and don’t rush through your instructions or message. Maintain eye contact with as many pupils as you can by looking around the class. Don’t forget students who are sitting outside your line of vision i.e. those to your extreme left and right.

4. Do not walk around when giving instructions. This can be distracting and your voice may rise and fall, making it hard for students to hear you properly.

5. But on the other hand, it is good to position yourself in different parts of your classroom instead of sticking to the front. This way, you can monitor students better and giving instructions from a different part of the classroom also means that students are able to monitor your movements and learn to be alert to your presence.

6. When instructions are complex, post them on the board instead. Remember that our short term memory can only hold 5-7 bits of information each time.

7. When your students speak to you, listen carefully and maintain eye contact. You need to model what good listening looks like.

8. Expect your students to pay attention when you speak. Talking while the teacher is speaking or teaching is not just rude but students are obviously not paying attention to the lesson.

9. Roles play what good listening looks like with younger children. Ask them to tell you what a good listener does and list such behaviours for students to remember.

10. Finally, at the beginning of every lesson, do not waste time shouting for attention. Instead, write a task on the board immediately and direct students’ attention to it so that they can begin working while you get other students in order.

Since I am on listening, let me add:

5 tips for conducting a more effective listening lesson in the classroom.

1. Always do a pre-listening activity before you begin. Your pre-listening is to help your students anticipate the text to be heard, activate their prior knowledge, and set a focus for their listening. For example, you can tell them that they will be listening to a poem. Then ask them for some things that they should be looking out for if they are listening to a poem. If they are doing a worksheet with questions, have them preview the questions and predict the contents before they begin listening.

2. Always try out your listening text in advance to avoid any fumbling in class. If you have to read out the text, practise reading aloud at a natural pace. You need to read the text in sensible chunks. These should not be too long or too short. Remember how much our short term memory can hold; this will help you determine how big each chunk of text should be. Apart from reading the text at a natural pace, you should also not repeat anything, beyond the stipulated number of times. Don’t yield to students’ begging.

3. Read the text three times only. The first time, students must listen without writing anything. Their main goal is to understand what the text is about first. The second time, they can begin working on the task. Read the text again the third time for students to check their answers and to fill in any blanks. The text can be read twice only if it is short and the task is not too complex.

4. When the listening task is over, do not just focus on checking the answers. You can take the task further by discussing issues related to the topic. Students can also write a response to the topic or draw something to reflect on their understanding or attitude towards the theme. Doing this will help you extend pupils understanding of the theme or topic and help you see how well they have listened to the text. Students can also write a short summary of what they recall of the listening text. These are better indications of students’ listening skills, especially when they only have simple questions or multiple choice items as a listening task.

5. Never allow pupils to see the listening text and study it in advance. This will mean that they don’t have to listen but can just write down everything from memory. This will then not be a listening task but a memory task. All dictation passages must be unseen.
Listening well is an important component to good conversation. Taking the time to teach your students to listen well is something worth doing considering that this is not merely a skill for academic success but also a skill for life.

Finally, here are 3 interesting quotations about listening for you to mull over:

Just because I didn’t do what you told me, doesn’t mean I wasn’t listening to you!
— Hank Ketcham

Man's inability to communicate is a result of his failure to listen effectively.
— Carl Rogers

Courage is what it takes to stand up and speak; courage is also what it takes to sit down and listen.— Winston Churchill

Pronouncing our names

Recently, Senior Minister of State for Foreign Affairs Dr Balaji Sadasivan sadly passed away. I was listening to the news on the radio, read that day by a seasoned and well known news reader, and she pronounced his surname as SaDAsivan ( stress on DA). That made me wince because that was not the first time I have heard news readers and other Singaporeans mangling local names.

At the recent Teachers’ Conference, the emcee pronounced Manogaran as MaNOgaran. The stress would probably be correct if these were Western names but these aren’t. And it seems to me that there should be no excuse for Singaporeans not to know how to pronounce local names. Is this just ignorance or some weird attempt at showing off? I am sure you must have heard local deejays refer to Jurong as JuRONG.

I think it’s great that we are all out to encourage Singaporeans to speak better English and to improve their pronunciation of English words. But perhaps there should also be a campaign to help Singaporeans learn how to pronounce local names, be these Indian, Malay or the pinyin version of Chinese names. And while I am at this, can I also add that Genting Highlands is pronounced with a hard /g/ and is not pronounced JENting? It means "peak" in Malay.

Unlearning to learn

A friend emailed me a notice about a talk by the grammarian Michael Swan recently. The seminar had a very intriguing title: What is happening to English, and how much does it matter? & Getting activity, movement and creativity into grammar lessons. But hey and wow, it’s Michael Swan! I have his book on the shelf. This definitely merits a long drive into Jurong, I thought to myself.

There was a very good turnout for the talk and Swan began the talk by telling us that we need to unlearn many things about grammar that we learnt in school because those rules are not in use anymore. He then went on to give 5 principles (well, it’s 4 +1 but I’ll explain later) to consider when teaching English and I thought these may be useful to you if you weren’t there to listen to him.

1. The room is your enemy. An intriguing statement but Swan simply meant that as teachers, we are often too concerned with what we should be doing in any lesson. But the really important issue should be what pupils do in a lesson. This means getting pupils actively using the language is more important than all the teaching that we try to do.

2. Quality and quantity are both important. We need pupils to use a large amount of language but we also want this language to be rich. How often do we have pupils talking during our classes and using a variety of structures, vocabulary and expressions? How can we create such a situation in our classroom where this can happen?

3. Group work and pair work are important for grammar practice. To allow for this we need to be tolerant of some noise and a loss of control. Teachers often worry about the mistakes pupils make in group and pair work and they are also worried that pupils may resort to using their mother tongues to get the task done. Well, you can’t do much about this but with group and pair work, you’d be assured that many more pupils will have opportunities to speak in English.

4. Activities that have an information gap present the most opportunity for language use and practice. An information gap simply means that one party has some information that the other party lacks. When this is the case, there is more motivation to communicate as the need for communication becomes real.

5. This fifth principle was not shown or clearly mentioned (as it often happens in talks) but from my notes, I decided that this could be it: Don’t try to teach too much. Rather focus on giving a lot of practice so that pupils learn and are able to use a smaller number of structures but with greater confidence. In other words, do more with less.

In any lesson, who gets to be most interesting? Swan said that it should not be the teacher or the materials. The students should the most interesting. So while their English might not be perfect, we can make them the most interesting by creating activities that allow them to be creative. One activity that he used to illustrate this is writing horoscopes for each other after reading some examples. A book that he mentioned which has good activities for grammar and oral fluency is Penny Ur’s classic Discussions that Work. I know that this is in RELC library but I’m sure it’s in NIE too.

Swan’s presentation was witty and full of old fashioned charm and he certainly was not the dull grammarian I’ve always imagined him to be. What he said about the changes in English also made very good sense. In a nutshell, his message is language change and variation is natural and inevitable. He pointed out that while native speakers are a valuable model of the language, native speaker competence is not a realistic aim. His advice to language teachers amidst the changes in English is simple:

1. Keep calm as these changes are merely small ripples in the vast English language ocean.

2. Stay informed by using good grammars and usage guides and good dictionaries. And keeping company with young people can also help us keep up with the changes and be more contemporary in our language use.

3. Be realistic. He suggested that teachers can only teach a small part of the language so they should concentrate on what matters most. He advised against perfectionism and to remember that rules are approximations. And as for accuracy think about: how much do we need; how much can we achieve? And how much can we afford.

I am not sure what you make of his views but here’s my take and let me summarise it in 5 points.

1. We need to unlearn old rules instead of hanging on to them and passing them on to our pupils mindlessly. Teachers often tell me that they were taught certain rules for example, not to use because to begin a sentence and they say this to their students without explaining why. Swan gave some other examples like the use of shall and whom, both of which are on their way out. Times have changed and so have rules.

2. We cover too much material in class but we don’t have enough opportunities for pupils to use real language. Worksheets don’t teach language and we do the most harm when we rely on worksheets to teach English. In short, we have quantity (of the wrong sort) and not enough quality.

3. Teachers are still too focused on what they want to teach rather than what students should learn, and on what they need to cover, than on what students need to be doing with the language taught. Try writing a lesson plan focused on what pupils will do instead of what you will do.

4. We still need to teach less. Do more with less. Help students master the basics of grammar well rather than teach the whole gamut.

5. We need better references for grammar and we need to be more diligent about looking up things that we don’t understand. Doing this will also help us understand the changes going on in the language.

And incase you're wondering, yup that's a photo of Michael Swan taken at the talk.


Speaking of unlearning reminded me of a Youtube video on unlearning featuring my favourite Star Wars guru, Yoda. You can watch it here:

Fill That Bucket

July and August have been good months. I have had many rich and happy moments and if I sound like I am trying to chalk up such experiences, you are right. Good times don’t come easily although I also believe that one must go looking for good times. And good times don’t mean shopping trips or anything involving money. I revel in my positive moments and I try to stretch them as much as I can.

Recently, this notion of a positive moment was confirmed in a book review by Gary Tomlinson. The book reviewed is How full is your bucket by Tom Rath and Donald Clifton. Don Clifton proposed the idea that our lives are shaped by the kind of interactions we have. He said we all have an invisible bucket which can be filled or emptied depending on what others do or say to us. When our bucket is full, we feel good. When it’s empty, we feel awful.

We also have a dipper with which we can fill our buckets or dip into others’ to empty or fill their buckets. By now, you should have gathered that if you constantly empty other people’s buckets by saying or doing negative things to them, you will cause them misery and suffering. Filling their buckets with good deeds and words though will give them joy and the more unexpected your act is, the better the recipient feels. So on a daily basis, we can either fill a bucket to make people feel good or we can dip into someone’s bucket and take away their joy. A very simple concept really, and as I read that I remember someone I’ve met who consciously fill other people’s buckets.

I don’t know if I’ve recounted this experience before but it merits retelling. My husband and I sometimes walk around Bedok Reservoir and some mornings we will meet this elderly uncle who is also walking around the reservoir. But what is amazing about him is his unfailing good humour. He shouts good morning to all and sundry and sometimes we can hear him well before we see him. He also tells everyone to take it easy and watch their step and he does this all with a big smile on his face. Few people remain unaffected by his bonhomie and many people respond positively. Imagine all the good cheer going around the reservoir and the park each morning when this uncle takes a walk.

One morning, I watched him approaching us from a distance. In between, a woman was sitting on a bench dressed more to be seen than to take a walk. She also had a less than friendly looking face. My husband would say that I should not pass judgements but you probably know what I mean. There are friendly approachable faces and there are those whom you’ll want to avoid. As the old uncle approached her, she lit a cigarette, completely unaware of him. I watched the old man and wondered if he would say good morning. He walked past her, looked at her warily, as if he was trying to make a decision. Then, as if he sensed that he would not get a good reception, he just turned and walked on without his customary greeting.

When I think back on this episode, I often wondered if the woman would have been unexpectedly and pleasantly surprised by the man’s greeting. It might have filled her bucket. But then again, I know that sometimes no wonder how giving you are, there are some moments when you probably should not give and if you do, you may get hurt. I have no doubt that some people groan when they see this old uncle approaching; sometimes, we just want to be our grumpy selves in the morning and the last thing we want is to meet Mr Happy-go-lucky. So not everyone appreciates his good naturedness and I am sure that it has backfired on him a few times. But that hasn’t stopped him and I guess the secret to his success is to fill buckets with no expectations at all.

But ultimately, making strangers feel good is a piece of cake compared to making those we love feel good. It seems that the people we love are the ones who try us the most. Be that as it may, working towards a positive home environment must be the number one priority in our lives. Nobel Prize winner Daniel Kahneman is reported to have said that there are 20,000 individual moments in a waking day, and we always remember a positive or a negative moment but never a neutral one. This is something worth remembering as we go about our lives. We can create a positive or negative moment even as we put one foot in front of the other. John Gottman’s research on marriage suggests that a magic ratio of 5:1 in terms of the balance of positive to negative interactions is crucial for a successful marriage. This means 5 positive interactions to one negative interaction. Educators may take this same ratio and apply it to their daily interactions with pupils. Bosses and workers can use this same ratio in their working environment. We too, can use this ratio in our daily interactions with people.

How can we increase our magic ratio of positive to negative moments? The five strategies are well documented so I will just provide you with the link and you can read about them yourself here.

I think, without a doubt, we all love a positive moment. And I also believe that it’s not hard for us to create a positive moment for others. Indeed, the one positive moment we create for someone may be the one that ultimately makes the person’s bucket overflow with happiness. Or we can contribute one negative moment which ultimately breaks the camel’s back. Would we not rather be responsible for the former? So go ahead. Fill some buckets today.

PS: A week after writing this, I receive my usual Happiness project e-newsletter (www.happiness-project.com) and read a discussion on throwing away other people’s thrash to boost our self esteem. Well, I don’t need to boost my self esteem but I must confess that littering is something that makes me mad. Every morning when I walk along the park connector in my neighbourhood, I get really upset by the volumes of thrash left by party revellers, pious worshippers, liquor imbibers, fast food consumers and cigarette smokers. I must confess that the discussion made me think about picking up that thrash instead of complaining about it, but the truth is I will spend all morning working instead of walking, if I embark on this plan. So my resolution is to be more diligent about picking up the thrash around my own condo when I see it. Read the discussion for yourself here and see if it inspires you too.

It's Teachers' Day!

Happy Teachers’ Day everyone!
May this day help you remember why you became a teacher.

I don’t usually make fun of teachers, but on this occasion, here’s a bad limerick for all English teachers.

There was, in Singapore, a teacher of English,
Who, sadly, was often full of anguish.
She said, “There’s so much to teach
You know, those eight parts of speech.
Oh, will the teaching ever be finished?”

A Saturday Stroll

Last Saturday morning, my husband and I took the train down to the Promenade Station and from there, made our way to the Helix Bridge and the floating platform. We could see the Youth Olympic Flame burning brightly and participants were taking part in a bicycle race then. We wandered through the Olympic Park and then across the Helix Bridge, pausing to admire the buildings and the view across the bay. From the Helix Bridge, we ambled past the grounds of the Marina Bay Sands, watching busy workers working at the remaining structures of that complex. Within the hotel, life was already stirring especially in the shopping mall, which was screaming out the names of well- known luxury brands. Outside, a wide deck leads one towards the waters of the bay where once again, the majestic buildings around the bay beckoned.

On we walked and we found ourselves in the Marina Bay Park where we stopped to admire the sculptural like tubes of the misting system designed to spray mists of water into the air to cool the park. That’s a good and necessary idea since the trees there are still young and there isn’t much shelter either. Then it was back along the road again as the rest of the bay front walk was cordoned off for some reason or other that Saturday. We stared up and into some of the fancy, glass enclosed condominium units and wondered about people who live in the middle of the financial district where everyone can look into their apartments. A frumpily dressed woman looked down at us while her active young child pressed his nose against the glass. We could also see stuff that people have tried to hide behind their curtains but are unfortunately completely visible to the outside world. We had some coffee and breakfast later in one of the many food courts in the financial district and then took the train back home after that. The Marina Bay Park is another place on our list of places to visit and to share with friends and visitors.

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I just got home from a play at the Arts House and while we were there, we had dinner at Boat Quay and took a stroll down the river side. Again, there was a nice buzz there although Boat Quay isn’t as happening as it used to be. When my husband first started Pacific Internet, their office was at Boat Quay and the first Internet café was also located there. Boat Quay was the hottest place in town then and all the beautiful people wanted to be seen there. That was more than a dozen years ago though. Nowadays, it’s full forlorn-looking restaurants and the street is lined with foreign waiters waving seafood menus at passers-by and promising them a good deal. From the other side of the river though, Boat Quay looks prettily lit up. We sat for a while on the benches outside Timbre, the restaurant, feeling the waves of heat rising from the concrete below our feet. If we had waited longer, there would have been free music and already a queue had formed, waiting to go in. I must confess we don’t often linger around after a play but this one ended early and we were so close to the river. I am glad we took that walk because I am reminded of how pleasant the river side can be despite the concrete.

A few days ago, my husband and I also acted as tour guides to my brother and sister in law who have never been to Geylang Serai market. After a good meal of nasi bryani, we showed them around the stalls and the market. My sister in law was so amazed at the range of goods sold that she swore to go back soon for a serious shopping trip. Then she shamefacedly confessed that she was a typical Singaporean who doesn’t visit other parts of Singapore much. Well, that’s a shame really and I was very glad to be able to show her another part of Singapore.

My fondness for Singapore is no secret. I think there are so many things I like about living here and being a part of the country. Sure, there are some not-so-good stuff but then there is no good without the bad. I like to count the good things. So on days when you aren’t too busy, take a walk around places you don’t go to very often. You’ll be amazed at what you’ll see. And you’ll see for yourself the beauty that is a part of our everyday life.

My aha moment

I don’t know if I have had many big aha moments in life but the one I most readily recall took place when I was thirteen and in Form 1 or Sec 1 as we know it here. When I was in Sec 1, I had some difficulty adjusting to the tests because we had to write essay-type answers for the first time. We also had to deal with subjects like history and geography where such essay questions were the main assessment mode. Needless to say, almost everyone failed the first few tests.

History was a big challenge then. It was not difficult; I understood the history of British India well but yet my answers to the questions were never adequate enough to get a passing mark. I remember answering a question on the Indian Mutiny one day and not getting a good mark after that. When the teacher reviewed the answers, it dawned on me that I have missed out some of the reasons she deemed important. I decided to take note of these reasons and the next time round, I made it a point to remember the exact number of reasons given for the Indian mutiny and committed them to memory. When the question appeared again, I wrote everything down, making sure not to forget a single cause. Well, guess what? I did well and my answer was held up as a model for all.

Apart from my then small moment of public glory, that was also my aha moment. I realised then that studying did not mean reading and rereading my notes. I should also make it a point to remember the number of reasons, causes, whatever, for the topic and be able to reproduce them accurately. That was what my teachers wanted and they had a mark for every relevant point I gave. I soon began to associate numbers with each topic; for example there were 5 causes ( or so I think) for the Indian Mutiny and perhaps 4 reasons why Birch was murdered. Eventually, I learnt to develop acronyms to help me remember the reasons or causes. I must tell you that my system worked very well for me and I was a straight A student for most of my subjects (except Maths but that’s another story). Let me add that while this system of mine worked for me way back then, I don’t know if it would work as well now although I suspect that some parts of it still does as many subjects require some element of recall.

But my point here is not how smart I was but how important it is for students to figure out what is needed for them to do well in any examination. I say this because I often find that students going into exams have little awareness of what an examiner wants from them and I say this from years of experience working with and marking the scripts of school students as well as undergraduates. It surprises me though since we are such an exam savvy nation.

Knowing about the criteria for doing well in any exam is part of what we would call the knowing how to or the procedural knowledge as opposed to the content or declarative knowledge. Knowing what to do or what not to do is a significant part of doing well in any kind of assessment or evaluation. As teachers, it is important for us to make clear the criteria for any assessment task that students will undertake. When the criteria are clear, students can work towards achieving the grade they aspire to.

Unfortunately, marking and grading remain a mystery in many instances except for the more exact subjects like Maths. Think of essay marking for instance. Do students know what the criteria are for a good essay? They can’t possibly know if they routinely get a numerical mark only. Ditto with comprehension. Teachers argue that this has to be the case because there is always subjectivity in marking. Well the truth is there is always subjectivity in everything we assess. We humans are not that objective and we can’t be. We need to acknowledge the subjectivity in us but we should also work hard at being consistent in our subjectivity. It’s consistency that is important, not subjectivity.

So what does this mean for all of our students going into the exams? Now that they have all revised their work umpteen times, it’s time to review the criteria for success. Work with your pupils and help them identify what these criteria are for each subject. Be as explicit as possible and show clear examples of what you mean by a good introduction or good content. What is even better is to do what Anne Davis, author of Making Classroom Assessment Work, said at a recent seminar here: co-construct the criteria with students. What this means is to have your students work with you, using many samples of essays, for instance, to discover what makes an essay worth reading. Co-constructing the criteria will, I am sure, lead to many aha moments for your students and perhaps even one for yourself.

Jay McTighe and Ken O’Connor, writing in a 2005 article (Seven practices for effective learning, Educational Leadership, Nov 2005, Vol 63, No. 3) discussed the importance of self assessment and goal setting as one of the effective practices for learning. They wrote:

The most effective learners set personal goals, employ proven strategies, and self –assess their work. Teachers help cultivate such habits of mind by modelling self-assessment and goal setting and by expecting students to apply these habits regularly. (p. 16)

I often lament that students don’t have good habits of mind (HOM) and this can be seen in a simple thing like checking and rereading their essay before turning it in. If students can be taught to do this, I am very certain that at least 50% of the surface errors will be taken care of well before the teacher sets eye on the essay. I am disappointed that teachers don’t emphasise this simple and effective HOM.

So in this last leg of the exam race, I would say it’s not too late to have students reflect on their personal goals and their strategies and assess their personal progress. This perhaps will be more effective than pushing another 5 assessment papers. But more importantly, teachers have to make sure students are clear on what matters. What are the criteria for success? What are good habits of mind to practise? What are our personal goals? How would I assess my work?

Our students are often dependent on teachers to tell them how well they are doing. We can’t blame them. But we should also work towards having them think about how well they have done. They should know how many marks they deserve. I used to ask my students to talk to me if they think they deserve a higher mark than what I have given. If they can show me they deserve a better grade, they will get it. Unfortunately, no one has ever taken up my offer. Maybe you can do the same with your students. It may give them incentive to think through the strengths and weaknesses in their work.

Who should do the reading at home?

We all know that we should read to our children; no one doubts the value of this anymore. But there is still the eternal question of who should do the reading? My son used to prefer mum as the reader because “Dad reads with little expression” he declared. Now that’s nice, and although I was flattered, I could not be persuaded to take on the task alone. Let’s face it. On bad days, all I want is to crawl into bed after dinner instead of pouring over several chapters of Harry Potter and his angsty adventures. I needed Dad to do his part. And thank goodness he did and this was especially useful when Junior wanted to read history or science books.

But in case the dad in your home needs more persuasion or you need more ammunition to get dad to join in the act, let me suggest Jane Baskill’s new book Getting Dads on Board, (Stenhouse Publishers). In addition, Stenhouse Publishers has an interesting article on how to get dads to pitch in and do the bedtime reading. Read all about it here:

I know for a fact that Junior benefitted tremendously from his nightly reading rituals with mum and dad. Bedtime reading with dad has been extra special for Junior not just for the literary benefits but also for the sharing, the talking, the laughing, the snuggling and the many countless pleasures that can only come when two people focus their attention on each other and a book and nothing else.

Try it tonight.

Positive Discipline

Following on from my last post about teaching good manners and humility, here is a useful resource for parents and teachers.

Marvin Marshall, author of “Discipline without Stress - How Teachers and Parents Promote Responsibility and Learning” has a very useful newsletter that you can subscribe to. Dr Marshall’s book focuses on the importance of internal motivation in changing behaviour, and he believes that this is more effective than rewards and punishment. He has a companion book for parents, Parenting without Stress- How to raise responsible kids while keeping a life of your own. Both books are available from Amazon or from his website www.MarvinMarshall.com.

Dr Marshall also sends out a very informative newsletter. This month, he answered questions at an interview. Here are 2 questions taken from the interview and reproduced in his newsletter (MarvinMarshall.com):

QUESTION:
What might be three key guidelines that a teacher could keep in mind, or on a small index card, to help remind him/her to stay more positive in the classroom?

RESPONSE:
1. Ask yourself, "Will the person hearing your communication interpret what you say in positive terms?"

2. Ask yourself, "Will the person feel as if I am using coercion in any way?"

3. Ask yourself, "What can I ASK so that the person will feel that I am giving a CHOICE and that I am prompting the person to REFLECT?

QUESTION:
What are a few key mistakes do you think teachers tend to make around classroom management?

RESPONSE:
1. They ASSUME students know what the teacher wants the students to do WITHOUT first modelling, practicing, and reinforcing the procedure to do what is being taught.

2. They confuse classroom management (teaching procedures to make instruction efficient) with discipline (how students behave).

3. They assume that discipline is naturally negative. Not necessarily so! The best discipline is the type where the person doesn't even realize that discipline is being employed.

The newsletter has a section for parents too. To read other interesting snippets and advice, and to subscribe to the newsletter, click here.

Good manners and some humility

Recently, I conducted a couple of courses on teaching high ability students for teachers from one of the school clusters here. As always, I begin by asking them what issues they have and what they would like their high ability students to learn. Teachers from one school wrote on their flip chart unhesitatingly - good manners and some humility.

I didn’t laugh at their request although I regretfully wasn’t able to fulfil it. But it’s true to a certain extent isn’t it, that some of our brighter students are neither humble nor well-mannered. Having taught some of the best junior college students myself ( some of whom are important people in the Establishment now), I remember how challenging it was to deal with young people who were bright, egocentric, well-heeled, and who believed that anyone over twenty five had nothing to teach them. I was barely eight years older than my students then, and if I did get along well with them, it was mostly through some shared interests in books and music, and through my well-rehearsed big sister act, courtesy of years of minding seven younger siblings at home. I am happy to report that several former students became good friends.

But I didn’t teach them humility; I don’t know if I could do that. Perhaps one could do this by example, but too much of humble behaviour can sometimes result in one being labelled a wimp. You know what happens to wimpish teachers, don’t you? They are eaten alive in class and deservedly so I think. Woah, that’s cruel, YM, you say but the truth is, I’d rather have no teacher than a wimpish, wishy-washy one.

Some teachers say that the only way to teach humility is to mark students down in their work and ruthlessly expose their ignorance or shortcomings. But students don’t learn humility that way; they only learn to resent you.

But sometimes that’s the game students and teachers play. Students will eye a teacher, test her out with some outrageous request, question or action and then watch for the reaction. If the teacher gives the desired or the unexpected response, her standing may rise or fall in the students’ eyes. And isn’t that still the game that we play in the classroom? Sometimes rapport develops over a shared interest, a mutual understanding, and even a mutual liking or respect and then a relationship is forged that might make it through the years and evolve into a friendship. This is one of the fringe benefits of being a teacher.

Like all relationships, there is always mutual give and take in the student-teacher relationship. And in most cases, it’s the teacher who leads the way. Have you ever asked or wondered what a teacher has to offer her students? The more cynical of you may say that in this age where academic results are always the priority, perhaps a plateful of A stars is the only answer. That’s sad, isn’t it and so not true. Many of us (old and young teachers) would remember our great teachers. They never offered us stars, but yet we never suffered academically under them either. To ensure that the students under our charge fulfil their potential has always been the number one rule in our teaching creed; no responsible teacher will let a child’s academic results suffer. But our teachers offered us more than facts and figures. They offered us their thoughts, beliefs, values, dreams, and their passion for whatever they were teaching. And they offered these with sincerity.

For each special teacher I recall, I remember them not so much for the lessons (a few were superb teachers though) but more for their humanity and their willingness to share their lives and loves. Simon and Garfunkel’s songs and poetry were introduced to me by a young nun and the music of this duo has travelled with me all my life since my teens. My literature teacher shared her love for T.S. Eliot and at an age where the words “I grow old, I grow old, I shall wear the bottom of my trousers rolled” meant absolutely nothing, Eliot’s view of an emotional wasteland still has a tremendous impact on my life. Other teachers were willing to take me under their wings and showed me a different world, showed me things I could do, and helped me believe in myself. Others just became role models through their behaviour and practice.

Years ago, while short listing the entries for The Caring Teacher awards, I came across a letter from a primary school pupil who said that her teacher taught her the importance of leaving a legacy. Many of you will recognise this as one of the key ideas from Stephen R. Covey (author of The Seven Habits of Effective People). Here is the complete quote:

There are certain things that are fundamental to human fulfilment. The essence of these needs is captured in the phrase ‘to live, to love, to learn, to leave a legacy’.

I remember going “wow!” How many teachers will think this an important lesson for primary school students? And how many times did she teach this for a child to remember it so well?

In an age where teachers are increasingly challenged by their young students, it seems like it’s harder and harder to earn their respect and command their attention, let alone their admiration. Have we reached a stage where we have nothing more to teach our students but the facts and figures and nothing more to offer but the A-stars? I feel sad that we are reduced to being purveyors of information and experts at scoring in exams. It is hard to keep up with kids who are born with a wire in their ear and a mouse glued to their fingers. You can’t know everything and you can’t keep up with them. But is this what the game is about?

No, not really. If this were the case, then just have computers not teachers in the classroom. As teachers, we are not expected to be the know-it-all although we should know enough to do our job well. Teaching is about relationships. And having to deal with 40 individuals with their own minds on a daily basis is enough to wear down even the toughest among us. We have to love our job and love the students for the job to mean something beyond a rice bowl. Do we still need to offer them more?

No, but we can. We can offer them friendship. We can open their eyes and their minds. We can lift their spirits. We can offer hope and we can show them the possibilities. Yes, their parents give them that too but not every child gets it. And it doesn’t hurt if a child gets an extra dose. And if they lack good manners and humility, we can also offer these for it’s obvious that they are not getting enough of this from home.

So my teachers are right in wanting their brighter students to learn good manners and some humility. These are wonderful and desirable subjects to add to a curriculum for all students, not just the bright ones. The truly intelligent among them will see the need for such lessons; others I’m afraid will take a little longer. So while I have no concrete suggestions for how this can be done for now, I would say, don’t give up on teaching students these values. Having said that, I must add that good manners can always be taught by example; humility is a tad harder.

But hey, I don’t always have to have the answer to every problem. But I am sure some of you do have some thoughts about this, so do share!

About Sumiko Tan and a Flood

So Sumiko Tan is getting married! I think I owe her one since I always talk about her in class. In case you are wondering why she is a subject in my classes, it’s because teachers tell me that they use excerpts from her columns as comprehension texts for their students. And I always tell them that a 40 something woman in angst over her love life and her marital status has nothing to say to twelve year olds. My point simply is that students must share the writer’s background knowledge in order to understand the message well and Sumiko’s questions about love and life would be lost on pre-teens who don’t share her concerns.

But I am happy that she’s getting married. I have been following her life story in the newspapers since I don’t know when. But then again, so have other Singaporeans, so her life story is well-known. When my husband came into the bedroom and announced that the news of the day was Sumiko’s imminent marriage, I said to him straightaway, “I know that guy!” I don’t of course, but I had an idea who the lucky man could be from reading Sumiko’s columns. I sincerely wish her a life time’s happiness because everyone deserves a chance to be happy and to be married. In fact, I look forward to her column when it resumes in September; I bet it will be about the trials and tribulations of married life. And speaking of marriages, I was also wondering why ST journalists have a monopoly on romantic encounters. Wasn’t it not too long ago when Cheung Suk Wai (a marvellous writer) met the love of her life (a Nepalese man) while on a course overseas and married him?

So Friday 25 June started off well enough with me although the sky was over cast. I was however, home reading about Sumiko and Hurricane over breakfast. Almost an hour later, I was catching the last bit of the letters in the Forum page when I heard the distinct sound of water cascading behind me. I got up, puzzled, only to see water gently flowing down the stairs into the living room. Yup, it was a gentle but steady stream of water and already a pool was forming at the foot of the stairs. Some of you dear readers may know that I live on the 19th floor; so water coming down our stairs is not an everyday occurrence.

I ran up the stairs immediately, shouting for my husband. Water was already ankle-high in my office upstairs and before long, I found the source of the problem. One of my patios was flooded because the drains were blocked by leaves and other debris and the water had formed a pond there and then seeped into my apartment. To cut a long story short, my husband immediately cleared the debris while I ran around trying to stop the water from entering the bedrooms. No, there was no great damage done but there was some major cleaning to be done after that.

Later, we found out about the havoc the rain brought to other parts of the island. Well, ours seem a small matter in the end. I told my husband that I did not clear the debris over at my neighbour’s end last week when I was sweeping the place. Part of the problem was also created by a pile of cardboard left there by persons unknown and this contributed to blocking the drains. Whereupon my husband immediately said that we should clear the drains more frequently. And that is what I love most about my husband. He did not blame me or my neighbour for the problem. Instead he just focused on doing what needed to be done even if it meant doing our neighbour’s share of work as well. His reaction is not extraordinary; that’s the way he is. But his reaction helped put the situation in proper perspective and allowed me see beyond the pettiness and the stress of getting cross with others. Yes, I still had to spend time putting my house back in order, but I did it all with calmness and equanimity. We cleaned the house together, side by side, my husband and I. A mundane activity, undoubtedly, but it was a satisfying, even happy experience.

And isn’t that the stuff of marriage? After the initial passion, marriage is full of mundane moments and ho-hum chores. But so many of of these humdrum moments are made special by the way we experience them. People talk a lot about working at a marriage, and I guess a lot of work has to be done when the couple hits these humdrum times. And I think that’s the reason why we appreciate a man who can make us laugh and a man who knows how to appreciate the stuff women do at home which nobody even notices after it’s done.

A good marriage brings out the best in all of us; life’s load is shared and life’s joy, doubled. Sumiko had many fears about marriage. Who wouldn’t? But after a while, she may find that some of these fears are unfounded and some may grow out of proportion. Whatever her experiences, I look forward to reading about them.

Inspiring speeches

I’m still on my mini vacation, so why not surf the web and catch up on all the stuff I’ve always wanted to read or watch? I avoid surfing the web on busy days because it is a time consuming activity and often, before you know it, you’ve spent an hour clicking here and there and have strayed pages away from your original site.

But I’ve been a bit indulgent in the last week. I’ve spent time reading and watching commencement speeches on the Internet. Many of the better known speeches are familiar to me, but it’s always fun to watch speakers working their speeches. And why is it I, who have been to several universities, have not been to a real commencement speech? After searching my ageing mind, I remember attending one at Stanford University in 1987. Unfortunately, the only thing I remember about the occasion was my friend getting told off for chatting too loudly during the speech. Perhaps it wasn’t such an inspiring speech, but I bet none of my friends would remember the speaker too. It’s not our fault because back then, they didn’t have celebrities giving commencement speeches.

So it was with some glee that I spent an evening watching some of the more memorable commencement speeches. I found them in a site that described these as “The Top Celebrity Commencement Speeches of All time” and you can get to the site here.

Among the celebrities are Conan O’Brien (in his usual maniacal style), Jodie Foster, Ellen DeGeneres (very funny), Oprah Winfrey and my favourite, JK Rowling. If you don’t care for the others, do watch Rowling. She spoke about the importance of failure and the power of imagination. Another inspiring speech that’s not in the list must be Steve Job’s speech (so he’s not a celebrity?) and you can find that here.

Holiday Happenings

It’s the middle of June again and I finally have a whole, uninterrupted week off from work. What a luxury! But even as I write this, it’s already Thursday and my week is almost up, sob!

I had no intention of travelling at all this week; like it or not, travelling can sometimes be stressful and June is too hot for any strenuous wandering round. Instead, I chose to stay home and do some house cleaning, gardening, reading, and thought about catching a movie or two. Well, it’s Thursday today and all I can say about my holiday is that I’ve done the following:

Cleaned up 2 store rooms
Cleaned up the linen cupboards
Cleaned up kitchen cupboards
Swept garden every day
Read several books
Watched Makansutra Raw four days in a row.
Made konyaku jelly and durian bread pudding (apart from dinner)
Had lunch with a friend at Raffles City
Began another on-line course

Wow, rereading the list makes me sound positively old and boring. That could be the real me but hey, one can’t be hip and happening all the time. But seriously, you can’t imagine how pleased I am with my two neat store rooms.

For entertainment, I always find reading satisfying but in the last few days, I have taken to watching Makansutra Raw each day after dinner. True, the series feature repeat programmes now, but Seetoh always makes me laugh. I like his unbridled enthusiasm for food and while his eating (or chomping on many occasions) can be a little unrefined, at least he doesn’t talk that much when his mouth is full, unlike many other food show hosts. He also speaks well in an authentic Singapore style and makes many interesting comments about the food and the food culture here without being pretentious. The other food show hosts I like are Nigella Lawson (she makes food and cooking seductive and has the best vocabulary; check out her adjectives!) and Anthony Bourdain (brash, loud but has many original observations about food and places).

I don’t really care about food that much although I enjoy cooking for friends and family. I am always a sucker for a good recipe and over the years, I have collected a ton of recipes. Just this week, I contemplated throwing out my recipe magazines but finally found a place for them in my store room so they get another reprieve until the next time. I know the Internet makes these recipes unnecessary but there is always that one recipe that looks interesting and that I hope to try one day and so into the file it goes. If you are interested in cooking, let me share my favourite sites with you. For any Western food, I always go to allrecipes.com. For local food, I like bakingmum.blogspot.com, and she has a list of other websites that are interesting too.

And did I mention my on-line course? Yes, doing a course in June sounds like self-inflicted punishment. I clearly need to review my options for fun. But since the evenings are now devoted to the World Cup (translation: husband is hogging the television every night), I too need to spend my evenings doing something challenging. But while I am not a football fan, I am always full of admiration for the game and the fans. Truly, the World Cup is one event that unites people all over the world, so I too feel the excitement of the game.

Tomorrow is Friday and I have the weekend too to really have some serious fun. I am thinking hard now about what I want to do. Hmmm… well, let me finish my book first. And in case you’re wondering what literary tome I am reading, it’s actually nothing cerebral. It’s J.R. Ward’s series on the Black Dagger Brotherhood. It’s hardcore vampires here and none of that simpering stuff that is in Twilight but the truth is such books are like fast food. One can only have that many meals before they begin to taste the same…. But in an emergency or if one is in serious need for fun, they will do. Enjoy your holidays!

Grrrrr...Grammar 2

Grammar reference books are everywhere and I must admit that it’s hard just to buy one. I have more than a dozen books about grammar on my shelf, and each one is different. I am also quite fond of grammar books written by Americans because the contents can be humorous and the explanations are clear and unambiguous.
Here is an assorted list of English and American grammar books (including books on punctuation) that I enjoy using and reading. NLB is a good source for such books and you can always order what you can’t find at NLB from Amazon.com

1. Grammar for smart people by Barry Tarshis.

2. Nitty Gritty Grammar & More Nitty Gritty Grammar by Edith H. Fine & Judith P. Josephson.

3. The deluxe transitive vampire: A handbook of grammar for the innocent, the eager and the doomed by Karen Elizabeth Gordon. (lots of ghoulish fun!)

4. The new well tempered sentence: A punctuation handbook for the innocent, the eager, and the doomed by Karen Elizabeth Gordon.

5. Grammatically correct: The writer's essential guide to punctuation, spelling, style, usage and grammar by Anne Stilman.

6. Grammar power by Jane Schwartz.

7. Polish up your punctuation and grammar: master the basics of the English language and writer with greater confidence by Marion Field.

8. English grammar for dummies by Geraldine Woods ( surprisingly helpful!)

9. English as it is broken. (Book 2 is particularly helpful especially the section entitled School Daze).

10. Oxford A-Z of grammar and punctuation.

11. English grammar FAQs: 100 questions teachers and students frequently ask by Leong Ping Alvin & Ludwig Tan (NIE) ( very useful reference book for all teachers).

12. A visual grammar of English by Lubna Alsagoff.

13. The elements of style by William Strunk and E.B. White. (The classic reference that should be in every teacher’s collection).

14. Longman dictionary of grammar & usage by Kam Chuan Aik & Kam Kai Hui (comes with an accompanying workbook too).

15. A reference grammar for students of English by RA Close.

16. Techniques and resources in teaching grammar (Teaching techniques in English as a Second Language) by Marianne Celce-Murcia & Sharon Hilles. ( A good reference book on teaching grammar).

Some books for younger children. These are useful and full of fun.

L is for Lollygag: Quirky words for a clever tongue from Chronicle Books.

Woe is I Jr.: The younger grammarphobe's guide to English in plain English
Author: Patricia T. O'Conner

The girl's like spaghetti: Why, you can't manage without apostrophes!

Eats, shoots and leaves: Why commas really do make a difference
Author: Lynne Truss (a useful picture book about punctuation)

Well, there you are. The holidays are a good time to stock up on useful books especially when the Great Singapore Sale is on. Have fun!