Chinese Compositions - Final Preparations

Date: Oct 14, 2015

Tomorrow is the Chinese SA2 Paper 1 exam, which is the Chinese Composition. 50 minutes to write at least 80 words.

This is how I am going to prepare Jay.

[Revisions]

1. Print out all the compositions that he has done, and asked him to read.

[Encouragement]

2. While reading, I will highlight those easy words to start the sentence with a market pen. Make him feel good. Encourage him. And teach him what are the words he used will get more points.

[Incentives]

3. No more new writings. It is enough for the past month for him to do all these Compo writings.

4. Let me play at least 30 minutes of iPad/Games before sleep. :)

Here are some of the 满江红 compositions that I would like to share. It is interesting. These are the past 3 days compositions he has done using writing, instead of dictations on the iPad/iPhone. And I think he learned a lot from the past few days, especial learn how to open the sentence.

[Example 1] This is to describe what do you do on a Sunday morning.

When he first wrote it, most of the sentence structure seems correct. But the content does not match closely to the pictures given. So, I decided to scrutinise the Compo and teach him how to use some useful words to start the Compo.

For correction, I asked him to do it on dictation (without letting him see the correction which I went thru with him), so that he can grasp the idea quick and fast.

[Example 2] How the little girl learns to prepare her bags before sleep.

Usually, I gave him 30-40 minutes to think and write.

This is important so that he gasps the idea of timing. He cannot think too long. What ever he thought of writing must always registered in his mind. And he needs half of the time to write it down.

Again, the story line has to in line with the pictures.

And most of the time, he likes to use the conversation way of speaking chinese and write it into his compo.

I taught him how to use 觉得，顺手，第二天，发现，原来，老师知道了，答应, etc.

This is the corrected copy using dictation, without looking at the notes above.

[Example 3] Talks about the boy helping a old man cross the road and explain to teacher why he is late for school.

This is what he came up with. Not too bad.

So, sometimes, it is also depending on the pictures given. If for things that he is familiar of course he will do it well. Those that he is not familiar, Jay tends to 转牛角尖. That is perfectly normal.

But I am glad to see him quite comfortable taking all these compositions. He is not afraid any more, and he wanted to get high marks this time.

That is all needed from him.

[Example 4]

Sometimes, you can ask your child to write something you see. Not necessary to have the 4 pictures.

This is the corrected version.

[Example 5]

Sometimes, you can also asked the child to write super long story just to see how well he can write.

[Example 6]

I found that when the kid was given the iPhone to do the dictation, they are like super excited like that. If you ask them to start writing on paper, they are like so sad.