Get It Right

August 2024 English Lesson Consultation slots

Zoom online
Suitable for upper primary and secondary students
1 to 1 or invite a friend

5 Aug Mon 1630-1730
7 Aug Wed 1600-1930
15 Aug Thu 1500-1630
19 Aug Mon 1700-1900
22 Aug Thu 1730-1900

If you (or your child) require English Language help, kindly look at the following.
Send us a message on Whatsapp / Telegram / use our contact form www.getitright.sg/contact.html
For other timeslots, please send us a message!

Every night, as long as there are no surprises in our schedules, I try my best to read aloud to my two daughters before bedtime. Typically we read one text in English, and another in Chinese.

In the last few months, the girls have been attracted to a wonderfully written series of non-fiction books about animals. Together we have gone through a number of books in this series, and I have not been keeping track of them.

I started on the sentence, "Dawn is breaking on the African savanna."

My younger girl, who is 7 this year, exclaimed, "Mummy we've read this book before! I remember this line, dawn is breaking on the African savanna."

"Yes, we accidentally borrowed it again," laughed the elder girl, who is currently 9 years old.

Considering my younger girl sometimes does not look at the book when I'm reading, I am reminded of the importance of reading aloud to them and to my students. Casually I did not think that hearing one line from a book only once would leave a great impression on a child.

I suppose I need to be more mindful about what I say to them too. 🤭

According to research work by the National Literacy Trust, audiobooks offer easy access to a wide range of texts. Children are also able to access more of a book than reading alone, as the listening experience deepens their understanding of tone, pronunciation, accents, and dialects. Stories beyond the children's current reading level are also made more accessible when they are read aloud.

Don't give up on reading aloud to children and students, even adult learners love listening to stories.

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Get It Right runs phonics workshops for parents and caregivers, as well as English Language lessons for children, teens and adult learners. Math and Science (primary) lessons are also provided. We work with local and international students, as well as students in public school and homeschool settings.

Send us a message if you think we can help you!

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Deeper Thinking, Better Writing: Language Lessons for Teenagers

Whenever I'm working with teen writers, I often find myself going through mountains of resources, hard pressed to decide on how to engage these brilliant young brains with strong opinions about the world.

Many of my teen students are too immersed in their own worlds, which tend to be rather narrow. One can say it is a sign of the times - after all, these teenagers can hardly be blamed for an over-reliance on devices and the internet in 2024. How can I get my teen students to stay engaged and think more deeply, instead of just scrolling aimlessly through short reels of less than 30 seconds each?

Let's take our cues from real people around us, with real stories! Choose an article from the news portals. Pick a high quality video featuring the topic to be taught. Bring up a recent controversy, or what we call "gone viral". In this case, I had found my old book of TED Talks featuring Singapore speakers, so my teen students could relate to the local personalities and examples.

It might be hard to get teens to do homework, but everyone has an opinion, and teens even more so. Hear them out, let them air their points of view. Only when they have listened, watched, thought, spoken, and debated, will the writing come more naturally to them.

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What Is Your Precious Item?

Story sharing is an essential part of any language learning process. Looking at the political and social unrest around us in recent months, I have been sharing different stories with my students, with the hope of helping them understand a bit more about what is going on.

Lubna and Pebble by Wendy Meddour tells the story of a little girl Lubna, who had a precious pebble. Living in refugee tents with her family, she met a little boy just like her. One day, when she had to leave the tents, she thought about giving the boy something that gave her comfort in those difficult times.

The student has a precious item too, and he is often keen to tell me all about his possessions. Students of all ages are able to relate to Lubna's feelings. We all have something we treasure, and it gives us comfort and security, especially when trouble confronts us.

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*Updates* English - Ad-hoc Consultations
Timeslots for Booking
July 2024
Zoom online
Suitable for upper primary and secondary students
1 to 1 or invite a friend

7 July Sun 1800-1900
10 July Wed 1500-1700
19 July Fri 1740-1840
21 July Sun 1800-1900
26 July Fri 1740-1840

If you (or your child) require English Language help, kindly look at the following.
Send us a message on Whatsapp / Telegram / use our contact form www.getitright.sg/contact.html
For other timeslots, please send us a message!

English - Ad-hoc Consultations
Timeslots for Booking

July 2024
Zoom online
Suitable for upper primary and secondary students
1 to 1 or invite a friend

5 July Fri 1500-1600
5 July Fri 1740-1840
7 July Sun 1800-1900
10 July Wed 1500-1700
13 July Sat 0830-1030
19 July Fri 1740-1840
21 July Sun 1800-1900
26 July Fri 1740-1840
31 July Wed 1500-1700

If you (or your child) require English Language help, kindly look at the following.
Send us a message on Whatsapp / Telegram / use our contact form www.getitright.sg/contact.html

For other timeslots, please send us a message!

*Updated on 13th June* English - Oral Exam / Writing
Timeslots for Booking

June 2024 via Zoom online
Suitable for P6 and O level students
1 to 1 practice with material crafted by Teacher Libing

If you (or your child) require English Language help, kindly look at the following.
Send us a message on Whatsapp / Telegram / use our contact form www.getitright.sg/contact.html

For other timeslots, please send us a message!

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The Little Prince
Antoine De Saint-Exupery
Translation by Katherine Woods

A classic story, this translation is our preferred version. A pilot meets a prince, who is a child, travelling the universe. Wisdom is casually dispensed by the prince, while looking at the world through the eyes of an innocent child. Some chapters, with repeated reading, inform us of the narrow-mindedness of adults.

The story is suitable for middle primary and above.

Queen of the Sky
Josephine Chia
This book attracts the attention of Singaporeans, especially if you live in Bukit Panjang, as the story was written based on a family living in Senja! Great Grandmother recounted her encounter with Amelia Earhart, the famous female pilot, in June 1937.
The story is suitable for primary school levels and above.

English - Oral Exam / Writing
Timeslots for Booking

June 2024 via Zoom online
Suitable for P6 and O level students
1 to 1 practice with material crafted by Teacher Libing

If you (or your child) require English Language help, kindly look at the following.
Send us a message on Whatsapp / Telegram / use our contact form www.getitright.sg/contact.html

11 June Tue 1430-1730
12 June Wed 1430-1730
13 June Thu 1030-1300
18 June Tue 1000-1200
19 June Wed 1215-1315
20 June Thu 1200-1300
20 June Thu 1430-1700
29 June Sat 0900-1400

For other timeslots, please send us a message!

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Learning Idioms and Proverbs

Parents and caregivers can encourage children to draw more often - visual representations are part of the note-taking process. The children have to consolidate what they learn and represent it in a graphic form. While learning idioms and proverbs, mere rote learning is ineffective. Allow the children to make diagrams or pictures based on the meaning of idioms and proverbs. They can make a simple picture, or a more advanced comic story.

We can also use a simple multiple choice quiz format to review the idioms and proverbs. Typically, these are fixed vocabulary phrases, hence our young learners need to become familiar with the words used. In a multiple choice quiz format, we can encourage language play - the learners often find that an error in the phrase is quite funny! Eventually they will figure out the correct answer.

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https://www.getitright.sg/phonics.html

Details on our phonics workshop for parents and caregivers have been updated! Please take a look at this page on our main website. It includes information on workshop content, booking, and fees. Thank you for your attention!

Phonics Welcome to our phonics workshops for parents and caregivers! To contact Get It Right, please use any of the following methods: Whatsapp: https://wa.me/6588398581 Telegram: ...

Crossword Puzzles: Try this with your children or students!

How do we review vocabulary from the stories we had read? To better commit the words to memory, my student was tasked to make her own crossword puzzle. She had to check the dictionary for the meanings, then she formed the clues. She also had to figure out how to arrange the words on the crossword, which meant working out the spelling and letter sequence. With some editing and fine-tuning, each student's crossword puzzle can be used to help other students to learn the relevant vocabulary.

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Thank you to parents and students who have returned to Get It Right for more writing marking services. Teacher Libing is happy to see the improvements made each time the writing is sent to our inbox.

Whether you are a beginner or more advanced writer, whether you are writing for examinations or for your own interest, please feel free to get in touch with Get It Right for your needs.

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https://youtu.be/cMwq01P7LlE?feature=shared
Here is our student becoming more confident in reading. From a reluctant reader, he has grown so much, I am proud of him. 🙂 Hopefully he will continue to enjoy reading and gain access to a world of knowledge next year in primary 1!

6-year-old Grows Confidence in Reading (prepare for primary 1) Here is our student becoming more confident in reading. From a reluctant reader he has grown so much, I am proud of him. ...

Thank you for the trust in us!

This student is the 3rd child of a family we have been working with for many years. Both older siblings worked with us for their PSLE. Their mother has always approached us for help and we try our best to accommodate.

Congratulations and we wish her the best for the next part of her education journey.

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Teacher Libing runs phonics workshops for parents and caregivers, as well as English Language lessons for children, teens and adult learners. Math and Science (primary) lessons are by Teacher Augustine. We have worked with local and international students, as well as students in both public school and homeschool settings.

Send us a message if you think we can help you!

Asking More Real Questions

In helping our children and students to learn, we need to ask more real questions instead of asking questions simply for the purpose of testing.

This K2 student is learning words with wh spelling. A reason in real life for using wh words is when we want to find out more about someone. Hence, I have structured a short interview with this student. He tries his best to reply verbally, then write his responses. As the focus is on reading wh words, assistance is provided for the written response. (Remember that we should control the number of specific learning objectives in each activity!)

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Teacher Libing runs phonics workshops for parents and caregivers, as well as English Language lessons for children, teens and adult learners. Math and Science (primary) lessons are by Teacher Augustine. We have worked with local and international students, as well as students in both public school and homeschool settings.

Send us a message if you think we can help you!

Even Ten Minutes is Good Enough

When a student is keen to engage in an activity, I try to incorporate it in our lesson time together. This 6-year-old had been writing a note to his friend, and it was on the table before I began our lesson. I asked him if he needed any help from me and he replied that he was not sure if the words were spelled correctly.

I gladly put aside the original lesson plan for ten minutes and helped him sound out the words he needed help with. He also shared more about his friend with me. The conversation built deeper vocabulary as he genuinely wanted to express himself.

Pay attention to what and how the students want to learn about. More often than not, they want to learn the essential skills we are hoping they will explore.
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Teacher Libing runs phonics workshops for parents and caregivers, as well as English Language lessons for children, teens and adult learners. Math and Science (primary) lessons are by Teacher Augustine. We have worked with local and international students, as well as students in both public school and homeschool settings.

Send us a message if you think we can help you!

Step by Step

In our adhoc 1-to-1 writing workshops, I often meet students who know how to write a basic story, but struggle to make transitions. The story is told matter-of-factly. The young writer is unsure how to move the story smoothly from one part to another. The writing needs details that can enhance the reader's understanding of the plot and provide a fuller picture of the events that occur.

This P4 student completed nine hours of writing workshops online. While the initial difficulties were in more basic areas of punctuation and sentence construction, he showed some quick improvement once I engaged him in short exercises targetting punctuation choice. Once his story was written with relatively accurate grammar, we began adding details to help his story move more clearly and vividly. As a young writer, he is definitely still working on his craft. I hope he continues to develop his stories.

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Teacher Libing runs phonics workshops for parents and caregivers, as well as English Language lessons for children, teens and adult learners. Math and Science (primary) lessons are by Teacher Augustine. We have worked with local and international students, as well as students in both public school and homeschool settings.

Send us a message if you think we can help you!

Step by Step

In our adhoc 1-to-1 writing workshops, I often meet students who know how to write a basic story, but struggle to make transitions. The story is told matter-of-factly. The young writer is unsure how to move the story smoothly from one part to another. The writing needs details that can enhance the reader's understanding of the plot and provide a fuller picture of the events that occur.

This P4 student completed nine hours of writing workshops online. While the initial difficulties were in more basic areas of punctuation and sentence construction, he showed some quick improvement once I engaged him in short exercises targetting punctuation choice. Once his story was written with relatively accurate grammar, we began adding details to help his story move more clearly and vividly. As a young writer, he is definitely still working on his craft. I hope he continues to develop his stories.

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Teacher Libing runs phonics workshops for parents and caregivers, as well as English Language lessons for children, teens and adult learners. Math and Science (primary) lessons are by Teacher Augustine. We have worked with local and international students, as well as students in both public school and homeschool settings.

Send us a message if you think we can help you!

What goes on during our English Language story writing workshops?
https://youtu.be/hs1bD36ThEQ

Creative Writing Outdoor Sketching Edition by Get It Right What goes on during our writing workshops? Have fun with the English Language with us! ...

Here is a look at one of our writing modules!
https://youtu.be/TDu3_-hDv-8

Creating Stories with Get It Right How do we help young writers? Here's a look at our student from Singapore.www.getitright.sg #...

Congratulations!

Students and their parents / caregivers often come to us, hoping that we can help the students on their desired paths. One of our young writers has achieved one major goal this year - to be selected for the Creative Writing Programme conducted by the Ministry of Education.

Before we met, this young writer had already been actively creating stories and having good fun with the English Language. So after about 10 months of story sharing, experimenting with words, and sheer hard work, she has the precious opportunity to further her writing prowess.

I'm looking forward to meeting more young writers and learners! Regular or ad-hoc sessions are available based on the student's comfort level.

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Teacher Libing runs phonics workshops for parents and caregivers, as well as English Language lessons for children, teens and adult learners. Math and Science (primary) lessons are by Teacher Augustine. We have worked with local and international students, as well as students in both public school and homeschool settings.

Send us a message if you think we can help you!

Join us for a story writing workshop, outdoor edition! This is conducted by a former school teacher, who loves listening and sharing story ideas with everyone. Let's learn how to write in a more friendly and welcoming atmosphere.

6 September 2023 Wednesday
(Backup date: 7 September)

The registration link is at https://view.forms.app/getitrightsg/writingworkshop

Start with Stories

In both in-person and online lessons, I love using real books to help students build their vocabulary. The magic of a printed book cannot be overestimated. I curate a selection of local and international authors to expand our students' reading repertoire.

What have my students done before?
-Pick out difficult words and search for words of similar meanings
-Discuss the plot and identify our reactions and feelings
-Design a poster for the book's adaptation into a movie
-Set comprehension questions and try to come up with the answer key (Yes, this activity is a fun challenge!)

Before we can write more and write well, we need to read more and read well. If you are feeling lost while dreadfully memorising model compositions, how about making a change in how you learn? Join me on a fearless language journey!

Teacher Libing runs phonics workshops for parents and caregivers, as well as English Language lessons for children, teens and adult learners. Math and Science (primary) lessons are by Teacher Augustine. We have worked with local and international students, as well as students in both public school and homeschool settings.

Send us a message if you think we can help you!

Our marking service rates have been updated! Please check the details and contact us if we can help you.

Please note that Get It Right only charges marking for each piece of work, submitted to our email. We do not offer pre-paid packages for multiple pieces of marking, as students may not be able to complete writing all the compositions. We seek your understanding on this matter. Thank you!

Rates as of August 2023 (per piece of writing):

P3 P4
Continuous Writing / Composition $25
Situational Writing / Similar Functional tasks $20

P5 P6
Continuous Writing / Composition $30
Situational Writing / Similar Functional tasks $25

Lower Secondary Year 1 and Year 2
Both Continuous and Situational Writing $40

Upper Secondary Year 3 and Year 4
Both Continuous and Situational Writing $45

For other levels / types of writing, kindly send us an enquiry.

For more information, please look at our marking services link.
https://www.getitright.sg/marking.html
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Read and Respond

Every book in my hands gets flipped through multiple times, as I ask myself, what kind of authentic learning can we get from this book? I am also often inspired to try different activities with the same books I had used in previous years.

Today we had a lot of fun using a story I had used with last year's 8-year-olds, but with a refreshed lesson concept. This year's learners read the story with me and in response, wrote a diary entry of the main character. I also suggested using one of the book illustrations as a base for the diary sketch. Thinking about how to phrase the diary entry got us discussing the use of adverbs and how the word 'finally' can be in different positions in a sentence. This got us doing a grammar point sketch - see the flexible Finally Character in the top right hand corner?

Writing does not have to be a chore all the time. A simple start is better than none at all.

Teacher Libing runs phonics workshops for parents and caregivers, as well as English Language lessons for children, teens and adult learners. Math and Science (primary) lessons are by Teacher Augustine. We have worked with local and international students, as well as students in both public school and homeschool settings.

Send us a message if you think we can help you!

Phonics - Choose. Read. Draw.

This year, I have the privilege of working with an international student whose first language is not English. He is 8 years old. He has been working very hard on using phonics to read. Recently he has moved on to digraphs (2 vowel letters together). From our list of words with 'ai' and 'oa' sounds, he spun a wheel to pick 2 words. I used the 2 words to form a sentence. Then he read and drew a sketch for the sentence. Through this activity, he practised reading words with digraphs and was able to translate the text into a pictorial form, which showed reading comprehension.

There are various ways to use this activity with our learners, whether they are homeschooling or in a full school.

Teacher Libing runs phonics workshops for parents and caregivers, as well as English Language lessons for children, teens and adult learners. Math and Science (primary) lessons are by Teacher Augustine.

Send us a message if you think we can help you!

#フォニックス #自然拼读法 #英語講座

Interviewing My Phonics Students

This activity never fails to surprise me each time I've done it with my phonics students. I interview my students using questions that contain our lesson keywords. The answers are kept simple - yes or no. Sometimes the students don't know or are not sure, so we just put a question mark. It is an easy activity to review the phonics sounds we have learned and build some fluency in reading questions.

Teacher Libing runs phonics workshops for parents and caregivers, as well as English Language lessons for children, teens and adult learners. Math and Science (primary) lessons are by Teacher Augustine.

Send us a message if you think we can help you!

#フォニックス #自然拼读法 #英語講座