~ Kim Wang
Curriculum Coordinator, International Department

　With the development of technology, more and more people are using the written word to communicate and express themselves, whether it's through blogs, social media, or messaging apps. As a result, the ability to write and communicate effectively is a must-have skill for students. This year, at our school, we shifted some of our focuses and established the new program called Achieve Writing in order to equip our students with the necessary writing skills to become successful writers. 

　What is the Achieve Writing?

　The Achieve Writing is a program to teaching writing that is tailored to the individual needs of each grade. It involves five stages: pre-writing, drafting, writing, editing, and publishing. In the pre-writing stage, students are encouraged to inquire about the topic, brainstorm ideas, and do some research. In the drafting stage, students filter and organize their research information in groups. Then, they explore various writing skills, such as persuasive and argumentative skills. In the writing stage, students learn to structure their writing into paragraphs and begin their writing. Afterwards, in the editing stage, they edit their grammar and writing flow. Finally, in the publish stage, they publish their work in different forms and share it with their audience. With this systematic approach to teach writing, students can spend more time developing their ideas and understanding the structure of various text types.

　What Benefits Does the Achieve Writing Bring?

　The Achieve Writing has many benefits to offer our students. Firstly, it helps students improve their language use, organizing skills, and text type understanding. Secondly, the spiral curriculum of the Achieve Writing allows students to build their writing skills step-by-step. For example, when grade 2 students write a persuasive text in order to convince people to try healthy but unpopular vegetables, such as eggplant, students focus on differentiating facts and opinions about the vegetables. These facts include the kinds of nutrients the vegetables contain and the benefits they provide to our bodies, while the opinions include personal experience and cooking methods. Later, when grade 6 students write a persuasive text titled Eat Locally, Eat Healthily, they focus more on specifying their word use and descriptions to make their claim clear. For instance, instead of saying most local food is very fresh, they can say most local food has been picked within 24 hours. This approach helps them to hone their written and communication skills, and enables them to articulate their ideas and opinions more effectively.

　What Can Your Child Achieve?

　The Achieve Writing is an important part of our school’s educational philosophy. We believe that it is an effective way to teach our students how to think critically and express themselves through writing. With the help of the Achieve Writing, our students can develop their writing skills and become more confident in their written communication.

Strong Foundational Skills

國際處主任 賴國宜

　　Writing is a vital aspect of education and communication. However, in today's technology-driven society, children are not given many opportunities to practice writing. This school year, we adjusted Chinese English Teachers' curriculum to focus more on teaching writing skills such as planning for main messages, organizing paragraphs, and editing and revising text. Although learning to convey thoughts in writing takes a lot of work, we believe that developing writing skills at an early age will contribute to the child's future success as a student and as an adult. 

　　Our annual English Open Day events will start from grade six on April 26. We would like to welcome all parents to participate in the events. Your presence will inspire students to work hard and make them enthusiastic and joyful.  

　　網路普及和通訊軟體流行，例如：YouTube、Instagram大多以影像的分享為主，即便要傳訊息也大量使用貼圖，連字都不用打，教育界普遍發現學生的作文能力變差了，為了搶救寫作能力，學測甚至將作文從國文科獨立出來。這一個學年度開始，我們也將中師的專題課程調整為寫作工作坊(Achieve Writing)，除了教授孩子蒐集資訊、選擇素材、安排段落、組織成篇等寫作技巧，更藉著不同文體的練習，培養孩子敘事、描寫、說明和議論等不同類型的寫作手法。如果您對作文的印象還停留在，「起承轉合再加上名言佳句，就可以得高分」，非常推薦您閱讀課研組長Ms. Kim的文章，了解我們的英文寫作課程。我們相信持續的閱讀和寫作，能養成學生主動思考的習慣，發展高階批判和創意的思維，才能擁有面對複雜未來的能力。

　　研究指出，桌遊不僅可以打發時間、還能抒發情緒，益智性的桌遊更提供許多學習的機會，最近四年級的寫作主題就是設計桌遊，從挑選主題、制定遊戲規則到設計遊戲道具，都由孩子們自主合作完成，這些寓教於樂的桌遊將在四年級的English Open Day發表，各班最優秀的作品，下學期也會在英語村的大下課提供給全校的小朋友玩，為了讓您先睹為快，在本期與您分享一些孩子們的創作。