The Importance of Revising and Recapping

By WR!TERS@WORK

Every lesson at W@W will feature a Revise and Recap session, whether done at the beginning of the lesson or the end. W@W intentionally schedules time for these Revise and Recap sessions for one simple but fundamental reason – mastery of the English language involves continuous practice to refresh the use of new phrases and words in the student’s memory. As such, Revise and Recap is one of the most important parts of every lesson.

What Do W@W Students Do When Revising and Recapping?

At W@W, students will have a Revise and Recap session during the lesson itself. A few minutes of each lesson is devoted to revise the phrases learned during the past week to test the student’s understanding of how to use them in their compositions. Students will be asked to recall what these phrases were, and the emotions evoked in the reader by these phrases.

Some teachers at W@W emphasise the importance of Revising and Recapping at home. Students ought to read through the phrases given during the lesson by themselves 2 or 3 times a week to ensure that they are familiar with the phrases and can use them in their compositions. One key facet of improvement in writing involves the accumulation of new words and phrases to enrich a student’s vocabulary, and familiarity with the phrases learned during class is paramount to achieve the goal of improving a student’s essay writing.

Why Should We Revise and Recap?

1. Revising and Recapping Helps Get the Student in the Right Frame of Mind for the Lesson

When students first arrive in the classroom, they may be bursting with energy and excitement at finally meeting their friends at the end of the week. To settle down, our W@W teachers ease students into the lesson by Revising and Recapping the previous week’s lesson.

Each lesson consists of phrases to learn and memorise, and students should try their best to recall the phrases they learned during last week’s lesson to get into the right frame of mind for the day’s class. Revising and recapping the last week’s phrases will help the student settle down and turn their minds to the type of content they will learn during class.

2. Revising and Recapping Helps Reinforce the Phrases So Students Remember Them

It is important that students constantly reinforce their understanding of the phrases they have learned in class. Students will have a far more effective experience studying at W@W when they can recall and use the phrases they have learned in their essays. However, remembering these phrases under the timed setting of an exam will only be possible if students revise and recap these phrases way before they sit for the exam, or start burning the midnight oil.

During the Revise and Recap session, the W@W teachers will go through the previous week’s phrases so that students have the phrases in their heads more than once. This helps them remember the phrases for their exams. Furthermore, the W@W teachers may engage in a discussion with their students about what these phrases mean and what feelings they evoke in the reader, which further cements these phrases in the students’ minds.

3. Revising and Recapping Helps Improve the Student’s Composition Flow

At W@W, the phrases students learn in class are meant to give the student a rough flow of an entire story, so that students will be able to write the entire essay based on a plot they have creatively written together as a class. During the lesson, students will go through a Plot Curve and devise a logical, coherent plot together. There are several stages in the Plot Curve which are meant to form an entire story when the different stages are put together in paragraphs. Each paragraph will have a set of phrases students need to use to make their story better.

Revising and recapping helps students improve their composition flow as they will be able to remember the sequence of events much better. Furthermore, students will be familiar with the phrases and will be less likely to suffer from Writer’s Block, where they freeze and cannot think about anything good to write. Having a good flow of the story will also help students feel more confident about their writing abilities, which may help them face their exams.

4. Revising and Recapping Helps the Student Gain a Richer Vocabulary

A common struggle that students have is gaining a richer vocabulary to use in their actual compositions for their English exams. Reading the dictionary and writing down words in isolation to use will be difficult for many students, as they will depend on rote memorisation and will not realise the significance of the words. At W@W, learning and revising the key phrases for each paragraph will help students gain a richer vocabulary in the context of a story students are familiar with (as they will have written the story out).

Context is important for students to remember by association, as students often remember best when the thing they are trying to remember is connected to other things. When recalling things, students will sometimes remember things which are connected to the phrases, or a vague description of how the story goes (much like how they remember the plot of a movie or their favourite games) and will be able to use it in their English exams.

Learn How to Write in a Coherent and Concise Manner with WR!TERS@WORK!

At WR!TERS@WORK, we are committed to providing the smoothest learning experience for your primary or secondary school child sitting for their English exam. With our carefully curated methods of teaching your child how to write, your child will be able to craft well-written essays in any genre with good grammar, vocabulary, and sentence structure.

English tuition and writing courses are instrumental for students not only in school, but to prepare them for their future undertakings as good writing is a universal necessity. Enjoy a smoother learning process with WR!TERS@WORK as we reinforce your child’s language skills and provide them with a strong foundation for academic success. For more exam tips, parents and students can explore our website and watch our YouTube videos.

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Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ):

1. Is It Possible to Fail PSLE?

It is not possible to fail PSLE. The marks obtained in PSLE are merely used as a placement metric to determine which secondary school your child will enter.

2. How Long Should You Study for PSLE?

Parents should take around a year or two to prepare for PSLE as learning about subjects like English requires a long-term effort, as opposed to short cramming.

3. Is PSLE Compulsory?

PSLE is compulsory for everyone to enter secondary school in Singapore.

4. How to Study for PSLE?

Parents should make a list of everything a child should study for all their PSLE subjects. Engaging a tuition teacher or practicing with workbooks and past year papers may help students tackle the exam format of PSLE and feel more confident taking the exam.