Hadijah binti Jaffri

We went to PWTC last year to go to International Book Fair (Pesta Buku Antarabangsa) on 27 April 2019 (Friday).  I had to join this trip to replace a teacher as a chaperone.  So, I was entrusted to chaperone four female students (2 form 3 students and 2 form 4 students).   Our English panel needed a representative to write an essay about the trip to be included in the school magazine which is published biannually.  It was a chance that I would definitely grab.  But since the articles are meant for students, I could not submit an article in that magazine.  What a shame!  But I asked (forced) two of the girls in my group to submit an article.  So, here is the article that I have edited before they submitted it for printing.   This is an example of informal article composition, but if you omit the name of the authors/writer, it can be considered as a descriptive composition (describe an event).   So, for directed writing, actually it is similar with continuous writing format.  The only difference is the points are given unlike continuous writing in which you have to figure out yourself the points that you want to include in your essay.

Title:  A day trip to PWTC

Written by Thaqifah Izyan Binti Ahmad and Ezzah Raabiatul  Adawiyah Binti Mokhtaruddin

It has always been one of my dreams to go on a trip with my friends to Kuala Lumpur.  Early this year, our Malay language teacher, Miss Normah Binti Nayan told us about a trip that would be organized by our school to Putra World Trade Centre (PWTC) at Kuala Lumpur.  I felt so excited and could hardly wait the day even though it would be in April.  We were going to PWTC to go to the Kuala Lumpur International Book Fair 2018 (KLIBF18).

I still could remember the day vividly, Friday 27^th April 2018.  I could hardly sleep and just managed to catch a wink because we have to gather at Az-Zahra musolla of our school at 0330 am.  I woke up at 0220 am and woke my roommate too, Ezzah because she would also be in this trip.  There were 80 students and 20 teachers who went on this trip. 

We departed from our school at 0345 am and we were advised by Ustazah Norzihan Binti Saniman to make du’a for our safety and other things that we wish in life.  Normally, we would still be asleep at 0345 am even though it is considered as the best time for tahajjud.  This time around, since we were wide awake to start our day-trip to Kuala Lumpur, we took this chance to make du’a to Allah in the last third of the night.  Ustazah Norzihan told us about the Prophet’s hadith which was narrated by Abu Hurairah (RA): “In the last third of every night, Our Rabb (Cherisher and Sustainer) Allah SWT Descends to the lowestmost heaven and says ‘Who is calling Me, so that I May Answer him?  Who is asking Me so that May I Grant him? Who is seeking forgiveness from Me so that I May Forgive him?’  [Sahih al-Bukhari, hadith Qudsi].  I made a simple due in which I pray May Allah Grant me all my wishes.  Since it not even 0400 am, I felt sleepy and thus, I fell asleep throughout the journey afterwards. 

I only woke up when we arrived at Pagoh’s R&R at 0557 am.  We performed Subh prayer at the R&R’s musolla and after that we had our breakfast eating Nasi Ambeng that the teachers ordered for us.  We met other students and teachers from different schools who were also going to PWTC.  We continued our journey at 0700am and this time around, I did not fall asleep after that and I enjoyed looking at the scenery along the way to PWTC. 

To ensure our safety and wellbeing, Miss Normah as the group leader of this trip divided each of us into a group of four.  There were 20 groups of students and 20 teachers were assigned to all of the groups to act as chaperones.  The teacher assigned for our group was Teacher Hadijah Binti Jaffri and there were four of us in her group: Ezzah, Azwa, Nadhirah and me.  I was so glad and happy because Teacher Hadijah was assigned as our group chaperone. 

We arrived at PWTC at 1005 am and the teachers gathered us for a quick briefing before letting us go to PWTC to explore the various booths ourselves.  Teacher Hadijah instructed us to meet her at 1200 pm around lunch time.  Ezzah and I spent around two hours browsing various booths.  I bought several books for myself and my parents.  I bought my parents a book entitled ‘Mendidik anak lelaki’ by Adnan Hassan Salleh.  The book that I bought for myself was a novel by Hilal Asyraf entitled ‘V.T’.  It was recommended by Ustazah Nur Nasihah Al-Sakinah Binti Abdul Manan when I accidentally bumped into her at one of the booths.  I love reading that book because it makes me feel motivated. 

While waiting for Teacher Hadijah, Ezzah and I ate a sandwich that we bought for RM5.  We shared the sandwich because we thought that the food that they sold at the small stalls inside the PWTC were costly.    At around 1155am, Nadirah found us while we were about to finish our sandwich because Teacher Hadijah wanted to bring the four of us to Sunway Putra just across the street from PWTC for lunch.  We went to Burger King® and Teacher Hadijah gave the four of us a treat.  All of us ordered one whole set each.  While waiting for our order to arrive, Teacher Hadijah realized that Azwa was not feeling well.  She went to the nearby pharmacy to buy some medicine.  I could tell that she is a caring person because she looked so concerned when she knew Azwa was not feeling well. 

After lunch, we went back to PWTC and waited the bus to arrive.  The bus arrived at 0250 pm and we went to take a Mass Rapid Transit (MRT) train at National Museum station to go to Kajang.  I felt so excited because this would be my first experience to take a ride on MRT train.  It took us around 45 minutes to arrive MRT Kajang Station which is nearby to the famous Hj Samuri’s satay Kajang restaurant.  It took us a few minutes by walk from the MRT Kajang Station to the restaurant.  We performed our Zuhr and ‘Asr prayers at the restaurant’s musolla.  We enjoyed eating satay Kajang to our fullest.  We stayed at the restaurant until 0530 pm.  It was raining heavily when the bus arrived to pick us up. 

I could hardly wait to read the books that I bought so I started reading it while on the bus on the way back to Johor.  After a while, I felt tired from reading and I had a quick chat with my friend before both of us decided to sleep.  Around 0815 pm, we woke up when we arrived at Ayer Keroh’s R&R.  We performed Maghrib and ‘Isya’ prayers at the musolla.  After that, Ezzah and I ate curry noodles that both of us shared for dinner.   We departed from Ayer Keroh at 0915 pm and arrived at our school at 0120 am.  Even though I felt exhausted but I was happy because I had a memorable trip with my friends to Kuala Lumpur and I have fulfilled one of my wishes.  I wish that I could have many trips with my friends in the future.  [1050 words]

 

I taught form 4 students directed writing.  One of the types is Article or Report.  The formal article normally looks like a report to complain or make suggestion to people with authority.  When I gave this example of article to the students, it caused a little bit uproar and chaos as they finished reading it.  What a day!   For obvious reason, I did not submit this report to the principal though 😀

To: Principal of SABK Madrasah Al Attas

Date: 17 September 2018

Title: Reasons for students lack of motivation among Form 4 students to learn English

Recently, a survey was conducted to find out reasons for Form 4 students’ lack of motivation to learn English.  The survey was conducted among 50 students of all Form 4 students.  Other than quantitative survey, some of the students were interviewed to get more insight about their lack of motivation in learning.  The results of the survey demonstrated that there are three main reasons for the students’ lack of interest in learning English.

Firstly, the students do not have the right attitude towards learning.  They are not keen to participate in classroom activities conducted by teachers during lesson and some of them would rather fall asleep throughout the learning sessions.  Those who were interviewed feel that classroom activities do not help them to understand the materials discussed and thus, they have difficulty to stay focused and stay awake during lesson.  They also commented that most of the time, they feel bored with the activities conducted in class and do not feel the importance to participate in those activities conducted.

 Secondly, English is perceived as colonial language and has less value as compared to Arabic language.  Thus, learning English is considered as less important as compared to learning Arabic language.  The students feel that it is more important for them to master Arabic language as compared to English language due to this skewed conception of importance of both languages.  Due to this, most of them feel that there are no needs to complete the homework exercise on English subject even though they are prompted by their English language teachers numerous times to complete and submit their homework on time. 

 Thirdly, some parents of the students do not emphasise the importance of English language mastery as compared to Arabic language.  The lack of emphasis by parents inadvertently strengthen their children’s belief and value of English language.  For those who sincerely believed that English language is not as important as Arabic language, they do not invest in buying reference or exercise books in English for their children.  The lack of parental support makes it difficult for the students to have more positive outlook on English language and thus, the students feel that it is acceptable to get below average grade for English.

It is unfortunate that these reasons become deterrent for the students to enhance their English language proficiency.  The following suggestions should be able to encourage interest in English language among students if implemented accordingly.  The first way is that teachers should stress the importance of learning various languages and mastery of various subjects as preparation for the future, not for examination per se.  This can be done in many ways whether unofficially or officially through various activities.  Secondly, the school can invite alumni who are successful in various fields due to their language proficiency especially in English.  For example, an alumnus who has a PhD from a western university could serves as an example of a former student who had studied at this school could be proficient in various languages such as English, Arabic and Malay.  Lastly, the school can organize an event where parents can meet various alumni with various professions that would allow them to interact and ask questions about various career prospects of individuals with various language proficiency.  These suggestions would help to enhance students and their parents’ positive perception on English language.  [555 words]

Prepared by:  Hadijah Jaffri

I use this article as an example of speech in my English class.  I told the students, even though this is a speech, it can be turned into factual composition if they delete the salutation parts (introduction and conclusion) ad amend some of the sentences to make it less of a speech and more like normal composition.  For example, in continuous composition, we don’t use the term like “I would like to urge..” or “I would like to present…”, because both phrases denote “a conversational style” as if we are interacting face to face with our audience which we do when we give a speech.  So, if we change that part a bit, we can have a factual composition instead.  Easy, right?  Yet, some students were struggling to understand the concept.  Sigh… This is one of the lowest points of being a teacher because you can’t help from feeling sad when some of your students don’t understand what you are teaching.  But, I consoled myself that sooner or later they will get it In sha Allah

Title: Pollution and the effects of pollution

Assalamu’alaikum wa rahmatullahi wa barakatuh and a very good morning to all of you,

Ladies and gentlemen,

I would like to present a topic which relates to our current concern, which is pollution.  What is pollution?  The meaning of the word ‘pollution’ means to make things dirty.  In another word, pollution is the addition of any foreign or poisonous substances into the environment at very fast rate than the environment natural accommodation.  Accordingly, the pollution of natural resources causes imbalance in the ecosystem. Pollution has become a major environmental issue as it has created lots of health hazards to the people and animals of any age group. In the recent years, the rate of pollution is increasing very sharply because of the industrialized waste material mixing out directly into the soil, air and water. In any case, if the serious pollution problems occur, it causes hazardous to the life.  It needs to be tackle seriously, otherwise our future generations would suffer a lot.

Pollution is classified into many categories according to the natural resources getting affected such as air pollution, soil pollution, water pollution, noise pollution, etc. Rate of pollution is increasing due to the selfishness of the human being to earn more money and to fulfill some unnecessary wishes. In the modern era where technological advancement is given more priority by the people, everyone has forgotten the real discipline of life.

Continuous and unnecessary cutting down of the forests, urbanization and large production through industrialization has involved as a huge cause of the pollution. Harmful and poisonous wastes created from such activities causes irreversible changes to the soil, air and water which ultimately push lives towards pain. This big social issue needs a public level social awareness programme to destroy by its root to get complete relief.

Thus, I would like to urge each and everyone of us to play our roles actively in minimizing the effects of our action to our environment.  We can start by recycling and reusing the things that we want to discard in order to reduce wastage.  As Vincent Van Gogh once said “Great things are not done by impulse, but by a series of small things brought together”.  That’s all from me.  Thank you.                                          [354 words]

As someone who is not trained in TEASL, teaching English is challenging.  Sometimes I feel like I am an impostor, pretender as if I am well-versed in English.  Well, I did write my PhD thesis in English but it does not mean that I am qualify to teach English at secondary school level.  This is my initial thought when I did my Latihan Ikhtisas.  I hate the feeling of being an impostor.  A fake English teacher.  That’s the label that I give to myself.  But, based on my training as an instructor at university level and armed with research experiences, I know how to search and research information related to whatever things that I have to teach.  So, that’s why I don’t rely too much on textbooks or whatever reference books because my sources are varied.   If I found something useful for my students, I would revise it again and make it into handouts.  For every single composition, I include tips and techniques part so students get quick review on what to expect when writing a composition.  An example of that as the following:

Tips and techniques: Opinions, talks and speeches

1. Know the format of a talk/speech.

Greeting and introduction   Beginning of speech   Body: –         Presents a topic/problem/issue –         Gives information/ examples   Conclusion –         Conclude a topic/problem/issue –         Thank the audience

 

2. Read the question carefully. Are you asked to use all the points given or some of the points?
3. Present your points concisely.
4. You can use the following phrases to structure your speech.
5. Know your target audience.

List of Useful Phrases for Public Speaking

1. When you want to start the conversation/speech

• A very good morning I bid to all of you.
• Good morning to the examiners [or judges] and all my fellow candidates [friends].

1. When you want to introduce your audience with your point/view/opinion

• The situation I have been given is…
• According to the situation…
• Based on the situation given…
• I have 3 reasons to justify my point.
• First and foremost/ Firstly,
• I would like to tell….

1. When you want to link your previous point(s) with the following point(s)

• Secondly,…
• My second point is…
• Another reason is…
• Furthermore/Moreover/In addition,…
• Therefore/Hence/Thus,…
• However/ In contrast,…
• Other than that/ On the other hand,…
• Conversely,…
• Consequently/ Subsequently,…
• For example/For instance,…
• Take for example,…… and so on/many more/ others

1. When you want to conclude or end your part

• Finally/ Lastly,
• Last but not least,…
• In conclusion/As a conclusion/ To conclude….
• In short/In a nutshell,…

Sample question:

Your school is organising a competition in line with the celebration of “Character Building Day”.  You decide to participate in the competition and deliver a talk about influential people that influence a person’s character or qualities. 

Use the points below to write your talk.

• character can be influenced by person – parents are the most influential
• parents know children – birth – spend most time with
• children imitate parents’ behaviour – similarity of behaviour
• parents are first educator – manners learn at home
• children learn values from parents – values reflect on character

Sample speech: 

Hi, a very good morning to the judges and my fellow friends. As we are talking about how a person’s character can be influenced by another person, the people whom I think have the most influence in a person’s life are parents. There are three reasons why I think so.

Firstly, parents are the people whom know us since birth. We become like the person whom we spend the most time with. Parents are the people whom we see every day from the moment we are born, until the day we are adults. Hence, very naturally, they become the people whom we look up to and start imitating the way they talk, act, and even think.  There are several proverbs to illustrate the similarity of character or qualities between parents and their children.  Examples of the proverbs are “Like father, like son” or “An apple does not fall far from the tree”. 

My second reason is because parents are the first educators to their children before anybody else. Table manners and basic etiquettes are taught at home, by the parents.  It is also the parents’ responsibility to inculcate good manners and conducts of their child.  Parents leave huge impacts on us that we ourselves fail to recognize it sometimes. 

Thirdly, parents are the ones who impart values into our lives. Values are assets which we hold on to for the rest of our lives and this is the greatest influence of all. Values are what we make our decisions upon, and it is what shapes our character.  Our behaviour reflects on the values that we have.  In addition, the values that we have also reflect our parents’ personality and values that they adhere to.  Thus, it is important for the parents to impart good values because their children’s personality and values would mirror their own personality and values.

In conclusion, I think that though there may be many others who can influence a person’s character such as teachers and peers but ultimately, parents are the greatest influencers of all. With that, I conclude my speech. Thank you very much.

349 words

You want more sample of speech?   

One of the continuous writing compositions that I have to teach is Argumentative composition [an essay where you defend your stand or view either agree or disagree].

ARGUMENTATIVE COMPOSITION

Tips and techniques

1. You have to write a composition not less than 350 words. You have to write it within 45-50 minutes.
2. You have to discuss an issue and give your opinion or take a stand.
3. The main purpose is to persuade your reader into agreeing with your point of view.
4. Points are based on hard facts. To take a stand on this argument, you will have to know the facts of the subject/ issue.
5. Note the specific structure and language features of an argumentative composition.

With the current rising social issues at our society, corporal punishment should be implemented at school as deterrent to the uprising social issues among teenagers.  Write a composition to state your view about this issue in not less than 350 words.  

Corporal punishment is the act of using physical force to punish a student for wrongdoing.  It might involve a ruler across the back of the hand or a cane to the rear.  Corporal punishment has since been outlawed as a cruel and unusual punishment.  However, we often heard of the adage ‘Spare the rod and spoil the child’.  Thus, I believe that corporal punishment should be incorporated back as part of punishment to deter unruly behaviors and wrongdoings at schools.

 Some experts claim that corporal punishment is a good way to prevent students from breaking rules and committing offences, especially repeat offenders.  Seeing their schoolmates getting the cane will deter others from smoking or any wrongdoing.  This is what behavioral psychologists called as vicarious learning in which people learn through observing the behaviors or consequences of behaviors of others. 

 In addition, corporal punishment is also a form of preparation for real life.  Wrongdoing has to be punished.  Students have to be taught to be responsible and accountable for their actions.  Using corporal punishment in school would serve as a clear message to all students that any wrongdoing will not be rewarded and dealt accordingly. 

Also, corporal punishment can also serve as a viable alternative to suspension.  In general, students often do not enjoy school.  A suspension from school can send out the message that it is rewarding rather than a punishment when students break school rules and regulations. 

 Even though public caning can cause injuries or trauma unnecessarily yet if it is done properly, caning can deter or decrease the probability of any wrongdoing to be carried out in the future by students.  In this regards, a caning schedule is part of the school regulation in which what warrants one stroke of cane, what offence gets two and so on are clearly spelt out and be understood by all teachers and students. 

In conclusion, corporal punishment should be brought back as part of school punishment to give power back to teachers again.  Currently, teachers struggle to chastise students because current punishments have no intimidation power.  A lack of corporal punishment leaves teachers powerless to prevent bad behavior.  I do agree that corporal punishment should be implemented again at school to keep managed students’ behavior.  [375 words]