Mr. Iman’s English Hub 📝

Sharing my comprehensive notes for Part 1: Short Communicative Message in the hope that they will help with your preparation for the upcoming SPM Trial and SPM examinations. If you’re a student reading this, do your best to aim for 20/20 in this section. It is arguably the easiest component to score well in, as the tasks are designed to assess A2–B1 CEFR proficiency. With consistent practice and a clear understanding of the requirements, full marks are definitely achievable. I hope these notes make your revision a little easier. All the best, and happy studying!

[Writing Lesson - Guided Writing] Topic: 📝 Unit 4 - Being a Teen Textbook Reference: 📝 Full Blast Targetted Students: Upper Forms (Form 4)

One of the easiest ways to elevate students’ writing is by teaching them to use sophisticated connectors naturally. When ideas are linked effectively, essays become more cohesive, convincing, and leave a generally good overall effect.

During the English slot for Perkampungan Ilmu at our school, our invited speaker, Miss Emira, from SMK Pasir Gudang placed great emphasis on the importance of using less common lexis in both writing and speaking. Her session was a timely reminder that impressing examiners is not about using complicated words for the sake of it, but about choosing vocabulary that is precise, natural, and contextually appropriate. Incorporating well-selected C1–C2 level words can significantly elevate students’ language proficiency and help them stand out in the examination. One point that really resonated with me was that vocabulary is not built overnight: it requires consistent exposure, practice, and conscious effort. It made me reflect on my own teaching. Beyond teaching grammar and essay structures, I want my students to become more confident language users who can express their ideas with clarity, precision, and sophistication. Watching them gradually replace ordinary words with richer, more accurate vocabulary is one of the most rewarding parts of teaching English. With that in mind, today I’d like to share a copy of my vocabulary module, VocabFlex. It is a collection of less common lexis and useful alternatives that students can easily refer to while writing essays or preparing for speaking assessments. I hope fellow English teachers will find it useful, and I warmly encourage you to make copies for your students so they can keep it in their writing files or revision folders for quick reference. I truly love seeing my students enrich their essays with more sophisticated vocabulary: not because it makes their writing sound “fancy”, but because it enables them to communicate their ideas more effectively, naturally, and confidently. One well-chosen word can sometimes make all the difference. Let’s continue equipping our students with the vocabulary they need to become better communicators, stronger writers, and more confident English users.

Just wrapped up my “Just Speak” Workshop with the Form 5 students of SMK Taman Nusa Damai today 💙 It was a truly meaningful experience to return to a school that holds a special place in my heart. Before my official posting, I had the opportunity to serve here as a MySTEP teacher. Coming back as a speaker made this moment even more memorable. We explored tips, tricks, and techniques from Part 1: Interview to Part 3: HOTS Discussion, with a focus on helping students understand the speaking test through the eyes of the examiners. I genuinely enjoyed seeing the students step out of their comfort zones, speak up, and give their best. I hope they left the session with greater confidence and a clearer understanding of what examiners are really looking for. Thank you to the school management, the English Panel, and everyone at STAND for the warm invitation and wonderful hospitality. Unlock Your Voice, Unlock Your Potential 🎤

https://vt.tiktok.com/ZSCCjdUg8/ Some of you may have seen this on my TikTok already! 😉 Many of you asked for the materials, so here they are. Feel free to save, adapt, and use them with your students!

[Writing Lesson - Story Writing] Topic: 📝 Unit 4 - Being a Teen Textbook Reference: 📝 Full Blast Targetted Students: Upper Forms (Form 4)

Prompt: Turn the following narrative passage into a comic strip. * Preserve the original storyline and sequence of events. * Create 15-30 panels on one printable A4 landscape page. * Use a warm, hand-painted, semi-realistic anime style with expressive characters, detailed backgrounds, soft colours, and cinematic lighting. * Keep characters visually consistent throughout. * Let the illustrations tell the story. Use as little text as possible. * Use rectangular caption boxes for narration only. * Use speech bubbles only for actual spoken dialogue. * Do not turn narration into dialogue or place narration inside speech bubbles. * Keep narration short (one brief caption per panel whenever possible). * Do not invent dialogue, scenes, or events. * Make all text large and easy to read. * Prioritise storytelling clarity over artistic complexity. Narrative passage:

Laminated the comic strips so they can be reused with future batches of students ♻️ I’m sharing the prompt I used to create the comics. I hope it will be useful for fellow teachers who are looking for fresh ideas for their reading lessons and to help students reach their full potential. Disclaimer: The sample text used in the comic is adapted from PEPERIKSAAN AKHIR SIJIL PENDIDIKAN MRSM 2021. Full credit goes to MARA (2021). This material is shared solely for educational purposes.

Trying out a new intervention with my 5 Ibnu Khaldun class today. After reviewing our latest PPSA item analysis, I noticed that many of my students are struggling with the Reading paper. That’s why I’ve been producing as many reading practices as possible lately. One section they find particularly challenging is Part 3 (Extended Text), especially when the passage is written as a narrative or recount. Since story writing is not exactly their favourite genre, many of them struggle with unfamiliar narrative vocabulary and keeping track of the storyline. So today, I decided to try something different. Using ChatGPT, I generated comic strips based on each Extended Text passage. Before reading the actual text, students first explored the comic so they could visualise the sequence of events and understand the overall flow of the story. After that, they reviewed an annotated version of the passage, where I modelled how to identify and underline key information independently. Finally, they worked in groups to discuss and answer the comprehension questions. For today’s lesson, we completed four Extended Text stations: 📖 Trial Johor 2025 📖 Trial Terengganu 2023 📖 Trial Perlis 2023 📖 PPSA Reading Paper (our school’s own paper) Students rotated from one station to another throughout the lesson. Alhamdulillah, the feedback was very encouraging. Many of them said that reading became much easier because they could visualise the story first before tackling the text itself. Instead of getting lost in unfamiliar words, they already had a mental picture of what was happening. Sometimes, a small change in how we present a text can make a huge difference to students’ confidence and comprehension. If you’re facing the same challenge of teaching narrative reading passages, perhaps integrating AI-generated comic strips could be an intervention worth trying. It certainly made today’s reading lesson much more engaging and meaningful for my students.