DSE Chinese | Integrated Skills Prep Guide (Tutor Edition) | Sorting, Rewriting and Four Common Mistakes

2026-11-12

Tutor lesson-prep guides · Junior Secondary Chinese

Integrated skills is often treated as copying: students lift whole sentences from the recording and the reading booklet, run out of space and score badly. The real work is sorting, rewriting and taking a side, and each of the three has a checkable standard. This lesson separates them into steps.

Objectives — Students can: (1) sort three sources into the four buckets of cause, method, difficulty and outcome, keeping at most three points per bucket; (2) rewrite a source line by changing the subject, the sentence pattern and the connector, so the sense survives and the wording does not; (3) take one position on an issue and write two paragraphs from two genuinely different angles, inside a budget of 250 characters of integration plus 200 characters of argument.

01 Prerequisites (3-minute check)

If any of these fails, fix it before the lesson starts.

Skill	Quick check	Pass mark
Topic sentences	What opens a paragraph	One sentence stating the claim
Cause and contrast connectors	What follows therefore and however	A result after therefore, a reversal after however
Copying versus rewriting	Is a change of subject enough	Not quite, the sentence pattern must change too

02 Lesson flow (60 minutes)

Time	Stage	Tutor does	Student does
0-6 min	Opening contrast	Show a copied answer and a rewritten one, ask which scores higher	State the difference
6-18 min	Sorting	Four buckets: cause, method, difficulty, outcome	Place six points and drop duplicates
18-30 min	Three moves	Change subject, change pattern, add a connector	Rewrite two lines and keep the sense
30-42 min	Taking a side	A position sentence plus two angles: person and society, short and long term	Write two angle sentences
42-54 min	Word budget	Integration 250 characters, argument 200, total 450	Split the budget and check the count
54-60 min	Exit check	Collect two questions, mark whether sorting or argument failed	Work independently

03 Teaching script (read it out)

Scene 1: Sorting: four buckets, then subtract

The first move in integrated skills is not writing but laying the material out. Give students a four-row table of cause, method, difficulty and outcome, and place each source line into a bucket as it is read. Anything that fits nowhere is usually background and can be parked. Then subtract: within a bucket keep only the most specific point, the one with a number or a named group, and drop the rest. Three sources usually yield five to eight usable points, and only six survive. Teach that the speaker matters. Official figures may be quoted directly, a resident opinion works only as an illustration, and mixing the two makes an answer feel loose. Write the subtraction as a rule: at most three per bucket, and any fourth must beat an existing one on specificity. Once students subtract by habit, the word limit stops feeling tight.
Students do: fill six points into the four buckets and mark each keep or drop with a reason.

Students say: explain why one dropped point was too vague, using the has-a-number and names-a-group tests.

Scene 2: Rewriting: subject, pattern, connector

The problem with copying is not the copying itself but the absence of the writer in the paragraph. Three mechanical moves fix it. Change the subject, so the government should becomes the authority needs to. Change the pattern, so a statement becomes a condition. Add a connector, so two points join as in addition or more importantly. Apply all three once and the sentence is unrecognisable while the sense is intact, which is the fastest route under time pressure. Ask students to label which move they used beside each line. Every integrated paragraph needs its own topic sentence and must never open with according to source one. The order is a claim of your own, then rewritten evidence, then one sentence linking to the next paragraph. On length, 250 characters carries six points comfortably, roughly forty each, and anyone writing eighty is usually repeating. Two paragraphs are enough: situation and causes first, methods and difficulties second, which leaves the argument section something to answer.
Students do: rewrite two source lines into one forty-character integrated sentence and label the moves used.

Students say: read the sentence aloud and let a classmate point out where it still sits too close to the source.

Scene 3: Arguing: one position, two angles

The commonest failure is the both-sides essay, where students list benefits, then drawbacks, and never choose. Require the first sentence to decide: I argue for this because. The two angles must be genuinely different, not one idea restated. Four reliable pairs are person and society, short and long term, cost and benefit, feasible and ideal. Pick one pair, one paragraph each, one example each. Examples must be concrete enough to picture. Attendance falling from thirty to twelve is evidence; many schools succeed is not. Where the sources carry numbers, use theirs and credit the source. Split 200 characters into two paragraphs of about a hundred each, then restate the position in one closing line without opening a new question. Check by swapping the second sentence of each paragraph: if the two can trade places without changing the sense, the angles are the same one.
Students do: write a position sentence and two angle sentences with one concrete example each.

Students say: explain in one sentence why they took that side, never saying both sides have a point.

04 Question types and worked steps

Type	Example	Steps	Answer
Integration	Fold three sources into two paragraphs	Sort, subtract, rewrite with three moves, add a topic sentence	Six points, no lifting
Argument	Take a position on an issue	Position sentence, two angles, example, closing restatement	Clear side, angles not repeated
Comparison	Compare two options	One set of criteria applied to both, then judge	Same criteria throughout
Length and format	A word-limited integrated task	Budget first, write, then count	Integration 250 plus argument 200

Sanity check (teach this): Sanity check: three steps of sorting, rewriting and arguing, each with a visible product (the four-bucket table, the rewritten sentence, the position plus two angles); the budget is 250 characters of integration and 200 of argument, checked by the student; never more than three points per bucket; the argument must take a side in its first sentence and any both sides have merit line is sent back; examples must carry a number or a named group; and if the two angles can swap places, the angle is repeated.

05 Independent practice (3 questions)

Question	Answer	What to watch
Sorting	Six points into the four buckets	Duplicates dropped
Rewriting	One source line into a forty-character sentence	Moves used and sense kept
Arguing	A position sentence with two angles	Angles genuinely differ

06 Common mistakes and what to say

Mistake	Student writes	Say this
Copying source text	Whole sentences lifted	You copied it neatly, but the marker wants to see what you did with it, so change the subject and the pattern first.
No position	Benefits then drawbacks, then a full stop	You covered both sides, which means you covered neither, so state what should be done in your first line.
Repeated angle	Both paragraphs argue efficiency	These two paragraphs read fine in either order, which means one angle, so move one to cost or long-term effect.
Running over budget	Integration swells to four hundred characters	Eighty characters per point means repetition; forty is enough, and the rest belongs to the argument.

07 Homework (paper, section and question numbers)

Secondary Chinese chapter index — All chapters for the subject
Prep guide master index — Matching chapters in other subjects
Redo this chapter — Practice 1 and 3: the four buckets and a position with two angles

08 Exit check (last 5 minutes)

Question	Answer	Decision
Three steps	Sort, rewrite, argue	A muddle means act one again
Three moves	Subject, pattern, connector	Copying means act two again
Argument shape	One position, two different angles	No side means act three again

09 Tutor FAQ

How much of the source may be quoted?

As little as possible. Key terms may stay, complete sentences should always be rewritten, or the marker cannot see your handling of the material.

Must the argument use the sources?

Prefer them, because they can be checked. When the sources are thin, a well-known local example works if it carries a number or names a group.

Are two paragraphs of argument enough?

At junior level, yes. Two distinct angles with concrete examples beat four empty ones.

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A TutorZone lesson-prep guide. Written by the TutorZone team; questions and lesson flow are original and are not taken from any school or publisher material.