Using Secondary School material to prepare my PSLE kid

[Chenonceau]

jtoh:

Chenonceau,


That English teacher of your son's really gets my goat. How is she qualified to teach English? I dread to think how many students have had their creativity and spelling abilities suffer under her charge.

I know. I can identify issues with technique and language because there are clear cut norms for these. For example, it is quite clear when we use \"fairs\" and \"fares\". I am stressed about content because I am still not sure what PSLE wants.

In any event, I have decided that I'll just teach my son what I personally think is good writing. It'll be a life skill even if the marks stay low. We're no doing picture compo practices anymore till after June 2012. His last 2 picture compos were mere rehash of plots and phrases that he knew from experience to be well accepted. It may not have been offensive to teacher, but it offended me and I grieved to see him plagiarize his own work... so I told him that we won't do compo practices anymore. We'll try and write short stories instead where he has greater scope for independent thought and where he MUST reinvent himself.

[Lock]

Chenonceau:

For the story graded A1 above, I think the my son's teacher would say that crows can't write... therefore, unrealistic.

:rotflmao: Your DS will do well in sec sch. You see, trs in sec sch specialise in the subjects they teach, unlike in Pri Sch.

Trust me. I was as frustrated as you when it comes to Pri sch writing. My take is this: It really depends on the teacher marking your kids' compo. If a maths tr teaching EL is marking the compo, naturally creativity will not score high on his/her platter. The 'model' essays with 'azure blue sky', 'memories etched firmly in my mind' are the ones that will score. Perspectives from an animal or inanimate objects will be considered 'unrealistic' and hence, marked down. However, if the EL teacher is EL trained, then the 'model' essays will cease to be 'model'. In fact, there's no model, originality and creativity will score high.

So Chenonceau, you did the right thing by not confining your kid's writing to PSLE requirement. PSLE writing kills real writers! Get your ds to write beyond but help him to know the 'type' to write for PSLE that will help scores. we are afterall very practical parents

PS: No offence to Maths teachers. If I were to be marking maths papers, I will give marks for all the equal signs used as long as it means the same as and would not bother to go into the deeper meaning of what the sign really means. It's no fault of the teachers really, they have to rely heavily on rubrics as these are not their areas of expertise but they are still required to teach the subject. Unless, we can have all graduates teach in Pri sch, otherwise, things are going to continue to be the same.

[alng]

Chenonceau:

Again I say it. In Singapore, creativity is a burden and a curse. Why do you think so many whale researchers came, set up shop... and then fled?

That is why Singapore is suffering from lack in creativity! There is no innovators but \"copiers\" here.

[Sun_2010]

alng:

Chenonceau:

Again I say it. In Singapore, creativity is a burden and a curse. Why do you think so many whale researchers came, set up shop... and then fled?

That is why Singapore is suffering from lack in creativity! There is no innovators but \"copiers\" here.

Oh! I disagree.
Innovators are a plenty, only that few can survive the system and yet retain their creativity.
And that is the tragedy

[Sun_2010]

Interesting exchange of thoughts ! Thanks all!

Lock:

The 'model' essays with 'azure blue sky', 'memories etched firmly in my mind' are the ones that will score.

Someone please show me what shade of blue is azure.
It really drives me crazy when i see such phrases in model compos . I mean if you cant come up with a few words to describe the sky in context , then just dont. :roll:

One issue DD faced was over explaining her sentences. If there are two wonderful ways in which somethings can be described , she would use both. IMO, nothing is more insulting to the reader then to have the same emotion first described in a phrase , then explained. The art, of course, is to make the reader feel the emotion by building it up than to be told. Easier said than done.

[Pen88n]

Lock, regarding the example you have given, DS tried to be "creative" in his compo by using another person’s perspective, and guess what, he failed his compo for his SA as it was marked as "out-of-point". He was told that he should not pose as a teacher and he should only write the essay from the perspective of the student only.


There was a similar essay done for that title before in class, and as he thought the whole class would be writing the same thing, he wanted to be different and that ended up hurting him badly. Lesson learnt, and he no longer dare to gamble with new writing style for exams!

[linden2000]

I am also very curious what are the guidelines used to mark for content during psle. Is it a requirement that all stories must be entirely believable ? My son also has the tendency to write compos which have been deemed to be too far-fetched by teachers. Once he wrote about a rabid dog biting someone and he took pains to describe the ferocity of the dog and the agony and fear that the victim went through. Well he failed for content because the teacher thinks there are unlikely to be rabid dogs in S’pore and so unlikely to happen. For psle, i will probably advise him to stick to picture compos and for open-ended ones, to ascertain if his ending belongs to the ‘definitely can happen’ category.

[Strparent]

Pen88n:

Lock, regarding the example you have given, DS tried to be \"creative\" in his compo by using another person's perspective, and guess what, he failed his compo for his SA as it was marked as \"out-of-point\". He was told that he should not pose as a teacher and he should only write the essay from the perspective of the student only.


There was a similar essay done for that title before in class, and as he thought the whole class would be writing the same thing, he wanted to be different and that ended up hurting him badly. Lesson learnt, and he no longer dare to gamble with new writing style for exams!

Pen88n,

think your DS teacher is one of those 'fixed-brain' zombies the previous MOE education system had produced in abundance :evil: :siam:

My DS has even written about men from outer space before in P4 or P5, which was so terribly out of the ordinary, but his teacher enjoyed it, just asking him to tone it down in terms of reality and credibility. :yikes:

[Pen88n]

Strparent:

Pen88n:

Lock, regarding the example you have given, DS tried to be \"creative\" in his compo by using another person's perspective, and guess what, he failed his compo for his SA as it was marked as \"out-of-point\". He was told that he should not pose as a teacher and he should only write the essay from the perspective of the student only.


There was a similar essay done for that title before in class, and as he thought the whole class would be writing the same thing, he wanted to be different and that ended up hurting him badly. Lesson learnt, and he no longer dare to gamble with new writing style for exams!

Pen88n,

think your DS teacher is one of those 'fixed-brain' zombies the previous MOE education system had produced in abundance :evil: :siam:

My DS has even written about men from outer space before in P4 or P5, which was so terribly out of the ordinary, but his teacher enjoyed it, just asking him to tone it down in terms of reality and credibility. :yikes:

DS did that before during compo practice - failed! Teacher said no writing sci-fict stories - essay must be practical and on real life happenings!

My DS has his fair share of \"failing\" compo due to \"out-of-point\" (thanks to his \"funny\" thinking), so much so that he learnt to stick to the usual boring storyline for exam. This is the reality for Singapore school exam!

[Sun_2010]

Pen88n:

Strparent:

[quote=\"Pen88n\"]Lock, regarding the example you have given, DS tried to be \"creative\" in his compo by using another person's perspective, and guess what, he failed his compo for his SA as it was marked as \"out-of-point\". He was told that he should not pose as a teacher and he should only write the essay from the perspective of the student only.


There was a similar essay done for that title before in class, and as he thought the whole class would be writing the same thing, he wanted to be different and that ended up hurting him badly. Lesson learnt, and he no longer dare to gamble with new writing style for exams!

Pen88n,

think your DS teacher is one of those 'fixed-brain' zombies the previous MOE education system had produced in abundance :evil: :siam:

My DS has even written about men from outer space before in P4 or P5, which was so terribly out of the ordinary, but his teacher enjoyed it, just asking him to tone it down in terms of reality and credibility. :yikes:

DS did that before during compo practice - failed! Teacher said no writing sci-fict stories - essay must be practical and on real life happenings!

My DS has his fair share of \"failing\" compo due to \"out-of-point\" (thanks to his \"funny\" thinking), so much so that he learnt to stick to the usual boring storyline for exam. This is the reality for Singapore school exam![/quote]Sad , we ( as part of the system) dont realise what we are losing out on.

That said there are some good teachers , i guess and DD has been fortunate to have some of them.
Some of those that i really enjoyed reading -

- written from the prespective of a pot bellied , old cop on the verge of retirement from a lack lusture life while describing a robbery.
- written from the prespective of a love struck adolocent boy working as a part time waiter infatuated by his lovely regular patron again about a robbery
- written from the prespective of a less popular twin wanting her twin sister dead ( Jodi Picoult effect )

Thankfully her teacher appreciated her efforts and rewarded her inspite of the spelling mistakes ( she never has time to check, i only pray she manages to complete her compo in time)