2012 PSLE Discussions and Strategy

[psle2011mum]

Hi Everyone


I don't have time for a long post but I think this article [see link] may throw some more light on annotating.

http://www.learning-ventures.blogspot.com/2010_04_01_archive.html

Will be back with the promised annotations as soon as I am able. Gb!

[HAPPYH]

tclhub:

Hi all

I am back, on medical leave, so managed to find some time to update what I learnt on annotating comprehension. Hope this helps but those who have done it, hope I can also learn from your experience. I am still learning. As what psle2011mum taught, I typed out the whole comprehension passage, leaving 1 line space between every sentence in the passage for annotation. Here, I extract some lines in the passage to illustrate how my DD and I did the annotation. The passage we did were on 'spiders\":
1) Example :\"One creature that has always been a source of fear and fascination is the spider\". DD annotated by drawing a picture using stick man with mouth wide open and another stick man with words in bubble \"it's awesome\". She can picture how fearful or fascinated spiders can be.
2) Another example : \"Some are venomous, while others are not. Some are fuzzy, while others are not.\". She underlined the key words, which are \"venomous\" and \"fuzzy\" and wrote down their meanings - poisonous (for venomous) and full of hair \"for fuzzy\". In one of the questions, they asked to give another word to mean \"venomous\".
3) Another example : \"They have fangs which are used to kill their prey\".
DD underlined \"fangs\" which means \"long sharp teeth\" and drew picture of it.
4) Example :One statement in passage states \"Unlike other spiders that normally eat anything that gets trapped in the web, this particular spider waits at a specific spot and ambushes the prey\".
In another few lines down the passgae, there is this statement \"They are not noisy compared to other animals and they do not give off any harmful odours from urine or feces\". The passage was referring to \"Tarantulas\", 1 type of spider.
I drew a picture of a spider, labelled it \"T\" for \"Tarantula\" and drew another picture of a bush. Next, draw another picture of spider, labelled it \"S\" for spiders and a spider web with bits of food in it.
In annotating the second statement, drew an animal to represent \"other animal\" (monkey), drew a spider and wrote down \"quiet\", \"no harmful smell\" next to the spider.
In the comprehension, there were 2 questions asked:
a) How are tarantulas different from other animals?
b) When hunting for prey, how does the tarantula differ from other spiders?
With the 2 sets of pictures, it was clear which statement is applicable to which question (different from other animals and different from other spiders).
This is how I have done so far. I think the main thing is to practise going through each sentence in the comprehension passage in-depth. As my DD is more of a visual learner, it helped to have pictures drawn to better understanding the whole passage.
I am still learning together with DD to perfect annotation and looking forward to psle2011mum's more tips on this topic. It took us about 40 minutes for this passage but DD commented it was one of the best comprehension she had done so far in terms of understanding how to apply annotation. I believe with practice, it will speed up the process. Hope this helps and please do coontinue to share.
By the way, to those who answered my question on topics already covereed in Mathematics, I realised it is about the same with most schools as they need to rush through. So be prepared to do more work at home as I don't think the school can go in-depth with such speed.
Thank you and God bless.

:thankyou: for sharing

[HAPPYH]

psle2011mum:

Hi Everyone


I don't have time for a long post but I think this article [see link] may throw some more light on annotating.

http://www.learning-ventures.blogspot.com/2010_04_01_archive.html

Will be back with the promised annotations as soon as I am able. Gb!

Thank you PSLE2011 mum.

[Mychildren]

Once again, psle2011mum, thank you for sharing. I always enjoy the article that you've put up.


This not only applies to primary level but for secondary or even to working life.

[Zekezachzoom]

Wishing all mums & dads here a very prosperous year of dragon.


新春愉快
龙年行大运

Not forgetting our dear dragon boys & girls, wishing them a very smooth journey towards their PSLE

[Essential]

All dragon boys and gals , happy Chinese new year and High score for PSLE.

[Dione]

Hi there,

Does any of you want to apply for DSA to sec schs?

[BeContented]

Dione:

Hi there,

Does any of you want to apply for DSA to sec schs?

Originally didn't plan to.....but now considering.
Probably have to start getting more info.....
You?

[janet88]

Essential:

All dragon boys and gals , happy Chinese new year and High score for PSLE.

Yes, gong xi fa cai to everyone here...wishing you all long2 ma3 jin1 shen2...dragon kids pls strive hard to reach for the sky.

[psle2011mum]

Part 1:


Dear Parents

This is the P4 Annotations piece I did; it is for a compre piece from ACS(J) P4 EL 2011 SA1, which a parent sent to me to ask for help to annotate. The parent did not send me any model answers, so the answers at the end of this annotations piece are all my own work, what I deem correct and what I would have taught DD.

For English, we seldom referred to any model answers provided, as I tended to rely on my own answers, but you really don’t have to accept my answers. I would venture to say that if you are competent in English [my gauge would be that you can easily understand any article in the English papers or this post for example] and you understand the testing rubrics, let common sense prevail and you need not be hampered by any model answer [some of which are suspect in any case].

I also have to tell you at the out-set that I can’t recall DD at P4 anymore, so what you will read will be more what DD could do after “training”, so please do bear this in mind when you read DD’s “answers” and not expect your P4 child to reach this standard too. See also my note about my standards viz a viz DD’s standard in a following paragraph.

I also need to warn you that this is an extremely long and very tedious post [I will have to post this in parts], so this is not really suited for consumption on a languid public holiday afternoon, especially not after one too many pineapple tarts.

Well, if I haven’t scared you off with all that, here we go…


When we did our annotations, we covered the next line with an opaque cardboard about 7cm in width so DD was not distracted by the rest of the passage, but just concentrated on “milking” whatever she could out of the one line she could see. As she would not have read the whole passage, some of the annotations she did would be more relevant than others on hindsight, but since the aim of the exercise was to achieve a full and detailed understanding of the passage, it did not matter even if some of the annotations were not eventually relevant for the questions.

I did not ask DD to do a read through of the whole passage before she annotated, nor read through the questions either, because I found that if she did these, she had pre-conceived notions and tended to pay less attention when she annotated.

I have styled the first part of the write up below as if I was beside DD and taking DD through this annotation [DD as I remember her from P6 last year as I have forgotten her “P4 standard”], so that you can “listen in” and hopefully more easily adapt this strategy for your own use with your DC. The paragraphs following this initially more detailed one, are annotated in the way I would have thought this passage through as I read it [and this was the way I did it when I first started DD on annotating to show her how she could do it].

Two further words of caution here:

First, I have shared that I believe in a “high average”, so the standard I have “reached” here is MY ADULT standard – decades of being immersed in the English language and remember, I earn my living with words.
So DO NOT PANIC if your DC does not reach this standard. IT IS NOT NECESSARY and DD DID NOT REACH THIS STANDARD NOR NEEDED TO REACH THIS STANDARD, TO GET HER A* FOR PSLE ENGLISH. I just believe in showing DD the best I could achieve and encourage her to aim for it. She seldom hit that lofty goal but with continued practice, she hit higher and so improved. I did this even when we first started annotating because while I can “dumb-down” some of the explanations, I couldn’t come down to a P4 standard in any case, so I just showed her what I would have done.

Secondly, the “tools” for annotation are not limited. They can be in the form of drawings, relative location drawings [eg. John was on one side of the river, Mary was on the opposite side and Don was on top of the nearby hill], maps, lists, questions – anything and everything to aid understanding, so nothing in this method is “cast in stone”.

DD did not use the highlighter because (a) when she started with this, it looked like she was practicing colouring instead of annotating and (b) it was permanent and could not be corrected if done wrongly and (c) just highlighting did not aid DD to think about the passage. Besides her cardboard, DD worked only with a pencil and an eraser.

The highly supported/scaffolded method of annotating was how we started but even below, especially in the first part where I have DD and I \"talking the passage through\", you can see how you can gradually get your child independent – by asking leading questions. The danger is always that it is much easier to annotate for them than to teach them to do it themselves, so perhaps after 2 pieces which you may do for them to show them the varied tools they can employ, you can start leading them through, verbalising both your thoughts and asking them to verbalise theirs throughout the passage.
Just so you get the right picture, by the time DD internalised annotations, she was consistently doing 16+ and above for her OEC at school and school exams, but at home, every practice paper she did for me was still scrawled with my comments right up to the last practice paper she did a few days before her PSLE English paper. Mummy’s standard was always higher and unapologetically so – after all, life does go on after the PSLE.

To be continued(TBC)....