2012 PSLE Discussions and Strategy

[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)....

[psle2011mum]

Part 2

Sentences from the Passage are in Bold and my annotations/comments in normal font.

Taufik, Taufu and Taukee were siblings


1.\tDD, note the 3 names and write them as the headings for 3 columns so that in case you come across any particular trait about any one of them or all of them, you can put them into that column.

2. \tDD, make sure you look at the spelling of the names carefully (especially if the name is not common or spelt in an unusual way) because you will lose a whole mark for spelling it wrongly even if everything else is right.

3.\tDD, circle the word “siblings” and then write your understanding of this word as it is a “more difficult” word– ie. Write “brothers or sisters or mixed group of brother/sister”.

M: Can you tell which it is at this point of time, 3 brothers, 3 sisters or a mixed group of them?
DD: No.
M: Why not?
DD: Because there is no evidence from this sentence alone.
M: But if you really needed to venture a guess, what would your guess be and why?
DD: I think they may be triplet boys because “Taufik” is like the Singapore idol “Taufik” and he’s a boy ; although I can’t say I have heard any one [ girl or boy] being called “ Taufu” and “ Taukee” – what parent would call their kids names like that ??? [I am sure DD would have made a face here]
Note: I encouraged DD to take views and substantiate it; if I had time, I may have pointed out there was a great poet named Tu Fu (Chinese: 杜甫; pinyin: Dù Fǔ; Wade–Giles: Tu Fu; 712–770) who was a prominent Chinese poet of the Tang Dynasty (right up there with Li Bai), just to show her that what is “funny/weird” to DD, may have another perspective.
M: Can you make a conclusion about their race?
DD: I think you can’t tell for certain, since Taufik sounds Malay but Taufu and Taukee sound like dialect Chinese words.

Note: My purpose of annotating is to “mine for meaning”, so asking questions, including some which are not “relevant”, does happen and to me, is necessary. This helps train the child to be observant of the small details.

and they were the cheekiest set of triplets around town.

1.\tCircle “cheekiest”, “triplets” and “around town” and write down their meanings.

2.\tDD, if you don’t know the dictionary definition of “cheekiest”, write down what ideas this word has for you. Like -- ”mischievous but still cute and lovable”, “something a doting Grandma would use to describe a grandchild”, “naughty as small kids are naughty”, “playing pranks”.

3.\tWhat is the meaning of “Triplets” – children born at the same time, of the same age.

4.\tWhat does the author mean by “around town” – Is the author being literal as in “in their town there were other sets of triplets but these 3 were the cheekiest” or was this just a phrase/manner of speaking to emphasise how cheeky the triplets were?

DD: Don’t know; can’t tell yet.
M: Ok, yes, too little evidence now, but bear in mind these questions, because by the end of the whole passage, you may in fact have the answers to these questions, or be able to make an educated guess about it. [By the end of the passage, no mention is made about the “town” so I would have brought DD back to this point and expected her to say that it was just a phrase of emphasis].

Note: When DD was in Upper Primary, I would also sometimes use points which arose to lead off to some information of other subjects. In this case, I would probably have mentioned something like –“the triplets could have been the result of IVF”; “natural triplets are very rare but IVF triplets are more common”; “mention/discuss briefly the pros and cons of implanting 3 embryos for IVF mums”.

They were identical in look and mannerism.

1.\tCircle “they” and mark to whom this pronoun refers – to the 3Ts.

2.\tCircle “identical” and write down the meaning – exactly the same”. If DD wrote “looks the same” I would have faulted this answer on 2 counts ie in itself something can be identical to another in more than just looks [even in this sentence, it tells you so – identical in looks and mannerisms] so DD’s answer was limiting; also, while DD got the idea of “the same” she needed to be accurate as to the “degree” of similarity – similar (more than 70% similarity), substantially similar (more than 90% similarity), exactly similar (100% likeness) ie exact copy of. This is an example of how the kids lose marks and sometimes don’t understand why --- they fail to reflect the correct “degree” in their answers.

Note: This is a P4 piece so there may be some leeway given in the marking; but by P6, they need to be accurate; so from end P4, DD was trained to pay attention to the details. If you have a look at the Sec 1 compre books eg Distinction in Comprehension published by Marshall Cavendish and have a look at the questions and their model answers, you will see this similar skill required later on. Hence it is not just a vague understanding of the passage which is required but a detailed understanding. Further, DD1 who is in Sec3 this year has shared with me that the O-level English paper has become even more “Lit- styled” and questions like “ what evidence is there from the passage that…”or “what words did the author use to convey that [X] was very upset upon hearing the news” type of questions are being set.

3.\tCircle ‘look” and write down the meaning – “the 3Ts’ physical features/height/weight/facial expressions are all the same”

4.\tCircle “mannerism” and write down the meaning; very likely DD would have problems with this, so quite possibly, I would have had the following conversation with her to lead her on/scaffold for her:
M: Have you seen this word “mannerism” in another sentence? What was that sentence?
DD: Like in “His mannerisms put me off”; like “He was digging his nose in public and that put me off”; like “His bad behavior put me off”; like “The way he acted put me off”.

Note: This is an exercise in lateral thinking. Unless kids read dictionaries or regularly refer to them, a lot of their understanding is only an impression [contextual understanding] and too vague to be definitive. So it was with DD who read a fair bit but hardly ever looked up a dictionary. This way helped her capture some of the essence of the words she needed to define.

M: Ok, do you think this is a one off act or a usual way of acting?
DD: Has to be a usual way of acting.
M: Why?
DD: Otherwise how can you conclude with any confidence that they were identical in their way of acting – it must have been because like all 3 had been observed over time to have always behaved and acted in the same way in the same circumstances.
M: Alright, of all these words you have used, what are the key ideas for this word “mannerism”?
DD: Behavior, way of acting, but something they did “usually”, “all the time” in the same way –responding the same way in the same circumstances – like in Science – leaves always respond to sunlight in the same way – by turning towards the source of sunlight ie a characteristic trait or behavior! ‘Mannerism” means “characteristic behavior “.

They dressed in similar outfits and it was hard to tell them apart.

1.\tCircle “they” and mark to whom this pronoun refers – to the 3Ts.

Note: By the time DD was in P6, I would have asked an additional “unrelated” question here.
M: What do you think of these 2 sentences?
DD: Not ideal.
M: Why?
DD: Both start with “They”; sentence structure is not varied.
M: Yes; that applies normally; but could the author have used this for some special effect?
DD: Ah…Triplets equals to repeated kids and repeated sentence structure reinforces this idea?
M: Possibly – but if this was intended, did it succeed?
DD: I don’t know – I didn’t even see it till you pointed it out.
M: Then I would say it was too subtle; also the cadence is wrong.
DD: What is cadence?
M: Rhythm of the sentence; for example: They were identical in look and mannerism; they dressed in similar outfits and bore similar hairstyles; they carried the same types of bags and pencil cases and even their smiles, their cheeky smiles curved up in the same direction.
DD: Oh – is this relevant?
M: Not to this OEC; but relevant to educate your mind.
DD: Upward Eye- roll + sigh

2.\tCircle “outfits” and write down the meaning – sets of dress/shoes/hats/bags.

3.\tUnderline – “hard to tell them apart” –what made this so?
The 3Ts were identical triplets so they already shared the same physical features. When dressed in similar fashion from head to toe, they looked identical in every aspect and there were no clues available to distinguish them individually.

Note 1: Before DD started annotating and mining for meaning, I would have expected her answer to be something along the vein of “They all looked alike”. This is correct as to an understanding but not sufficient to gain the marks at a higher level; again at P4, note that there may be some leeway in marking. The answer “They all looked alike” is an answer to the question: “How did they look?” or perhaps, “What did they look like?” not “What made it hard for others to tell them apart?”

The best way I found to teach DD to answer in the fashion above was to ask her to “demonstrate her understanding” of the question. Note here that we are asking for the child to understand the question – not the passage.

M: The question is raised because there was something/s about the 3Ts that made them special so that they could not be told apart. What were these?

DD: They were identical triplets; they were dressed similarly.

M: You said “They were identical triplets” – so what does that lead you to conclude/ what do you understand by this/ how do you show your teacher that you know what identical triplets are and how being identical triplets relates to the issue of why they then could not be told apart?

DD: From the fact that they are identical triplets, I can tell that their physical features were exactly the same. Their dressing in the same type of clothing made it even harder to distinguish them because there was still no clue to tell them apart.

M: Yes, the usual thing/clues we use to tell people apart were not available. So now, you can string your answer together.

DD: The identical triplets had exactly the same physical features and this, together with their habit of dressing in similar outfits meant that the usual ways to distinguish one person from another were not available.

Note 2: Our answers never looked like the model answers the teachers issued but where the teacher marked it [as opposed to peer marking or copying off the OHP which only offered the “model answer”], DD would get mostly get almost full credit. I never forced DD into the “model” answer” as (a) her mind did not think in that way and (b) she was not a mind-reader nor did I wish her to become one. Instead we sought to show the teachers our thought process and gain marks for it. When the teachers were comfortable that DD had demonstrated understanding, both of the passage and the question, they awarded her the marks.

Note 3: I most likely would have been “cheeky” myself and asked DD: If it was so difficult to tell them apart, why would their parents dress them this way?

DD: I don’t know – I don’t care!
M: Make an educated guess.
DD: They did this….ah…. to make a statement?
M: What kind of statement?
DD: Like “Hey –see here –Triplets!”
M: Yes, possibly to make some kind of “impact” statement or for a talking point; but considering the trouble it caused even for the parents, maybe a better guess is that it is because it was cheaper to buy their clothes in bulk?
DD: Mummy, your aunty side is showing through – GRINS
M: It’s a valid point – I am just trying to open your eyes to observe and stretch your mind to think! Ok, back to work!


They invoked a sense of excitement but caused confusion wherever they went.

1. Circle “they” and mark to whom this pronoun refers – to the 3Ts.

2. Circle” invoked” and write the meaning of this word.

Note : Again, DD would not know the definition of this word “invoked” but she would have filled in words by contextual understanding, such as “brought about”, “caused”, “stirred up”; but in fact the word “invoked” has been wrongly used. I believe the word intended is “evoked”. See below how to use these 2 words and naturally, I would have taken this chance to explain this to DD.

in•voke
1.
to call for with earnest desire; make supplication or pray for: to invoke God's mercy.
2.
to call on (a deity, Muse, etc.), as in prayer or supplication.
3.
to declare to be binding or in effect: to invoke the law; to invoke a veto.
4.
to appeal to, as for confirmation.
5.
to petition or call on for help or aid.

evoke
1.
to call up or produce (memories, feelings, etc.): to evoke a memory.
2.
to elicit or draw forth: His comment evoked protests from the shocked listeners.
3.
to call up; cause to appear; summon: to evoke a spirit from the dead.
4.
to produce or suggest through artistry and imagination a vivid impression of reality: a short passage that manages to evoke the smells, colours, sounds, and shapes of that metropolis.

Evoke and invoke, two members of a small but powerful family of words relating to stimulus and response, have senses both similar and distinct. To evoke something is to call it forth, perhaps by bringing it to mind, or, synonymously with invoke, by summoning it (as in conjuration) or presenting it in support of an appeal (as when a rule or principle is invoked). Usually, invoke is used for the latter two meanings. The distinction is in the context; usually, something evoked is qualitative and intangible, whereas something invoked is material or practical.

3.\tUnderline “sense of excitement” – what does this mean? What was it about the 3Ts that caused them to bring about or cause a sense of excitement?

DD: Sense of excitement means that “others were excited when they saw them”. I would have faulted this on a few counts: DD was once again showing her “understanding of the passage” but was not paying attention to the language – necessary because this is a LANGUAGE paper. If I had said this to her, DD would have forcefully dumped her face between her 2 hands and given me a “I hate this “look.

M: You did not explain the specified phrase; you also brought in the “evoked” meaning into your explanation and you used the word “excited” without demonstrating your understanding of it. Break it down into bite sizes – you know it helps.

DD: Ok – “sense” means something like “a feeling”
M: ok – go on...
DD: “excitement” means – the feeling you get when you are looking forward to something.
M: Just at that level of emotion – merely “I look forward to…” like the way you end a formal letter and say “I look forward to hearing from you as soon as possible”?
DD: “No, not at that low level; more like you really are looking forward to something.”
M: How do you feel when you are excited? Use a concrete example of something that got you excited to imagine this feeling.
DD: Uh… excited … excited when we were getting ready to fly to Gold Coast… really looking forward to it, wanted very much to go, heart racing, couldn’t eat well, couldn’t sleep much, was looking forward to seeing the kangaroos, was looking forward to lots of fun…
M: Ok, so what are the key ideas for “sense” and “excitement”?
DD: Ok, key ides for “a sense of excitement” – “a feeling”, “of looking forward to something pleasant”, “causes your heart to race and can build up till you feel about to burst”.
M: Ok good imagery there – like your little cousin when you get out the birthday cake right – they wiggle and go “Ooh and Ahh” and keep smiling and giggling and jump up and down with anticipation because they are so looking forward to the candles they are going to blow out…but how do we capture all that in words using the key ideas you just mentioned?
DD: Uh… “a feeling of anticipation of something good to come that causes your heart to race”?
M: Some poor phrasing there – can you improve it?
DD: I think the problem is “something good to come” but I don’t know how to re-phrase that.
M: Remember that children’s Sunday School song – “something good is going to happen, something good is in store, we are together again, …”
DD: Oh yes! Ok, so here it goes…“ A sense of excitement” means “a tremendous feeling of anticipation that something good is about to happen, so much so that it can even cause your heart to race and make you feel like you are about to burst!”
M: Finally!

Note: In this instance I used an example from a Sunday School song to “scaffold” for DD, but anything within your DC’s experience can be harnessed.

M: Now, what was it about the T3s that caused them to stir up a sense of excitement?
DD: Not sure.
M: Does the next phrase in this sentence of the passage help? “but caused confusion wherever they went”.
DD: No – the word “but” is supposed to convey “opposite” ideas but the 2 parts of this sentence are not “opposites”.
M: Give me an example of a sentence with “but”.
DD: He likes black but his brother hates that colour.
M: Yes, clear example of opposites. I think this is not a well written sentence because it does not showcase clearly the opposite ideas, so watch out when you use “but”; it should showcase clearly opposite ideas. So, you have to leave this as a question/comment: “Not clear why they caused a sense of excitement”. But can you venture a guess why they would cause a sense of excitement?
DD: Identical triplets are unusual?
M: Possibly.

Note: We did not “accept” at face value a passage or a question as “good” or “correct” simply because it had been presented to us. DD was encouraged to critically analyse and substantiate her views. Both she and I have been wrong before, [yes, we had a phase where for almost every question DD got wrong [ this happened across all the subjects] she would declare to me that “there’s something wrong with this question”] but nonetheless I encouraged this “less than accepting” stance because I believe it very useful to cultivate thinking skills.

4.\tUnderline “caused confusion” and write what this phrase means.
DD: “made others mixed up”?
M: Poor phrasing- work on it to improve it
DD: “made it so that others were mixed up as to their thoughts on the matter”
M: Satisfactory. Remember that your tense and form of the word must also match your phrase.

5.\tWhat was it about the T3s that made them “cause confusion”?
They looked like carbon copies of each other so much so that when others looked at them, these others became mixed up in their minds as to which of the T3s they were in fact looking at.

Just so, because they were always up to tricks.

DD: What does “just so” mean?
M: Hmm… odd phrase to use but let me tell you a bit more about the instances when I have encountered this phrase. I think Rudyard Kipling wrote the “Just So” stories but I didn’t read them, so all I do know is that some of the titles are like “How the camel got its hump” so I can’t help you there much. But, another way I would use this phrase is something like this, “Just so you understand, it was nothing personal against you -- I really had no choice in the matter when the boss put it that way.” In my sentence, “Just so” is a short form for/casual way of saying “just so that “. Another sentence for you, “…and just so, the children followed the Piped Piper into the cave”; in this latter sentence, the “just so” means “in exactly this way”.
DD: Ah.. so this sentence can be read as “ and so it was exactly this way, because they were always up to tricks\".
M: Yes, although I would say that this is not a sentence I see commonly, nor do I like how it sounds so I do not advise you to adopt this sentence in your own writing.

Note: There are parts of the passage where I know DD will not be able to bridge on her own; in this case, I supply the answer or have her look it up because her lack of knowledge means it is not meaningful to scaffold her thought processes – she’d likely be just guessing the answers to my questions blindly.

Even their grandparents realised that they had often been taken for a ride by their mischievous grandsons.

1.\tCircle “their” and indicate who this refers to – the 3Ts.

2.\tCircle “they” and indicate who this refers to – the 3Ts’ grandparents.

3.\tCircle the second “their” and indicate who this refers to – the 3Ts’ grandparents.

4.\tUnderline “ taken for a ride” and write down what it means --“ tricked”

5.\tCircle the word “mischievous” and write it as a trait under the columns which were done for the first sentence of the passage.

6.\tIn what way were the grandparents taken for a ride?
DD: No evidence in this sentence but since all the previous sentences are talking about them looking so alike, I guess, the tricks the 3Ts played on their grandparents were in the nature of those which involved their grandparents not being able to tell them apart.
M: Yes, I think so too.

Coupled with their cheeky sense of fun and wit, it was really hard for anyone to pinpoint and catch the culprit.

1.\tUnderline “coupled with” and write what it means – “together with”.

2.\tUnderline “ their cheeky sense of fun and wit” and write what it means; if you have difficulty defining, then write out the associated ideas– they thought it was very entertaining and pleasurable for themselves to play mischievous tricks on others and thought up all sorts of tricks to play”.

3.\tCircle “pinpoint” and “culprit” and write the meanings. “pinpoint” means “to say accurately” and “culprit” means “person responsible for any particular misdeed”.

4.\tSince you understand here that “something” was together with “something else” ie 2 factors, what was coupled with what?
DD: The 3Ts were mischievous and this together with their cheeky sense of fun and wit, made it really hard for anyone to pinpoint and catch the culprit?
M: Yes, so in your own words, what did the 2 factors cause?
DD: It made it difficult for everyone to say accurately which of the 3Ts was responsible for any particular trick.

Thus, many a time, the brothers got away scott free.

1.\tCircle “Thus” – what does it mean and what does it refer to? “Thus” means “Therefore” and it refers to the reason stated in the earlier sentence [or in some cases, earlier part of the sentence] which explains this later sentence [or in some cases, later part of the sentence].
Note: DD already knows this by rote since words such as “thus” commonly appear.

2.\tCircle “scott free” – what does this mean ? – without getting punished for a wrong or a naughty deed.

To be continued ...[/color]

[psle2011mum]

Part 3

I hope the above parts have provided some insights, but as this is specific to each parent/child couple and also, the particular passage, following this, I am going to go back to just annotating .

The 3Ts, as their parents affectionately referred to them, were intelligent dreamers.

Would have circled “3Ts” and written “nickname given to the triplets by their parents”.

Would have circled the very odd phrase “intelligent dreamers” and put a question mark here to ask “what does the author mean by this” because there is no conventional understanding for this phrase ie it is a “coined phrase”.

The reason being that they seemed to have had a knack for making their dreams come true.

Ok, this is the explanation for why the author called the 3Ts “intelligent dreamers” – because the 3Ts seemed to have a knack – ie an uncanny ability to make their dreams come true. I would also have circled “dreams” and put a question mark to it – what kind of dreams? Pipe dreams like “I am going to marry a handsome prince” or “dreams” in the sense of ambition – “I dream of being President of Singapore” [actually not sure whether my examples are correct or if both should be categorised as “pipe dreams” :)].

They often built sandcastles in the air, wove wild dreams and yet, through a stroke of luck (if you may call it) found fulfillment in their dreams.

I would have circled “ they” and written in “ 3Ts”; I would have underlined “ built sandcastles…air” and written in “day dreamed”; I would have underlined ‘ wove wild dreams” and written “fantasised” ; I would have circled ‘yet” and written in “however”; “I would have circled” stroke of luck” and written “ fates were kind/ not their own effort” and I would have underlined “ fulfillment in their dreams” and put a question mark to ask if it should have been “fulfillment of their dreams” – as in their dreams came through, or did the author mean that the 3Ts were fulfilled only while in their dreams ie in dreamland, which actually means the opposite.

Note: At this point, I would have internally debated whether to even ask DD to carry on with this passage because it already shows problems in the writing, wrong use of words, poor phrases…

To be continued...

[psle2011mum]

Part 4

Third paragraph…

One such remarkable happening occurred when they were about ten years old.

I would have underlined “one such remarkable happening” and written – “incident where one of the dreams one of the 3Ts had come true in an incredible way”; I would have noted that the 3Ts were older than 10 by the time this passage was written. I would have gone back and revised my thinking slightly about the parents dressing them up in similar outfits and concluded that it was the triplets themselves who chose to dress as such [since they were old enough], after gaining parental support to pay for similar outfits of course.

They were flipping through the newspapers and wistfully wishing that they could visit their favourite soccer team in Spain.

I would have noted “3Ts liked European soccer” and added this to the table of characteristics I started with. I would also have concluded that the “dreaming” the author was talking about [and for which I had raised a question earlier] was in the realm of “wishful thinking”. I would then have gone back and annotated next to my original question a link to this part of the passage where I concluded my answer.

Before they knew it, their teacher announced proudly that Taufu had won the National Story Writing Contest. His prize, a week’s stay for three in Madrid!

I would have written “far-fetched” as a side-note [on a practice paper but not the exams – the teachers read DD’s annotations out of curiosity I think] and then warned DD not to write like this in a composition as the idea appears to have been summoned out of the blue. I would have concluded that “Madrid” must be in Spain even if I did not already know this because of the contextual links.


What followed was recorded on film and even more so, etched forever in their hearts and minds.

I would have underlined “recorded on film” and written – photographed/video-taped and put a comment “passage written very long ago – before digital age” and also put a question “by whom” following “recorded on film” and underlined “etched” and written “engraved” and also written, “very memorable trip for the 3Ts” as a comment.

To be continued...

[psle2011mum]

Part 5 –last paragraph


The triplets had a whale of a time.

I would have underlined “had whale of a time” and written – “had lots of fun”.

Delicious pots of bamboo clams, crustaceans and the famous paella or rice dish were more than finger-licking good.

I would have written – “a feast of tasty meals” and then linked this back with arrows to both “whale of a time” and also “etched forever in their hearts and minds” so as to show that these were the things that happened that made the triplets’ trip to Madrid fun and memorable.

Whirlwind tours and visits to museums, ruins and other touristy sites were fabulous.

I would have circled ‘ whirlwind” and written” fast-speed” and also circled “touristy” and written “places of interest where tourists typically visit” and then linked this back with arrows to both “whale of a time” and also “etched forever in their hearts and minds” so as to show that these were the things that happened that made the triplets’ trip to Madrid fun and memorable. If this was getting too untidy, I would start a table somewhere else on the paper and write down in point form what made that Madrid trip so special for the 3Ts.

But the highlight was a game at the stadium, hosted by their Spanish soccer stars.

I would have circled “highlight” and written “most memorable thing they did on the tour”; I would have circled “game” and written “soccer”; I would have circled “hosted” and written” something like “game on home ground”; and I would have circled the word “their” and put a question mark – whose Spanish soccer stars? The stadium’s or the 3Ts? By the rules of English sentence structure, it should point to the answer being “stadium” but I am not well-versed enough in soccer to conclude whether this is meaningful.

I would also have put a question mark on the word ‘stars” as I would note that you can refer to these soccer players as “the Spanish soccer stars” but if you are a fan and you are using the word “their” to denote a relationship, then the Spanish soccer players are their (the 3Ts) idols and the phrase should have read “their Spanish soccer idols”.

I would have written something to the effect that “author probably referring to the 3Ts’s soccer idols”. Again, the thought about how this passage was riddled with poor phrases would have crossed my mind.

Riotous roars accompanied the many goals scored.

I would have circled “riotous” and written “extremely loud and chaotic with joy”; I would have circled “accompanied” and written “closely followed by”. I would have surmised that the game was very exciting for the 3Ts to watch because they could see so much action by their idols. I would have noted that the author here did not state which side scored the many goals.

Never before did the 3Ts cry and laugh at the same time.

I would have circled “never before” and written the question “Never before when?”. Again, English sentence structure would have dictated the closest subject to have been referred to, ie at the match, and so I would have written that “Never before this match had the 3Ts cried and laughed harder.” I would then have penned in the question: “Why?” This would have prompted me to go back to the point I made to myself in the last sentence “not stated which side scored the many goals” and conclude that probably, the 3Ts cried hard when their idols’ rival team scored and then laughed with great joy when their idols scored.

Oh, what the realisation of a dream could do to bring such immense joy to three young boys!

I would have underlined “realisation of a dream” and written – “to actually get to visit their favourite soccer team in Spain”; I would have circled “immense” and written “great”.

I would have noted to DD that this was not a good passage to adopt as a compo piece because (a) the first paragraph did not connect well with the rest of the following passages [1st paragraph introduced the idea that the triplets were special because they were identical and they liked tricking people by dressing up in similar fashion, while the following paragraphs tried to explain why the 3Ts were ‘intelligent dreamers” but only managed to make them out to be “lucky dreamers” at best and failed to explain clearly the “intelligent” part. The “moral of the story” is also poor – is the passage trying to say that you can wistfully wish for something and through a stroke of luck or coincidence, you can actually get it? Not something I would choose to teach DD.

Note: By P6, I would be constantly asking DD to “critique” pieces she read. There were no “right” answers, only answers which were persuasive or otherwise. Not all pieces of writing are equal and this provides fodder for differing views.

Sorry, not quite the end yet... to be continued...

[psle2011mum]

Part 6


Believe it or not, this is not the end. Annotating the above is to slow down to gain a detailed understanding of the given passage, but the questions have to be similarly analysed too. In particular, we sought to anlayse the question stems and ask what we were being asked to demonstrate our understanding of.

Q1. Why were the triplets described as cheeky?

“Why?” is an explanation question; to answer this, we need to demonstrate our understanding of “cheeky”. This was already gone through when we annotated ie:

DD, if you don’t know the dictionary definition of “cheekiest”, write down what ideas this word has for you. Like -- ”mischievous but still cute and lovable”, “something a doting Grandma would use to describe a grandchild”, “naughty as small kids are naughty”, “playing pranks”.

So from here, we know that our answer must show that the 3Ts did things which were “mischievous but still cute and lovable”, “playing pranks”.

I would also ask DD to re-phrase this question to: What is the teacher asking you to demonstrate your understanding of?

DD would have been expected to have the following thought processes:

Point 1 – The triplets were described by people to be cheeky – this was a fact from the passage.

Point 2 – From the question, the teacher wants me to explain what was it that caused people to describe the triplets as cheeky.

Point 3 – In my answer, I know that I must demonstrate my understanding of the word ‘cheeky” in the way I have annotated.

Point 4 – It will help me answer my question if I have a “sounding board” to get an idea of what my final answer should look like. In other words, I would describe someone as “cheeky” if I saw him/her behaving in a cheeky manner; so if there are examples of cheeky behavior of the 3Ts in the passage, I must include that in my answer but there are no concrete examples from the passage.

Point 5 – I think the answer must come from the first paragraph. So to make sure my answer is accurate, I will test each sentence in this paragraph to see if that sentence shows behavior that is “cheeky”.

First sentence – no – fact that they were cheeky is simply stated.

Second sentence – no- “identical in look and mannerism” does not show any evidence that they were cheeky.

Third sentence - no – “dressed in identical outfits” doesn’t mean they are cheeky; Mummy could have been right and they could have dressed so because of bulk buying on their parent’s part.

Fourth sentence – no – “sense of excitement” was because they [as triplets] were unusual; “causing confusion” was because they dressed similarly and looked alike but if this was not deliberate, then this does not show they were cheeky.

Fifth sentence – yes – “they were always up to tricks” – must include this in my answer.

Sixth sentence – yes- grandparents ‘taken for a ride” and 3Ts described as “mischievous” are ideas related to “cheeky” because they point to the pranks the 3Ts played on their grandparents.

Seventh sentence – yes – sentence tells us they had a cheeky sense of fun and wit ie they thought it fun to play tricks on others using their identical looks so that no one could pin down the exact person responsible.

Eighth sentence – Yes – getting away scott free made the triplets find this activity “fun” and made them want to play even more tricks to become more mischievous and cheeky.

Answer: The triplets were always playing mischievous pranks on everyone and they found it fun to deliberately use their identical looks to deceive others and get away with their naughty tricks.

To be continued... :(... there are 4 more questions...

[psle2011mum]

Part 7


Q2. Why was it difficult to catch the culprit?

“Why?” is an explanation question and once again, I would have asked DD to rephrase the same and go through the following thought process:

Point 1: There was something/s special about the 3Ts that made it difficult to catch the one responsible for the misdeed. What was this “something/s”? What was it about this “something/s” that made it difficult to catch the culprit?

Point 2: The “something/s” that made it difficult was more than one thing because each factor alone would not have been enough to confuse everyone. It was the total package of same looks, same clothes and same behavior that confused everyone.

Point 3: But I am not asked to explain the confusion. I am asked to relate “the 3 factors” to “difficult to catch the culprit” so I have to explain what it was about these 3 factors that made it difficult to catch the culprit.

Point 4 : Being so similar meant that even if the triplet who played the trick was seen, the witnesses had no distinguishing features to conclude which triplet it was and when any suspected triplet was confronted, he could always say it was another triplet who did it and everyone would be none the wiser.

Point 5: I need to be careful here not to say that all three of the triplets played any one trick at the same time because then, the “advantage” would be lost and for sure, with triplets being a rarity, the 3 would be the first fingered in any trick that featured 3 identical looking boys.

Answer: The triplets were identical in looks and even dressed and behaved in so similar a manner that it was very difficult for others to tell them apart. This thus made it easy for any one of the triplets to play a trick, blame it on another triplet and in the end, no one could ever pinpoint which one of the triplets was in fact the one responsible for the trick.

Q3: Which word in the passage tells us that the triplets were much loved by their parents?

Answer: The word is “affectionately”.

Note: Make sure punctuation for this answer sentence is correct - look at where the open/close quotation marks are and where the full stop is.

To be continued...

[psle2011mum]

Part 8


Q4: Besides the photograph albums, where did the three siblings keep precious memories of their trip?

Point 1: Actually, nowhere in the passage does it state that the 3Ts captured their Spain trip in hard copy photos – the word used is ‘film” and the question does a disservice to the children to state this as “a fact” when the passage is not as limited. Here you are trying to teach the children not to assume without evidence, and here is the question, being presumptuous. I would have pointed this out to DD.

Point 2: ‘Where” is a place question but kids have problems with this sometimes because of the casual way we sometimes use the language.

See this example:

Scene: In apartment lift, kids are in their swimming costumes and they meet a neighbor in the lift.

Aunty: Hello children, where are you going?
Kids: We are going swimming.

Aunty’s question is a “where” question and the answer calls for a ‘place/location” answer. So the kids should have replied “We are going to the swimming pool.”
The kids answered this question instead: “What are you going to do?”

Point 3: I know that the relevant sentence is “etched forever in their hearts and minds” but if I just lift this, it does not demonstrate my understanding. I know I am not getting 2 marks for just copying – I must try to show the teacher I know what this phrase means, but I will still lift the relevant part out to show the teacher I know where the answer is.

Point 4: I know the meaning of “etched” means “engraved” and the idea is that it is ‘deep and permanent”. Keeping something in your heart and mind means to “keep something very close to you” and “to be always thinking about and remembering it” but we have to answer a “where” question here. Since this was a trip, the “thing” the 3Ts were keeping in their hearts and minds would be memories of their wonderful experiences – so where is a location where you can keep these memories?

Note: This is a hard asnwer to phrase for kids who tend to be literal but the answer itself is metaphorical.

Within themselves – in their minds, so that they could recall these again and again, and in their hearts, so that as they remembered the memories, they felt happy in their hearts about them.

Answer: The triplets kept their feelings, experiences and precious memories of their trip to Madrid in their hearts and minds; they kept these deep within themselves so that they would always have these close to them and recall them time and again with great pleasure.


Almost done... one more question coming up!

[psle2011mum]

Part 9


Q5. Which part of the fulfilled dream was the happiest for the triplets?

Point 1: The answer to the question “Which part” means that the subject being referred to has got more than one part. In this case the subject is “fulfilled dream” and refers to the triplets’ trip to Madrid. The question is asking about a specific part of the triplets’ trip to Madrid and I know it is the part when they were at the stadium watching their idols play a soccer game.

Point 2: I need to input all the details from the passage about this event so, this is the list of details: “game at the stadium”, “hosted by their Spanish soccer stars”, “many goals scored”. I believe I need to add the last phrase about the goals because it contributed to the triplets’ joy and the word “happiest” appears in the question.

Answer: During their Madrid trip, the triplets were the happiest while they watched a soccer game hosted by their Spanish soccer idols and saw their idols scoring goals.

That’s it! Congrats if you survived this .

It must be remembered that the purpose of education is not to fill the minds of students with facts... it is to teach them to think, …. and always to think for themselves.
-- Robert Hutchins

Parting thoughts:
FN1: I can only share with you what DD and I would have done with this passage and hope that there are some helpful strategies in the above posts for you and your DC. As such, it is not a prescriptive method but for that you need the help of a qualified specialist.
FN2: Yes, this takes forever initially, but DD got better at it over time.
FN3: After all this time and effort, we never wanted to ever see the passage again so just as well we did it thoroughly the first time round.
FN4: Corrections are critical; your DC must have a rational explanation why his /her answer is not acceptable; otherwise, he/she has not learnt.
FN5: There are always a range of acceptable answers which are and should be accorded full marks. However, to expedite marking, usually only the “model answer” is given. This can frustrate the child because too often, the child cannot see the difference between his/her answer and the model answer and there is no one available to explain it to him/her.

[Champion]

psle2011mum:

Part 9

:salute: :salute: to you psle2011mum! :snuggles: :hugs:

I have just copied and saved the part 1 to 9 of your posts to my p.c.! :thankyou: :thankyou: for your time and effort to type out and share with us! My DD1 is in P4 this year so all your above posts come in handy for me!