2012 PSLE Discussions and Strategy

[niza6666.028774hotmail.028774com]

My ds has started to bring home, practice papers and lots of homeworks. I can't squeeze in to coach him either. By the time he completes his homeworks he is exhausted. I wonder how these kids will be coping in Term 3. :imdrowning:

[Zekezachzoom]

I can’t hope much for my DS ca1 as he has been busy training for his track competition (dont understand why the compeition is being held in the week of ca). It is too hard for me to squeeze in time for real revision. I got him to do a math past paper and he got only 53/100… Due to carelessness & tiredness and couldn’t really concentrate to do the paper properly. ;(


Just keep my fingers crossed!

[Mayl]

[quote=\"Zekezachzoom\"] Due to carelessness & tiredness and couldn't really concentrate to do the paper properly. ;(


True and understand what you meant.. my DS if got enough sleep especially Sunday, you can feel the big difference in him Good mood, better attitude, minimum carelessness..etc I really wish everyday is Sunday At times, I even feel like keep him at home don't let him go school. :siao:

[beanbear]

I sense many of us are really struggling with prioritising the time for our children in this critical year. I’d like to share what I’ve tried to do with DS this year.


I asked myself: What’s really my priority for my child? I used to procrastinate making decisions about the use of my son’s time until the cost was too high. I just allowed the school to determine how my son’s time is used. My son was staying back in school 4 times a week for supplementary & CCA for 3years from Pri 3-5. On top of that, he had enrichment classes for Maths, Science & English Compo. Plus he had flute lessons. What was the result last year at P5 SA2? He failed Maths miserably, was borderline for English & Chinese. Science was in 70s range. His confidence was shaken and I felt terrible about not monitoring him close enough and observing the warning signs earlier.

Last year before school reopened, I spoke with DS about the plan for this year and we worked out a schedule for this year based on his time commitment for school and a timetable for homework, revision, playtime.

My TOP priority was building DS confidence in his own ability. Where there were gaps in terms of knowledge or skills, I personally observe how he does his work and analyze where is he struggling with. If he already has the knowledge & skills, then it’s critical to PRACTISE to ensure what he has learnt is committed into long-term memory. I now monitor every piece of homework my DS brings home, makes sure he does every piece of work with quality. This has made a huge difference because every piece of work has been marked so far DS makes very few mistakes and he has won praises from his teacher for good work and he now feels more confident. I feel really happy that these 1.5 months of effort has paid off. My belief is my child must experience SUCCESS in order to feel confident. Tasting SUCCESS in the short term will motivate him to study. We need to build momentum towards the PSLE. Each piece of homework is treated as opportunities to build strengths and plug gaps.

2nd TOP Priority - Time to Relax, Play and Minimum 8 hours of sleep every night. DS gets to play 45mins of computer once a week, 45mins of iphone or ipad once per week. He gets 30mins TV about 4 times a week. Exercise/playground time - 45mins at least 4 times a week. Brain research has shown children who exercise & sleep adequately think and learn better so I’m totally committed to this. I also believe Play is rewarding for my child and I want him to feel happy doing what he enjoys.

How did we manage to do all this in a regular week? Firstly, I made a FIRM decision - DS only stays back ONCE a week this year. This one day is his CCA & supplementary class day. He’s supposed to stay back on 2 other days but I’ve told the teachers he will not attend. Freeing up this time has made it possible for DS to achieve all this. It’s worked for 1.5 months so far. He looks happy, tired on a couple of days but most days, he is able to focus and pay attention and we manage to squeeze in revision on 2 days of the week. I don’t aim to do alot - sometimes it’s just 2 problem sums from a past exam paper, sometimes it’s 3 pages from a Science exam paper, sometimes, it’s 2 pages of cloze passage, etc. It’s bite-size revision. I aim for 30mins or 45mins and I give him dedicated teaching and focused skills. I spend alot of time just observing him doing the work because I pick up alot of information about where he is struggling and what help he really needs.

[pixiedust]

beanbear,


Thanks very much for sharing. How do you handle the worksheets/information the teacher disseminated to the class during the supplementary lessons he skipped ?

[beanbear]

Hi Pixiedust, I’ve told the teachers to give to DS the supplementary worksheets just like any other homework - the following day or whenever the teacher sees fit. If he can finish within the time-table I’ve set out for him, fine. So far, he’s never encountered any worksheets that he’s not able to do because he missed supplementary.


Interestingly, I found out from DS today that he’s performing better for the worksheets than other pupils in class and teachers are pleased with his performance and he’s missing more lessons than other people. Also he told me more children are falling asleep in class these days because their parents are overloading tuition on their children in addition to supplementary classes. So this is really something to think carefully.

I’m now planning even to skip certain school days because I want DS to do intensive revision at home and have lots of break time and do revision at a relaxing pace. He’s already told me these days teacher is revising P5 work for CA1. So all the more, no need to attend class.

[Snow Crystal]

beanbear:

I'm now planning even to skip certain school days because I want DS to do intensive revision at home and have lots of break time and do revision at a relaxing pace. He's already told me these days teacher is revising P5 work for CA1. So all the more, no need to attend class.

I agree that not all suppl classes are effective. Wah, you intend to part time home school :evil: you are the classic example of parents being the key to your kid's improvement, not school and not enrichment centre.

[G Tan]

pench:

anyone of you stop sending your kids to enrichment classes(like music/sports) to prepare for PSLE?

My DD still attend piano and balet lessons. Since she enjoys them and i also believe in holistic education. Se needs to have time to do enrichment that she likes. :xedfingers:

[psle2011mum]

The subject of memorising for Chinese compos was raised in another thread but I thought this was more relevant here:


DD’s 2011 Chinese teacher was a gem. Each Chinese compo done in school was taken through something like 6 lessons/stages

1. Talk the kids through the story line by pointing out the pictures and what can be observed from them

2. Taught the kids various words and phrases for the important aspects of the compo eg how to decribe the lost child’s fear; asked the kids for examples of words/phrases they could use as alternatives

3. Kids write the compo

4. Compos returned with corrected words/phrases and very often a paragraph of comments in the vein of "you could have described more about [X] or " you did not ‘Dian3 Ti2" [ roughly translating to reiterating the main point of the compo]; the teacher would also have printed out usually 2 other well written compos [ written by students in her classes] and underlined their good words and phrases AND she would have written one herself for the kids to model too

5. Kids do their corrections and hand them in for further marking

6. Where I felt DD had not written a para well eg she failed to "Dian3 Ti2" the teacher had no issues marking a new paragraph which DD had written as a second attempt

Sure, the Chinese teacher was actually "slower" in teaching the textbook lessons [ we didn’t finish the last textbook lesson till T3] but then, there are only so many hours in a day right?

Incidentally [but not coincidentally], the quality passes for Chinese was amazing for DD’s cohort - better than the English [which was already high], and this in a "Potato" school.

I do believe that memorising words and phrases for Chinese compos is helpful for Potato Kids – I don’t know of any more efficient way to compensate for not reading Chinese books.

The Mainland- Chinese Chinese teacher in lower primary was against this method of doing compo, telling me that "no credit" would be given for the "regurgitated" compos but since what she proposed [read Chinese story books] was impossible for this Potato Mum and Kid pair [ see why below in postscript], we stuck to what we could achieve - memorising words and phrases and then piecing them together.

PS 1. Impossible for us to read Chinese books because I can’t preach what I don’t practice and since the only Chinese book I ever "read’ was for a P5 book review, I didn’t even try.

PS 2. I know nothing about Chinese teaching pedagogy but my gut feel tells me that a native speaker of Chinese may not be able to fully understand the problems we Potato Kids and Parents face with the language, that we need crutches to help us become better at this language.

[Zekezachzoom]

My DS has a good Chinese teacher (a PRC) this year too. She is doing what psle211mum was describing above. She will encourage the boys to \"expand\" the story in a pix and she does it in a fun way. She breaks the class into different groups and those boys who help to contribute a good line or plot will score points for their respective group. She uses the point system not just to help the boys in their compo writing but on daily teaching too. My DS has feedback that more of his classmates are asking more questions (the boys are encouraged to challenge the teacher) in the class and by doing so, they speak more in mandarin now.


The teacher will reward the group that first reaches a certain score with McDonald delivery to the class. This works really well with the boys and I can see some significant improvement from my DS in dealing his Chinese now;)

It all sums up to a good teacher really makes a difference