2012 PSLE Discussions and Strategy

[fightingmom]

beanbear:

underthesea:

how to prepare for the SA1 oral? Getting very stressful here. DD's oral is next week and her EL teacher has not done anything with them! DD has been practicing her reading skills by reading aloud everyday, but the picture discussion and conversation, I really don't know how to help her. Any tips?

Hi undersea, I recently bought the Oxford Primary Essentials series for Oral & Listening written by Dr Cheah Yin Mee & Tan See Keen. I thought the guidebook was very well-written supported with great examples. Since you may not get the book in time to revise with your DD, I'll share some tips I got from the book regarding the picture discussion & conversation. I'm paraphrasing the tips below.

Picture Discussion
The authors of the book suggest that the child should describe the picture in 3 stages:

Stage 1: Overall Description
Give an overall description of the picture by stating who-what-where-when. From the example provided, it seems like you should give 2-3 line overall decription. You can begin with ...\"The picture shows a school canteen during recess. The boy in the school canteen (location)....eating food (action)...

Stage 2: The Main Subject
The child now needs to focus on the Main Subject or the Main Focus of the picture. Here you need to give specific details of the who-what-where-when-why-how. Based on the example provided, the child should now give more details about the boy in the picture eg \"The boy looks plump......He appears....Walking by are a teacher and two students.....They look shocked..... \" I noticed that the authors use words like \"looks\" and \"appears\" throughout their example so I guess this is an appropriate way to describe the characters.

Stage 3: The Details
The final stage is where the child needs to discuss other details in the picture using appropriate vocabulary. Based on the example provided, the child should now give details about secondary things in the picture eg the poster on the wall, what other children are doing eg \"....there is a poster pinned on the wall behind the boy.....it may be put up to support a healthy lifestyle campaign.\"
Here I noticed that what is being suggested is to state objective description of details then followed by your personal interpretation of those details but you should be tentative in your language by using \"may\" or \"probably\".

Conclusion
The child should then summarise the main events & provide his personal evaluation of the situation. The example given was \"if the boy continues eating unhealthy food at this rate, his health is likely to suffer.......Perhaps the teacher and his schoolmates will do something to help him......\"

Conversation
From what I've gleaned from the authors, the key tips are to sound natural, and spontaneous. The child should treat the conversation segment as having a friendly chat with the examiner and offer his personal viewpoints to the questions posed. The child's answers should show that he has reflected and evaluated the topic and come to his own conclusion. The child can draw from his personal experiences to enhance his description. The authors provided this example: if the examiner asks \"Why should we eat healthily?\", the child could share \"Well it benefits us in the long term. Eating well helps us to be healthier, more alert.......I can learn a lesson from my grandfather. He was not careful in controlling what he ate, He loved to eat unhealthy foods such as........As a result, his cholesterol level shot really high......he recently suffered a heart attack........On reflection, based on my grandfather's experience, I should take care of my diet......\"

To show spontaneity, the child can use fillers such as \"Yes, in fact I enjoy...\" or \"Well,....\" or \"That's an interesting question...\"

While the conversation is informal, the child must still use appropriate grammar and avoid slang.

I hope this sharing will help you. All the best to your DD!!

:goodpost:

[underthesea]

Beanear,

Thank you so much for the tips on oral. :thankyou:

[whitety]

fightingmom:

Zekezachzoom:

[quote=\"august24\"]Can I have a quick check, which r the Math topics your ds/dd sch is currently teaching? Ds had substitute teacher since start of term 2, thus his class is only doing revision for past topics. They have yet to be introduced to speed & circle. Worried he may not complete the syllabus in time for SA1.

My DS school is doing ratio and has not touched speed and circle yet. Speed and circle are not included in their SA1 test topics.

For my DD, her class has already finished Ratio and Speed topic. The next topic is Nets which will be covered starting tomorrow onwards.[/quote]My dd school also hasn't started on speed and circle. Done with ratio and Nets. Now on percentage.

[elkniwt]

Hello,


I think the syllabus for SA1 may differ from school to school. And depending on the textbooks they use, the order of the topics may be different.

For my dd, her school has just completed speed and circles which will be tested in SA1.

[janet88]

Hi Mummies,

My son's school is using My Pals series.
For the Math SA1, there are many topics tested. :yikes: simply scary !!!
Not just the A textbook, but several from B book as well. This is only SA1 right ??

[august24]

janet_lee88:

Hi Mummies,

My son's school is using My Pals series.
For the Math SA1, there are many topics tested. :yikes: simply scary !!!
Not just the A textbook, but several from B book as well. This is only SA1 right ??

My ds SA1 topics not out yet, thus really no way for me to know whether are they behind time.

[janet88]

august24:

janet_lee88:

Hi Mummies,

My son's school is using My Pals series.
For the Math SA1, there are many topics tested. :yikes: simply scary !!!
Not just the A textbook, but several from B book as well. This is only SA1 right ??

My ds SA1 topics not out yet, thus really no way for me to know whether are they behind time.

Son's teacher did inform class. Know there are several topics...yet cannot rush through or else it's as good as not understanding topics well. My arms are tied. Can only get him to revise his English whenever there is lesser homework. These 2 weeks, he has to practise for NAFA...literally knocked out.

[mummy so kiasu]

august24:

janet_lee88:

Hi Mummies,

My son's school is using My Pals series.
For the Math SA1, there are many topics tested. :yikes: simply scary !!!
Not just the A textbook, but several from B book as well. This is only SA1 right ??

My ds SA1 topics not out yet, thus really no way for me to know whether are they behind time.

I am not surprise, all topics for all subjects are to be completed before SA1. Term 3 suppose to do revision only. Don't forget Prelim will be in Aug & PSLE starts in Sept.

[janet88]

mummy so kiasu:

august24:

My ds SA1 topics not out yet, thus really no way for me to know whether are they behind time.

I am not surprise, all topics for all subjects are to be completed before SA1. Term 3 suppose to do revision only. Don't forget Prelim will be in Aug & PSLE starts in Sept.

so if term 3 is all about doing past year papers, stay at home for intensive classes with tutors better right ?

[worldangel]

janet_lee88:

mummy so kiasu:

[quote=\"august24\"]

My ds SA1 topics not out yet, thus really no way for me to know whether are they behind time.

I am not surprise, all topics for all subjects are to be completed before SA1. Term 3 suppose to do revision only. Don't forget Prelim will be in Aug & PSLE starts in Sept.

so if term 3 is all about doing past year papers, stay at home for intensive classes with tutors better right ?[/quote]If he is absent from school, won't that affect his attendance? It will not look good in his report book, no?

It is actually compulsory for children to attend school unless there is valid reason provided...so unless you can justify his absence to the school, him being absent might be considered as a serious offence.