All About Getting Help for Students Weak in English

[gremlin_loh]

Thanks for all the advice.


Was assured by ICR that they did a lot more than drawing during classes, but if the worksheets brought back after classes are the drawing ones only, how am I able to continue the revisions at home?

Ya, the native teachers only teach a certain level onwards. Morris Allen uses the native teachers from nursery onwards though, price seems comparable also, 44-58 depending whether weekday/end… Decisions…decisions…

[lovinglife]

phtthp:

your child P1 now ?

send him to Kumon English, for a trial.

everyday, they're supposed to read short passages / stories, then answer the qns that follow.
After the child read aloud short passages / stories, he'll have to answer qns. This means he'll have to tackle adjectives, nouns, adverbs, grammar, comprehension, because he has to do the worksheets.

Below is their detailed syllabus; you can consider:-
http://sg.kumonglobal.com/page.jsp?id=787&version=sg&idfrom=785

even at Nursery level - pre-school children straightaway learn to read and recognise simple nouns. There is no such thing as waste time coloring worksheets - because it is an English lesson, not an Art and Craft coloring lesson.

ICR work on some children, but not on all kids.
There'd been feedback from some parents that after spending some term(s) with ICR - their child still can't read properly, nor comprehend what they'd read about. Thus, Comprehension part got problem. So they switched to some other programme.

However, there're also cases where ICR work well on their kids.
so it all depends on your own child.

Would you mind to share how was your daughter cope with daily CD play-practises when she was merely 3yo when she started Kumon?

[cheetian]

Hi can anyone feedback the teaching style of Ms Serena? for creative writing… also can feedback me with her class.


Thanks

[Village Girl]

Anyone has any recommendation for P4 tuition class in north east. Not sure if i want to opt for 1 to 1. Her english dropped from 90 in P2 to 69 in P3 and now 56 in P4 CA1. Im getting panic.

[Xpresstuition-2013]

Village Girl:

Anyone has any recommendation for P4 tuition class in north east. Not sure if i want to opt for 1 to 1. Her english dropped from 90 in P2 to 69 in P3 and now 56 in P4 CA1. Im getting panic.

Oh no! There is a steep decrease in the marks over the years. You may want to consider 1-1 first because its rather difficult to improve the marks in a short span of time considering that mid year exam is barely 7 weeks away. Once her results stabilise then going for group tuition should be ok as by that time your child just needs to maintain the results. If you need assistance, do PM me. Free advice anytime! Meanwhile, do not panic.

[mabelstressed]

nattay:

Hi

I need the contact number of Ms Serena. Could someone pm me? Thanks

Not sure if you still need this.
http://serenagreenhouse.blogspot.sg/p/about-me-serenas-greenhouse-aka-mdm.html

I contacted Ms Serena in early February to make enquiries. Most or all classes were full then. My friend whose two children are there highly recommended her last year but I thought I would wait till CA to make a decision.

Now looking through the forum for another tutor. Stressed cos my DS did not do well in CA.

Which level is your child in? If not P6, maybe you can contact Ms Serena to try your luck. See if anyone withdraws. My friend said P6 no possibility so tell me to try looking for another tutor. Does anyone have any recommendation for small group tuition class? Please help. Thanks.

[mabelstressed]

My son is not weak in his foundation like grammar but he still needs help in Comprehension, Cloze and Composition writing.

[Anna Ng]

Hi! what can i do except sending him for tuition?

[hquek]

Anna Ng:

Hi! what can i do except sending him for tuition?

Read, and read a lot - but this is long term. Then again, it could help in other subjects like science.

Sending for tuition (if you get a good tutor) will allow that person to work on your child's weakness and also gives an avenue for your child to query on what he doesn't know.

[ChiefKiasu]

Anna Ng:

Hi! what can i do except sending him for tuition?

You must first find out the specific areas that he is weak in.

Is it:
- Grammar
- Comprehension
- Composition?

In general, like hquek mentioned, you should try to get him to read widely. That would help for all the above, especially for grammar and composition.

To improve comprehension, you can try to ask him about the books he read after he read them. No need to write summaries, but just get him to tell you about the stories. Let him summarise the story first without interrupting, and then ask questions to clarify parts that you did not fully understand, until you yourself understand what the story is about. Spend about 10 minutes on this each time he finishes reading a book. It doesn't even have to be a story book. It could be some movie he watched. Make it his 2nd nature to think about his book or movie experience, to identify various lessons, concepts or points learnt, and to criticize these points from his own perspective. Over time, this simple exercise will help to build critical thinking.

In terms of reading materials, start with story books, and then move on to newspapers and magazines as he gains mastery. The latter provides a great deal more contemporary material for critical thinking. This is important because whatever he learns is directly applicable to today's context.

Composition is an evolution of comprehension. While comprehension is about understanding knowledge created by other people, composition is the creation of new knowledge. Without comprehension and the application of critical thinking, compositions would be contrived, dull and ineffective.

It takes time. But stick with this for 3 or more months, and you will start to see some results.