Pat's Schoolhouse
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smurfy:
\"the good, old experienced teachers.. have turned into teachers' mentors.. and they do not teach a class.. but to mentor the newbie teacher.. \" <- hearsay during a birthday party.
Kind of agree. My DD's teacher for her nursery class last year was a new teacher. This year her K1 teacher is also new to the school.
Experienced teachers can still be found in the older centers like Halifax and Serangoon though. -
Khamullotr:
i am talking from the experience of serangoon - LAP... a few yrs back when there was expansion... many experienced teachers were sent to the new centers, eg. aroozoo.. then those who stayed put.. left oso..or become teachers' mentors.smurfy:
\"the good, old experienced teachers.. have turned into teachers' mentors.. and they do not teach a class.. but to mentor the newbie teacher.. \" <- hearsay during a birthday party.
Kind of agree. My DD's teacher for her nursery class last year was a new teacher. This year her K1 teacher is also new to the school.
Experienced teachers can still be found in the older centers like Halifax and Serangoon though. -
empressplace:
I understand your concerns. Actually, my girl's teachers did feedback her progress to me. She said my girl was good in spelling. I liked my girl's K1 and K2 teachers very much as they were very professional and often feedback to me when there were any issues. Infact, Chinese teacher did highlight to me that my girl was not too good in Chinese compared to peers. I would say I have faith in them and trusted that my girl was in good hands. I hated spelling as a kid. The list just got longer over the years. I learnt via memory method. So when I choose Pat's, I was looking for a sch that teaches the kids via learn through play. The teachers taught my girl the way to spell using phonics, which I thought was good. Infact, she did better than those kids who were given weekly spelling list because she was taught the tool to spell instead of how to spell a few hundred words bef P1. The list of words keeps expanding now but she just could do it without much effort. Looking back, I was glad I was not given spelling list to monitor and teach. She had a lot of playtime at home last time.applemum, thanks for the information.
However I thought this system is not efficient/ideal. Why should the parents not be kept aware of the learning progress and participate in it or at least reinforce teaching at home? For example, if the child is not spelling words properly, an accurate assessment should be given to parents and remedial action should be suggested to parents. Perhaps some simple correction exercises over the weekend would help. Why wait till P1 to struggle?
In my own memory of spelling ....ahem..decades ago, spelling means learning a list of words, being tested on a specified date and doing some corrections if needed. What's wrong with this simple method? -
empressplace:
May I enquire when your K2 child started spelling this year and do they have Show & Tell sessions?
for my k2 child.. Show and tell officially started this year, term 1. there was a piece of paper inside their communication book.. telling them the theme of the show and tell, and which week they were supposed to perform.. e.g. each week on a friday.. 3-4 kids perform the show and tell within their own class. -
applemum:
The teachers taught my girl the way to spell using phonics, which I thought was good. Infact, she did better than those kids who were given weekly spelling list because she was taught the tool to spell instead of how to spell a few hundred words bef P1. The list of words keeps expanding now but she just could do it without much effort. Looking back, I was glad I was not given spelling list to monitor and teach. She had a lot of playtime at home last time.
My child's English spelling is not too good. He is taught to spell using the phonics method but I think this method is not sufficient for good spelling although it is effective for reading as it helps the child to guess the word. There is some memory work involved to ensure good spelling. For example, I heard from someone that her daughter spelled \"taxi\" as \"teksi\". It is correct from phonics' perspective but it is still wrong English spelling. This is the Malay spelling. Also, I can't imagine a child writing out the word very quickly if she constantly needs to break down the sound before spelling. Hence while I am no expert, I think memory work should not be completely disregarded. I am pretty baffled by this emphasis on spelling through phonics. Even adults would not be able to spell certain words just by phonics alone. -
My girl did make some mistakes here and there by using phonics to spell when she did her casual writing, e.g. tor vs ter, te vs ti etc when in K2. But for pri sch spelling, since the list is given in advance, she will usually look through the list and she can remember almost immediately. Maybe its also because she loves reading and reads widely. As she hardly reads chinese books, she needs to put in more effort and time to learn Chinese spelling. P1 term 2 onwards was bad, every week the spelling list had 30-40 chinese characters. Those were the days whereby I really had to depend on the "you can do it" spirit. Now in P2, she is used to it already.
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empressplace:
surely there would be mistakes made during the course of learning... but its thru these mistakes that the impression is deep for the kid? If every word the kid uses rote learning, then the kid would be very taxing in the long term. My no2 boy goes to a montessori CC now, they also encourage phonics spelling and no spelling list. (old pats closed down thus change cc)applemum:
The teachers taught my girl the way to spell using phonics, which I thought was good. Infact, she did better than those kids who were given weekly spelling list because she was taught the tool to spell instead of how to spell a few hundred words bef P1. The list of words keeps expanding now but she just could do it without much effort. Looking back, I was glad I was not given spelling list to monitor and teach. She had a lot of playtime at home last time.
My child's English spelling is not too good. He is taught to spell using the phonics method but I think this method is not sufficient for good spelling although it is effective for reading as it helps the child to guess the word. There is some memory work involved to ensure good spelling. For example, I heard from someone that her daughter spelled \"taxi\" as \"teksi\". It is correct from phonics' perspective but it is still wrong English spelling. This is the Malay spelling. Also, I can't imagine a child writing out the word very quickly if she constantly needs to break down the sound before spelling. Hence while I am no expert, I think memory work should not be completely disregarded. I am pretty baffled by this emphasis on spelling through phonics. Even adults would not be able to spell certain words just by phonics alone.
memory work will comes in naturally when the kids are expose to more words and more varied phonics rules. like sight words - due to high frequency, the kid do not need to use any mtd and will be able to spell them out.
I agree with applemum - besides memorise spelling words.. read n read n read is more impt. if the kid only rems that 100words from the spelling list, how wld the kid be able to write simple sentences / compo? -
mtdt:
surely there would be mistakes made during the course of learning... but its thru these mistakes that the impression is deep for the kid? If every word the kid uses rote learning, then the kid would be very taxing in the long term. My no2 boy goes to a montessori CC now, they also encourage phonics spelling and no spelling list. (old pats closed down thus change cc)
Not sure why my original concerns are now interpreted as an issue of rote learning of spelling vs phonics method of spelling. I am not encouraging rote learning as the only method. I disagree with solely using phonics to spell in school with no home reinforcement from parents. My main focus is really parental reinforcement, not on rote learning or phonics.mtdt:
Frequent contact/ reading is indeed necessary. However, there is nothing wrong with doing some simple stress free reinforcement at home. Even other well known childcare in the same price range has some form of home reinforcement in spelling. So I do not think home reinforcement coupled with phonics driven spelling is not good for the kids or is unorthodox in any way.memory work will comes in naturally when the kids are expose to more words and more varied phonics rules. like sight words - due to high frequency, the kid do not need to use any mtd and will be able to spell them out.
mtdt:
If we must engage in a rote learning debate, I agree that reading is more important. I disagree that some amount of rote learning is not important. My main point, however, is that I cannot see how this method of zero parental involvement in school spelling is superior. At the very least, even if spelling does not speed up, parents are alerted early to any potential problems such as dyslexia e.g.like how Jazreel Low discovered her daughter had dyslexia.I agree with applemum - besides memorise spelling words.. read n read n read is more impt. if the kid only rems that 100words from the spelling list, how wld the kid be able to write simple sentences / compo?
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Maybe I am a lazy parent. So I was happy I did not need to reinforce anything at home. The teachers did alert me immediately when there were other problems.
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That’s good. It means that you have strong faith and confidence in your child’s teachers.
However, a good working system should not be dependent on individuals.
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