2012 PSLE Discussions and Strategy

[fightingmom]

august24:

Yes, those compo done in class, remarks given are one sentence comments, hardly useful. Not too sure are they given feedback for improvement in class. Was told to get them to read more to improve, year after year. When I get /dd to practice writing, I can't mark as my EL is not gd! Tuition is def no no, I can't find more time to squeeze into their alrdy crazy schedule.

Btw, their teachers also do not give out email addresses. All comm need go thru general office. Hesitant to write in to P. as I don't want them being blacklisted!

:scared: No email addresses given ?!

I don't understand the logic of all comm need to go thru general office. Isn't that a lot of \"red tape\" ?

[janet88]

august24:

Yes, those compo done in class, remarks given are one sentence comments, hardly useful. Not too sure are they given feedback for improvement in class. Was told to get them to read more to improve, year after year. When I get /dd to practice writing, I can't mark as my EL is not gd! Tuition is def no no, I can't find more time to squeeze into their alrdy crazy schedule.

Btw, their teachers also do not give out email addresses. All comm need go thru general office. Hesitant to write in to P. as I don't want them being blacklisted!

I don't know to teach compo...that itself is a skill.
Teaching compo starts with sentence structuring or something like that...but it's really a skill in itself. I don't mind coaching grammar, vocab, synthesis, comprehension for lower pri...but upp pri onwards, I surrender.

[august24]

fightingmom:

:scared: No email addresses given ?!

I don't understand the logic of all comm need to go thru general office. Isn't that a lot of \"red tape\" ?

All these yrs, only 2 of dd T. gave me their mobile and email. Really must depend on the T. as emails not published on their sch website.

[G Tan]

Chenonceau:

They don't return compos because they wanna hide the spelling mistakes the teachers make. They would rather hide than step up and face issues that they need to address to deliver a quality education. If kids don't get quantitative and qualitative feedback about their compos, how will they learn?


Therefore, parents need to pay tuition centres to mark, GRADE, and comment on our children's compos. Since last year, I have to re-correct my son's compos from exams and class practices. His teacher makes too many spelling and grammar mistakes... misses out other mistakes... and gives few comments. How to learn from school like that.

We just have to accept that our schools focus more on testing (and generating marks)and differentiatig than on teaching well

Great comments! I truly sgreee. I do not get back my DD compo also :mad:

[Zekezachzoom]

august24:

Is it the norm for your dc sch not to release compo & oral marks?

For EL, only situational writing marks were 'given' (cos I managed to see it tho teacher blanko it off). H/e, no marks on compo writing given tho the paper was returned. Ds & dd said teacher dun tell dem marks for compo. I can only gauged the combined std of compo+oral. Even during PT mtg, teacher usually give general feedback like ok rather than telling the score. When checking grade, they will also cover the list to prevent us fr 'peeping'.

My DS school releases the mark for every component. So far, oral mark has been released and already causing some disputes. Those boys who had their oral tested by non language teachers (math or science teachers) scored generally 5-6 marks higher ( some even managed to scored full marks) then those tested by language teachers. Students and parents of the later group are complaining. I think is rather unfair, the school should have at least pair up one language teacher with the non language teacher.

[Zekezachzoom]

Chenonceau:

They don't return compos because they wanna hide the spelling mistakes the teachers make. They would rather hide than step up and face issues that they need to address to deliver a quality education. If kids don't get quantitative and qualitative feedback about their compos, how will they learn?


Therefore, parents need to pay tuition centres to mark, GRADE, and comment on our children's compos. Since last year, I have to re-correct my son's compos from exams and class practices. His teacher makes too many spelling and grammar mistakes... misses out other mistakes... and gives few comments. How to learn from school like that.

We just have to accept that our schools focus more on testing (and generating marks)and differentiatig than on teaching well

Agreed totally. Took my DS son compo to his English tutor and she commented the compo was pretty well written and she would at least mark 35/40 as compared to 25/40 given by his teacher in school. Such a vast difference. There was no comments on the compo to justify for the mark given at all.

[buds]

fightingmom:

pixiedust:

[quote=\"fightingmom\"]I used to joke with DD that SA stands for Speed and Accuracy so have to be careful (cannot say the forbidden word \"careless\") and finish the papers and leave at least about 10-15 mins to check through.


I used to repeat this every time before my DD starts her revision papers :

\"Every mark counts !\"

So now the 3 words stuck with her liao :rotflmao:

Ah, \"careless\" is forbidden ! I must remember this. What's the history behind ? chenonceau's suggestion ?
.

Hi pixiedust,

It is actually our \"house rule\". Used to remind my DD not to make any careless mistakes when she was in lower primary. The more
I reminded her, the more careless mistakes she made ! :faint:

So my DH said why not remind her to be careful (positive input) instead of careless (negative input ) so I tried. By end of primary 3, she has cut down her not so careful mistakes by half (used to lose 20-25 marks).

Whether is it our choice of words that helps - I don't really analyse too much as long as it works for my DD! [/quote]Yep, us too.. more positive to say be careful than why careless... :hi5:

DD2 will reply \"I will be more careful.\" instead of her previous \"I know i'm so careless.\" Makes a diff. I like \"every mark counts\" too! Will try that too. :xedfingers:

[buds]

janet_lee88:

Hey Buds,

You need to eat some snake...for sake of sanity.
If I didn't remember wrongly, the timers are placed near the \"plastic' section...quite near the food area at IMM outlet.

It's fun to see cute and colorful stuff in the house...livens up the room and best of all, it is a practical item. What the heck, it's $2 and like what my hubby always says, 'no brainer'. If I see another design of timer, I will get it.
When these 2 fellas refuse to get up, I set TIMERS to wake them up...a bit cruel to jerk the heart with loud RING but no choice :evil:

Hi janet, i super miss IMM.. some more i usually like to go when they just open shop during weekdays.. nice and quiet. :please: I didn't get to go IMM but decided to swing by Sembawang Shopping Centre instead after i brought the children to the playground. We had dinner and went straight to Daiso. Cos by then the crowd had intensified i tasked eagle-eyed DD2 to look out for the tomato near the Kitchen Section. She said no tomato leh.. then skali she shouted, \"Issit this one, mom.. but it's a lemon.. but it says here timer.\" I rushed over and supposed that was the one you bought so i held on to it cos only saw one. I initially wanted to go off and pay oredi until i saw the hen and also the digital, so cos someone mentioned abt the battery going flat easily, i decided i SHOULD get all three. Aniwaes, $2 each... no brainer right right?

Lots to learn from this thread.. Time management is first one i'll address. Thanks you guys! :grphug:

So happy with my timers. :please:

Can't wait to two-time. :rotflmao:
I got two DDs mah.

[janet88]

Hi buds,

I am hoping to get another tomato design…bcos it has a louder buzz compared to the hen. In order not to stress him with the ring, I put the hen design in his room now. I need a louder timer when I steam food.
I wanted to go IMM but first floor under renovation.

Time management is crucial now. Everything has to be timed. No point doing the questions taking own sweet time scoring full marks but under pressure only get 2/5 (MCQ questions). I am also timing my daughter when I give her MCQ. Kiasu lah, so must start training.

[psle2011mum]

Our school released all the component marks ( continuous writing, situational, oral and listening comprehension).


If they hadn’t released the individaul component marks, I would have politely but insistently asked for an explanation why. I have done this on certain issues and where the answers at the first level were not satisfactory, I raised it higher up. In some of the cases, there was in fact a logical explanation why something I thought should be done was not done and I stood duly corrected having learnt more about the issue. But school was good, generally I did not face stone walls; just that less ( perhaps very very much less) parents were interested in the things I was interested in.

I also made an appointment to see the teacher to discuss the compo paper.
I sighted the actual paper ( did this since P3) and mostly there were only "markings" on it - wiggly lines, spelling corrections and punctuation corrections.

But the real value of the session was twofold - (a) I needed to see if DD was translating what I had taught her to do under exam conditions and (b) invariably I could engage the teacher into a discussion as to better understand the marking rubrics.

The marks were immaterial - only one compo "counts" in primary school- the one the kids write for PSLE.

With the teacher’s verbal critique and my own analysis of DD’s writing, DD could come away from every compo paper learning how to improve and this must be the final outcome of any piece of writing our DC do, isn’t it? Why bother to do anything if you don’t learn anything from it?

I once asked a trainer why teachers don’t give more helpful comments. She shared that she does tell her teachers how they can mark so that the marking is more useful, but she can’t control what the teachers do in school.

In this trainers’ marking scheme (we did a couple of workshops with her where the kids submitted compo pieces and she critiqued them both in writing and with a verbal one on one session), we learnt where the weak areas were, why they were considered weak, we were offered suggestions how to strengthen these weak areas and the re-writes were marked again and similarly critiqued.

I don’t blame the teachers or the school for not doing more detailed marking - where’s the time to do all this for 40+ students who write 10 compos a year??