2012 PSLE Discussions and Strategy
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Hi psle2011mum,
Thanks for the wonderful tips that you have shared with us. Though I have gone through one psle before with my ds1, I am still learning from my past mistakes with the upcoming psle with ds2.
As both my sons are from catholic mission school, the school Chinese standard is below national average. Hence it really makes the journey of learning Chinese extremely tough. I am wondering if you can share what sort of Chinese compos is best to start my ds2 to memorize (there are so many out there!), it will be greatly appreciated!
Regards -
dovetail:
Very nice rhyming couplets. Your DD has a way with words.Yes, I can attest to the benefits of starring far. My kids dd 11 and ds 14 and not myopic. I attribute their good eyesight to balance of outdoor activities.
Just to add another starring far poetry, with permission from my dd who wrote this a week ago.
Starry Night
When you look far far away,
on a cloudless night, not day,
don't you feel happy at what you see?
Don't you feel for one moment that you are really free?
When you see the the twinkling stars,
like the lights of hundreds of cars,
don't you feel that the two are different somehow?
Don't you feel that great feeling of \"Now\"?
You don't have to worry about this or that,
about doing your homework or losing your hat.
You just enjoy the present, the now, the here,
the presence of loved ones, of those who are dear.
So next time you leave that starry night,
try to look at the world in a new light.
Don't worry about the future, or grumble about the past,
leave all these things alone, to collect dust.
For remember, these are chains that tie you down,
that make you unhappy, and make you frown.
Hold fast to the present, and those who are dear,
for the most important time is now, and the most important place is here.
Donata, Written on the spot
- Donata - All Rights Reserved - 2011
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Hi Parents
This [very long] post [ I apologise in advance] is about how I helped DD with her English Compo. I’m not an expert at all [really more desperate than expert] but my work involves English language skills so I used some of that to help DD.
DD’s English compo writing had been really poor in P3 not because she lacked ability, but because (a) she did not understand the requirements for Compo Writing and (b) she had nothing to aspire to, not having sighted "good writing" pieces.
I’ve shared that DD is a reader but she read for entertainment. She likes Fantasy - Narnia, Bartimaeus, Harry Potter – it’s hard even for a reader to translate anything from reading this genre of books to a composition which asks you to write about a girl you find crying in a shopping centre; so I had no choice but to roll up my sleeves and help.
Again I reiterate my lack of qualified expertise; I can only say both DDs did well in English Compo with the following strategies.
I learnt the hard way that Compo writing is NOT creative story writing [ my apologies to the many "creative writing tutors out there" ; I can only say that this is my perspective on the issue and parents still have to make their own assessment about what works best for their child] .
I don’t recall having had any special training for compo writing in school, but I recall I did well enough. Yet, when I turned my hand to the compos my DD had to write, I was stumped.
I tried analysing my DD1’s problem with the teachers then, but didn’t get too far as they were really busy. Through a friend though, I learnt of an English Language trainer [she trains some of our teachers]and I had 3 group sessions with her. The benefit of this was that I could ask an expert what was expected, what was rewarded with marks and what didn’t work, and also very importantly, why. This trainer critiqued DD’s efforts [ DD had to write pieces and submit these to the trainer before the sessions] and this trainer explained to me clearly the requirements for composition writing.
These were some things that “turned on the light” for me:
a.\tIn Compo writing, what is tested is language ability -I know, I know, it’s a bit of a no-brainer right – but I had started off on the wrong foot thinking it was like my own primary school days when teachers asked us to write stories [ I remember mine being liberally peppered with Enid- Blyton- like elves and characters drinking English tea! I am sure a gollywog or two put in an appearance too.]
b.\tIt is perfectly all right to write the Obvious [aka “boring story line”] Story - in my bid to write “stories”, I tried getting DD to write beyond the obvious –“creative” stories with plots , myriad characters and twists; it was a strategy that failed miserably because she tripped up everywhere-- and it was so unnecessary. If you accept Premise (a) above, then you can accept that your child will not be marked down because he/she wrote the Obvious Story. On the other hand, if there is a logic lapse [because your child got confused in all that creativity], your child may well be marked down for it. What is the Obvious Story ? Well, it’s a simple one liner for each part of the story. I’ll try to illustrate with examples below.
c.\t“Show” don’t “Tell” – you may have heard the teachers tell the children this in class but kids being kids, DD didn’t understand what it meant. Perhaps I can illustrate this better with an example. A simple, quite typical sentence many of our kids can write without any problem is something like : “He cried out in pain”. This is an example of “telling” - the sentence can easily be in answer to the question “Tell me what happened”; but if the question is not “tell me what happened “ but ‘ show me what happened”, a child might well take it to mean that he/she has to “act it out’ to “show” you what happened – and that was what I taught DD to do – only her “acting” had to be in words; maybe something like this – “Pain wrecked his body. Tears streamed out of the corners of his eyes even as his lips compressed into a thin line. He could contain it in no longer – his mouth opened and his shriek of agony filled the room.” We used a rough ‘one for three’ formula to "show" and "not tell" ie for the one simple “tell me what happened “ line, DD was trained to write 3 descriptive lines. See how this links to Premise (a) – the child can write “ He cried out in pain” but if he/she can achieve the 3 descriptive lines in place of the one “telling” line, he/she has shown his/her linguistic ability/prowess and will be rewarded with marks.
d.\tPractice makes perfect – in DD’s school, the time table provided for 10 compos to be written in a year. Simply put, it was not enough for DD to count on the school to provide the needed practice – we had to do quite a bit more on our own. We used the past year PSLE questions from other schools for practice and also the Hokkien Huay Kuan published exam papers [ you can get these tomes from Popular].We bought the latter mainly because of the English compo questions which tended to be missing from the past year papers purchased from Jeremy’s Examsutra. In the P5 holidays, DD wrote compos for me in earnest and I would correct them just as dilligently [see the next section].
e.\tCorrections are Crucial – I did not agree with the way corrections were done in school but I emphatised fully. The teacher has 40+ students to handle and each student has multiple varying needs. I only had to help one DD, and I already had my hands full. But since DD had put in the effort to write a compo, I decided I would put in the effort to correct it so that she would learn from her mistakes. I won’t go into the details but I did require the following – spelling errors were re-written out 10 times and the mis-spelled word was thereafter put into our Spelling file for further practice; if the punctuation error revealed that DD didn’t know how to use that punctuation well, then we did a lesson ( or more, as necessary) on how to use that punctuation correctly; if a part ( or more) of the compo was badly written, I explained why I felt it was bad and made suggestions for improvement, reiterating lessons such as Points (a) to above and (g) below, then DD would re-write another attempt. It was a slow and laborious process but we stuck with it and DD slowly but surely improved. I hastened the process somewhat by modeling for DD ie I wrote the compositions after she had done her “re-attempts” and then took her through the various parts of it, showing and not merely telling her, how it was to be done.
f.\tNo time for re-visits : Based on my earlier PSLE journey with DD1, I knew we would have no time for re-visits, so as we wrote and corrected, I collected the best of the works into a file and junked the rest; this was used for “revision” right before the PSLE.
g.\tThe Science to the Art : I worked out a formula/strategy [based on my abilities and suited for DD’s strengths and weaknesses] which DD could apply to any question that could come out in the PSLE, so that it didn’t depend on whether she liked the topic set or otherwise. DD understood this well because she had by this time understood Point (a) – composition writing is a writing exercise – it is an exercise to showcase writing ability and it didn’t depend on her magically being able to conjure a fantastic story line out of thin air within 50 minutes.
Our composition had 4 main parts [yes 4 not 3] : a beginning, a body, a resolution to the problem and a reflection.
Rule No. 1: the composition had to be balanced; in the early days, DD tended to start off beautifully, very descriptive and full of enthusiasm, but whether it was because she got tired or because she ran out of time, the other parts of her composition quickly went back to the ‘telling” mode, especially at the end. I explained that the end was perhaps the most important part of the compo since this was the point just before the teacher awarded the marks, so DD could not afford to start well but end badly.
Rule No. 2: the body was usually divided into two parts, (a) introducing the problem [Telling statement [ citing from a past psle picture composition question]: boy fell into a hole in the ground while flying a kite in the park]and the other (b) showing the process of how the problem was solved [Telling statement: the boy was rescued from the hole by his father using a long stick].
In this “body” part of the composition, we usually employed 2 main strategies – what the trainer termed “make the problem worse” for (a) and “ the magic of 3’ for (b).
In “making the problem worse”, instead of just making our poor boy fall into the hole [ we did nonetheless use 3 descriptors to show and not simply tell about his falling into hole– flailing arms, ear-piercing yell, deafening thud] , we might have him hurt his arm in the course of the fall [ we would have another 3 descriptors showing and not telling: eg. bent at an awkward angle, excruciating pain, limp and immobile arm] and then have the boy also feel sick and vomit from having swallowed clods of earth as he fell in [and another 3 descriptors showing and not telling: eg lumps of earthy debris rained onto him, filling his nose with the stench of dung even as clods of earth lodged deep within his throat, silencing him in mid-yell] . Each of these 3 small scenarios for one telling statement was simple enough for DD to manage and she had ample material to write about.
In the “magic of 3” [a suspense strategy] , our rescue was never a success at the first attempt; it was a minimum of 2 or a maximum of 3 attempts for success– eg in the first attempt, the dad finds a tree branch but this breaks the moment the boy touches it; in the second attempt, the dad manages to find something stronger but boy’s hands are slippery with sweat and he falls off halfway; only in the third attempt, does the rescue succeed. With this strategy, DD never ran out of material to write and her simple ideas were not a chore to derive or write about.
Rule No.3 : there must be a resolution to the problem; in my example, DD would probably ahve resolved this simply – the boy was saved by his dad; he had cuts and scratches but otherwise didn’t need any further treatment. The compositions our kids are often tasked to write are based on what PSLE setters think is a “problem” which is within their experience [ reality narratives] and set in a familiar context [ hence no “ Holiday in Hokkaido” types of titles for PSLE because not everyone has stepped onto a plane]. They therefore expect the problem to be satisfactorily resolved by the child in his/her compo. For this reason, use of deus ex machine [ a term I think which roughly translates to the equivalent of “intervention of a super machine” ]is not acceptable and neither is “death” or “ I woke up and realised it was a dream” as these are too ‘pat” and convenient a solution for a “real” problem to be resolved.
Rule No.4 : there needs to be a reflection; I wrote a “set” piece for DDs to memorise and adapt to the various common themes [ done a good deed and felt happy; relived that a harrowing incident had not turned worse; regret for a foolish act etc] ; it helped to bring the composition to a rounded end.
Eg. As the evening sun set and threw out hues of pink and gold, [Andy] was filled with a sense of relief that his harrowing ordeal had come to an end. Nestled in the comfortable confines of his room, he thanked his lucky stars that he had not been more seriously hurt. Soon, lulled by the warmth and safety of his bed, Andy closed his eyes as he drifted off to Dreamland.
Variation ie adpated for "done a good deed"
Eg. As the evening sun set and threw out hues of pink and gold, [Andy] was filled with gladness at the good deed he had done. The magnificent sunset was indeed a fitting end to an especially significant day.
Even if you deem the above examples commendable, I DO NOT recommend you/your child uses this – PSLE markers are going to start wondering why an inordinate number of compositions have this paragraph]. However, I do recommend you/your child either write your own reflection paragraph or adapt it from some of the good books [ I adapted one for DD from a children’s classic ].
With the above framework, we did not have to “plan” that much – just the few telling statements [which were obvious anyway] from which DD then applied the above “Rules” . The teachers did issue some notes along these lines to DD this year but it happened rather late in the year. As you can tell, these skills take time to develop, so earlier practice is always better. The upside is of this massive effort was that even with a little success, DD felt motivated enough to “keep the standards up” and I had relatively little trouble keeping her at the practice because she could clearly see the benefits.
h.\tWe avoided some common errors: we started our compos right at the point just before ‘the Body’. instead of writing 3 paras of a beautiful beginning at the expense of the “more important” end ; we always tried to minimise the number of characters in our story so that we did not have to write for so many – eg if you played ball with 5 friends and you have one character involved in an incident, one ‘hero” in charge , you will have 3 kids standing by in stony silence; we watched it when we wrote in the first person as then we needed to ensure the compo could continue if we decided that our first person story-teller should faint away; we avoided difficult names ending in ‘s” like “ James” because DD sometimes got confused how to use it as a possessive – “ James’ or James’s”; we avoided complicated story lines and flashbacks as a writing style like this made DD commit logic lapses and unfortunately, DD did not always flash back to the same time zone.
i.\tTypically, DD’s composition would be about 400+ to 500 + words; the mandate is 150 words but I feel that you cannot showcase much linguistic ability in 150 words.
j.\t40 out of 40 – if you accept Premise (a), 40/40 at PSLE for English composition is possible and according to the teachers, has been achieved. DD’s score was typically 30+ out of 40 in a school which tested for English at a reasonably high standard. Prior to my learning more, DD was languishing in the 24 to 29 range.
k.\tIf you think this is a lot of work then I will tell you it is; but take the challenge I did – do a P6 compo question and assess for yourself whether it is a walk in the park; if you agree that it is not, then I think you will agree that your DChild needs help – specific and directed guidance to do well; you cannot expect [save for the geniuses amongst us] the child to achieve this on his/her own.
l.\tTime – DD was fortunate; I learnt the above when DD was in P4; so when DD was in P5, we started implementation in serious. But all is not lost; for DD1 I only got these worked out in April of the year she took her PSLE and she did an A* for English too.
m.\tTuition – I was the main tutor but DD did attend one session with the trainer [we had parent-child teams in that workshop] but I think it was of limited value because this is an on-going process.
n.\tReferences – Since 2008, I have only found one model compo book resource I was happy to use; it was called "PSLE model compositions 2002 - 2007" published by MultiNine Corporation. As far as I can ascertain, it has been out of print after 2008. I bought my original copies from Popular. It contained the past PSLE questions with model compos and they were simple enough with very interesting story lines and amazingly done within 250+ words. I have given all my copies away over the years as we out-grew this. A word of caution about using these model resources : many other students had access to this little gem and the teachers were hence treated to highly similar stories from various girls in the class when they ‘borrowed” liberally from this book. Nonetheless, it was of value to us because I wanted to show my DDs what good compos looked like. I am unsure why, but only on odd occasions did the English teachers show the girls samples of good writing done by other girls in the class or their seniors [ yes, the compo questions were unchanged at least from 2009 to 2011]. The Chinese teacher however typed out and issued as notes the good Chinese compos the class girls had written and even underlined the good phrases and paragraphs to highlight to the students; so I’m not sure why the English teachers were reticent in this respect. Anyway, I modeled the compos for my DDs, for better or worse.
I think that’s largely it for English Compo. Remember that Rome wasn’t built in a day, so small steps and bite-size sessions in the course of implementaion are highly recommended.
If you have read till this end, I commend you – it made me rather tired just proof reading all this.
I also apologise if you cringed at my writing; I can only say that there is a fair bit of personal preference when it comes to style.
I’m not sure whether this has been of any help to anyone but if it has encouraged you to step up and help your child [ so many of them do struggle mightily when it is largely not their fault], I would have achieved my main objective.
Have a great night ahead everyone! -
:thankyou: This is so helpful to me!! I am really very grateful. You've taken the trouble to write your thoughts neatly, and organise them clearly... and share answers to questions that I have asked so many times but found no answers anywhere.
Thank God you came along. Please share more. -
Hi Zekezachzoom
I am trying to put together my resources for sharing for the 4 subjects and will probably get to Chinese sooner or later but perhaps a short [ not so short upon review] answer to your question about Chinese compos.
This was what worked for us:
a. Berries - I’m not very sure what they did for my DDs but both were in Berries since K2 and the compo handbooks they issued were what my DDs memorised;
b. I also bought compo guides published by Ocean Publishers and Wellington Publishers [ I think they may be the same people actually] as they featured Chinese compos written by other students; these are widely available from Popular;
c. I also bought the small phrase handbooks published by Victoria Publications where the various topics were consolidated into phrases and descriptors;
d. Other than Berries, at home, DD would consolidate her 'favourite" [ read short and easy to memorise] phrases and paragraphs into an exercise book which we continued to add on as she memorised more phrases and paragraphs; this ended up as a Revision book for PSLE. We started this 'collection" from P5 and used it for each exam. DD did not memorise whole compo pieces [ hats off to Chenonceau’s son who did] but was quite adapt in 'cutting" and "pasting" everything together. I really can’t take full credit for this at all - I think it’s something Berries taught them.
Our family doesn’t speak any Mandarin at home; DH is even more "potato" than I am and my Chinese is too poor to speak to my 2 DDs; but that being said, I think I was well placed to guide my DDs. This is because the Chinese teachers are so skilled, I think they can’t really understand how to teach these children with limited skills to maximise what small skills they did have. I, on the other hand [ reading something like only every third word in the passage] developed skills [crutches] to help them [their Chinese papers/compos were marked in English ie my answers were written in English and then we used an electronic dictionary [ Besta 668 - the one with the handwriting recognition ability] to look for an appropriate translation.
We always knew Chinese was not going to be an A* but we did what we could with our limited resources; our aim was a high A that wouldn’t drag the rest of the grades down and I believed we achieved that.
I’ll share more about what we did for Chinese in another post, hopefully soon.
Don’t give up Zekezachzoom - our potato kids just need some crutches (in English) to prop them up. I say this with the voice of experience because DD1 is now doing HMT [ DD2 will offer this too next year] and DD1 is still coping well enough using these 'crutches".
Hope this helps. -
dovetail:
Beautifully written. Thank you for sharingYes, I can attest to the benefits of starring far. My kids dd 11 and ds 14 and not myopic. I attribute their good eyesight to balance of outdoor activities.
Just to add another starring far poetry, with permission from my dd who wrote this a week ago.
Starry Night
When you look far far away,
on a cloudless night, not day,
don't you feel happy at what you see?
Don't you feel for one moment that you are really free?
When you see the the twinkling stars,
like the lights of hundreds of cars,
don't you feel that the two are different somehow?
Don't you feel that great feeling of \"Now\"?
You don't have to worry about this or that,
about doing your homework or losing your hat.
You just enjoy the present, the now, the here,
the presence of loved ones, of those who are dear.
So next time you leave that starry night,
try to look at the world in a new light.
Don't worry about the future, or grumble about the past,
leave all these things alone, to collect dust.
For remember, these are chains that tie you down,
that make you unhappy, and make you frown.
Hold fast to the present, and those who are dear,
for the most important time is now, and the most important place is here.
Donata, Written on the spot - Donata - All Rights Reserved - 2011 -
Thanks so much psle2011mum. Your reply to my questions really give me some hope in helping my ds2 to do well in Chinese;) also, thanks for your encouragement. Your very detailed strategy in tackling English compo is so well organized and I have again benefitted from it;)
Looking forward to your other sharing in other subjects. Appreciate your effort. -
Hi everyone
It's me again with another [ I apologise once more] long post about Math resources.
Onsponge ,Alegbra and beyond modelling
It was 2009 and after SA1, for the first time in my life, I heard about Onsponge. The then HOD recommended it but also told me that the school was not ready to introduce it just yet – it was a resource that was then new and the teachers themselves were still in the process of evaluating it, although the HOD personally thought it would be useful. I bought the Onsponge books, bought Ammiel Wan’s Teacher Resource – Challenging Math Problems Made Easy and tried to teach myself and DD1. I didn’t do a good job and I knew that DD1 went in for her PSLE at best only 75% prepared. I wasn’t about to repeat my mistake again with DD2, so in 2010 ,while I had the time, I paid for 12 hours of lessons [ Part 1 & 2] with Onsponge at 2 of their parent workshops. It was so helpful because I could verbalise all my questions and the trainer could immediately clear all my doubts. Henceforth, I was a positive help to DD2 in her Math -- there were no longer Math problems I couldn’t work out for DD2.
Why was Onsponge important? I’m going to slay a sacred cow here – modelling has its limitations. Don’t get me wrong --I love Math by modelling; if I had been taught it when I was in school, I would have enjoyed Math so much more and been so much more proficient at the subject. But there comes a point of time when other methods are better – quicker and easier to use. The limitations of the modelling method starts showing up in P5, probably mid to end of the year and if your child is not better equipped with other problem solving strategies, he/she may well find the going uphill as he/she enters P6.
Onsponge provided some of these strategies but after a while, I dispensed with the labels for the methods and thereafter nothing was sacrosanct – I taught DD algebra, simultaneous equations, logic – the name of the method was not important, but distilling the question to put the words from the questions into useful number statements [a good command of English is important here] for solving, that was my main aim.
In this 2011 PSLE math exam, relatives who participated in the marking of the PSLE math paper confirmed that they either saw good scores [full marks or close to it] or really poor ones ie the kids either found it easy or very hard. My heart broke when I heard that – some of the kids had been sent to battle without being equipped – they left questions totally blank. Again, I can’t explain why this is happening in the system but DD2 did not start off as being strong in Math. I think she was probably above average up to P4 but with proper guidance, she move ahead much more easily.
I like Onsponge’s analogy about approaching this “new math” – it’s like having a tool box where the modelling method is probably like a screw driver. But just as you wouldn’t use a screwdriver for every task, you wouldn’t want to use the modelling method for every question. Some tasks require a hammer and others a spanner ; you need a veritable tool box of different problem solving methods to tackle the paper.
Towards the run up to the PSLE, DD2 was telling me how to solve the questions with quicker methods – I was very happy for her – the student had surpassed the Master.
Learning Interactive – A* Maths Problem Series for Primary 6 High Achievers
This was another resource the new HOD [the earlier one retired] recommended. I found the notes excellent and they taught certain simple but essential concepts for Speed and Tessallations which were very useful for us. This resource can only be bought from Learning Interactive http://www.li.com.sg but their office is at Bras Basah Complex, so it was quite convenient to pick up. DD started on these and found them tough; she had to do corrections for almost every sum in this series but she learnt from this series of workbooks. There were not enough practice questions in this series though and DD2 needed the extra practice, so we had to use Fabian Ng – see below.
Fabian Ng - Problem-Solving Processes in Mathematics
This is a tome of a book [really thick] you can easily get from Popular but with due respect to Mr Ng, I found his methods hard to understand. However, his questions were a gem and that was what DD used for practice and re-practice. DD 1 did the same but because we had so many problems we couldn’t solve back in 2009, we were so slow and DD1 did not manage to finish the book. DD2 had the advantage of a better-equipped mum so she practically finished all the exercises in this book. She did many corrections at first but again, our experience was that if we spent the time going through the corrections to make sure she understood, she did better when she next encountered similar questions.
Past year papers
A copyright nightmare but my heartfelt thanks goes to Jeremy and his exam papers; we bought them all and worked through them one by one. Whenever DD2 had a problem, she wrote down the number statements she could and then left it. When I went through the unsolved question, I would work it out but I would not show her the solution. Instead, she would explain to me what she could do and I would then “scaffold” for her – lead her on with tiny half steps towards writing the relevant number statements. Usually, by the time the number statements had been written, she could solve the question on her own. I refrained from showing her the full solution because she needed to work it out for herself. After all, she had to face the PSLE paper alone and without Mummy. Mind you, this process took time too – it wasn’t something we achieved overnight at all.
Ending Thoughts
DD2 was not a natural high achiever in math; neither was mummy. We were however put onto excellent resources and DD2 put in the required hours of practice and re-practice. Neither tutors nor enrichment centres can duplicate the experience of practice and re-practice if your child is one of those who will benefit from this form of learning; in other words, if your child needs the practice, don’t expect a tutor or tuition centre to work miracles in the once a week two hour regime.
Method marks: DD2’s teachers through the years did an excellent job of teaching DD2 what was needed to get Method marks. If DD2 could come out with an answer, I can’t recall that she ever lost method marks for it. DD2’s teachers were also excellent in accepting any method to get an answer– whether they had taught it in class or not; if it could be understood, it was accorded the full marks. This helped tremendously because it built DD2 into a confident problem solver.
Tianzhu – Tianzhu of this forum was an inspiration to me with his generosity, zeal and intelligence. I downloaded many of his wonderful workings and worked through some of these with DD2 [we did not have time to do them all]. With my limited abilities, I did not always understand Tianzhu’s workings but instead, would work out the question using “my method”. DD2 would then attempt the question (without the benefit of both Tianzhu and my solutions) and quite often, she ended up learning 3 “methods” of solving one question. Thank you once again Tianzhu – you have been such a blessing to us.
A confession – we did not always do the homework which the school set within the given timelines; there was no time. If the school set an exercise eg from the workbook which I felt was something I thought DD could already handle, we “skipped” it and only did it later eg after the school exams. These exercises were simpler but they still took time and effort and tired DD2 out. The teachers were excellent in granting us this leeway and did not give either DD2 or myself any problems with it. I understood the teachers’ point of view too – these exercise had been prescribed by some higher authority, there was no room for their personal discretion, so really I did not blame them at all – they were already being so accommodating to this desperate mum by not making things more difficult.
This has been somewhat more tiring than I thought, so I think I’ll end here for tonight. Have a restful night ahead everyone. -
Hi Pixiedust
Thank you for your kind words but really, I am just like any parent here at the forum - we all do juggle many roles whether we work full time or not and we all try our best to do the best for our children.
Many factors helped to enable me to shepherd my DD while working, including an understanding work environment - from bosses, to staff,to clients.
I managed to get out the post for math today and will look for some time to put together the one for science etc soon.
Have a good night
-
psle2011mum:
:goodpost: Thank you so much. Wow! I can see how much effort you put in. great job. I can roughly understand now how to improve the compo following 1 for 3 rule. Regardless of sending the children for extra classes, I am sure parents must step in to cater for their own needs. I was clueless on how to help her on compo although I am willing to help her/spend time with her. It is unfortunate that they stopped selling the compo recommended by you:( If you come across any similar version (model compo) or equivalent, kindly let us know :thankyou:Hi Parents
This [very long] post [ I apologise in advance] is about how I helped DD with her English Compo. I'm not an expert at all [really more desperate than expert] but my work involves English language skills so I used some of that to help DD.
DD's English compo writing had been really poor in P3 not because she lacked ability, but because (a) she did not understand the requirements for Compo Writing and (b) she had nothing to aspire to, not having sighted \"good writing\" pieces.
I've shared that DD is a reader but she read for entertainment. She likes Fantasy - Narnia, Bartimaeus, Harry Potter -- it's hard even for a reader to translate anything from reading this genre of books to a composition which asks you to write about a girl you find crying in a shopping centre; so I had no choice but to roll up my sleeves and help.
Again I reiterate my lack of qualified expertise; I can only say both DDs did well in English Compo with the following strategies.
I learnt the hard way that Compo writing is NOT creative story writing [ my apologies to the many \"creative writing tutors out there\" ; I can only say that this is my perspective on the issue and parents still have to make their own assessment about what works best for their child] .
I don’t recall having had any special training for compo writing in school, but I recall I did well enough. Yet, when I turned my hand to the compos my DD had to write, I was stumped.
I tried analysing my DD1’s problem with the teachers then, but didn’t get too far as they were really busy. Through a friend though, I learnt of an English Language trainer [she trains some of our teachers]and I had 3 group sessions with her. The benefit of this was that I could ask an expert what was expected, what was rewarded with marks and what didn’t work, and also very importantly, why. This trainer critiqued DD’s efforts [ DD had to write pieces and submit these to the trainer before the sessions] and this trainer explained to me clearly the requirements for composition writing.
These were some things that “turned on the light” for me:
a.\tIn Compo writing, what is tested is language ability -I know, I know, it’s a bit of a no-brainer right – but I had started off on the wrong foot thinking it was like my own primary school days when teachers asked us to write stories [ I remember mine being liberally peppered with Enid- Blyton- like elves and characters drinking English tea! I am sure a gollywog or two put in an appearance too.]
b.\tIt is perfectly all right to write the Obvious [aka “boring story line”] Story - in my bid to write “stories”, I tried getting DD to write beyond the obvious –“creative” stories with plots , myriad characters and twists; it was a strategy that failed miserably because she tripped up everywhere-- and it was so unnecessary. If you accept Premise (a) above, then you can accept that your child will not be marked down because he/she wrote the Obvious Story. On the other hand, if there is a logic lapse [because your child got confused in all that creativity], your child may well be marked down for it. What is the Obvious Story ? Well, it’s a simple one liner for each part of the story. I’ll try to illustrate with examples below.
c.\t“Show” don’t “Tell” – you may have heard the teachers tell the children this in class but kids being kids, DD didn’t understand what it meant. Perhaps I can illustrate this better with an example. A simple, quite typical sentence many of our kids can write without any problem is something like : “He cried out in pain”. This is an example of “telling” - the sentence can easily be in answer to the question “Tell me what happened”; but if the question is not “tell me what happened “ but ‘ show me what happened”, a child might well take it to mean that he/she has to “act it out’ to “show” you what happened -- and that was what I taught DD to do – only her “acting” had to be in words; maybe something like this -- “Pain wrecked his body. Tears streamed out of the corners of his eyes even as his lips compressed into a thin line. He could contain it in no longer – his mouth opened and his shriek of agony filled the room.” We used a rough 'one for three' formula to \"show\" and \"not tell\" ie for the one simple “tell me what happened “ line, DD was trained to write 3 descriptive lines. See how this links to Premise (a) – the child can write “ He cried out in pain” but if he/she can achieve the 3 descriptive lines in place of the one “telling” line, he/she has shown his/her linguistic ability/prowess and will be rewarded with marks.
d.\tPractice makes perfect – in DD’s school, the time table provided for 10 compos to be written in a year. Simply put, it was not enough for DD to count on the school to provide the needed practice – we had to do quite a bit more on our own. We used the past year PSLE questions from other schools for practice and also the Hokkien Huay Kuan published exam papers [ you can get these tomes from Popular].We bought the latter mainly because of the English compo questions which tended to be missing from the past year papers purchased from Jeremy’s Examsutra. In the P5 holidays, DD wrote compos for me in earnest and I would correct them just as dilligently [see the next section].
e.\tCorrections are Crucial – I did not agree with the way corrections were done in school but I emphatised fully. The teacher has 40+ students to handle and each student has multiple varying needs. I only had to help one DD, and I already had my hands full. But since DD had put in the effort to write a compo, I decided I would put in the effort to correct it so that she would learn from her mistakes. I won’t go into the details but I did require the following – spelling errors were re-written out 10 times and the mis-spelled word was thereafter put into our Spelling file for further practice; if the punctuation error revealed that DD didn’t know how to use that punctuation well, then we did a lesson ( or more, as necessary) on how to use that punctuation correctly; if a part ( or more) of the compo was badly written, I explained why I felt it was bad and made suggestions for improvement, reiterating lessons such as Points (a) to (c) above and (g) below, then DD would re-write another attempt. It was a slow and laborious process but we stuck with it and DD slowly but surely improved. I hastened the process somewhat by modeling for DD ie I wrote the compositions after she had done her “re-attempts” and then took her through the various parts of it, showing and not merely telling her, how it was to be done.
f.\tNo time for re-visits : Based on my earlier PSLE journey with DD1, I knew we would have no time for re-visits, so as we wrote and corrected, I collected the best of the works into a file and junked the rest; this was used for “revision” right before the PSLE.
g.\tThe Science to the Art : I worked out a formula/strategy [based on my abilities and suited for DD’s strengths and weaknesses] which DD could apply to any question that could come out in the PSLE, so that it didn’t depend on whether she liked the topic set or otherwise. DD understood this well because she had by this time understood Point (a) – composition writing is a writing exercise – it is an exercise to showcase writing ability and it didn’t depend on her magically being able to conjure a fantastic story line out of thin air within 50 minutes.
Our composition had 4 main parts [yes 4 not 3] : a beginning, a body, a resolution to the problem and a reflection.
Rule No. 1: the composition had to be balanced; in the early days, DD tended to start off beautifully, very descriptive and full of enthusiasm, but whether it was because she got tired or because she ran out of time, the other parts of her composition quickly went back to the ‘telling” mode, especially at the end. I explained that the end was perhaps the most important part of the compo since this was the point just before the teacher awarded the marks, so DD could not afford to start well but end badly.
Rule No. 2: the body was usually divided into two parts, (a) introducing the problem [Telling statement [ citing from a past psle picture composition question]: boy fell into a hole in the ground while flying a kite in the park]and the other (b) showing the process of how the problem was solved [Telling statement: the boy was rescued from the hole by his father using a long stick].
In this “body” part of the composition, we usually employed 2 main strategies – what the trainer termed “make the problem worse” for (a) and “ the magic of 3’ for (b).
In “making the problem worse”, instead of just making our poor boy fall into the hole [ we did nonetheless use 3 descriptors to show and not simply tell about his falling into hole– flailing arms, ear-piercing yell, deafening thud] , we might have him hurt his arm in the course of the fall [ we would have another 3 descriptors showing and not telling: eg. bent at an awkward angle, excruciating pain, limp and immobile arm] and then have the boy also feel sick and vomit from having swallowed clods of earth as he fell in [and another 3 descriptors showing and not telling: eg lumps of earthy debris rained onto him, filling his nose with the stench of dung even as clods of earth lodged deep within his throat, silencing him in mid-yell] . Each of these 3 small scenarios for one telling statement was simple enough for DD to manage and she had ample material to write about.
In the “magic of 3” [a suspense strategy] , our rescue was never a success at the first attempt; it was a minimum of 2 or a maximum of 3 attempts for success– eg in the first attempt, the dad finds a tree branch but this breaks the moment the boy touches it; in the second attempt, the dad manages to find something stronger but boy’s hands are slippery with sweat and he falls off halfway; only in the third attempt, does the rescue succeed. With this strategy, DD never ran out of material to write and her simple ideas were not a chore to derive or write about.
Rule No.3 : there must be a resolution to the problem; in my example, DD would probably ahve resolved this simply – the boy was saved by his dad; he had cuts and scratches but otherwise didn’t need any further treatment. The compositions our kids are often tasked to write are based on what PSLE setters think is a “problem” which is within their experience [ reality narratives] and set in a familiar context [ hence no “ Holiday in Hokkaido” types of titles for PSLE because not everyone has stepped onto a plane]. They therefore expect the problem to be satisfactorily resolved by the child in his/her compo. For this reason, use of deus ex machine [ a term I think which roughly translates to the equivalent of “intervention of a super machine” ]is not acceptable and neither is “death” or “ I woke up and realised it was a dream” as these are too ‘pat” and convenient a solution for a “real” problem to be resolved.
Rule No.4 : there needs to be a reflection; I wrote a “set” piece for DDs to memorise and adapt to the various common themes [ done a good deed and felt happy; relived that a harrowing incident had not turned worse; regret for a foolish act etc] ; it helped to bring the composition to a rounded end.
Eg. As the evening sun set and threw out hues of pink and gold, [Andy] was filled with a sense of relief that his harrowing ordeal had come to an end. Nestled in the comfortable confines of his room, he thanked his lucky stars that he had not been more seriously hurt. Soon, lulled by the warmth and safety of his bed, Andy closed his eyes as he drifted off to Dreamland.
Variation ie adpated for \"done a good deed\"
Eg. As the evening sun set and threw out hues of pink and gold, [Andy] was filled with gladness at the good deed he had done. The magnificent sunset was indeed a fitting end to an especially significant day.
Even if you deem the above examples commendable, I DO NOT recommend you/your child uses this – PSLE markers are going to start wondering why an inordinate number of compositions have this paragraph]. However, I do recommend you/your child either write your own reflection paragraph or adapt it from some of the good books [ I adapted one for DD from a children’s classic ].
With the above framework, we did not have to “plan” that much – just the few telling statements [which were obvious anyway] from which DD then applied the above “Rules” . The teachers did issue some notes along these lines to DD this year but it happened rather late in the year. As you can tell, these skills take time to develop, so earlier practice is always better. The upside is of this massive effort was that even with a little success, DD felt motivated enough to “keep the standards up” and I had relatively little trouble keeping her at the practice because she could clearly see the benefits.
h.\tWe avoided some common errors: we started our compos right at the point just before 'the Body'. instead of writing 3 paras of a beautiful beginning at the expense of the “more important” end ; we always tried to minimise the number of characters in our story so that we did not have to write for so many – eg if you played ball with 5 friends and you have one character involved in an incident, one ‘hero” in charge , you will have 3 kids standing by in stony silence; we watched it when we wrote in the first person as then we needed to ensure the compo could continue if we decided that our first person story-teller should faint away; we avoided difficult names ending in ‘s” like “ James” because DD sometimes got confused how to use it as a possessive -- “ James’ or James’s”; we avoided complicated story lines and flashbacks as a writing style like this made DD commit logic lapses and unfortunately, DD did not always flash back to the same time zone.
i.\tTypically, DD’s composition would be about 400+ to 500 + words; the mandate is 150 words but I feel that you cannot showcase much linguistic ability in 150 words.
j.\t40 out of 40 – if you accept Premise (a), 40/40 at PSLE for English composition is possible and according to the teachers, has been achieved. DD’s score was typically 30+ out of 40 in a school which tested for English at a reasonably high standard. Prior to my learning more, DD was languishing in the 24 to 29 range.
k.\tIf you think this is a lot of work then I will tell you it is; but take the challenge I did – do a P6 compo question and assess for yourself whether it is a walk in the park; if you agree that it is not, then I think you will agree that your DChild needs help – specific and directed guidance to do well; you cannot expect [save for the geniuses amongst us] the child to achieve this on his/her own.
l.\tTime – DD was fortunate; I learnt the above when DD was in P4; so when DD was in P5, we started implementation in serious. But all is not lost; for DD1 I only got these worked out in April of the year she took her PSLE and she did an A* for English too.
m.\tTuition – I was the main tutor but DD did attend one session with the trainer [we had parent-child teams in that workshop] but I think it was of limited value because this is an on-going process.
n.\tReferences – Since 2008, I have only found one model compo book resource I was happy to use; it was called \"PSLE model compositions 2002 - 2007\" published by MultiNine Corporation. As far as I can ascertain, it has been out of print after 2008. I bought my original copies from Popular. It contained the past PSLE questions with model compos and they were simple enough with very interesting story lines and amazingly done within 250+ words. I have given all my copies away over the years as we out-grew this. A word of caution about using these model resources : many other students had access to this little gem and the teachers were hence treated to highly similar stories from various girls in the class when they ‘borrowed” liberally from this book. Nonetheless, it was of value to us because I wanted to show my DDs what good compos looked like. I am unsure why, but only on odd occasions did the English teachers show the girls samples of good writing done by other girls in the class or their seniors [ yes, the compo questions were unchanged at least from 2009 to 2011]. The Chinese teacher however typed out and issued as notes the good Chinese compos the class girls had written and even underlined the good phrases and paragraphs to highlight to the students; so I’m not sure why the English teachers were reticent in this respect. Anyway, I modeled the compos for my DDs, for better or worse.
I think that’s largely it for English Compo. Remember that Rome wasn't built in a day, so small steps and bite-size sessions in the course of implementaion are highly recommended.
If you have read till this end, I commend you – it made me rather tired just proof reading all this.
I also apologise if you cringed at my writing; I can only say that there is a fair bit of personal preference when it comes to style.
I’m not sure whether this has been of any help to anyone but if it has encouraged you to step up and help your child [ so many of them do struggle mightily when it is largely not their fault], I would have achieved my main objective.
Have a great night ahead everyone!
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