2012 PSLE Discussions and Strategy

[peggy]

PapaTan:

There is an article in today online. I think it is worth a read.

http://www.todayonline.com/Columns/ParenttoParent/EDC111127-0000004/Falling-victim-to-exam-fever

Thanks PapaTan!

It's indeed a good one. Just realized that it's reflecting myself.

[pepper spice]

\"The most rewarding moment came when he told me one day that he loved me for being a mum who was willing to change when I realised that my approach was not working. This, to him, was what made me special as a mother.\"



So touching, I was tearing as I read this part.

[Mychildren]

Good article! Thanks PapaTan.

[janet88]

For science, it's better to use a later edition...not necessary latest. Happened to see an old edition on the shelf (2008), and didn't know that movement energy is now called kinetic...stored energy is potential energy.


Dare not imagine the speed teacher will take to finish the entire P6 syllabus when school reopens. Was told there might even be staying back 3-4 times a week. :yikes: very very scary. Hope it isn't compulsory bcos son has tuition after school. Sat is packed with CL and math tuition and planning to give him a half Sunday to distress from week activities. He cannot get burnt out.

[psle2011mum]

Good Evening,


This is what helped us for Chinese Oral:

We are a Potato couple – DD and I; my Chinese is too poor for me to mentor her directly but that did not stop me from helping DD by consolidating extensive materials for oral.

I want to add a big caveat to what follows – what we did was to cope with our shortcomings. This is not the way to inculcate a love for the language nor to become excellent or proficient in it. It just may help the potato kids not be pulled down unduly by their less than stellar Chinese. If you are able to inculcate a reading habit in your child for Chinese books, I think you would be doing your child a much bigger favour and you really can stop reading here.

As a second language learners, I believed that DD would benefit from a teacher who was effectively bilingual. I see some validation of this belief because DD1 is offering HMT now and while the primary school teachers we encoutered were usually not proficient in English, the secondary school Chinese teachers are effectively bilingual. This difference has translated into them being a better bridge for children like mine, since they well understand the limitations of these children and are better able to suggest effectively how to deal with these shortcomings. DD1’s classmates, who are more proficient in Chinese but still speak English well, are also great “teachers” because they explain in English so that DD1 has no problems understanding but “show” in Chinese, so that there is a clear link between the understanding and the Chinese words. I’ll elaborate more about this below after the “Oral” section.

Oral
I bought about 5 or 6 different Oral guidebooks for Chinese and from each pulled out the relevant pictures and accompanying "model answers" based on topics. Eg MRT – from each book, there was usually a picture about the MRT and there would be accompanying statements and vocabulary; we put this all into one file so that we had our own ‘textbook” of MRT pictures and vocab. This helped us practice specific vocab for a given situation instead of using general terms; it also gave us situational scenarios for each topic and the relevant vocabulary to express it. While there were similarities in the various Oral guidebooks, there were enough differences for us to learn a lot. Some of the publications were also excellent as they provided the “han yu pin yin” even for the accompanying statements, saving us the trouble of looking them up.
For some, within each topic, there were sub-topics eg School – school playground, computer lab, canteen, corner of the school; so each file would have separate dividers for these sub-topics too.
The school issued a set of very useful notes with about 10 pictures and accompanying statements and DD’s Chinese teacher was so worried for the potato kids in the class that she wrote out notes to guide them in the conversation part of the Oral exam. Berries also had excellent notes and all these helped DD build a vocab base which she didn’t have naturally because she never read beyond the textbook. We worked on these extensively in the holidays before the start of P6 so that we covered all the resources; we were not trying to be overly prepared here in any way – this was the only way DD could build relevant vocab fast.

Side Notes on Compre
My Chinese is poor in that (a) I have not used it for years and (b) my vocab is limited, but I have sufficient understanding to comprehend the passages tested. For DD, the “killer” section was the compre in the main paper so I had no choice but to wade in with my limited skills and try to throw her some lifelines.
Similar to annotations, we started by going through the passages and throughout, I would lead with questions – except that we did it in English – both DD and I. it was just too painful to do it in Chinese which I could not correct and so I sought to achieve understanding first.
We then attempted the questions and DD would again answer in English and then we would try to translate these ideas/statements into Chinese, using the Besta E-dict as necessary. The final result was never perfect but DD mostly achieved comfortable As in the 80s range of marks, although pushing it to the next level was not possible for us given the limited time and skills we had.

Side Notes on Compo
I have already shared some of the strategies we used for this in an earlier reply to a Forumner and won’t repeat myself here. Suffice to say, we had to use the ‘crutch” of memorising model compos since DD did not read Chinese books at all. It was slow initally, it was always hard work but as DD worked more at it, it became somewhat easier. We consolidated her “favourite” phrases into a book and this was what she memorised before each exam including before the PSLE Chinese compo paper.

I don’t have too much to share for Chinese since I am so bad at it but potato kids should not give up even before they start. It can seriously pull down the overall grades especially when the national standards for As and A*s for Chinese are quite high.

Work has recently started to pile up in the office so I’m not sure if I can contribute regularly in the coming weeks but will try.

I’ve completed my sharings and it leaves me now only to wish all the parents who are guiding their DC in the upcoming 2012 PSLE my heartfelt best wishes for an incredible journey filled with much joy and many lessons of love, empowerment and courage.



"It’s not only children who grow. Parents do too. As much as we watch to see what our children do with their lives, they are watching us to see what we do with ours. I can’t tell my children to reach for the sun. All I can do is reach for it, myself. " ~Joyce Maynard

[jedamum]

psle2011mum:

DD also had a habit of transferring some “strategies” from what she had learnt for Chinese Oral into her English Oral Conversations, leading her to sound quite unnatural and a lot less fluent in English, as she was doing a “direct” translation of the Chinese sentence into English.

haha...and i thought my boy is the only one who does such stuff! because he attends berries who taught effective (IMO) oral exam skills, ended up during home revision, he did better for his CL oral revision rather than EL although he is a potato kid because he tried to translate too!! :faint:

[pixiedust]

psle2011mum:

..Work has recently started to pile up in the office so I’m not sure if I can contribute regularly in the coming weeks but will try.

I've completed my sharings and it leaves me now only to wish all the parents who are guiding their DC in the upcoming 2012 PSLE my heartfelt best wishes for an incredible journey filled with much joy and many lessons of love, empowerment and courage.
\"It's not only children who grow. Parents do too. As much as we watch to see what our children do with their lives, they are watching us to see what we do with ours. I can't tell my children to reach for the sun. All I can do is reach for it, myself. \" ~Joyce Maynard

I can't begin to imagine the hours & efforts you put in to help your dd. Most of all, I am really moved by your determination and dedication.

Thank you for all your sharings! Wish you a Merry Christmas and a great year ahead.

[jedamum]

psle2011mum:

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!

hi psle2011mum,
not sure if you will be reading this, but if you do, can you share what are the frequencies that you got your girl to practice for compo using the above strategy starting from P4? TQ...

[bleeze]

Time flies. Another 1.5 weeks towards school re-open. Time is running fast. My Dd only managed to revise P5 Maths and haven't really started P6 Maths. Haven't revise P3/P4 Science yet. Only some P6 Science. This holiday only did some S&T for English and not much CL. Really very scary.

[bleeze]

Thanks PapaTan for sharing. It makes me feel so much better and relax.