2012 PSLE Discussions and Strategy
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Part 5 –last paragraph
The triplets had a whale of a time.
I would have underlined “had whale of a time” and written – “had lots of fun”.
Delicious pots of bamboo clams, crustaceans and the famous paella or rice dish were more than finger-licking good.
I would have written – “a feast of tasty meals” and then linked this back with arrows to both “whale of a time” and also “etched forever in their hearts and minds” so as to show that these were the things that happened that made the triplets’ trip to Madrid fun and memorable.
Whirlwind tours and visits to museums, ruins and other touristy sites were fabulous.
I would have circled ‘ whirlwind” and written” fast-speed” and also circled “touristy” and written “places of interest where tourists typically visit” and then linked this back with arrows to both “whale of a time” and also “etched forever in their hearts and minds” so as to show that these were the things that happened that made the triplets’ trip to Madrid fun and memorable. If this was getting too untidy, I would start a table somewhere else on the paper and write down in point form what made that Madrid trip so special for the 3Ts.
But the highlight was a game at the stadium, hosted by their Spanish soccer stars.
I would have circled “highlight” and written “most memorable thing they did on the tour”; I would have circled “game” and written “soccer”; I would have circled “hosted” and written” something like “game on home ground”; and I would have circled the word “their” and put a question mark – whose Spanish soccer stars? The stadium’s or the 3Ts? By the rules of English sentence structure, it should point to the answer being “stadium” but I am not well-versed enough in soccer to conclude whether this is meaningful.
I would also have put a question mark on the word ‘stars” as I would note that you can refer to these soccer players as “the Spanish soccer stars” but if you are a fan and you are using the word “their” to denote a relationship, then the Spanish soccer players are their (the 3Ts) idols and the phrase should have read “their Spanish soccer idols”.
I would have written something to the effect that “author probably referring to the 3Ts’s soccer idols”. Again, the thought about how this passage was riddled with poor phrases would have crossed my mind.
Riotous roars accompanied the many goals scored.
I would have circled “riotous” and written “extremely loud and chaotic with joy”; I would have circled “accompanied” and written “closely followed by”. I would have surmised that the game was very exciting for the 3Ts to watch because they could see so much action by their idols. I would have noted that the author here did not state which side scored the many goals.
Never before did the 3Ts cry and laugh at the same time.
I would have circled “never before” and written the question “Never before when?”. Again, English sentence structure would have dictated the closest subject to have been referred to, ie at the match, and so I would have written that “Never before this match had the 3Ts cried and laughed harder.” I would then have penned in the question: “Why?” This would have prompted me to go back to the point I made to myself in the last sentence “not stated which side scored the many goals” and conclude that probably, the 3Ts cried hard when their idols’ rival team scored and then laughed with great joy when their idols scored.
Oh, what the realisation of a dream could do to bring such immense joy to three young boys!
I would have underlined “realisation of a dream” and written – “to actually get to visit their favourite soccer team in Spain”; I would have circled “immense” and written “great”.
I would have noted to DD that this was not a good passage to adopt as a compo piece because (a) the first paragraph did not connect well with the rest of the following passages [1st paragraph introduced the idea that the triplets were special because they were identical and they liked tricking people by dressing up in similar fashion, while the following paragraphs tried to explain why the 3Ts were ‘intelligent dreamers” but only managed to make them out to be “lucky dreamers” at best and failed to explain clearly the “intelligent” part. The “moral of the story” is also poor – is the passage trying to say that you can wistfully wish for something and through a stroke of luck or coincidence, you can actually get it? Not something I would choose to teach DD.
Note: By P6, I would be constantly asking DD to “critique” pieces she read. There were no “right” answers, only answers which were persuasive or otherwise. Not all pieces of writing are equal and this provides fodder for differing views.
Sorry, not quite the end yet... to be continued... -
Part 6
Believe it or not, this is not the end. Annotating the above is to slow down to gain a detailed understanding of the given passage, but the questions have to be similarly analysed too. In particular, we sought to anlayse the question stems and ask what we were being asked to demonstrate our understanding of.
Q1. Why were the triplets described as cheeky?
“Why?” is an explanation question; to answer this, we need to demonstrate our understanding of “cheeky”. This was already gone through when we annotated ie:
DD, if you don’t know the dictionary definition of “cheekiest”, write down what ideas this word has for you. Like -- ”mischievous but still cute and lovable”, “something a doting Grandma would use to describe a grandchild”, “naughty as small kids are naughty”, “playing pranks”.
So from here, we know that our answer must show that the 3Ts did things which were “mischievous but still cute and lovable”, “playing pranks”.
I would also ask DD to re-phrase this question to: What is the teacher asking you to demonstrate your understanding of?
DD would have been expected to have the following thought processes:
Point 1 – The triplets were described by people to be cheeky – this was a fact from the passage.
Point 2 – From the question, the teacher wants me to explain what was it that caused people to describe the triplets as cheeky.
Point 3 – In my answer, I know that I must demonstrate my understanding of the word ‘cheeky” in the way I have annotated.
Point 4 – It will help me answer my question if I have a “sounding board” to get an idea of what my final answer should look like. In other words, I would describe someone as “cheeky” if I saw him/her behaving in a cheeky manner; so if there are examples of cheeky behavior of the 3Ts in the passage, I must include that in my answer but there are no concrete examples from the passage.
Point 5 – I think the answer must come from the first paragraph. So to make sure my answer is accurate, I will test each sentence in this paragraph to see if that sentence shows behavior that is “cheeky”.
First sentence – no – fact that they were cheeky is simply stated.
Second sentence – no- “identical in look and mannerism” does not show any evidence that they were cheeky.
Third sentence - no – “dressed in identical outfits” doesn’t mean they are cheeky; Mummy could have been right and they could have dressed so because of bulk buying on their parent’s part.
Fourth sentence – no – “sense of excitement” was because they [as triplets] were unusual; “causing confusion” was because they dressed similarly and looked alike but if this was not deliberate, then this does not show they were cheeky.
Fifth sentence – yes – “they were always up to tricks” – must include this in my answer.
Sixth sentence – yes- grandparents ‘taken for a ride” and 3Ts described as “mischievous” are ideas related to “cheeky” because they point to the pranks the 3Ts played on their grandparents.
Seventh sentence – yes – sentence tells us they had a cheeky sense of fun and wit ie they thought it fun to play tricks on others using their identical looks so that no one could pin down the exact person responsible.
Eighth sentence – Yes – getting away scott free made the triplets find this activity “fun” and made them want to play even more tricks to become more mischievous and cheeky.
Answer: The triplets were always playing mischievous pranks on everyone and they found it fun to deliberately use their identical looks to deceive others and get away with their naughty tricks.
To be continued... :(... there are 4 more questions... -
Part 7
Q2. Why was it difficult to catch the culprit?
“Why?” is an explanation question and once again, I would have asked DD to rephrase the same and go through the following thought process:
Point 1: There was something/s special about the 3Ts that made it difficult to catch the one responsible for the misdeed. What was this “something/s”? What was it about this “something/s” that made it difficult to catch the culprit?
Point 2: The “something/s” that made it difficult was more than one thing because each factor alone would not have been enough to confuse everyone. It was the total package of same looks, same clothes and same behavior that confused everyone.
Point 3: But I am not asked to explain the confusion. I am asked to relate “the 3 factors” to “difficult to catch the culprit” so I have to explain what it was about these 3 factors that made it difficult to catch the culprit.
Point 4 : Being so similar meant that even if the triplet who played the trick was seen, the witnesses had no distinguishing features to conclude which triplet it was and when any suspected triplet was confronted, he could always say it was another triplet who did it and everyone would be none the wiser.
Point 5: I need to be careful here not to say that all three of the triplets played any one trick at the same time because then, the “advantage” would be lost and for sure, with triplets being a rarity, the 3 would be the first fingered in any trick that featured 3 identical looking boys.
Answer: The triplets were identical in looks and even dressed and behaved in so similar a manner that it was very difficult for others to tell them apart. This thus made it easy for any one of the triplets to play a trick, blame it on another triplet and in the end, no one could ever pinpoint which one of the triplets was in fact the one responsible for the trick.
Q3: Which word in the passage tells us that the triplets were much loved by their parents?
Answer: The word is “affectionately”.
Note: Make sure punctuation for this answer sentence is correct - look at where the open/close quotation marks are and where the full stop is.
To be continued... -
Part 8
Q4: Besides the photograph albums, where did the three siblings keep precious memories of their trip?
Point 1: Actually, nowhere in the passage does it state that the 3Ts captured their Spain trip in hard copy photos – the word used is ‘film” and the question does a disservice to the children to state this as “a fact” when the passage is not as limited. Here you are trying to teach the children not to assume without evidence, and here is the question, being presumptuous. I would have pointed this out to DD.
Point 2: ‘Where” is a place question but kids have problems with this sometimes because of the casual way we sometimes use the language.
See this example:
Scene: In apartment lift, kids are in their swimming costumes and they meet a neighbor in the lift.
Aunty: Hello children, where are you going?
Kids: We are going swimming.
Aunty’s question is a “where” question and the answer calls for a ‘place/location” answer. So the kids should have replied “We are going to the swimming pool.”
The kids answered this question instead: “What are you going to do?”
Point 3: I know that the relevant sentence is “etched forever in their hearts and minds” but if I just lift this, it does not demonstrate my understanding. I know I am not getting 2 marks for just copying – I must try to show the teacher I know what this phrase means, but I will still lift the relevant part out to show the teacher I know where the answer is.
Point 4: I know the meaning of “etched” means “engraved” and the idea is that it is ‘deep and permanent”. Keeping something in your heart and mind means to “keep something very close to you” and “to be always thinking about and remembering it” but we have to answer a “where” question here. Since this was a trip, the “thing” the 3Ts were keeping in their hearts and minds would be memories of their wonderful experiences – so where is a location where you can keep these memories?
Note: This is a hard asnwer to phrase for kids who tend to be literal but the answer itself is metaphorical.
Within themselves – in their minds, so that they could recall these again and again, and in their hearts, so that as they remembered the memories, they felt happy in their hearts about them.
Answer: The triplets kept their feelings, experiences and precious memories of their trip to Madrid in their hearts and minds; they kept these deep within themselves so that they would always have these close to them and recall them time and again with great pleasure.
Almost done... one more question coming up! -
Part 9
Q5. Which part of the fulfilled dream was the happiest for the triplets?
Point 1: The answer to the question “Which part” means that the subject being referred to has got more than one part. In this case the subject is “fulfilled dream” and refers to the triplets’ trip to Madrid. The question is asking about a specific part of the triplets’ trip to Madrid and I know it is the part when they were at the stadium watching their idols play a soccer game.
Point 2: I need to input all the details from the passage about this event so, this is the list of details: “game at the stadium”, “hosted by their Spanish soccer stars”, “many goals scored”. I believe I need to add the last phrase about the goals because it contributed to the triplets’ joy and the word “happiest” appears in the question.
Answer: During their Madrid trip, the triplets were the happiest while they watched a soccer game hosted by their Spanish soccer idols and saw their idols scoring goals.
That’s it! Congrats if you survived this .
It must be remembered that the purpose of education is not to fill the minds of students with facts... it is to teach them to think, …. and always to think for themselves.
-- Robert Hutchins
Parting thoughts:
FN1: I can only share with you what DD and I would have done with this passage and hope that there are some helpful strategies in the above posts for you and your DC. As such, it is not a prescriptive method but for that you need the help of a qualified specialist.
FN2: Yes, this takes forever initially, but DD got better at it over time.
FN3: After all this time and effort, we never wanted to ever see the passage again so just as well we did it thoroughly the first time round.
FN4: Corrections are critical; your DC must have a rational explanation why his /her answer is not acceptable; otherwise, he/she has not learnt.
FN5: There are always a range of acceptable answers which are and should be accorded full marks. However, to expedite marking, usually only the “model answer” is given. This can frustrate the child because too often, the child cannot see the difference between his/her answer and the model answer and there is no one available to explain it to him/her. -
psle2011mum:
:salute: :salute: to you psle2011mum! :snuggles: :hugs:Part 9
I have just copied and saved the part 1 to 9 of your posts to my p.c.! :thankyou: :thankyou: for your time and effort to type out and share with us! My DD1 is in P4 this year so all your above posts come in handy for me!
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Hi Parents,
Yeh!!! I finished my homework [ P4 annotations ]:). I promised a P6 one and I have it somewhere on one of the PCs but before I post that, do let me know if there is a better way of doing this - the posts are so long and all my highlights/bold/colour from my Word document don't get carried over so I re-do them after pasting them onto the Editor....sorry, very IT challenged... so you see God is fair
My very best wishes to the Little Dragons taking their PSLE journey this year...
I wish you patient parents every day
Inspiring Teachers along the way
The helping hand of many a friend
A world of learning that does not end.
God bless each and every one of you -
Hi Champion
Most welcome and hope it helps.
Don’t be constrained by what I wrote though, develop it with your DD1 and all her siblings will benefit too. Gb! -
psle2011mum:
:thankyou: :thankyou: psle2011mum! :snuggles:Hi Champion
Most welcome and hope it helps.
Don't be constrained by what I wrote though, develop it with your DD1 and all her siblings will benefit too. Gb!
Really appreciates your effort to share with all of the KSP parents here! Hereby wishing you a prosperous Dragon year! Huat ah! :celebrate: :celebrate: -
tclhub:
Hi tclhubDear psle2011mum
Thanks for your tips on typing out the OE compre passage and marking the annotations on the typed document I tried this once and DD said it was very useful and wanted me to do the same in future. I am fine to put in efforts to do it now for practice. But do you think she would be so reliant on this method that it would not be practical when working on the actual paper in future? Are you able to share your friend's DC's experience? Thank you for your advice and generous tips once again and may God bless you and your family.
PS. By the way, I bought the Oxford books on English strategies and found them extremely useful, thanks for the recommendations!
Great to hear that your DD is finding annotating useful. Depending on how your strong your child is, you may want to continue this for a short while [ like one or two more, fully done for you] just to show her the many different tools she can use to annotate, but after that, she should be starting on her own with you alongside to scaffold/support; your DD needs to take the first steps but you can nudge her in the right direction as she verbalises her thoughts to you. Let go gradually and she may not even realise she's off on her own.
DD's initial efforts were poor but this is a \"thinking process\" skill and takes time to develop and perfect, so you shouldn't be discouraged if the pieces for anywhere up to three to six months are nowhere near useful. You can also \"mark\" the annotations [ leave the questions out] and start small - even by paragraphs first, so that your DD can press on with developing this skill.
Glad you found the Oxford Essentials books useful too.
Gb!
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