English Language Sharing 11 February 2017 EL Curriculum at Upper - - PowerPoint PPT Presentation

Springdale Primary School

Parents’ Seminar English Language Sharing 11 February 2017

EL Curriculum at Upper Primary Requirements of PSLE EL & Tackling EL PAPER 2

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• Overview of Primary 5 & 6 EL Curriculum
• Requirements of PSLE EL Papers
• Tackling the challenging components in EL PAPER 2
• Editing
• Synthesis
• Reading Comprehension
• Comprehension Cloze
• How Parents Can Support Children’s Learning
• Q & A

Content of Presentation

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Our English Programme

Springdale English Curriculum

Modified STELLAR School-based curriculum

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P5 EL Curriculum

Coverage of 10 STELLAR books at P5 level

• Pupil Handout (story)
• STELLAR Learning Sheets / Companion Booklets
• Student Response Log*

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P5 EL Curriculum

New Spelling Format

• 15 mistakes for students to

correct

• Comprises 10 spelling

mistakes & 5 grammar mistakes

• Exposes students to

commonly misspelt words

• Serves as practice for Editing

component

• Provides reading exposure to

different topics & genres

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P5 School-Based Curriculum

Structured teaching programmes for the following:

• Composition & Situational Writing
• Oral
• Grammar
• Synthesis & Transformation

Component Mastery Booklets

• Enables students to practise intensively certain skill sets
• r strategies

Practice Papers

• 6 practices to familiarise students with the new format

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PSLE EL

PAPER MARKS WEIGHTING Writing (Paper 1) 55 27.5% Language Use & Comprehension (Paper 2) 95 47.5% Listening Comprehension (Paper 3) 20 10% Oral (Paper 4) 30 15% Total 200 100%

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Paper 1: Writing

WRITING COMPONENTS MARKS Situational Writing 15 marks Continuous Writing 40 marks Total 55 marks

Total duration of paper: 1 hour 10 min

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Paper 1: Situational Writing

Situational Writing is marked for:

• Task Fulfilment (6 marks)
• Language & Organisation (9 marks)

Students would need to show awareness of purpose, audience and context while supplying key information.

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Paper 1: Situational Writing

Task You are a member of the school’s Green Club. You have been given this pamphlet about an art competition and would like all members to participate in it. Your friend, Paul, was sick that day and he missed the session. Write an email to Paul to tell him about the competition. In your email, include the following key information:

• who organised the competition
• theme of the competition
• how to participate
• why you think both of you should participate

You may reorder the points. Write in complete sentences.

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Paper 1: Continuous Writing

Continuous Writing is marked for

• Content (20 marks)
• Language & Organisation (20 marks)

Minimum number of words: 150 words Student’s writing must

• be based on at least one of the given pictures
• address the given topic / theme

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Paper 1: Continuous Writing

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Paper 3: Oral Assessment

ORAL COMPONENTS MARKS Reading Aloud 10 marks Stimulus-based Conversation 20 marks Total 30 marks

Total duration of paper: approximately 10 min

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Paper 3: Oral Assessment

Reading Aloud

• Read with good pronunciation & clear articulation of

the words

• Use appropriate rhythm and stress to achieve a well-

paced, fluent reading

• Read with appropriate variation of pitch and tone in
• rder to convey the information, ideas and feelings in

the passage

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Paper 3: Oral Assessment

Stimulus-based Conversation

• State an opinion / choice
• Explain rationale
• Illustrate with personal experience

Students are expected to demonstrate the following:

• Express oneself clearly in a conversation
• Demonstrate wide range of appropriate vocabulary
• Use grammatical structures accurately

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Paper 3: Oral Assessment

• 1. Look at this poster. Do you agree that

you should always do your best? Why? Why not?

– Do you think having posters around the school is good? Why? Why not?

• 2. What is your favourite subject in

school? Why?

– Do you think homework is important? Why?

• 3. What is something you are very good

at? Tell me about it.

– How do you spend your free time?

Stimulus-based Conversation

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Paper 4: Listening Comprehension

Listening Comprehension

• 20 MCQ questions
• Approximately 35 minutes

Students are required to:

• Practise active listening
• Read the question stems carefully

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Paper 2: Language Use & Compre

PAPER 2 COMPONENTS MARKS Booklet A Visual Text Grammar MCQ Vocabulary MCQ Vocabulary Cloze 8 10 5 5 Booklet B Grammar Cloze Editing Comprehension Cloze Synthesis & Transformation Comprehension Open-Ended 10 12 15 10 20 Total 95 marks

Total duration of paper: 1 hour 50 minutes

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Reviewing the Components in EL PAPER 2 Refer to Handout 1 - 2016 PSLE English Paper 2 (Booklets A & B)

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Tackling the Challenging Components in EL PAPER 2, BOOKLET B Editing Synthesis & Transformation Comprehension Cloze Comprehension Open-Ended

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Tackling Editing

Editing

• One given passage
• 12 mistakes (12 marks)

– Spelling mistakes – Grammatical mistakes

Students are required to:

• Rectify the mistakes and write the correct words in the

corresponding boxes

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Hands-on 1: Editing Correct the mistakes in the passage.

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Tackling Editing

Suggested Procedure for Tackling Editing

• Read the entire passage once first before attempting to

correct the mistakes

• Identify the nature of mistakes

– Spelling mistakes are words with wrong spelling – Grammatical mistakes are those spelt correctly

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Tackling Editing

Answers to Spelling Mistakes (40) adequately (42) physical (44) exhausted (45) absolutely (46) sufficient (48) nourished

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Tackling Editing

Answers to Grammatical Mistakes (39) competes Clue: use of ‘is’ in 1st sentence and ‘will’ in 2nd sentence) (41) have Clue: presence of ‘does’ in same sentence (43) Learning Clue 1: the verb before and after ‘and’ must be of the same tenses’(‘Lifting … and learning…) Clue 2: -ing noun phrase starts a sentence and is followed by a verb

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Tackling Editing

Answers to Grammatical Mistakes (47) performance Clue: ‘peak’ is used as an adjective hence what follows should be a noun (49) chosen Clue: use of participle after ‘having’ (50) so Clue 1: replacing connector with another connector Clue 2: ‘so as to’ is used as a common phase to mean ‘in order to’

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Tackling Editing

Strategies for Tackling Spelling Mistakes (Editing)

• Sound out the mis-spelt word to guess the content

word

• Be aware of the common types of spelling mistakes

– Double or single consonants – Consonant sounds with different spelling – Vowel sounds with different spelling – Correct order for vowel pairs e.g. ‘ei’ versus ‘ie’ – Omission of vowels or consonants

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Tackling Editing

Strategies for Tackling Grammatical Mistakes (Editing)

• For grammatical mistakes, identify the grammatical category of

the underlined word

• The correct answer for the underlined word should be of the

same grammatical class e.g. replace a preposition mistake with another preposition; pronouns for pronouns; connectors for connectors

• Re-read the sentence of the underlined word to check for the

following:

– Subject Verb Agreement – Tenses – Conditions for Base Form – Word Forms

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Tackling Synthesis & Transformation

Synthesis & Transformation

• 5 questions testing different structures
• Total of 10 marks for this component

Students are required to:

• Re-write the given sentence(s) using the given prompts
• Ensure that meaning of the answer is the same as the

meaning of the original sentence(s)

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Hands-on 2: Synthesis & Transformation Look at the students’ answers in Handout 2. Spot the mistakes and correct them.

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Tackling Synthesis & Transformation

Did not check Subject Verb Agreement Did not use the correct tenses

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Tackling Synthesis & Transformation

‘Do-er’of the action is not clear Did not use -en/-ed participle

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Tackling Synthesis & Transformation

Wrong use of ‘but’ and missing commas Wrong word order for statement

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Tackling Synthesis & Transformation

Change in meaning; ‘Do-er’of the action is not clear Did not use correct word form

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Tackling Synthesis & Transformation

Strategies for Tackling Common Structures

• Check subject verb agreement and tenses
• Take note of the conventions governing each structure
• Take note of required punctuation e.g. obligatory

commas

• Be careful with the use of upper and lower case letters
• Check meaning of your answer is the same as the given

sentence(s)

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Tackling Synthesis & Transformation

Strategies for tackling Structures that Require Transformation

• Be familiar with the different word forms e.g. noun

form of a particular verb

• Check subject verb agreement and tenses
• Check if obligatory commas is required
• Be careful with the use of upper and lower case letters
• Check meaning of your answer is the same as the given

sentence(s).

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Tackling Synthesis & Transformation

Strategies for Reporting Direct Speech

• Check for the presence of the following and amend

them accordingly:

– Pronouns – Word order (verb-subject inversion) – Tenses – Time markers – Demonstratives

• Check meaning of the answer is the same as that of the

given sentence

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Tackling Synthesis & Transformation

Strategies for Writing the Indirect Speech

• Check for the presence of the following and amend

them accordingly:

– Pronouns – Word order (subject verb inversion) – Tenses – Time markers – Demonstratives

• Try reporting the direct speech (your answer) and see if

you arrive back at the same answer as the question

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Tackling Comprehension Cloze

• One passage with 15 blanks for students to fill in

Total of 15 marks for this component

• A challenging component for most students
• Introduced in P3 & P4 as Modified Cloze

(4 blanks)

• Assesses students’ reading comprehension and

grammar/ vocabulary skills

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• Read the entire passage without attempting to fill

in any of the blanks during the 1st reading.

• Understand the key idea(s) in each paragraph.
• Do repeated, close reading of the text. Look out

for contextual cues, use of common phrases and word collocation.

• Decide what is grammatically correct at phrase,

sentence and paragraph level.

Suggested Procedure for Students

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• Highlight, underline or draw arrows to indicate

plausible links and clues.

• Once all the blanks are filled, read the entire

passage again to check that the choice of answer do not contradict with the main ideas and intent

• f the passage.

Suggested Procedure for Students

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Tackling Comprehension Cloze

Strategies to narrow range of answers:

• Contextual Clues
• Word Association
• Common Phrases
• Grammatical Analysis

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Hands-on 3: Comprehension Cloze Read the passage and fill in each blank with a word.

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Live Demonstration

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Tackling Comprehension Cloze

Resources: Use of newspaper articles to give students further practice on this component

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Tackling Comprehension Cloze

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Tackling Comprehension Cloze

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Tackling Reading Comprehension

• Another challenging component for most students
• Students need to understand the text at both literal

and inferential levels

• At times, they may also be required to form an

evaluative opinion and support their answers with evidence from the text

• Questions can be 1 to 4 marks
• Total of 20 marks for this component

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Tackling Reading Comprehension

Understanding the passage

• Read the passage at least twice and re-read parts

that seem confusing or difficult to understand

• Employ reading strategies taught in class like asking

questions as you read, making connections with the text, making predictions and inferences while reading, synthesizing informing in the text

• Make inferences about the meaning of challenging

words, characters’ actions, feelings and events in the text

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Hands-on 4: Reading Comprehension Annotating the text A strategy to deepen students’ understanding

• f the text

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Annotating Comprehension Text

Annotating text means

• Making notes of any form while reading
• Making sense of what is being read
• Forming questions to parts which unclear
• Linking/connecting information while reading

Therefore, you definitely need a pencil while reading.

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Annotating Comprehension Text

Why annotate? It helps the readers to

• Formulate questions in response to what they are

reading

• Analyse and interpret elements of the text
• Draw conclusions and make inferences based on

explicit and implicit meanings in the text

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Annotating Comprehension Text

Thus, annotation helps readers to

• Deepen their understanding of the text
• Be ready to answer their comprehension questions

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Annotating Comprehension Text

This is definitely NOT the right way to annotate. Annotation is not mere highlighting.

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Annotating Comprehension Text

How to annotate?

• 1. Underline the major points
• 2. Circle unfamiliar or confusing keywords/phrases
• 3. Use question mark (?) for questions that you have

while reading (Be sure to write the questions.)

• 4. Draw an arrow (↵) when making a connection inside

the text (Briefly note the connections.)

• 5. Make inferences and write it on top of the phrase

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Annotating Comprehension Text

Important Note:

• There is no one right way to annotate as different

students make different personal connections and interpretations to the text.

• Different teachers may choose to focus on different

annotation strategies depending on students’ readiness and needs

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Live Demonstration

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Tackling Reading Comprehension

Analysing the questions

• Highlight the question word (e.g. who, why, what

etc.) in each question

• Pay attention to the tense of the main verb in the

question

• Remember that most of the questions follow the

chronological order of the passage

• Study examples given, if any

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Tackling Reading Comprehension

Crafting your answers

• Note the expectations of the questions e.g. 4-word

phrase

• Check that you have answered to the question. Do

not copy chunks of information that do not answer the question.

• If it is a 2-mark question, 2 essential points would be

required

• Strive for accuracy in language as grammatical

mistakes hinder clear communication and understanding

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Types of Comprehension Question

A Closer Look at the Different Question Types

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Types of Comprehension Questions

Which word from paragraph 1 has the similar meaning as the word ‘confinement’? [1m]

Common Mistakes

• Citing a phrase instead of a word
• Citing word from other paragraphs
• Spelling mistakes

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Types of Comprehension Questions

Match the characters to the items they had stolen. [2m] Scarlet •

• two shirts

Fran •

• three shirts and a ring

Common Mistakes

• Doing the matching without even reading the questions
• Assuming a cross pattern must be the answer

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Types of Comprehension Questions

Write 1, 2 and 3 in the blanks below to indicate the

• rder in which the events occurred in the story. [1m]

___ Scarlet’s father took me home from the mall. ___ Fran encouraged Scarlet to go to shopping mall. ___ Scarlet had to attend counselling session in school.

Common Mistakes

• Writing ‘a’, ‘b’ and ‘c’ instead of ‘1’, ‘2’ and ‘3’
• Not referring to the text to check the sequence of

events

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Types of Comprehension Questions

State whether each statement in the table below is true

• r false, then give one reason why you think so. [2m]

True/False Reason Scarlet was eager to steal the shirt from the store. Scarlet was not allowed to go out after school for three weeks. Common Mistakes

• Copying irrelevant information from text
• Reason cited should be phrased in own words and answer

to the point.

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How Parents Can Support Children’s Learning

• Provide opportunities for your children to share any

interesting things they have read

• Take them out (shopping malls, outdoor activities,

use of public transport etc.) so that they have an experience they can relate to for conversation

• Encourage your child to read widely including story

books, newspapers and educational magazines (e.g.

• nly reading Young Scientists or comics is

insufficient)

Compulsory reading material for P5 & P6: Little Red Dot

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Thank You…