Parents’ Seminar
English Language Sharing
11 February 2017
EL Curriculum at Upper Primary
Requirements of PSLE EL
& Tackling EL PAPER 2
Springdale Primary School
Content of Presentation
• 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
Springdale Primary School
Our English Programme
Springdale English Curriculum
Modified STELLAR
Springdale Primary School
School-based
curriculum
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
or 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%
200
100%
Total
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Paper 1: Writing
Total duration of paper: 1 hour 10 min
WRITING COMPONENTS
Situational Writing
MARKS
15 marks
Continuous Writing
40 marks
Total
55 marks
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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
Total duration of paper: approximately 10 min
ORAL COMPONENTS
Reading Aloud
MARKS
10 marks
Stimulus-based Conversation 20 marks
Total
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30 marks
Paper 3: Oral Assessment
Reading Aloud
• Read with good pronunciation & clear articulation of
the words
• Use appropriate rhythm and stress to achieve a wellpaced, fluent reading
• Read with appropriate variation of pitch and tone in
order 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
Stimulus-based Conversation
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.
–
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How do you spend your free time?
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
Total duration of paper: 1 hour 50 minutes
PAPER 2 COMPONENTS
Booklet A
Visual Text
Grammar MCQ
Vocabulary MCQ
Vocabulary Cloze
Booklet B
Grammar Cloze
Editing
Comprehension Cloze
Synthesis & Transformation
Comprehension Open-Ended
Total
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MARKS
8
10
5
5
10
12
15
10
20
95 marks
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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Suggested Procedure for Students
• 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.
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Suggested Procedure for Students
• 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
of the passage.
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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
of 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
order 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
or 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.
only reading Young Scientists or comics is
insufficient)
Compulsory reading material for P5 & P6: Little Red Dot
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Thank You…
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