English Archives - Kids 'R' Simple

Learning English at Eye Level Centre

Hey! Didn’t I advocate no tuition for my kids? Didn’t I say I place absolute trust in MOE teachers to teach our kids well enough to excel in PSLE? Well, indeed I did and we are still going the NO-TUITION way towards PSLE, just in case you wonder. But while we are doing the revision on our own, it is a good opportunity to review an Enrichment centre’s program to learn good tips and tricks so that we can use them at home, just like what I shared about the MCE workshops’ precious takeaways!

Hey! Didn’t I advocate no tuition for my kids? Didn’t I say I place absolute trust in MOE teachers to teach our kids well enough to excel in PSLE? Well, indeed I did and we are still going the NO-TUITION way towards PSLE, just in case you wonder. But while we are doing the revision on our own, it is a good opportunity to review an Enrichment Centre’s program to learn good tips and tricks so that we can use them at home, just like what I shared about the MCE workshops’ precious takeaways!

Heard of Eye Level? Let me introduce to you that Eye Level originates from Korea 41 years ago!! What a long history and still going strong must show something for sure! There are 18 centres in Singapore islandwide. It specialises mainly on Math and English. Eye Level caters to all students of different learning abilities and pace. That’s one thing I like about the flexibility of progressing according to the students’ needs. Eye Level also encourages self-directed learning and one will see that the students here are encouraged to be independent and everything is kind of systematic and has its own place.

Eye Level’s curriculum takes students from the basic motor skills needed for reading and writing, through the building blocks of Grammar, to the more complex concepts that allow the mastery of verbal and written communication.

What Makes Eye Level English Different?

– Fundamental Language Skills : consists of basic language arts and reading with vocabulary.
– Individualized Program : allows students to begin at the point where they are able to work independently with confidence.
– Interesting and Fun : helps to foster students’ interest in reading, writing effectively, and approaches it in a fun, creative way.

Eye Level English guides students in the mastery of English language proficiency through in thematic approaches, repetitive practices, and strategies that combine listening, speaking, reading and writing.

Here are the topics the English program covers:

Environment

Eye Level Centre at Square 2 is located at Level 4. It has 2 rooms, one to conduct Math lesson and the other for English. There is a waiting area outside with benches for parents to lounge around waiting for their kids. Not only that, it has a low shelf with toys and books to entertain little ones too. I think that’s very considerate.

Diagnostic Assessment

Prior to the first lesson, Missy 12 and Master 10 had to take a diagnostic assessment test on a booklet. This is to gauge their level of competency to determine which level they should start with.

Each Eye Level lesson has a duration of maximum 45 minutes. I am totally pleased with this duration as I have learnt from my #30minrevision that kids’ attention span is really just that short. Eye Level recognises that and thus 45 minutes is sufficient to grasp the kids’ full attention and efficiency in learning.

Self-directed Learning

On our first lesson, we signed in attendance via the Tablet at the reception. We were greeted by the friendly Teacher JDrea whom my kids took an immediate liking already when we first met for diagnostic test. She spoke clearly and softly and has a warm smile. I liked her instantly too! I always believe if the kids like the teacher, they will tend to excel in the subject. Considering this is the first time the kids attended an academic enrichment class, I was glad that they had a good experience and thus, would continue for the next 7 sponsored classes. My worries about their reluctance to go for their first academic enrichment class were unfounded!

The kids were brought into 1 of the 2 rooms in the Eye Level Centre at Square 2.

All students have to take off their shoes upon entry and the next thing they do is to find their marked workbooks from previous lesson from the shelf with their names. Then they will each go to their respective study desks which are divided by partitions for privacy. They listen to audio and do assigned exercises.

There is an English curriculum to follow through. Every lesson targets to complete 2 exercises per workbook which is to be brought home as homework. And each workbook has 4 topics and that makes it 1 workbook to be completed within 2 lessons.

Teacher’s guidance

During the 45 minutes of lesson, each of the kids is assigned another booklet to be used in class. They are to complete the selected exercises and go to Teacher JDrea to go through their mistakes. This is a 1-1 session of 5-10 minutes whereby the student will have full attention of the teacher to guide him/her through the topic to ensure the student understands the mistakes made. This is akin to what I have done during our weeknights’ 1-1 #30minrevision where I assign Missy 12 to complete some exercises and go through her mistakes right after that. But the difference is that we have now a proper English teacher to help her in her English as opposed to me, an amateur, self-taught English tutor!

Feedback to Parents

You know what? I love to talk to educators, instructors, trainers and facilitators! I get to learn lots of knowledge and even get refreshed and corrected on what I had learnt before! Each time I talk to Teacher Jdrea, I learnt something new in English. I never knew I have got some simple Grammar rules wrong! Sometimes, I feel a tinge of regret that I had not read enough books and spent more time on language. But, it is never too late to learn now, alongside my Missy 12!

When the lesson ended, Teacher JDrea would give me a summary of what the kids had learnt for the day. She bothered to explain in details on each topic of English Grammar that they had covered. I find that very useful to me as I got feedback on which areas each of the kids was weak in and needed more practices. With that, I am able to focus more on their weak areas during our own home revision.

Homework

As Eye Level encourages self-directed learning and independence, naturally there will be homework to do. To be frank, the kids were not so keen to do the homework assigned. Who loves homework anyway? They found that there were many Comprehensions to do in the workbook. As much as I could feel for them, I appreciate the many Comprehension practices because it helps to train the kids to understand Comprehension passages and learn how to answer them. By reading more passages, it helps to boost their understanding and exposure to sentence structure and Grammar rules. Only by doing more of such Comprehension practices will one improve the Comprehension segment of the exam paper.

Reward

I have heard of many enrichment centres dishing out expensive rewards. I am not so sure if that won’t make the kids materialistic and consequently send the wrong message to these young ones. But Eye Level did it just perfectly. Each of the students is given a reward sticker board. They need to collect about 20+ stickers before they can fill up one board and get to choose a reward gift on the gift shelf. I look through the rewards and they were mainly practical stuff like stationery and small toys. The value of these rewards is not too pricey but enough to motivate the kids to work towards collecting them. I am definitely not for expensive rewards and find such high value rewards tend to desensitise the kids’ idea of what a reward should be. Even for me, I give my kids a small gift of their choice that is within the budget of $20-$30 for the hard work they put in for the whole academic year. I don’t believe in expensive rewards as a motivator.

Assessment

Before a student proceeds to the next level and a new skill set, an Eye Level instructor will give the student a level test to evaluate if they have achieved mastery of the current material. This constant monitoring of the kids’ competency with close teacher’s guidance during the 1-1 sessions, allowing learning at the kids’ own pace, plus the Feedback from Teacher to Parents and vice-versa are really the strong building blocks to effective learning. Many Enrichment Centres hold big classes which makes learning at own pace impossible. Further, 1-1 sessions are limited or none. With such comparisons, I come to appreciate Eye Level way of helping the students to learn effectively.

Well, stay tune for my next post on more information on Eye Level English Curriculum as well as our verdict of Eye Level Centre!

More information on Eye Level Centre:

Fees: $140 for 1x per week lesson; $180 for 2x per week lesson
Website: Eye Level Singapore
Facebook: click here
To enquire: call 6397 6117
To find a centre near you: click here

Disclaimer: We were invited for 8 English lessons for the purpose of this review. It is a good first time for the kids on academic enrichment class and we have many takeaways in terms of gaining knowledge and intangibles which I shall share in my next post. All in all, I am glad that they have a good experience with Eye Level!

PSLE Series – Everything About Composition-Writing

Since my post on How We Learn Comprehension (The No Tuition Way), many have asked me about how we tackle Composition. So, I am going to share what I have learnt in the PSLE Parent Workshop for English by Marshall Cavendish Education mainly on the pitfalls, the common mistakes and some good tips. Some of the below are Rubrics that examiners used for evaluating Compositions too.

1) The Hamburger Proportion

In each Composition, there should be an Introduction, Body and Ending. If a student writes too much on Introduction, and a small “Body” (Main story) and rush through Ending, this will make an out of proportion Composition, just like a hamburger with a big bun on the top. Same goes to short Introduction and lengthy “Body”, etc. Do remember to not overwrite on any one of these.

2) Time for Planning before Starting to Write

Planning is important. When a student gets carried away in writing, he/she may miss out an important connecting part of the story. Do spend 5-10 min to do a quick planning. I think most students, including myself, do not plan. But according to the Trainer in the workshop, he highly recommends this step from his years of experience that planning helps greatly, especially for weaker writers. I would encourage my kids to do the same too.

3) Writing the Introduction

Weather – This is a favourite opening line of many students. However, if weather is not going to be related to the content of the story, please DO NOT start with writing about the Weather.

Recount – Writing Recount stories can be very interesting and yet dangerous too. Just remember to make a note somewhere on the writing paper to remind yourself to tie back to the beginning of the story before concluding the Composition. Further, the trigger of the recount must be related to the main story.

‘One day’ – This 2 words should be avoided in any Composition opening line.

Smooth transition into the main story – Introduction has to be written such that it introduces the story’s mood or atmosphere appropriately.

4) Writing the “Body”

Description – Writing in good details and vivid descriptions will add mood to the story. There should be an ability to “SHOW” and not “TELL”. I am always attracted to good descriptions in any storybooks, and encourage my kids to take note of how authors describe a scenario, weather, facial expressions, etc. Writing description can allow the reader to picture the entire scene you are writing about, and it helps to raise the Composition marks.

Dialogue – Writing an interesting and relevant dialogue to reveal the character and to further plot will help to make a Composition interesting. Try to write a couple of dialogue to help boost the story.

Initiating event and Problem/Conflict – Take note to write a clear initiating event leading to the problem. The conflict should be clearly defined too. Events and Conflict should be linked.

Characters – There should be one or more well drawn characters that are well described and interesting. Too many characters may take away focus from the main character.

Language – Take note not to overuse words and try to vary the words with same meaning. This will show examiner that the language command is strong and it makes the story more interesting. Avoid starting with the word “I” too many times.

Sentences – Vary the sentence structure. Avoid writing lengthy sentences and using too many “and” in a sentence. Use modifiers. (What are modifiers? They are a word, phrase or clause which functions as an adjective or adverb to describe a word or make its meaning more specific.)

Plot Twists – Writing plot twists take some practices and skills. We should encourage our kids to write plot twists as they can lead the reader (examiner) into the story and shed light at the end. This will boost the story greatly.

5) Writing the Ending

Tie back to the story – This is especially for Recount stories. Remember to tie back to the beginning of the story.

Changing for the better – One of the common mistakes is that students may, without explanation, conclude that the main character “realises” his/her mistake “suddenly” and decides to change for the better! This will make the Ending too abrupt. Students sometimes spend too much time writing about the Introduction and “Body” and rush through the Ending. It is important to allocate enough time to conclude nicely.

Policeman, Paramedics, Rescue – This is a common Ending for most Compositions. If this is needed to conclude the story, try to describe in more details, eg, how does the inside of the ambulance look like, how having rescue team affect the character in the story, etc. Or instead of rescue team, try to write with the character as the rescuer or problem-solver by himself.

6) Trademarks of weaker students’ Compositions

I would like to share trademarks on weaker student’s Compositions as it will serve as a reminder to teach our kids not to make these mistakes.

Lots of Grammatical Errors – Weaker students have lots of grammatical errors such that the content is confused or lost. If your child is weak in Grammar, you may like to drill them in basic Grammar rules from the start. It takes time, but it will slowly help the child improve his/her language which will go a long way.

Not Enough Vocabulary – Lack of Vocabulary will make a story boring. Build up a Vocabulary Bank by jotting down new words when you are reading books, newspaper, etc. This is a long term learning and will help in the long run.

Lack Organisation Skills and No Flow – Here is where planning helps. You can be a strong writer but if the organisation is missing, the story will not be a good one.

Lack of Immersing in the Story – When a student is writing a Composition, he/she should imagine himself in the story. It will help him to describe the 5 senses (see, hear, taste, smell, touch) better and bring the reader into his/her world through the description.

Length of Composition – A weaker writer tends to write too short and a strong writer may write too long. Writing about 3,4 pages long is sufficient to not bore the examiner and not too short to miss out content.

7) Checking the Composition

Finally, check through the Composition and look out for G.P.S (Grammar, Punctuation and Spelling)! Replace words that are overused with better words.

I hope the above 7 Steps will help your child to write better. After writing this post, I am going to let my kids read these tips and guide them along!

If you like this post and find it useful, do share with your friends who are struggling in Composition or preparing for PSLE like us. I want to selflessly teach everyone what I know and how I teach my children in academics. I do have a small ambition: To inspire more parents to go the NO-TUITION route like us! Let’s save money and save time for our children to play and unwind more! I think there is more to life than academic and tuition.

You may follow us in the NO TUITION PSLE SERIES by clicking on the link or follow us on instagram to see how we learn in our daily #30minrevision.

Hope this post is useful to everyone out there who has a kid in school! Stay tune for the next post!

PSLE English Workshop for Parents – How to Tackle The English Paper

This is not an Adult English Course, in case you are wondering. It is more of a crash course in understanding how to tackle the English Language Paper in PSLE. All of us were there to learn tips and how to teach our children. Some parents were more interested in knowing how to obtain A* for the paper, some wanted cheat sheets that the private tuition centres have and school teachers do not, and for me, I want to learn as much as I can and incorporate into our daily 30 min revision of English with my Missy 12. I am there to absorb knowledge and learn how to teach, not so much as to obtain A*.

Spanning over 2 Saturdays of 6 hours each, the parents, including me, who attended the Marshall Cavendish Education PSLE English Workshop for Parents certainly wasted no time in learning.. PSLE English!

This is not an Adult English Course, in case you are wondering. It is more of a crash course in understanding how to tackle the English Language Paper in PSLE. All of us were there to learn tips and pass our takeaways to our children. Some parents were more interested in knowing how to obtain A* for the paper, some wanted cheat sheets that the private tuition centres have and school teachers do not, and for me, I want to learn as much as I can and incorporate into our daily 30 min revision of English with my Missy 12. I am there to absorb knowledge and learn how to teach, not so much as to obtain A*.

I think for many of us, we came out from the workshop feeling that we had squeezed the trainer all his possible knowledge in the PSLE English paper. The best part is, the trainer was super accommodating and selfless in sharing his tips and such. All in all, for me, I have learnt lots in the 12 hours of workshop!

The trainer is Joel Lim, who had conducted an enjoyable workshop for my Missy 12 a couple of weeks back in the PSLE English Workshop for Student. You may read about what she learnt in this post.

We learnt about the format of the English paper and weightage of marks, Comprehension, Letter-writing, Situational writing, Essays, Synthesis and Transformation, Comprehension Cloze, Oral, Listening Comprehension and many other details to look out for when attempting the English paper. Joel gave a very good advice before we started the workshop proper:

Listen to your child more, and Speak Less.

How true and what a timely reminder! Often, we fail to LISTEN attentively to our child when they talk, and more often than not, I find my voice filling the air from the moment I come home from work till they sleep. It certainly does not seem healthy!

Now, let’s see what we have learnt in each segment in the English language paper.

On Composition

Joel taught us Composition tactics. He shared to us from the examiner’s point of view when reading and marking a composition. Not only that, he printed examples of composition from a weak writer, an average writer and a strong writer. In the class, he analysed the writing skills and trademarks of different kinds of writers. This certainly helps me greatly in teaching my girl what to look out for and how not to fall into these pit holes. I shall be sharing more on what I have learnt from the workshop in my PSLE Series on Composition writing soon.

On Comprehension

He used a past PSLE Comprehension Passage and taught us the steps in tackling it:
1) Read the passage (and read again for a second time)
2) Annotation
3) Ask Questions and Answer them in your head
4) Complete Questions

He drew arrows on the passage and explained to us how he infers and asks questions in his head when reading the passage carefully. It may seem tedious but I find it very useful to teach my Missy 12 with the details of going through word by word, phrase by phrase and sentence by sentence. I believe with sufficient practices, she will get into the habit of ‘Inferencing’ and able to answer questions more confidently.

On Synthesis and Transformation

We were recommended some good assessment books and it is really up to individual to review if these books suit the styles of your child. Joel went through the following book on Synthesis and Transformation which I immediately went to buy from Popular bookstore. I find the layout of the book helpful in presenting transformed words in table form, and addressing some difficult ones like “who and whom” usage in synthesis. Do check this out and see if it suits your child.

One thing we learnt is that for Synthesis and Transformation questions, there are no half marks and hence, either your child get full 2 marks or he/she will get zero mark even for a missing word. Thus, practicing more questions is probably the key to tackling this segment.

On Comprehension Cloze

We briefly touched on this and Joel had shared the following pointers from again another “My Friend Has Diarrhea” kind of abbreviations for easy remembrance: Round Aunty Farts Chocolate Rainbows!
Round – Read once first to get background information
Aunty – Annotate: summarise, drawing arrows to relate, asking questions and answering them
Farts – Fill in the blanks with as many words as you can think of in pencil
Chocolate – Choose the best answer for each question
Rainbows – Read again, use instinct to judge appropriateness of answers

Well, there are quite many ways that I have learnt on tackling Comprehension Cloze from various sources. Hence, I shall similarly share on my PSLE Series blog posts with one on tackling the Comprehension Cloze. Stay tune!

On Oral and Listening Comprehension

Joel recommended another good book for this segment. I really emphathize with our children these days. Even something so simple and easy to score like ‘Listening Comprehension’ and ‘Oral’ need strategies and a dedicated assessment book for them. I remembered we had never needed to prepare for them during our PSLE times! But, now, the PSLE standard has up many notches and Oral is really similar to an interview session in my opinion. Perhaps, if I were to take the PSLE Oral, I may not get good marks too since I tend to stutter or tongue-tied at impromptu questions, especially if the topic is not so much of my interest!

Do spend some time to go to Popular Bookstore to hunt for this book and read the tips given. I find that some are quite common sense and some are really good tips. But given the limited time, I would not be able to prepare my girl much for Oral and Listening Comprehension. Maybe, I should start prepping her during our conversations on bus rides to get her used to speaking and quick thinking.

Apart from sharing tips and tricks on all the English Paper sections, Joel is very kind to share his own resources on “Commonly Mis-spelt words” and Synthesis and Transformation Rules table among other things. We could feel that he understood why we would drop all schedule to spend 2 Saturdays learning from him. And he genuinely wanted to help us parents to help our own children.

After his workshop, I tested out the tips on my girl and for the first time, seriously, she answered 8 questions in a top school Comprehension passage correctly! While I am not expecting miracles, I can tell that my girl is gaining confidence in doing her English paper. By and by, I am sure we will get there!

Marshall Cavendish has 1 more Parent Workshop in this series:
PSLE Math Workshop For Parents
Date: 1 & 8 April (2 Saturdays in total)
Venue: Times Centre
Time: 9am – 430pm
Fees: $180

Do check out the website for more information and upcoming workshops.
I have a timetable here on the upcoming ones for your reference:

Disclaimer: I was invited to attend the Marshall Cavendish Education PSLE English Workshop for Parents. Thank you MCE and PR company for the chance to learn and teach my children. I strongly recommend concerned parents to attend MCE Workshops which I really benefited a lot!

Rise and Shine Expo – 2 great workshops worth going to + Giveaway #01

In our family, we speak Chinese 90% of the time. As a result, our kids are strong in this language that many kids here are struggling with. However, in Singapore, we have to be bilingual and are taught English and Chinese since young. English, being our teaching medium, is extremely important in getting good grades in schools. Without a good English foundation, students will struggle to understand Mathematics problem sums and tackle English comprehension questions.

Recently, my 8 year old girl is losing marks in her test papers due to her weakness in the English language. She does not have full understanding of the questions. It is not easy to be equally good in 2 languages and I do empathize with her. I take a partial blame too that I do not speak much English at home. I always believe my kids can pick up English in school easily since they interact with mostly English-speaking classmates daily. I read to them since they were babies and am still reading to them. Perhaps they are not reading enough on their own. Despite being worried about their English standard, I have never regretted speaking Chinese primarily at home. I take pride that their Chinese is strong as Chinese is indeed a very difficult language to master. It is important to speak well since it is our Mother Tongue.

So, when I knew about a workshop where the famous speaker Dr Thomas Armstrong is going to share tips on teaching everything from phonics to reading comprehension using brain strategies, I was curious to find out if there are ways for me to help my girl with her comprehension skills. This workshop is held in conjunction with the Rise and Shine Expo which will span across 3 days of exciting kids’ activities, premium brands and workshops for parents from 27-29 Sept 2013. This speaker is an award winning author of “Nurturing Multiple Intelligences in Children”. I have extracted some details to this workshop here:

Workshop with Dr. Thomas Armstrong: The multiple intelligences of reading and writing: making the words come alive!

This workshop will show parents how to help children develop literacy skills by linking words to images, music, logic, emotions, physical expression, social context, oral language, and nature. Dr. Armstrong draws upon recent neuropsychological research in showing how reading and writing skills are whole brain activities, and he provides practical tips and suggestions for teaching everything from phonics to reading comprehension using whole brain strategies.

This workshop is for parents with children from 3 to 12 years old who want to lay strong foundation in their kids in reading and writing using the concept of multiple intelligences.

Speaker:
Dr Thomas Armstrong
Award Winning Author and Advocator of Nurturing Multiple Intelligences in Children

Dr Thomas Armstrong is the author of fifteen books including Multiple Intelligences in the Classroom, In Their Own Way, Awakening Your Child’s Natural Genius, 7 Kinds of Smart,The Myth of the A.D.D. Child and Awakening Genius in the Classroom. His books have been translated into twenty-six languages. He has appeared on several national and international television and radio programs, including NBC’s ”The Today Show”, “CBS This Morning”, “CNN”, the “BBC” and “The Voice of America”. Articles featuring his work have appeared in The New York Times, the Washington Post, USA Today, Investor’s Business Daily, Good Housekeeping, and hundreds of other newspapers and magazines around the country.

Date: Sat, 28 Sept
Time: 2.30pm – 4pm
Venue: Room 305, Suntec Convention Hall

To register for the workshop, please click here.

Price: $20

Early bird discount by 2 Sept: 10% off
Group booking: 3 or more in a group enjoy 50% off
PAssion Card holders: 1 for 1 signup (partner attends for free)

For more details on this Rise and Shine Expo, click here.

I would encourage those parents who are keen to help on their children’s language development to attend this workshop.

Being a Rise and Shine partner blogger, I am entitled to give away 5 pairs of tickets (worth $20 for each ticket) to my readers for this workshop. If you are interested to know how this workshop can benefit the reading and writing skills of your child, please do the following:

1) Like Kids R Simple and Rise and Shine facebook fan pages

2) Leave a comment below with your email address or on Kids R Simple facebook page (If you are not comfortable with leaving your email address, please message me via facebook)

3) The closing date for enrolment of giveaway is on 6 Sept 2013.

Good luck!

This is the first part of the Rise and Shine Expo Giveaways.

Stay tune for the second giveaway…