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MCE Science Workshop for Students – Answering Techniques and Learning Strategies

Science is a subject that is intriguing to children and yet when it comes to it being placed on a set of papers with 40+ questions, it inevitably erode the initial interest of the student. So, how can we help our children to see the importance of answering techniques for Science paper such that their interest will not be killed eventually? I am happy to learn the ropes in a PSLE Science workshop organised by Marshall Cavendish Education (MCE) from a very qualified trainer, Mr Chee Chin Young. So does my Missy who attended the student workshop by the same trainer.

This is the second workshop that I have attended in the MCE PSLE Series of Workshop for parents. The first one is on PSLE English and if you would remember, I am impressed with the trainer. Now that I have attended the Science workshop, I am further convinced that MCE has a strict qualification of its trainers and only the best trainers are employed. Not only do the trainers engage well with students and parents, catering to different needs, they are totally selfless in imparting their knowledge, tips and tricks. I am full of admiration for such selfless sharing. I am sure those who attended are very encouraged by the optimism exuded by the trainers.

If you are thinking that the Science workshop is about learning further on the Science syllabus, then you are very wrong. The workshop is about tactics, tips, tricks on how to tackle the paper and prepare for PSLE Science. What we learnt are on ANSWERING TECHNIQUES, LEARNING STRATEGIES and EXAMINATION TECHNIQUES! Everything all parents and students want to know about tackling the Science Paper!

learning strategies — Missy’s Concept Map for Learning Strategies and Exam tactics taught by Mr Chee Chin Young

Now, let me summarise what my girl has learnt from Mr Chee on a 2-day workshop for students on the topic of Science which school teachers may or may not have (the time to) shared.

1. Science Journaling (Note-taking)

In Science, Note-taking should not be taken lightly. In fact, there is a way for effective note-taking!

a) Point-form Notes – a quick capture of information during class explanation, when reviewing worksheets and while doing corrections.

b) Concept Map – a capture of point-form notes reorganised on a visual form of flow charts, classification tables, radial diagrams or simply key words in clouds linked by arrows.

c) Science Journaling – where all important information are recorded and comes with a content page for easy referencing.

Keeping a Science Journal helps the students to brainstorm, list and infer between Science facts and terminology. Mr Chee emphasises greatly on the usefulness of having a Science Journal and spent a great deal of time teaching how to start one. Once you get the idea of a Science Journal, it shall help you all the way till beyond Secondary school in mastering the art of writing notes and keeping a handy self-written guide with you. A Science Journal needs to be no more than a size of an exercise book for ease of flipping and handy for bringing around. It serves as a quick reference to check up a concept or topic and good for quick revision before the examination.

Here is a page taken out from Missy’s Science Journal after Mr Chee’s workshop. She is so motivated by the idea of keeping a Science Journal that she went home the very day to find a nice notebook for this purpose!

2. Charting to PSLE Science Success

This is the strategising part to tackle the PSLE Science paper.

Now till Prelims

From the time of the workshop in June holidays till the Prelims, was about 6 weeks. This would be the time to revise concepts, understand the strategy of answering questions, practising against the clock to get the most number of marks. One shared tip is on practising the MCQ portion by aiming to get 20 right questions within 20 minutes; And on the written portion, to aim 20 marks attained in 20 minutes. Well, it certainly sounds achievable for bite sized practices to train for perfection in Section A which consists of 28 Questions equating to 56 marks.

Prelims till PSLE

From Prelims till PSLE, we would have about 2 months time. This will be fine-tuning of the Science concepts and ensuring whatever mistakes made in the past NOT BE REPEATED AGAIN. That means, studying and re-doing error questions till they are perfected with no mistakes. The Science Journal now comes handy in revision again. Bring out the P3 to P6 Science worksheets and revise on the corrections again.

ONE GRADE IMPROVEMENT

Mr Chee recommends to aim for ONE GRADE IMPROVEMENT from SA1 to Prelims and ONE GRADE IMPROVEMENT from Prelims to PSLE.

3. Marks Vs Points

What is the difference between Marks and Points?

Understanding the relationship between marks and points is essential to give the correct length of answer without writing too much.

Points – a point of information that expresses an idea, i.e. a fact or concept; a sub-point is part of a main point. It is good practice to write one sentence for one point.

Marks – the allocation of the one mark or half mark against a point or sub-point for right concept or use of appropriate keywords in answering correctly.

Mr Chee taught the K.I.S.S answering technique:

K.I.S.S. – Keep It Short and Simple!

4. Generating Keywords with Science-working

What is a Science-working? Does Science require working like Math?

Well, I find this is kind of similar to what we were taught in English workshop, if there is such thing as an English-working too. Remember I shared about doing inferences while reading Comprehension passages or Comprehension Cloze? In Science, we should also write and jot down keywords or ideas that come to mind when we read through a Question. Such scribbling helps the mind to work faster in making sense of the question, so that the logical answer can be formed by processing the keywords.

5. Type of Questions

Comparison Questions – marks are allocated for describing the two things in comparison. If you are asked for the difference, remember to mention specifically why the other thing is different. This will ensure you get the full marks for that question.

Explanation Questions – testing on the ability to explain scientific phenomenon extensively. The simplest way is to state two things:

– Scientific Theory

– Question Application

Scientific Theory is the statement on a fact or concept that can be universally applied in any similar situations, they can be lifted directly from the textbooks, and usually carry one mark.

Question Application is the statement that apply the scientific theory into the question scenario. By this application, it will show the understanding of the concept well enough to be used in the application.

Theory-Application Approach

Mr Chee shared with the students that when a scientist tries to understand a situation, he/she will first think of the relevant scientific theory before trying to apply the principle to the observation. If you are able to train yourself into thinking this way to form answer statements, most, if not all, required points in the examiner’s answer sheet will be covered.

6. Understanding Graphs Questions

In Graphs questions, it is important to note the following information on the graph:

a) Horizontal Axis – usually an independent / controlled variable

b) Vertical Axis – usually a dependent variable, i.e. effect or outcome

c) Starting point on the Vertical Axis

d) Slope of the Graph – whether it is going up or coming down or unchanged.

e) Peaks and Valleys – note the highest and lowest point of the graph.

7. Highlighting Keywords in Questions and Correct Answers

This is a study tactic where the student HIGHLIGHT KEYWORDS found in Questions and Correct Answers. This trains the student to have an eye for keywords and understand how to answer to such questions.

8. Legibility Training

Mr Chee even covered Legibility Training in this workshop! It may seem trivial but in fact, is extremely important to not lose marks due to illegibility! He suggests to print out letters from A to Z, 0-9 in Comic Sans light grey font size 20+ for students to trace over. This helps those who have problem writing legibly to train their handwriting.

I could not cover all those that have been taught to my girl as I could only refer to her notes and what I have learnt in the Parents’ workshop. However, these are pretty good tips to share with you. I shall be sharing more in my next post on the MCE PSLE Science Workshop for Parents as I have sat through 2 full day teachings by Mr Chee. More on Learning Strategies and Examination Techniques!

Great Resources!

Follow me on my PSLE Series post here on our home-learning without Tuition!

Follow me and fellow Blogger mums on our takeaways on Marshall Cavendish Education Workshops which all of us are full of praises for! –

PSLE English Workshop for Parents by Kids R Simple
PSLE English Workshop for Students by Kids R Simple
English – How to Write Confidently & Creatively by Mummy Ed
English – How to Excel and Speak Well in English Oral by Mummy Ed
Math – Heuristics Explained for Intermediate and Advanced Learners by DinoMama
Math – P3 and P4 Math Coaching Workshop by Xavvylicious
Math – Problems Solving with Essential Know-hows and Tools by ilovedefamily
Math – Stretching Your Child’s Mathematical Abilities by Mummy Ed
Chinese – Effective Strategies for Chinese Composition by Mummy Ed

Disclaimer: Thanks to Marshall Cavendish Education for inviting me and my Missy to attend these insightful workshops on PSLE Science. We benefited tremendously from Mr Chee’s teaching and I must say we are more confident now in answering Science questions than before! The above notes are shared by Mr Chee’s handouts in the class and I hope I have presented here as best as I could to share with readers.

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 – How We Learn Mathematics

There is really no cheat sheet in learning Mathematics. And how I wish there is one. Mathematics was one of my worst subject in Primary School. Eventually, when I reached Secondary School, somehow I finally could grasp the Math concept and began to score high, and that’s how I start to love it and Mathematics became my strongest and favourite subject. I shared this experience with Missy 12 and told her:

“If you hate a subject, all the more you should make it the subject that you will LOVE! Go and conquer the challenges, love it and you will do well!”

I am not sure if it sounded abstract, but I realised that it was really like that for me. Once I grow to like it, I do well, it is as simple as that.

“If you hate Chinese, then conquer the 汉字, and you will grow to love it!” I told to Master 10 too as remembering the strokes of 汉字 is his biggest enemy at this moment.

How do we Learn Mathematics at home?

1) Identify the weaker topics that you child is facing

The moment I realised Missy 12 failed her Math in P3, it was a wake up call. I bought the P3 Math assessment books after her SA2 for that year and went through all the topics in the books for the December school holidays. There was work and play, I always ensured that. Since I realised her weakness in the subject so late, which went unnoticed, I felt that I should help her to re-learn all the basics. Hence, if you don’t already realise the weaker topics that you child is facing, perhaps, it is good to try to find out as early as possible to nip it in the bud before the challenges snowball to a big magnitude.

2) Flip through the school worksheets and focus on mistakes

This method works for almost all subjects. Make sure the mistakes previously made are understood, especially that topic in entirety, not only limited to one question, then re-do these questions to ensure the child gets them right.

3) All information / numbers given in the Math Question are to be used

Many times, I find that my children may leave out a number given in the question, and leave it unused in their working. There is one important thing to remember: the question will not give extra information, all information and numbers appearing in the question MUST be utilised.

4) Infer!

How do you infer in Math? Well, lots! For instance, if the question says, “After the 10th day, there is 1/4 sugar left. By end of 12th day, the sugar left was 120g.” The child must be able to infer that 3/4 sugar was used for the past 10 days. The child must also know that from 11th day onwards, the usage and leftover totals up to 1/4 sugar. One more thing in this question to take note is that 1/4 sugar is not equivalent to 1/4 kg sugar. Hence, inferences are important in Math too!

5) Train Accuracy and Speed

In Math, there are many questions to work within the exam allocated time. There is a need to use the best and most efficient method to work out a problem. Instead of beating around the bush, one should aim to identify the fastest method to work on a problem sum. This saves time for other questions.

For example, There is a discount of 20% on a T-shirt (usual price is $100) during a sale. How much does the T-shirt cost?

Method 2 below has a step lesser than Method 1. Using Method 2 will save time.

$Math qn 1$

Besides using a more efficient method, the child should not stay at a question for too long and learn to time himself and move along to the next question. Skip a question when stuck. Train the child at home by setting time to finish a paper. Accuracy and Speed need to be trained!

6) Remember to write UNITS

Marks will be deducted for forgetting to write units. And remember to write the CORRECT Units! A quick tip: Before putting down the answer on the line, make a quick check for what the question is asking and in what units.

7) Reasonableness

Always have a quick check with the final answer and have the child ask himself/herself if the answer is REASONABLE or not. For instance, if the final discount in value is $200 while the T-shirt is $100, this is NOT reasonable and somewhere in the working, there must be a mistake. If the answer for a pen comes up to 1kg, the child should know that it is NOT reasonable too. We can help our children in understanding REASONABLENESS by bringing them to the supermarket, or involving them in cooking preparation, etc, to gauge the value in weight, length, volume. This will help them very much in Mathematics and everyday usage in calculation.

8) Relate Math concept in Everyday Life

I try to relate Math concept as and when the right situation arises. For instance, I teach them to use ESTIMATION when we calculate discounts and division of a total number of sweets among siblings. When baking, I ask them to measure 1/8 cup of flour in a measuring cup relating to FRACTIONS. When walking on the road, we identify ANGLES on road signs, advertisements, etc. We talk about PERIMETER when we walk one round in the neighbourhood. We identify CUBOIDS and CUBES around the house. There are so many things in our everyday life that is related to Math. Just look around consciously and we will find many things to talk to our children on Math.

Our Revision

I find that #30minrevision does not work so well on Mathematics revision for higher Primary, mainly because one question can take up to 15 minutes to solve and teach. However, it is still possible if we are targeting to finish 2-3 questions per 30 minutes revision block. But mostly, we use 2 hours on weekends to revise Mathematics so as not to break the momentum.

We use Visible Thinking by Marshall Cavendish Education for our materials to revise by topic. I like this book very much because the questions are usually in sets of 2 or 3 questions with same scenario but only one variable is changed. This helps to test the student on his/her understanding if the question tweaks slightly. Further, each topic will start with asking some thinking questions that I, sometimes, may answer wrongly too. It has a good representation of working steps at the start of the topic which aids me to teach my children easily. So, if you are clueless in Primary School Math, I would highly recommend this book to help you learn along with your child. We have been using this book since Missy 12 was Primary 3.

As I am very familiar with Missy 12’s weakness in certain Math topics, I am able to identify and zoom in on these topics during our revision. We will start with me explaining the Math concept for a topic using the Visible Thinking book and assigning the questions for her to do. I have learnt that I need to mark on the spot during the 2 hour revision instead of leaving till days later, this will help her to absorb better as her mind is still fresh from her thoughts while I explain to her the mistakes and where went wrong.

As the SA1 exams are nearing, I am tempted to give her the top school papers to do as we are running out of time. However, I decided to still focus to drill on the weaker topics and ensure she got the concepts right even though it means that we will do lesser papers and wasting some money. I believe slow and steady goes a long way and also the right way. Hence, focusing on weaker topics and ensuring the child gets them right should be the priority in any kind of learning.

Now that we are quite comfortable in all the tested topics, we have started to do top school papers. We draft out a revision calendar and jot down the days that the children will be late home from school on the calendar. Then we fill in the afternoons with assigned revision and exam papers to do. As I have to be realistic about what they can finish in an afternoon, along with their school homework, I assign Math Paper 1 on one day and Math Paper 2 on the other, sometimes coupling with less demanding subjects like English and Chinese on the same day. Everyday after dinner, I will pick a paper to go through the mistakes for our #30minrevision. Time is limited. Either we have English during this 30 min revision block or we have various subjects focusing on mistakes.

And I will never forget one thing. If I see improvement in grasping a concept, I will commend on Missy 12’s efforts and good attitude. I do hope she feels encouraged and gets more confident as we go along.

If you like this post and find it useful, do share with your friends who need tips for Math revision 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. And if you have a P5 kid, do hop over to DinoMama, a fellow mummy blogger who has started to document some good study tips from her daily revision with her son too.

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

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 Series – How We Learn Comprehension (The No Tuition Way)

We have been doing our #30minrevision every weeknight and only concentrating on nothing but English. We leave the Science and Math revision to the weekends when we have more time. The reason why we concentrate hard on English shows how I value the importance of the English subject. And it is also easier for us to concentrate on language rather than the heavy kind of revision in calculation or theories on the limited attention span on weeknights.

I wanted to catch more eyeballs with a header that says “Ace your way in Comprehension” but I thought since our self-learnt method is not tried and tested, I had better be humble to share this post on how we learn Comprehension, the no tuition way.

As most of you may have known that I learnt a lot of good tips from the PSLE Parent Workshop for English by Marshall Cavendish Education. I shared my learning with Missy 12 over 4 blocks of #30minrevision in 4 weeknights.

1st weeknight of #30minrevision – Reading Comprehension and explaining to her how to draw arrows on the Comprehension passage and infer.

2nd weeknight – Read Comprehension Questions and explain to her how to do highlighting on the questions. Then read the Comprehension passage a 2nd time to understand more in depth and relate to Questions. Start doing the Questions until 30 min is up.

3rd weeknight – Continuing doing the Comprehension Questions. Then check answers and explain mistakes. Try a 2nd Comprehension passage all over again starting from reading the comprehension passage once.

4th weeknight – Do the same steps as above to complete 2nd Comprehension passage and complete questions. This time round, Missy 12 could do it faster because she has grasped the Comprehension skills and concept.

6 Steps in Learning the Comprehension Skills

Step 1: Reading the Passage

This is the most important step to score in Comprehension! If one does not read properly and understand what the passage in depth, he/she will waste much time in answering the questions because he/she will have to refer back and forth and scan through to re-read several times. I told Missy 12 to spend more time to read the passage carefully and understand the passage as much as she can, once she is able to understand the passage, she will save lots of time when doing the Comprehension questions. It will be faster than skimping through the passage and dive right into the questions, only to have most of them answered wrongly.

Step 2: Annotate as you Read

I learnt this step from the PSLE Parent Workshop. There are many words in a passage that refer to one another. Sometimes, the reference of the words are not obvious and one has to infer (deduce or conclude) from the story to understand what the words are referring to. For example in the picture below, the word “a ten-year-old boy” is referring to “Wesley Binks“. And Missy 12 will draw an arrow to join these 2 inferences together. The word “It” highlighted in yellow is referring to the “firework”, hence, Missy 12 will similarly draw an arrow to connect both together for her understanding. While it may seem obvious, it helps readers to not get lost in the passage.

You may ask if this is a time-waster in examinations. Well, I told Missy 12 that as long as she annotates during her regular Comprehension practices, she will annotate faster as she gets the hang of it and she can even annotate less during the examinations. What is important here is to first UNDERSTAND the passage.

Look at the picture below, I teach my girl to write down meaning of phrases. For example, “feathers were still a little ruffled” means “angry“. So, what if she does not know the meaning of the word or phrase? I realised that it is good to make a guess and look one sentence above and one sentence below or within the same sentence for clues. I have gone through with her a few times and I find this trick works most of the time.

Step 3: Read the Questions and Highlight

Make a habit to highlight tenses and keywords in the questions. This will remind the child to answer in the right tense. Actually, most of the answers are usually in past tense for most Comprehension passages, unless the passage is a non-fiction passage. Then, you will spot most present tense usage in the passage anyway.

Step 4: Read the Passage a SECOND Time

Reading the passage a second time is very important. Usually, we will understand the passage better or catch the details that we had left out in the first read. This time round, when reading, do ask questions to yourself and answer them. In the Workshop, we learnt that this is a good habit to get used to. When one ask questions in the head and answer these questions, he/she will tend to get closer to the answers to the questions that examiners set, because examiners set the questions with the same kind of thought process in mind! In fact, when we get used to answering our own questions, we are training our mind to be analytical too!

Step 5: Answer the Questions

This is the time to answer the questions and I remind my girl: DON’T BE LAZY TO FLIP BACK AND REFER TO THE PASSAGE AGAIN AND AGAIN! I find that sometimes she tends to answer questions with her memory instead of flipping back the paper to refer to the passage. If the answer is in the passage, do not let go of a chance to get the answer right! Do not depend on just memory alone!!!

Step 6: Check G.P.S.

What is G.P.S.? Not the navigation of course! Get your child in the habit of checking Grammar, Punctuation and Spelling! There is bound to be mistakes! Never give up on checking carefully. I told my girl to point to each word when she reads her answer just to be sure she is using the right tense and right spelling.

The above 6 steps are how I want my girl to go through each Comprehension passage from now on. In fact, I told her if she gets the habit of doing these steps, it will help her go a long way into Secondary School when Comprehension passages are much tougher.

If you like this post and find it useful, do share with your friends who are struggling in Comprehension 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.

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