We lay a strong foundation in grammar for your child because the use of correct grammar means the ability to construct meaningful sentences, which is essential in communication. The students use hands-on interactive activities as they take down notes, practise the skills, and reflect on the materials. They are also using that information as they work on future activities just like a textbook.
Reading strategies are employed to aid in comprehending what students read and these strategies, together with a strong foundation in grammar, help students to arrive at the answer to the Comprehension Cloze questions, which most students find one of the hardest sections in Booklet B. The other section that presents difficulties for most students is the Comprehension Open Ended. There are many valuable strategies to use when approaching the different question types. These strategies, coupled with close reading techniques, ensure a meaningful and enjoyable comprehension of the text.
The demands of the new syllabus for Continuous Writing require students to align their plot to the given topic, and at the same time employ one or more of the three pictures to weave their stories. Our writing syllabus allows students to express their ideas and articulate their thoughts through a continuous feedback process and they learn what it takes to create a great piece of writing that engages the reader. Well-written composition pieces are shared during writing lessons to demonstrate the techniques used and serve as models of effective writing to communicate the character’s feelings and description of people and places.
Oracy skills are explicitly taught with a focus on stressing the right syllable in a polysyllabic word, intonation, pauses and pacing in the read aloud component. The stimulus-based conversation component requires skills including picking out keywords of the question and using a structured approach to answer the questions.
Listening comprehension skills include listening for main idea; listening for details like numbers, dates and names; and using inference, which is a higher order skill that is crucial for comprehending both written and spoken texts.
All four papers (Papers 1 to 4) in the PSLE English Exams are covered throughout the year.