Woodlands Ring Primary School Primary 6 Parents Briefing 23 January 2015 English Department
Agenda EL Assessment Structure Common Areas of Strengths Common Areas of Weaknesses Supporting Your Child at Home
EL Assessment Structure Paper / Component Paper 1 / Writing (1h 10 min) Content Situational Writing Continuous Writing Marks Weighting 15 40 27.5% Paper 2 / Language Use and Comprehension (1h 50 min) Booklet A Booklet B 28 67 47.5%
EL Assessment Structure Paper / Component Paper 3 / Listening Comprehension (approx. 35 min) Paper 4 / Oral (approx. 10 min in total inc. 5 min prep. time) Content Marks Weighting Various text types 20 10% Reading aloud Stimulus-based Conversation 10 20 15% Total 200 100%
Common Areas of Strengths 1. Situational Writing (15 marks) Marked for: Task Fulfilment (6 marks) Language and organisation (9 marks) For Task Fulfilment, response should show a good awareness of purpose, audience and context and the provision of key information.
Tips for Pupils When Tackling Situational Writing Plan for about 5 min Writing time about 10-12 min Check approx. 3 to 5 min Must aim to score FULL MARKS (6 marks) for task fulfilment by fulfilling all the points and understanding the audience, purpose and context. Responses must be based on the graphical clues provided
Tips for Pupils When Tackling Task Fulfilment Situational Writing Analyse the purpose for writing, the target audience and determine the format to use. Identify the key information required
Purpose: An invite to a play Audience: Cousin, Jim Context: Informal tone
Tips for Pupils When Tackling Situational Writing Be very clear who the audience is. Use the correct name and the right register. E.g. Write a letter to Tom... E.g. Write an email to Mr Ang... E.g. Write a reply to the organiser... How are you? (Inappropriate when writing a formal letter/email)
Tips for Pupils When Tackling Signing off Situational Writing Informal, friendly letters/email do not require the writer to sign off with his surname. E.g. Yours sincerely, Kai Ning
Tips for Pupils When Tackling Situational Writing Language and organisation Use Simple Straightforward Language E.g. 1 The competition is held on (day) at (place). It will take place from to (time).
Tips for Pupils When Tackling Situational Writing Use Simple Straightforward Language E.g. 2 The exhibition will be held from to (date) between and (time). It is held at (place). Months have to be spelt out in full in formal writing Learn how to spell the months e.g. February
Tips for Pupils When Tackling Situational Writing Situational writing has to be studied. Revise all the situational writings done in EL Writing File.
Common Areas of Strengths 2. Continuous Writing (40 marks) Composition based on a theme given with three pictures Marked for: content (20 marks) language and organisation (20 marks)
Tips for Pupils When Tackling Continuous Writing Analyse the theme in the composition question Plan the story for about 10 min Sequence your ideas Writing time about 35 min Check approx. 5 min Minimum length not less than 1 ½ pages long (leave a line)
Common Areas of Strengths 3. Oral Communication (30 marks) Reading Aloud (10 marks) Stimulus-based Conversation (20 marks)
Tips for Pupils When Tackling Reading Oral Assessment read a passage with good pronunciation and clear articulation of the words use appropriate rhythm and stress to achieve a well-paced, fluent reading of a passage read with appropriate variation of pitch and tone in order to convey the information, ideas and feelings in a passage
Stimulus-based Conversation
Tips for Pupils When Tackling Oral Assessment Stimulus-based Conversation Three main prompts related to the given stimulus a) Look at the picture. Would you be interested to buy this jigsaw puzzle from Puzzle Mania? Tell me why / why not. b) Do you enjoy solving any kinds of puzzles? Tell me about it. c) Sometimes, we encounter problems that are difficult to solve. What do you usually do when you have difficulty in solving a problem?
Tips for Pupils When Tackling Oral Assessment Stimulus-based Conversation give personal responses to the given topic express oneself clearly in a conversation, using appropriate vocabulary and accurate grammatical structures use a range of appropriate vocabulary and structures
Common Areas of Weaknesses 1. Comprehension Cloze (15 marks) 15 blanks in a passage, 1 mark each No helping words given 2. Comprehension Open-ended (20 marks) Up to 10 items (1 to 4m each) A variety of items e.g. sequencing, graphic organizer, open-ended
Both Comprehension Cloze and Comprehension Open-ended sections require: Good reading comprehension skills Strong vocabulary Pupils need to: Read carefully Be alert to the clues in the passage and/or questions
Mosquitoes are probably the most hated animals in the world. Their itchy, irritating (1) and nearly constant presence can ruin a perfectly peaceful dinner. Only female mosquitoes have the mouth parts necessary for (2) blood. When biting their victims, they stab (3) tubes into the skin. One tube injects an enzyme to prevent blood from clotting while the other sucks the victims (4) into the mosquitoes bodies.
How the Comprehension Cloze Procedure is Used in Class The teacher asks pupils to: 1. skim through the text and identify the text-type (narrative, informative, etc.) 2. identify main language features of texttype (timeless present tense for information reports)
Comprehension Cloze Procedure Used in Class 4. Discuss 1. Predict 3. Compare 2. Justify
Clues That Show Likeness Pupils may need to look for the missing word itself or a form of the missing word in a nearby sentence. Example Only female mosquitoes have the mouth parts necessary for (2) blood. When biting their victims, they stab (3) tubes into the skin. One tube injects an enzyme to prevent blood from clotting while the other sucks the victims (4) into the mosquitoes bodies.
Clues That Show Parts and Wholes Pupils may need to count the parts of a whole. They will need to look for clue words that help them to count. Example When biting their victims, they stab (3) tubes into the skin. One tube injects an enzyme to prevent blood from clotting while the other sucks the victims (4) into the mosquitoes bodies.
Tips for Pupils When Tackling Comprehension Cloze Do not fill in the blanks immediately Read the whole text once to understand the gist of text Look out for clues in the text (e.g. backward and forward referencing there is information for the answer in the whole text.) If they are stuck on a particular question, they should skip it and continue reading
Comprehension Open-ended It is challenging because it involves: Literal comprehension (questions related to who, what, where, when) Inferential comprehension info from the text and prior knowledge/experience (questions related to why, what if, how) Evaluative comprehension info from the text, prior knowledge, reasoning for choice (pupils opinions)
Landing a movie part in Hollywood is a big dream for many. It is an exciting event involving chauffeured cars and teams of hair, makeup and wardrobe professionals fussing and fixing. The lights go on, camera starts rolling and all the action is focussed on you. Movie-star treatment spoils some people but it can also be the most uplifting and rewarding experience of a lifetime. Q. List two movie-star treatment (line 6) that can happen when you play in a Hollywood movie part? [2m] (Literal Q.)
Sequencing Item Krystal rehearsed her scene a few times the night before. Krystal confidently read her lines during the audition. Krystal s family helped her to memorise her lines.
Learning all her lines was a great challenge for Krystal, so her family pitched in to help. Her father coached her for the scenes, amusing her with his silly imitations of the other characters. He also tried to calm her down and gave her encouragement whenever she felt stressed. Krystal was determined to overcome her limitation and portray her roles well. Q. What was Krystal s limitation (line 8)? [2m] (Inferential Q.)
Krystal s parents recounted that when Krystal was born, doctors said she might not learn to walk, let alone get out of diapers or feed herself. However, through this experience, they realised that doctors do not always know best. People with Down s syndrome are able to do more than anyone imagined, and that dreams are worth dreaming after all. Q. Do you think it was challenging for Krystal s parents to take care of her when she was young? Support your answer with information from the passage. (Evaluative Q.)
Tips for Pupils When Tackling Comprehension Open-ended Skim through the questions before reading the passage to get an idea of what to look out for Highlight the question word (e.g. why, what, etc.) in each question Pay attention to the tense of the main verb in the question Remember that the questions follow the chronological order of the passage
Supporting Your Child at Home: Make English a Living Language Encourage your child to: LISTEN to it! READ it! Input SPEAK it! WRITE in it! Output
Encouraging Your Child to Read Reading: (Input) Is essential for academic success in any subject area Helps your child to build his/her vocabulary Develops awareness of sentence structures Develops ideas for good writing