There and Back Again

The school term is ending and my son has received all his test results. You might have noticed that I said test and not examinations. Primary One students sit for tests that are spread out over the entire semester, and I guess this is the school's way of not stressing these young kids.  Overall, I cannot complain too much about his results. They are quite alright. I have to emphasise (especially to my dear wife) that having a great Primary One result does not mean anything. No teacher will ask for his Primary One results and no employer will ask for his Primary One progress card. My wife is in contact with some mothers who are ridiculously "kiasu". They will discretely ask around for test results. One of them was even checking if her son scored well for a health and physical fitness MCQ test in comparison with other students! Seriously. Anyway, back to my son's results. I am happy with his results, but I think he lacks basic examination skills. He is very car...

I thought hard about whether to include this in the blog - it is, after all, a negative reflection on my son. Do I want this memory to be recorded down for prosperity? After some thinking, I decided to include it, but I will not emphasise this entry in social media. If you are reading this, it means you are probably somebody who reads my blog quite often! Last week was my son's Math Amodes (which stands for alternate mode of assessment). To me, an alternate mode of assessment is something non-traditional, like project work, presentation, scrapbook, etc. But in Catholic High, it is still a pen and paper test - not very alternative is it?. It is like calling Madonna an alternative singer. But, anyway. My wife spent some time helping my son prepare for it. She went through the Math files and even got an assessment book so that he can have more practice. By the time he sat for the test, he was very ready for it. As usual, I was waiting for him along the corridor when I saw him cr...

Cover Page of STELLAR Unit 6. STELLAR stands for Strategies for English Language Learning and Reading. The programme is designed specifically for Singapore children by Singapore teachers. It was rolled out in 2006 and after nine years, all the primary schools use for all levels. STELLAR is an instructional programme and not a syllabus, and therefore it offers materials and strategies rather than an outline of teaching outcomes. As a result, some parents complain that it seems unstructured. However, from what I can see, there is a certainly a pattern that only an experienced teacher can detect. There are elements of explicit grammar instruction (like the lessons taught traditionally). But wrapped around these basics are stories that interest the kids instead of the boring old textbooks during our time. How does STELLAR work? I will focus on STELLAR at the lower primary levels since that is where my son is studying. There are three stages - Shared Book Approach (SBA), Modi...

In my previous post about spelling woes , I talked about the three components of successful spelling - knowledge of phonemes & phonics, knowledge of spelling rules and memorisation & practice. This is a follow-up post in which I am going to introduce strategies for helping children spell. These set of strategies is actually based on Webb's Depth of Knowledge . The basic premise is that different activities are of different cognitive complexity. And the higher the cognitive complexity, the more likely the knowledge gets retained in long-term memory. It's actually very logical when you think about it. Who is going to understand or memorise a piece of information or concept better - one who has just read and understood it or one who has understood it and is able to rephrase and teach it to another person? Obviously the latter, who clearly has performed a task that is cognitively more complex. Enough of theory, let me give you practical advice! These activities are ...

I do not want to keep this blog limited to English, but to talk about my experience with educating my son in the various subjects he takes in school. One of the subjects he takes is of course, Chinese Language, being a Singaporean of Chinese origin. Because we seldom spoke to him in Mandarin when he was young, his Chinese Language is not very strong. Not to mention, he was a late speaker and we boosted his speaking with quite a bit of Speech Therapy, which is English based. As a result, he spoke Mandarin with a western accent. We send him to Berries for enrichment and it helped him quite a bit. His childcare probably did as well. Besieged by all sides However, there was something about his childcare's Chinese Language programme that I thought did not make sense. One of the things that did not make sense to me was the choice of idioms. The idioms the school chose to teach was very historical in nature - in other words, they were formed because of some historical event in Anc...

Some parents dislike their children using a smartphone or a tablet. They think that their children are spoiling their eyes, or wasting their time inside the house rather than going doing outdoor play. While their concerns are valid, I do believe that technology can play a part in our children's education. Technology, in moderation, and especially guided by an adult can be very useful in helping our children learn. Voice Changer There are two apps I found quite useful in helping my son spell. One of them is called Voice Changer.  What you can do with it is to ask your child to spell the word and record it using the app. Once it has been saved, your child can press the icons to modify his voice. Your child can make himself sound like a mouse, a ghost, with helium and so on. It is definitely lots of fun to experiment with all the different voices! The constant listening to the audio recording of the word being spelt in a fun way really helps him to remember the word. You can use...

In the middle of this year, my son's childcare started to give him spelling. To be honest, I have never given any spelling test to my students. Apparently, secondary school students do not need any spelling help. My own experience of spelling is... Well, it has been such a long time, I cannot remember it anymore. I suspect, though, that it involved canning when I did not achieve a satisfactory grade. Needless to say, I was not every sure how to teach my son spelling. I poured through pages and pages of research. To my surprise, spelling was not as simple as I thought it was. I always thought that I could spell because of my frequent usage of English (the less frequent I used a word, the harder it was for me to spell it). However, it was also apparent that I subconsciously used phonics when spelling less familiar words. I also recalled some basic spelling rules that had been buried deep inside my brain while doing my reading. In other words, spelling is not only the matter of me...