I have received an email and some notes from parents enquirng about the upcoming SA 1 examination.
I can truly understand the parents' concern and anxiety because, afterall, this may be the first time the parents are dealing with children sitting for the Primary 1 SA1. I can ensure you that I will try my utmost best to prepare all the children for the paper. Thank you very much for all your enquiry regarding the SA1. Please allow me to use this platform to address some of the parents' enquiry regarding the SA 1.
1) When would all the English worksheets be returned for revision?
I will be returning the children all their English Worksheets done in Term 1 by next week. Please ensure that the worksheets are well kept at home so that the children can revise their work before their examination. The rest of the worksheets done in Term 2 are filed in their English files and will be returned to the children about 1.5 weeks prior to the English examination. The children's Term 1 worksheets were actually filed inside their English files too and I was actually quite hesitant to allow the children to take them out from their files and bring them home because I was afraid that some of the children will lose the worksheets or their maids or parents might throw them away, thinking that the Term 1 worksheets are not needed anymore. Such incidents did happen in the past. To prevent such matter from happening, I will write a note for the parents to inform them not to discard the worksheets.
2) How should the parents prepare their children for their composition writing. Will you be able to share with us the SA1 requirements?
Till now, the class has done three pieces of compositions - My Favourite Farm Animal, My Favourite Vehicle, At the Canteen and At the Zoo. The children will be doing 1 more piece of writing before their Paper 1 (Composition component). For composition, the children are given a picture with some helping words and they are supposed to write about the picture. I have taught the children to write using past tense. They did their previous composition pretty well. The children will bring their compositions home next week too, to let the parents have an idea of what is required in their composition examination.
Here's a sample of their last composition, 'At the Canteen'.
Ring! It was recess time. The children went to the canteen to buy their food. They queued up in an orderly manner. Tom wanted to buy his favourite chicken rice. I bought a bowl of noodles for myself. After eating, we put our plates and bowls into the pail. We helped to keep our canteen clean.
3) How should the parents guide their children in grammar as there is no specific structure or textbook under the STELLAR programme. Will it be sufficient to base on the blue coloured STELLAR scope & sequence?
The STELLAR scope and sequence is a good guide for parents to know what are the grammar items the children will learn or have learnt in their English lessons. We follow the STELLAR scope and sequence strictly. Past tense is one of the grammar items that the children have learnt. The children have quite a good amount of grammar practice in their STELLAR worksheets. The examination questions are set based on the scope and sequence.
In their daily practice, I have taught the children to use their colour pencils to mark out the clues / key words which can help them to derive the correct answer.
For example,
Yesterday, my parents and I ___________ to the market to buy some fish.
1. go
2. goes
3. went
4. are going ( )
The correct answer is (3)went. If the children have marked out the clue/key word 'yesterday', they will know that the sentence is in past tense, hence they would have gotten the correct answer.
They children have been marking out the clue/keywords conscientiously in their worksheet practices. I hope that they will do likewise during their examinations.
4) For SA1 spelling, when will the list of words be given? Also, is the pupil expected to know all the spelling words from the beginning of the year until now?
The list of words will most likely be given out 2-3 weeks before the examination. Right now, the list is still under vetting. Our school will usually vet through the examination papers for a few rounds before they are being finalised. This is to ensure that the exam questions given to the children are fair, valid and reliable. We also hope to achieve zero human / typo error through various rounds of vetting. For the SA1 spelling, the children are given a list of 30 familiar words, out of which, only 15 words will be tested. Though it is not an absolute requirement, it will be to the advantage of the child if he/she knows all the spelling words from the beginning of the year until now. There will not be any dictation for SA1.
5) For sound discrimination, picture-matching, recalling details & making inferences and spelling, may we know definition and scope for these? Are there any reference materials or classwork we can refer to?
I know that these terms sounded very profound and difficult. However, I can ensure you that they are not at all foreign to or difficult for the children. In fact, the Listening Comprehension is one of the components that most the children will do well in. Let me explain these terms in detail.
Sound discrimination refers to phonics. Here're some examples to further explain.
Example 1, the teacher will say, "Which word begins with the /gr/ sound?"
1. brush 2. grass 3. dress
The answer is 2. GRass.
Example 2, the teacher will say, "Which word ends with a /t/ sound?"
1. kick 2. doll 3. bat
The answer is 3. baT.
In picture-matching, the children need to listen to the teacher and match the sentence that the teacher has said to the correct picture in the paper.
For example, there are three pictures portraying :
1. Two boys flying kites.
2. A girl flying a kite.
3. A family flying kites.
The teacher says, "Peter and Ali are flying their kites in the park. Put a tick at the correct picture."
The correct answer would be, 1 because picture 1 matches with what the teacher has just read,
For Recalling details & making inferences, the teacher will read a short passage. The children must listen attentively as the passage is not printed on their exam papers.
For example, the teacher will read, "Last Wednesday, Mary and Jane went to the school library to borrow books. They borrowed fours books althogether. Two of the books are Chinese comics."
On the children's exam papers, only the questions are printed. After listening to the passage, the children will answer the questions based on what they have heard and remembered.
1. Where did Mary and Jane go on last Wednesday? They went to the ____________.
a. swimming pool
b. library
c. bookshop ( )
2. How many Chinese books did the two girls borrow? They borrowed _______ books.
a. two
b. four
3. six ( )
For Spelling, it will be in the same sentence format as their weekly spelling practice. The children will be given a list of 30 words but only 15 will be tested. There will not be any dictation for SA1.
The children has purchased a Listening Comprehension book in the beginning of the year. They have been getting their listening comprehension practices. Hence, the components such as picture matching, sound discrimination are familiar to them, even though they may not know the actual terms.
Prior to the SA1 examination, the children will also be given a mock SA1 main paper and Listening Comprehension so as to let the children and parents have a glimpse of the format in the actual SA1 examination. We will prepare the children. Nothing will be a shock to them when they sit for the papers on the examination days.
Should you have anymore enquries, please feel free to email me or write me a note in your child's handbook.
