Experience Sharing
St Peter’s journey
27 November, 2007
S.K.H. St. Peter’s Primary School &
School Based Curriculum Development (Primary) Section, EDB
1
Challenges to our students in reading
nowadays
• Questions that require them to read into details
• Questions that require them to look for main ideas
by drawing information from several places in the
text
• Questions that require them to analyse
• Questions that ask about intentions, attitudes,
feelings
• Questions that require them to think ….
2
Building language skills in our daily learning and
teaching schedule
3
A comprehensive idea of book concept ~
Locating information
provided on the book
cover, on the spine or
blurb, index and
glossary.
4
A comprehensive idea of book concept ~
Locate information
provided on the book
cover, on the spine or
blurb, index and
glossary.
5
Working out unfamiliar words ~
Predicting speakers’ feelings and intentions ~
“… the rat to nibble with her sharp front teeth.” (paragraph 2, p.4) To nibble
means …
A.
to hold the food.
B.
to play with the food.
C.
to take the whole piece of food at a time quickly.
D.
to eat the food with small bites.
What is the meaning of ‘as usual’ in the sentence ‘Mum is happy as usual.’ on P1?
A before
B after
C always
D now
On P4, Grandma says, ‘What a mess!’ Do you think she is happy?
A yes
B no
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Locating information and ideas from a biography
Complete the fact file based on the biography in Part C.
Real name: _________________________
Pen name:
_________________________
Job: _____________
Age: ___________________
Place of birth:
_______________
Important times / events / achievements:
_____________: born in England
Childhood:
studied in _____________________________;
wrote her first story about ______________;
liked _____ing
At her 20’s:
studied in ___________________________________
First book:
name--“___________________________________”;
about a boy studying in
_____________________
____________________________________________;
image of this boy appears in her mind when
she was travelling on a ___________;
1994:
wrote her book in a _______________;
later published by _______________________;
1997:
won her the first award: ______________________
____________________________________________;
1998:
____________________ began to make the
Harry Potter books into films
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Locating information and ideas from a story
Character Snapshots
What characters are in your story? Use this character snapshot table to help you describe
the characters.
Characters
Appearance/
Personality
What happened to them?
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Teach them the way to read …
•Train them the ways to work out the meaning of unfamiliar
words or expressions by using contextual clues or pictorial cues.
•Most importantly, they need to have the right attitude
when dealing with this kind of questions
•Get students think more during class time
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Skimming and Scanning Techniques
Skim a text to get the gist and main idea.
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Skimming and Scanning Techniques
Scan for specific information.11
Reading exposure
– Balance intensive and extensive reading
 Are the text types well covered in each modules, at
each Key Stages, throughout the whole year?
 Do your student benefit from the extensive reading
scheme? Is there room for improvement especially
when it comes to monitoring the practice
 Have they been reminded that reading can be done any
time and anywhere? (Look at the signs around us, look
at the advertisement on the street, look at the bar of
chocolate you are eating, etc)
12
Delivery of those language skills during lessons
How reading
skills are taught
to students
13
Catering for learner differences
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Cater for Learner Differences
– Different sets of materials
Creative writer booklet for more
Creative writer booklet for
able students—with an
the majority of students
additional page for each topic
15
Cater for Learner Differences
– Help cards given to students
• Hints provided to facilitate the speaking
activities
16
Cater for Learner Differences
– Bilingual notes to parents
• Help explain the school’s English language
policies to parents and solicit their support
17
Cater for Learner Differences
– Split classes to form an additional English class
• Small group learning for slow learners
18
Challenges to our students in writing
nowadays
lack of elaboration
short of ideas
lack of variety or creative expression in guided writing
limited vocabulary
inappropriate diction (choice of words)
syntactical problems (not enough understanding of what a sentence is)
Sometimes, direct translation from Chinese to English
e.g. I can do your friend. The lion wants to eat the mouse.
The mouse is afraid. The mouse is lion friends now.
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Integrating Writing Strategies into the
Curriculum
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I’m a creative writer!
Topic
Theme
Genre
Target structure
Someone I like
People and
family
description
Present tense,
adjectives of characters
School picnic
School life
narration
Past tense, verb forms
Christmas
festivals
narration
Past tense
My feelings before
examinations
Feelings, school
life
expressive,
explanatory
Adjectives of feelings,
futurity
How I use my
lucky money
Daily life,
festivals
expository,
imaginative
Quantifiers, adjectives
My favourite
sport
hobbies
description
Present tense,
preferences, reasons
A riddle
riddle
expository,
informal
Adjectives, body parts,
questions
My plans for the
future
plan
expository
Futurity, predictions 21
I’m a creative writer!
22
I’m a creative writer!
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Quality Marking
• Use different marking methods and subject-specific
marking criteria in line with the focuses and
emphases within the learning targets set for the
assessment tasks
• Do NOT confine marking to ticks, crosses, marks and
grades
(A tick marked with the word 'good' only does NOT tell
the student why the work is good or what criteria it fulfils)
• Try to provide explanatory comments
(which are timely and concise and inform students about
why something is good or less good)
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Quality Marking
• Agree guiding principles among panel teachers as to
the methods, frequency and amount of assessment and
ways for marking based on professional judgment
• Detailed marking is desirable but schools cannot expect
teachers to mark every single piece of student work in a
detailed way, nor is it necessary for them to do so in view
of their manageability and workload
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Make a biography using a can.
This time you will try to write not on a piece of paper, but on a can! Think of a
famous you like. Write a biography for him or her.
Instructions:
1.Find a can of soft drinks.
2.Enjoy the drink.
3.Wash the can and let it dry.
Cut long slices of drawing paper.
1.Join the slices together with tape.
2.Stick the end of the slice to the can.
3.Roll the paper on the can.
4.Write on the can with colour pens.
5.Print photos or draw pictures of the famous person. Stick them onto the paper.
6.Show the can to your friends and read your biography to them.
Peer editing: Help your partner to check the followings
Language
Organization
Correct use of tenses
Past Tense

Make sure the writing:
1.iswill
arranged
according
to the
of the
Your scroll
be marked
based
on order
the following
criteria:
events

Connectives
2.includes important events  Organization /20
Correct use of
3.includes
Ending Statement
to comment
Content
/50
First”, “Then”, “Next”, “After that” and “Finally”
the person


Language /20
Style
/10
Total
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/100
Setting up a common marking criteria
Score
Very Competent
Competent
Fairly Competent
Needs more Effort
Content
Language
Organisation
Punctuation
45 – 50
-Provides relevant information
and interesting ideas
-The overall meaning is clear
16 – 20
-Ideas are communicated clearly and
coherently, with few errors in vocabulary,
grammar or spelling
-Uses a good range of vocabulary and
sentence structures
16 – 20
-Ideas are clearly and logically organized
-Includes
a.arranged according to the order of the
events
b.important events
c.comment of the person
8 – 10
-Few errors in using
punctuation marks
-Few errors in capital letters
30 – 44
-Provides some relevant
information
-Some effort is required to
understand the overall meaning
8 – 15
-Ideas are communicated clearly, with
some errors in vocabulary, grammar or
spelling
-Uses a reasonable range of vocabulary
and sentence structures
8 – 15
-Ideas are generally clearly and logically
organized
-Includes any 2 of the followings:
a.arranged according to the order of the
events
b.important events
c.comment of the person
4–7
-Some errors in using
punctuation marks
-Some errors in capital letters
15 – 29
-Provides mostly irrelevant
information but makes some
attempt to write
-The overall meaning can be
understood but with
considerable difficulty
2–7
-Ideas are ineffectively communicated,
with frequent errors in vocabulary,
grammar or spelling
-Uses a limited range of vocabulary and
sentence structures
2–7
-Ideas are not clearly and logically
organized, thus impeding comprehension
-Includes 1 of the followings
a.arranged according to the order of the
events
b.important events
c.comment of the person
1–3
-Frequent errors in using
punctuation marks
-Frequent errors in capital
letters
0 – 14
-Provides totally irrelevant
information or makes no
attempt to write
-The meaning is unintelligible
0–1
-Comprehension is seriously impeded by
constant and significant errors in
vocabulary, grammar or spelling
-Uses a very limited range of vocabulary
and sentence structures
0–1
-Ideas are muddles and incomprehensible
-Doesn’t include any of the followings
a.arranged according to the order of the
events
b.important events
c.comment of the person
0
-Significant errors in using
punctuation marks
-Significant errors in capitals
Detailed
descriptors
Target
structures are
expected
Comments
can be derived
from this
Marks awarded
according to the
spectrum fallen27in
Teacher feedback to students
28
Teacher intervention and student response at the
brainstorming stage
29
More feedback samples from other schools
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Connecting Formative Assessment and
Feedback with Learning
•
Involve students in self-assessment (selfchecking, peer feedback)
•
Help students to know themselves and the
standards they should attain (show them both
good and bad examples)
•
Celebrate achievement, enhance motivation,
build self-esteem
31
How do you organise the writing in the
curriculum?
– Have students got adequate inputs in the
module?
– Do these inputs help to build up their
productive skills?
– Are they provided with an authentic context to
write?
– Is time being given to them to enjoy the
writing process ?
– Are constructive feedbacks provided at
different stages of writing?
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From 2003 - what are we up to now?
While realizing the objectives suggested in the English
language curriculum guide, we help students get
prepared for standards required in TSA
While enhancing students’ language skills and generic
skills in the modules, we bear in mind that meeting
Basic Competency Descriptors is important.
While implementing reading workshops, we train
more able students to read high order thinking
questions and support the struggling ones with
achievable tasks
While designing writing tasks for students, we keep in mind that
our students nowadays need more exposure to different text types
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In face of the rapidly developing media world.
You’re welcomed to contact us:
Dr Ernest TSE
21584930
Ms Jeanda FUNG
21584924
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