Materials Writing
Aims:
The materials aim to cover some of the MoE’s (Ministry of Education) learning outcomes such as familiarity and correct use of parts of speech, syllables etc.
Poetry is a Ministry curriculum genre to be used both for passive analysis as well as a productive skill and teachers shy away from it for many reasons, which I will deal with later.
Evans (2001) proposes poetry as a good medium for teaching creative writing, something parents and the MoE want but schools find hard to teach.
The nature of the materials encourages group learning whereby students will think for themselves, share and can use other people’s ideas and language in their own writing. I hope to foster collaborative learning and thus expand their vocabulary, which will have a positive spillover into their production of other text types as well as their spoken language.
Group Profile:
My chosen level is Primary 4 (10 year olds) who will sit their PSLE (Primary School Leaving Exam) in 2015. The exam is compulsory for 12 year olds and they will be the first cohort to sit the new style exam, recently modified by the MoE. Singapore has a meritocracy based education system and although students put down Secondary school preferences, places are awarded based on PSLE scores.
There are a wide variety of levels within a class, students are streamed by age not ability. This can lead to dissatisfaction from both higher-level students who feel they’re being held back whilst the lower level ones feel intimidated.
Singapore Education and Expectations:
Gopinathan and Pakir (1994) describe how Singapore is the only non-native speaker country to have adopted English as its working language. Pakir goes on to note that many teachers take pride in using their own indigenous version of English and will use and (mis)correct language that would not be understood outside of Singapore.
MoE teachers find English teaching difficult as students come from a variety of language and cultural
The materials aim to cover some of the MoE’s (Ministry of Education) learning outcomes such as familiarity and correct use of parts of speech, syllables etc.
Poetry is a Ministry curriculum genre to be used both for passive analysis as well as a productive skill and teachers shy away from it for many reasons, which I will deal with later.
Evans (2001) proposes poetry as a good medium for teaching creative writing, something parents and the MoE want but schools find hard to teach.
The nature of the materials encourages group learning whereby students will think for themselves, share and can use other people’s ideas and language in their own writing. I hope to foster collaborative learning and thus expand their vocabulary, which will have a positive spillover into their production of other text types as well as their spoken language.
Group Profile:
My chosen level is Primary 4 (10 year olds) who will sit their PSLE (Primary School Leaving Exam) in 2015. The exam is compulsory for 12 year olds and they will be the first cohort to sit the new style exam, recently modified by the MoE. Singapore has a meritocracy based education system and although students put down Secondary school preferences, places are awarded based on PSLE scores.
There are a wide variety of levels within a class, students are streamed by age not ability. This can lead to dissatisfaction from both higher-level students who feel they’re being held back whilst the lower level ones feel intimidated.
Singapore Education and Expectations:
Gopinathan and Pakir (1994) describe how Singapore is the only non-native speaker country to have adopted English as its working language. Pakir goes on to note that many teachers take pride in using their own indigenous version of English and will use and (mis)correct language that would not be understood outside of Singapore.
MoE teachers find English teaching difficult as students come from a variety of language and cultural
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