The English Language (EL) Department aims to instil the Joy of Learning by providing the students with instruction that both guides them to a high level of success and allows them a large degree of autonomy to shape their own learning. Our communicative teaching approach empowers students with the skills and knowledge needed to use language in real and authentic tasks and prioritizes personal growth over targets. We also promote group interaction and collaboration (either online or in classroom projects) as we believe that learning is not simply a process that students experience individually, but rather a journey to which all of their peers contribute and steer each other to success. Group collaboration boosts students’ self-esteem and helps them to experience joy and satisfaction in their learning. Through this multi-faceted approach, the students are provided with key skills to help them strive towards their language goals.
P1 English
In Semester 1, P1 students start off the year by exploring a range of Adventure Stories written by the renowned New Zealand author, Joy Cowley. Through the class reading time, students get to bond with each other as well as delve into a world of fantasy and adventure.
P2 English
As part of a unit on imaginative narratives, P2 students enjoy reading a large selection of Leo Lionni stories. Students share their favourite stories and write their own Leo Lionni-inspired narrative.
CURRICULUM
The English Language curriculum aims to nurture our students to develop skills to become:
- Empathetic Communicators who can listen actively to different points of view and communicate effectively and confidently with the wider international community
- Discerning Readers who are able to process and evaluate information and respond critically according to audience, context and purpose
- Creative Inquirers who can explore diverse print and digital sources to co-create knowledge and solutions.
In line with these goals, our English Language Department offers a unique stepped curriculum that combines elements of the Singapore National Curriculum in the lower year groups with a Language Arts curriculum in the upper years of primary. Students in Primary 1 to 4 concentrate on developing the key language skills of speaking, listening, reading and writing using a modified version of Singapore’s STELLAR (STrategies for English Language Learning and Reading) programme. From P5 onwards the focus of the curriculum shifts towards the application of language for different purposes and audiences therefore creating a smooth transition to the iGCSE program taught in our secondary section. This blended staging of the curriculum ensures that the students become proficient in the language in the lower years so that they are able to confidently apply language for a range of audiences and purposes in the upper years.
P3 English
In Semester 1, P3 students extend their understanding of Author’s Purpose by learning about Information Reports. They use mentor texts such as the Goliath Beetles book (pictured) to study the key features of Information Texts and then write up their own Information Text about an endangered animal. .
P4 English
In P4, students extend their knowledge of non-fiction texts by studying the purposes and features of explanatory texts. Students learn to answer the “how” and “why” questions by studying sequential texts as well as texts explaining cause and effect. They wrap up the unit by writing their own explanatory text about a topic of their choice.
PEDAGOGY
A communicative teaching approach is used in all year groups. This approach allows students the opportunity to interact with their peers and teachers and to experience authentic language in all four major skills. First, students familiarise themselves with multiple examples of correct language use before moving onto adopting the new language themselves. It is our view that students learn by using language, not by remembering language. Accordingly, our teachers make use of rubrics and one-on-one consultations to offer students the opportunity to actively develop the language they use and provide them with a comprehensive “road-map” to success.
ASSESSMENT
EL Assessment takes on different forms depending on the year group. Students in P1-P3 are assessed formatively and teachers build a portfolio of each individual child’s learning throughout the year. This portfolio is then used to give formative feedback in the form of performance descriptors and acts as a celebration of one’s learning. P4-P6 students sit both class-based assessed tasks as well as an end-of-year examination. In all year groups, we use a wide variety of assessed tasks to report on student performance to offer the students multiple ways to demonstrate their learning.
P5 English
As part of a unit on Writer’s Style, P5 students explore popular novels from various well-known authors in order to build a wide awareness of the stylistic devices that authors use. By learning about such stylistic devices students are better able to strengthen their own narrative writing skills.
P6 English
In Unit 1, Primary 6 students are required to write a narrative based on a given theme. They do this by following the different stages of the “writing process”. First of all, students study mentor texts based on the theme and then collaboratively create a story mountain for that theme. After writing a first draft, students participate in writing workshops that allow the students to experiment with different beginnings and endings for their stories and to develop better descriptive details so that they can improve their stories. This leads to the editing stage of the process. Finally, students proofread and publish the finalized versions of their stories.
In Semester 1, P6 students take on the novel study of Linda Sue Park’s wartime novel “When My Name Was Keoko”. This riveting read introduces the students to different perspectives as the book is written from both the perspective of a sister and brother who are living under Japanese occupation during World War II. Not only does it develop literary skills as such but it also helps to reinforce the importance of one’s identity as students start to think about bigger questions such as “What is it that makes me, me?”