Tackling Oral Examination (II)
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Gotta tackle that oral examination again at this time of the year? Here are more tips, sharings and of course… resources to share with all.
For 1st timers in this oral examination, the school teachers would have provided some practice sessions in class as well. Parents can also replicate the oral examination setting at home while preparing children for the oral examinations. For example, children are usually called in twos. One sitting in front of the teacher…
(ie. the one being tested) and another who will be next in line… sitting on another desk a slight distance away from where the teacher + the one tested are seated. Children who are next in line are given approximately 5 minutes to read through the passage silently. There are some who whisper out the passage as well. 
So, parents can allow for exam seating arrangement as above in the home while preparing for oral examinations. Two separate sitting areas, maybe one in living room area and after 5 minutes are up… move on to the dining area where the examiner mommy/daddy is. 
Children can be coached at home to make use of the 5 minutes given to practice silent reading (reading to themselves). Read with proper pronunciation and also to provide expression during the reading as much as possible. This helps to ease the anxiety when his/her turn comes next.
As there are 3 components to an oral examination…….
1. Passage Reading (Aloud)
2. Picture Conversation
3. Oral Conversation (Based on a topic given by the teacher)
…… next comes the picture conversation preparations. Parents can also help children prepare for this using resources from newspapers, oral practice books available from bookstores and also from books. Pssst… will share a few later on.
Coach children to look at any picture given very carefully… for me, i usually ask my girls to scan the picture from top left going clock-wise so as not to miss out details. Some children look everywhere and all over the place the minute they are presented a picture. 
Somehow, this will entail in messy details when the child starts the picture conversation.
Children are to think of as many things they want to talk about with reference to the picture given. The more ideas the better. As for the nature of the sentence construction, there have been teacher-friends who allow the sentences to begin with, "I can see…" while others may find it unnecessary as IT IS a picture and YES, WE DO SEE IT.. lolz… so i usually check with my girls how their teacher coached them in class. The teacher-friends who do not practise the "I can see…" sentence starter once shared she deduct marks for when a student repeatedly says that.
When the 5 minutes time frame is over, parent(s) are to prompt the child to come over to the examiner’s table be it at the dining area or a fixed desk for the "live" practice session. Before the child is seated, remind the child to greet the examiner. A smile is definitely extra! Just a simple good morning or good afternoon will suffice. As the teacher/examiner may sometimes still be doing some inputs based on the last child that has finished the exam, children should only start when the teacher says "You may begin…" to ensure that the teacher is indeed ready to commence the oral exam.
Here are some resources to share!
1. English Oral & Listening Comprehension Primary 1 by Geetha Menon B.A, P.G.D.E
By Educational Publishing House P/L [ SGD $12.00 ]
Content :
> Oral passages for reading aloud
> Picture conversation with notes and samples
> Listening comprehension worksheets
The main book
Pupil’s Worksheets
An audio CD accompaniment
(In case ya think you cannot do/read Queen’s English)
The voice provides the step by step guide to what the children
have to do for the different sections in the pupil’s worksheets.
It will read out all the instructions ala dictation, complete with
a bell sound upon finishing every section. 
Fancy a peek inside? Here… some sample pages…
8 oral passage pages
8 picture conversation sets
Listening Comprehension Practice (Section A) ala cloze passage.
Listening Comprehension Practice (Guide for teachers/parents)
Picture Matching Activities
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More resources coming up! To be continued… 
Thanks for sharing :)
Thanks for sharing 🙂
tks for sharing
tks for sharing
Careful
My son is going to primary two next year, he has alot of careless mistake. Can teach me how help him?
Advance prepz
Quote Fabrizio, "I would like to know how to coach a P5 boy as my boy seems not toblisten to us and ready for his exam preparation which is starting soon week after next."
As with any preparations… it needs to be done much earlier. If the boy isn’t exactly receptive, all the more so that any preparations need to be carried out in advance.
Never listen
Quote duriz, "Thank you for sharing Mummy buds."
You are welcome, duriz.. Ehh.. being an-ex teacher yerself, i’m sure you have many tips up yer sleeves as well!
Quote duriz, "This reminded me of when DH at for his orals (teacher-training) and failed miserably. He’s return home to admit to me that he’d not listend to the instructions carefully, and that men, especially himself are not good listerners."
Home-based
Quote FELYN, "Is there any centre teaching Oral Only"
I’m not sure abt commercial centres offering just oral programmes on its own.
However, home-based coaches for reading & phonics may be able to cater to individualised cases. I had one P4 boy (Chinese speaking), and other foreign students coming in to learn phonics, reading and grammar with me and i factor in the oral skills as well for they are not naturally conversant in English and find it hard to even pass. So far the school teachers have asked the parents how the students manage to ace them. It’s a lot of work and also commitment from the parents. Thankfully the parents of the students i take in are usually the pro-active ones and are earnestly trying their all to help their children. That really helps.. cos they revise with their children at home and even ask for more resources on how to help interest their children to make it through. Parental support really helps.
Oral Classes
Is there any centre teaching Oral Only
Depends on the school...
Quote, nonKiasu, "Oh mine, I don’t even know P1 has oral exam!!! Is it only once, at the end of the year?"
Depends on the school, nonKiasu. My younger daughter only had Show & Tell + Written Expression test for mid-year’s formative assessment, instead of SA1. But she has to sit for the exam proper now… SA2. So, for her it is only once for P1.
My elder daughter had to do it twice; for during her time.. she had to sit for SA1 and SA2.
The schools will usually inform parents accordingly with regards to their exam structure come P1 parents’ briefing day. Exam content may or may not be discussed. In my girls’ school the content was briefed to parents on Day 1, while the children were adjusting to their P1 routine and buddies.
"Buds, thanks for sharing. It certainly will help me and my DSs when they are in P1 next yr."
Glad it will be useful to you.
Popular
Quote, kids_r_innocent, "Thks for sharing, buds!! May i ask where can we get the above book you have mentioned? TIA!!!"
You’re welcome, kids_r_innocent!
Should be able to get it from Popular. Entire set costs $12+ i think… forgot already. Bought it so long ago.
Its just my "Â tough"
Its just my " tough" luck.. DS1 sat for PSLE 2009. DS2 will be sitting for his PSLE 2011.
Thank you very much
Just tell him that PSLE
Just tell him that PSLE 2009 was tuff, 2010 was easy hence he can expect 2011 PSLE to be tuff so no choice but to study harder . If he can work hard now, he can be more relaxed next year as he would by then definitely used to the tuff routine!!! ANd of course if he can score more marks this year, he can even apply for DSA ….& of course, all the more RELAXED fr Prelims next year!
Preparations
Quote jiyou2003, "DS oral is this Thru n Fri. Just read yr articles. A very good reference for parents like me who just leave it to school."
Thank you, jiyou2003. KiasuParents is a great platform for parents to share experiences. I have learnt a lot from other parents who share & contribute priceless information as well.
Quote jiyou2003, "I dont think I would rush to bookstore to buy it now as I will be over stressed by it. Then I will stress DS. He is already very very soft spoken when come to oral and show n tell session (feedback fm teacher). Normally his picture compension are unstructure. I pray hard he will pass this oral exam."
My DD1 used to be a very shy & quiet girl. I approached home practices in a different manner with her knowing her personality as such… more introverted and extremely sensitive. Hence, i worked the other way round with her. I’ve bought the resources for awhile but placed it aside where she could see them. Hehee.. I just read it to myself as and when she was around. She sat beside me to listen to what i was reading. Slowly, she interjected while i was reading and whaddya know? We eventually read together.That’s for the oral passage part.
For the picture conversation part, i pretended i was struggling to say what i was thinking. I asked her whether she could help me out and whether her teacher has shown her how to work the picture conversation part yet. I already knew that the teacher has covered class practices.
She then shared with me the picture she had to talk about in school and what her teacher advised the students to say during practices. In a way, i got HER to play "teacher" for me… i got her to test me when i was seemingly attempting to try out the picture conversation myself. After a couple of times, we exchanged roles and i got to play teacher as well and that was the time i "injected" my own tips for her. (ie. the clockwise scanning order so as not to miss out any details..)
She is no longer shy now and aces the oral examinations most of the time. We even have our own personal notes for our practices. After her recent oral examinations, 2 weeks ago, she came back extremely confident! She said, "Mum! You wouldn’t believe this! Today, i got the same picture… yes, exactly the same picture that you and i have been practising at home!"
Well… lucky her then, yah?
For me, it’s not so much about stressing my girls… but preparing for those unnecessary jitters
(In our house, we call them giant butterflies in the stomach.. hahahaa!) that may cause them to be caught dumbfounded. 
Oral exam is a good area to help push up the overall English paper scores if we do think about it.. No written form unlike formal paper exams. Nothing to study. Just adequate prepz will suffice..
Teachers offer better scores to children who can manage oral exams without much prompting.
How to teach a P5 to study now?
I would like to know how to coach a P5 boy as my boy seems not toblisten to us and ready for his exam preparation which is starting soon week after next.
Oh mine, I don't even know
Oh mine, I don’t even know P1 has oral exam!!! Is it only once, at the end of the year?
Buds, thanks for sharing. It certainly will help me and my DSs when they are in P1 next yr.
Thank you for sharing Mummy
Thank you for sharing Mummy buds.
This reminded me of when DH sat for his orals (teacher-training) and failed miserably. He’s return home to admit to me that he’d not listend to the instructions carefully, and that men, especially himself are not good listerners.
Thks for sharing, buds!!
Thks for sharing, buds!!
May i ask where can we get the above book you have mentioned?
TIA!!!
Oral Examination
DS oral is this Thru n Fri. Just read yr articles. A very good reference for parents like me who just leave it to school.
I dont think I would rush to bookstore to buy it now as I will be over stressed by it. Then I will stress DS. He is already very very soft spoken when come to oral and show n tell session (feedback fm teacher). Normally his picture compension are unstructure. I pray hard he will pass this oral exam.