43 WRITING SKILLS CONTENT STANDARDS LEARNING STANDARDS NOTES YEAR 4 YEAR 5 Year 4 4.2 Communicate basic information intelligibly for a range of purposes in print and digital media Year 5 4.2 Communicate basic information intelligibly for a range of purposes in print and digital media 4.2.1 Explain and give reasons for simple opinions 4.2.1 Give detailed information about themselves MATERIALS / REFERENCES 1. Primary Years 4 and 5 Schemes of Work (SoW). 2. Get Smart Plus 4 and English Plus 1 textbooks. SUGGESTED DIFFERENTIATION STRATEGIES Differentiate learning according to the needs of your pupils and class. Please see the seven differentiation strategies listed in the SoW. Refer to Strategy 3: Differentiate by the outcome expected from pupils The teacher may expect more language from some pupils, and less from others. The main aim is that every pupil says or writes something, so that they feel successful. Two useful strategies here are:
44 CONTENT STANDARDS LEARNING STANDARDS NOTES YEAR 4 YEAR 5 A. Compulsory plus optional Here, the teacher sets pupils targets such as With your partner, write 2 sentences or more, or In your group, write 5 words or more. The minimum target (2 sentences, 5 words) is compulsory, and everyone needs to achieve this to be successful. But the ‘or more’ is optional, and gives a chance for more proficient language pupils to challenge themselves. Some pupils will stop at the minimum target at first, but with more practice, they will soon get the idea of going beyond the minimum target. B. Remember and share If pupils are asked to remember and share, they have to tell the teacher words or ideas they learned in a previous lesson or task (e.g. Look at the objects on my table. In one minute, I’ll cover them… Now, share with your group what you remember. Make a list together and then tell me). Sometimes, less proficient
45 CONTENT STANDARDS LEARNING STANDARDS NOTES YEAR 4 YEAR 5 pupils have good memories, so as well as different outcomes, this task also allows different pupils to make successful contributions to a group task. Pupils will need a lot of individual support in this lesson. It is important to work with both more and less proficient pupils to help them work to the best of their ability. Allow pairs to support each other as much as possible. Provide plenty of positive feedback and avoid too much marking of errors on pupils’ writing. Focus on recent target language when highlighting mistakes.
46 WRITING SKILLS CONTENT STANDARDS LEARNING STANDARDS NOTES YEAR 4 YEAR 5 Year 4 4.2 Communicate basic information intelligibly for a range of purposes in print and digital media Year 5 4.2 Communicate basic information intelligibly for a range of purposes in print and digital media 4.2.2 Make and respond to simple offers and invitations 4.2.2 Ask for, give and respond to simple advice MATERIALS / REFERENCES 1. Primary Years 4 and 5 Schemes of Work (SoW). 2. Get Smart Plus 4 and English Plus 1 textbooks. SUGGESTED DIFFERENTIATION STRATEGIES Differentiate learning according to the needs of your pupils and class. Please see the seven differentiation strategies listed in the SoW. Please also consider the following: Vary the support you give pupils when asking questions and giving feedback so that they can practise and develop their writing skills according to their level of proficiency. You can also ask different pupils for more/less detail or length. Before pupils practise offering or inviting each other to do things, in can be useful to teach them phrases like • “We’re…ing…” • “We’re planning to…”
47 CONTENT STANDARDS LEARNING STANDARDS NOTES YEAR 4 YEAR 5 • “We’re thinking about…” • “There is a…” • “Do you have any plans for…?” • “If you have time,…” • “If you are interested,…” Give pupils a list of places, activities, etc that might genuinely need to be explained if they make up part of an invitation, for instance places that only exist locally like “Night market”. The person being invited always asks the person inviting to explain what the thing involves (even if they really know what it is) before they respond. Pupils can then match the places to short English descriptions such as “a famous night market where you can buy a lot of things”. This is likely to be useful practice for that real situation, or it can be used to prepare them for visits interesting places in Malaysia or abroad. Have a worksheet ready where pupils work in pairs or groups to match problem sentences with advice sentences. Using images on the worksheet can make this task easier while leaving them off will make it more challenging. Using simple sentences and vocabulary the pupils know well, will ensure that the whole class can complete this activity with confidence.
48 CONTENT STANDARDS LEARNING STANDARDS NOTES YEAR 4 YEAR 5 While reviewing the answers, be sure to check pupils’ comprehension of all the sentences on the worksheet and any vocabulary they have difficulties with. Pupils can be encouraged to perform simple and fun role plays that match situations in which they make and respond to simple offers and invitations, ask for, give and respond to simple advice.
49 WRITING SKILLS CONTENT STANDARDS LEARNING STANDARDS NOTES YEAR 4 YEAR 5 Year 4 4.2 Communicate basic information intelligibly for a range of purposes in print and digital media Year 5 4.2 Communicate basic information intelligibly for a range of purposes in print and digital media 4.2.3 Describe basic everyday routines 4.2.3 Narrate factual events and experiences of interest MATERIALS / REFERENCES 1. Primary Years 4 and 5 Schemes of Work (SoW). 2. Get Smart Plus 4 and English Plus 1 textbooks. SUGGESTED DIFFERENTIATION STRATEGIES Differentiate learning according to the needs of your pupils and class. Please see the seven differentiation strategies listed in the SoW. Refer to Strategy 7: Differentiate by the feedback given Feedback given to pupils should be varied according to their ability to act on the feedback. For example, if a pupil who is less proficient at Writing has tried hard and produces work with a number of misspellings or grammatical mistakes, feedback can be given on what they did well, and only 2 or 3 common misspellings or mistakes highlighted. The pupil should respond to this feedback because the
50 CONTENT STANDARDS LEARNING STANDARDS NOTES YEAR 4 YEAR 5 suggested improvement is achievable for them. If a stronger pupil writes well and makes 2 mistakes, the teacher can tell them the lines in which the mistakes are, and perhaps the kind of mistakes they are, and ask them to find and correct them. The pupil should be able to respond to the extra challenge built in to this feedback. Suggested activities: Pupils practise using the present simple tense to write about daily routines and different times of the day. Pupils practise describing what they do on school days, play fun games and activities and take a class survey. For narrating factual events and experiences of interest, teacher can ask pupils to recall an event or experience shared by the class. In small groups, write each event or experience on a sentence strip, then have another group sequence the strips.
51 WRITING SKILLS CONTENT STANDARDS LEARNING STANDARDS NOTES YEAR 4 YEAR 5 Year 4 4.2 Communicate basic information intelligibly for a range of purposes in print and digital media Year 5 4.2 Communicate basic information intelligibly for a range of purposes in print and digital media 4.2.4 Describe people and objects using suitable statements 4.2.4 Describe people, places and objects using suitable statements MATERIALS / REFERENCES 1. Primary Years 4 and 5 Schemes of Work (SoW). 2. Get Smart Plus 4 and English Plus 1 textbooks. SUGGESTED DIFFERENTIATION STRATEGIES Differentiate learning according to the needs of your pupils and class. Please see the seven differentiation strategies listed in the SoW. Provide positive feedback about pupils’ writing and for less proficient pupils praise their effort and determination as well. Please also consider the following when describing people, places and objects using suitable statements : Sometimes, pupils will need to actually describe how objects look and taste and sound and smell, and not just imply those sensations. This exercise will help pupils focus their attention on observing sensations, and allow them to write about
52 CONTENT STANDARDS LEARNING STANDARDS NOTES YEAR 4 YEAR 5 them while the memories are still fresh. Ask pupils to use their imagination and use all five senses to describe the experience. Encourage them to use appropriate verbs and nouns, and not to rely completely on adjectives. Pupils need to be observant of how all of their senses are affected. Being able to include all five senses in descriptive writing will gradually increase the pupils' abilities to paint vivid pictures with words. Pupils can develop their descriptive writing ability with simple exercises that are both instructive and engaging, and can be completed in a single class lesson.
53 WRITING SKILLS CONTENT STANDARDS LEARNING STANDARDS NOTES YEAR 4 YEAR 5 Year 4 4.2 Communicate basic information intelligibly for a range of purposes in print and digital media Year 5 4.2 Communicate basic information intelligibly for a range of purposes in print and digital media 4.2.5 Connect sentences into a coherent paragraph using basic coordinating conjunctions and reference pronouns 4.2.5 Connect sentences into one or two coherent paragraphs using basic coordinating conjunctions and reference pronouns MATERIALS / REFERENCES 1. Primary Years 4 and 5 Schemes of Work (SoW). 2. Get Smart Plus 4 and English Plus 1 textbooks. SUGGESTED DIFFERENTIATION STRATEGIES Differentiate learning according to the needs of your pupils and class. Please see the seven differentiation strategies listed in the SoW. Refer to Strategy 1: Task Differentiate by the task pupils are given If teachers are using the same task for the whole class, using open-ended tasks such as brainstorming allows a large number of correct responses. Openended tasks (e.g. Tell me the food words you know, or What will happen next?) allow more proficient pupils to contribute more unusual words, more complex language, or more original ideas. Sometimes, the teacher can also give different tasks to more proficient and less proficient groups of pupils according to
54 CONTENT STANDARDS LEARNING STANDARDS NOTES YEAR 4 YEAR 5 their needs and interests. Expect more proficient pupils to write longer sentences with conjunctions. Suggested activity: Sentence scramble Put pupils into smaller groups. Give each group two pieces of display sheets, a pair of scissors and a marker. Instruct the pupils to choose one sheet of paper and cut it into long strips. Give the class an overall topic such as “Your last birthday party” and ask each group to write 10 simple sentences on the topic. Next, instruct pupils to create shorter strips with the other piece of display sheet and then write out as many connecting words as they can think of. Remind them of the basic coordinating conjunctions and reference pronouns that they have learnt previously. In the last part of the exercise, ask each group to choose two sentence strips, a reference pronoun and a conjunction to create a complete sentence and read it to the class. This exercise can be repeated until all the sentences are used by all the groups.
55 WRITING SKILLS CONTENT STANDARDS LEARNING STANDARDS NOTES YEAR 4 YEAR 5 Year 4 4.3 Communicate with appropriate language form and style for a range of purposes in print and digital media Year 5 4.3 Communicate with appropriate language form and style for a range of purposes in print and digital media 4.3.1 Use capital letters, full stops, question marks and commas in lists appropriately in guided writing at discourse level 4.3.1 Use capital letters, full stops, commas in lists and question marks appropriately in independent writing at discourse level MATERIALS / REFERENCES 1. Primary Years 4 and 5 Schemes of Work (SoW). 2. Get Smart Plus 4 and English Plus 1 textbooks. SUGGESTED DIFFERENTIATION STRATEGIES Differentiate learning according to the needs of your pupils and class. Please see the seven differentiation strategies listed in the SoW. Refer to Strategy 1: Differentiate by the task pupils are given Suggested activity: One simple way to help pupils practise choosing the correct punctuation mark is Punctuation Pop-Up. Give each pupil a set of punctuation flashcards attached to a craft stick. They will need one for each punctuation mark that the teacher is going to cover.
56 Next, read some simple sentences out loud. Use the correct inflections and clear pauses to help the pupils identify which card is correct. The pupil will then pop up the card with the correct punctuation mark by holding it up. Teacher can use this activity as an informal assessment to see where the pupils are, have them hold it up right in front of their chest instead of high in the air.
57 WRITING SKILLS CONTENT STANDARDS LEARNING STANDARDS NOTES YEAR 4 YEAR 5 Year 4 4.3 Communicate with appropriate language form and style for a range of purposes in print and digital media Year 5 4.3 Communicate with appropriate language form and style for a range of purposes in print and digital media 4.3.2 Spell most high frequency words accurately in guided writing 4.3.2 Spell a range of high frequency words accurately in independent writing MATERIALS / REFERENCES 3. Primary Years 4 and 5 Schemes of Work (SoW). 4. Get Smart Plus 4 and English Plus 1 textbooks. SUGGESTED DIFFERENTIATION STRATEGIES Differentiate learning according to the needs of your pupils and class. Please see the seven differentiation strategies listed in the SoW. Consider pairing more proficient pupils with those who have more difficulty. Encourage pupils to give each other feedback. Suggested activity: Sort and Transfer In the sorting activity, the teacher begins by asking pupils to read all of the words that are in the pocket chart. The teacher then asks the pupils to group the words that rhyme and share a spelling pattern. She can also ask pupils if they can sort the words based on any other similarities.
58 Sometimes they sort the words for other features (for example, first or last letter, common vowel, length, meaning, or presence of a capital letter). In the transfer step of the Making Words activity, the teacher writes other words on index cards. The teacher does not just ask pupils to read the words. Instead, the teacher asks them to tell which of the words they made would help them read the new word if they encountered it in text. Only after they have identified the correct spelling pattern and put the new word on the chart do they read the new word.
59 WRITING SKILLS CONTENT STANDARDS LEARNING STANDARDS NOTES YEAR 4 YEAR 5 Year 4 4.3 Communicate with appropriate language form and style for a range of purposes in print and digital media Year 5 4.3 Communicate with appropriate language form and style for a range of purposes in print and digital media 4.3.3 Produce a plan or draft of one paragraph for a familiar topic and modify this appropriately in response to feedback 4.3.3 Produce a plan or draft of one or two paragraphs for a familiar topic and modify this appropriately in response to feedback MATERIALS / REFERENCES 1. Primary Years 4 and 5 Schemes of Work (SoW). 2. Get Smart Plus 4 and English Plus 1 textbooks. SUGGESTED DIFFERENTIATION STRATEGIES Differentiate learning according to the needs of your pupils and class. Please see the seven differentiation strategies listed in the SoW. Refer to Strategy 4: Differentiate by the time pupils are given to complete a task Suggested activity: A good way to encourage pupils to use paragraphs in a story is to introduce this idea at the planning stage. A story map or story mountain with boxes can help children to think about each paragraph before they start writing. For a non-fiction text, teacher can introduce a spider
60 diagram with sub-headings for making notes on. A spider diagram encourages pupils to arrange their notes into separate boxes according to theme. This means that when they come to write their notes up into sentences, they will know that their text needs to be split into different paragraphs. Teachers often find that when pupils write a first draft of their writing, they forget to split their writing into paragraphs. This is why writing a first draft is a good idea, as it is a chance to correct and improve the structure of a piece of writing.
61 LANGUAGE ARTS CONTENT STANDARDS LEARNING STANDARDS NOTES YEAR 4 YEAR 5 Year 4 5.1 Enjoy and appreciate rhymes, poems and songs Year 5 5.1 Enjoy and appreciate rhymes, poems and songs 5.1.1 No learning standard 5.1.1 No learning standard *These learning standards have been covered in the previous years.
62 LANGUAGE ARTS CONTENT STANDARDS LEARNING STANDARDS NOTES YEAR 4 YEAR 5 Year 4 5.1 Enjoy and appreciate rhymes, poems and songs Year 5 5.1 Enjoy and appreciate rhymes, poems and songs 5.1.2 No learning standard 5.1.2 No learning standard *These learning standards have been covered in the previous years.
63 LANGUAGE ARTS CONTENT STANDARDS LEARNING STANDARDS NOTES YEAR 4 YEAR 5 Year 4 5.2 Express personal responses to literary texts Year 5 5.2 Express personal responses to literary texts 5.2.1 Say in simple words and phrases how a text makes them feel 5.2.1 Explain in simple language why they like or dislike an event, description or character in a text MATERIALS / REFERENCES 1. Primary Years 4 and 5 Schemes of Work (SoW). 2. Get Smart Plus 4 and English Plus 1 textbooks. 3. Contemporary Children’s Literature (CCL) reading texts. 4. CCL Teaching Guidebook (BPK) – Poems, Short Story and Graphic Novel. SUGGESTED DIFFERENTIATION STRATEGIES Differentiate learning according to the needs of your pupils and class. Please see the seven differentiation strategies listed in the SoW.
64 LANGUAGE ARTS CONTENT STANDARDS LEARNING STANDARDS NOTES YEAR 4 YEAR 5 Year 4 5.3 Express an imaginative response to literary texts Year 5 5.3 Express an imaginative response to literary texts 5.3.1 Respond imaginatively and intelligibly through creating simple picture stories, simple poems and cartoon stories Other imaginative responses as appropriate 5.3.1 Respond imaginatively and intelligibly through creating simple role-plays and simple poems Other imaginative responses as appropriate MATERIALS / REFERENCES 1. Primary Years 4 and 5 Schemes of Work (SoW). 2. Get Smart Plus 4 and English Plus 1 textbooks. 3. Contemporary Children’s Literature (CCL) reading texts. 4. CCL Teaching Guidebook (BPK) – Poems, Short Story and Graphic Novel. SUGGESTED DIFFERENTIATION STRATEGIES Differentiate learning according to the needs of your pupils and class. Please see the seven differentiation strategies listed in the SoW.
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