Vocabulary is developed through reading. However, some students find it difficult to cultivate the habit of reading. Without knowing the meaning of some words tested in the exams, how should your child make the right decision and select the correct answer?

Here are some tried and tested strategies.

Every week, students are exposed to one of seven vocabulary elements:

– Roots of words (eg. aqua-, botan-)

– Prefixes (eg. anti-, dis-)

– Suffixes (eg. -tion, -sive)

– Compound Words (eg. ice cream, raindrop, long-haired)

Idioms (eg. A taste of your own medicine)

Phrasal Verbs (eg. act on, act up, aim at)

– Binomial Pairs (eg. all or nothing, bits and pieces)

Our teachers expose students to the meanings of numerous roots of words, prefixes and suffixes and help students deduce the meanings of words which contain them. This strategy equips students with the required tools to break up any new word they encounter and accurately deduce its meaning.

We also expose students to a wide range of binomial pairs, phrasal verbs, compound words and idioms. Since phrases in these categories have fixed meanings, exercises are crafted to help students learn these meanings and use the phrases in sentences accurately.

Building a strong foundation for English grammar will set your child up for success in English and all other subjects.

Cognitus Academy’s P3 Primary Regular English Programme guides students in the understanding and mastery of rules for the following grammar items. 

List of grammar items: 

– Nouns (plural nouns, noun formation from adj)

– articles (a, an, the)

– verbs (SVA – singular, plural, collective nouns)

– sentences (simple, compound, complex)

– relative pronouns (who, which, that, whose, where)

– tenses (simple present, simple past, present continuous, past continuous, present perfect, past perfect, future)

– quantifiers (countable/ uncountable, enough/ not enough, no, all/ both, each/ every)

– possessives (my, your, his, her, its, our, their)

– possessive pronouns (mines, yours, his, hers, ours, theirs)

– reflexive pronouns (myself, yourself, yourselves, himself, herself, itself, ourselves, themselves)

– demonstratives (this, that, these, those)

– interrogatives (who, what, which, whose, whom)

– indefinite pronouns (anyone, anybody, anything, someone, somebody, something, no one, nobody, nothing, everyone, everybody, everything)

– reciprocal pronouns (each other, one another)

– adjectives (comparatives, superlatives)

– participles (-ing, -en, -ed)

– modal verbs (whole list) p2t3w1

– adverbs

– prepositions (position, direction, time, purpose and means, possession, accompaniment, comparison, support or opposition, exception, concession)

– sentence types (interrogatives, exclamatory, imperatives, conditionals)

– reported speech

– question tags

This section is the ultimate test of a student’s grammatical competency. Students need to rewrite two short sentences as one without altering the original meaning of the two given sentences. They need to make a series of decisions on whether to change the position or word class of the provided words

There is no shortcut to mastering this section.

Our aim is for the students to get full exposure to the different types of questions and teach them the necessary grammar rules and conventions effectively.

We have studied all S&T questions and distilled them into the 12 most commonly tested question types:

– Addition – And, together with, both, as well as, none of, most of, all of, in addition to, furthermore

– Sequence – before, after, then, while, as soon as

– Contrast – but, however, although, even though, despite

– Reason – because, as, for, due to, so…that,

– Purpose – To, in order to, so that

We will be covering a set of these 12 question types over the duration of one term (11 weeks), so your child will practise up to four rounds of practices in a full year.

Applying Critical Reading techniques, our students are able to dive deep into the context of the passage by asking the following questions:

– What is happening in this paragraph?

– What is the main idea here?

– How does this paragraph connect with the previous?

– What do you think will happen next?

Next, students will analyse the requirements of the different questions types such as:

– Who: person(s)

– What/which: thing, action etc

– When: time, sequence of events

– Where: place

– Why: reason, implied causes

– How: steps, method

Students will master the techniques for answering questions accurately and comprehensively.

Continuous Writing is a major obstacle for most students because they do not know how to improve specific parts of their composition. Even if they know their weakness, they are unable to fix their particular problem in writing.

Our teachers guide students to conduct question analysis and picture analysis so that they are able to attempt the question confidently and begin planning. When planning, we equip our students with a framework of four plot elements which we recommend they incorporate in their writing. These plot elements help them plan stories that are heart-warming, suspenseful, of mischief or teach a moral value.

Our teachers inspire our students to write expressively by encouraging them to use the most vivid and precise verbs and adjectives. We emphasise the use of Show, Don’t Tell as a technique to present the story in the most compelling and convincing manner possible.

Our teachers will mark students’ first draft with detailed individualised feedback. This feedback is crucial in commending students for the good writing they have presented and for highlighting areas of improvement. After three drafts, students can improve from a low B to a high A while retaining their ideas in the story. Doing so encourages students to improve their work and leaves them with a piece they can be truly proud of.