Question: Must primary school kids write compositions weekly?
Answer: Writing is like swimming. Swimming exercises all parts of our body and we can head to the gym after that to focus on the different body parts.
I believe the only way to improve is to write, speak and use the language as often as possible. When you write, youlearn about grammar rules, vocabulary, synthesis & transformation etc., which are useful for Paper 2. So writing doesn’t mean we are only preparing for Paper 1. My students do write weekly. I also buy them a diary each (even the Primary One students) to encourage them to write more.
Besides the writing exercise, I hone up their skills in the other segments of the paper like cloze passage, comprehension etc by providing exam tips and doing practices. This is our all-round way to ace the exams.
More importantly, one must always remember acing the exams shouldn’t be the only reason why we want to improve our language.
At the Study Room, we see beyond these tests and want to prepare you for life. PSLE is just one of the many hurdles we face in life but it’s important for us to have a good foundation in our language. It gives us an advantage when we deal with people at work or in other social settings. When you can’t express yourself, you can’t fight for the things that matter for you.