Advice - best way to improve chance of grammar
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Oh, I could be in trouble now with all the parents of those wonderful, hard working boys who attend KEGS. Better go and hide.TweetyPie wrote:Hi Moved
Are you saying that to succeed at KEGS you need to be bright without working hard
It was an observation on the differences in siblings, a little tongue in cheek.
Hi moved - I have just learnt you are a tutor. Can you advise me what I should be doing with daughter to progress her. What would you do with a reasonably bright child but not ultra bright child at this stage to give them the best chance possible. How much per week should she be spending on working towards this. As I say, other child did some work towards test but not loads. How much should I do with daughter?
Hi, Alexandra, I do not give a huge amount at this stage. It varies from child to child. Some need gentle persuasion that homework as well as a lesson is required and others need to learn that there are hours for play as well as the 11+. Mostly I do try and persuade them that they are clever and that the exam is within their reach. Many children assume that they cannot pass before they even begin.
One type of VR per week/fortnight, interspersed with VR exams once a month.
Work through the areas of maths that are difficult. One area per week/fortnight, but I give a tables sheet for each day (only 60 questions) until a time of under 2 mins is achieved, then I reduce this to one per week. I also teach the children how to work out a percentage in the first lesson and ask them to work out their percentage on every piece of work they do. Often they forget initially and need reminding but soon it becomes second nature.
I give an English comprehension every week and two if we work on a comprehension paper together in the lesson (once a month). I have expectations that the children will underline and learn the words that they do not know. I ask them to put these on a postit note and stick it on their bedroom door or opposite the loo! At this stage comprehensions are on more accessible texts and I slowly build up to harder texts when they have the skills required. I am picky about punctuation, grammar and spelling and penalise these errors from the beginning.
I put a punctuation exercise, or two, in every comprehension paper. I don't usually give timed work at this stage, but if a child lacks concentration skills or is very advanced I sometimes sneak these in. If work is timed I stress that it is "just to see". I ask them to complete the rest of the paper in another colour and emphasise the need not to worry if they do not finish in time.
I try to give some variety and general knowledge sometimes. A few examples are:
animals - male, female, young
countries, capitals, continents
nouns - abstract vs concrete
parts of speech - alliteration games on different subjects of the form
adjective, noun, verb, adverb (easiest to start with the noun)
curious cats crawling cautiously
One type of VR per week/fortnight, interspersed with VR exams once a month.
Work through the areas of maths that are difficult. One area per week/fortnight, but I give a tables sheet for each day (only 60 questions) until a time of under 2 mins is achieved, then I reduce this to one per week. I also teach the children how to work out a percentage in the first lesson and ask them to work out their percentage on every piece of work they do. Often they forget initially and need reminding but soon it becomes second nature.
I give an English comprehension every week and two if we work on a comprehension paper together in the lesson (once a month). I have expectations that the children will underline and learn the words that they do not know. I ask them to put these on a postit note and stick it on their bedroom door or opposite the loo! At this stage comprehensions are on more accessible texts and I slowly build up to harder texts when they have the skills required. I am picky about punctuation, grammar and spelling and penalise these errors from the beginning.
I put a punctuation exercise, or two, in every comprehension paper. I don't usually give timed work at this stage, but if a child lacks concentration skills or is very advanced I sometimes sneak these in. If work is timed I stress that it is "just to see". I ask them to complete the rest of the paper in another colour and emphasise the need not to worry if they do not finish in time.
I try to give some variety and general knowledge sometimes. A few examples are:
animals - male, female, young
countries, capitals, continents
nouns - abstract vs concrete
parts of speech - alliteration games on different subjects of the form
adjective, noun, verb, adverb (easiest to start with the noun)
curious cats crawling cautiously
I wrote my own comprehension papers, but you can easily adapt the Bond books. Take the comprehension section, ignore the grammar bit and add a punctuation exercise. This approximates well to a CSSE paper.
For VR I use the Walsh 9-10 papers at this stage, move on to the Tutors papers from this site, my parents are always so pleased to find the site and the resources! If you haven't already downloaded the Tutors guide to VR pamphlet it is very helpful in guiding you through the techniques required to maximise time. I also use the papers on the other site (no name given but generally known) when teaching individual types. There are some errors so use with care.
For VR I use the Walsh 9-10 papers at this stage, move on to the Tutors papers from this site, my parents are always so pleased to find the site and the resources! If you haven't already downloaded the Tutors guide to VR pamphlet it is very helpful in guiding you through the techniques required to maximise time. I also use the papers on the other site (no name given but generally known) when teaching individual types. There are some errors so use with care.
