Gap identified

Strategy used

School-based example

Level involved

Lack of a solid foundation to prepare for the senior secondary curriculum

Using vocabulary building strategies to lay the foundation for students

Realising that students’ poor vocabulary power directly hinders their interest in reading, teachers developed a vocabulary bank with the help of a language support officer.  The bank included theme-based word walls at all levels inside the classroom to increase students’ sight vocabulary, the use of high frequency words in daily lessons and different vocabulary building strategies and activities infused into unit planning.  As a follow-up, vocabulary cards and books for sentence making and journal writing were designed to help them memorise words and apply what they had learned.

P1-6

Infusing the senior secondary curriculum initiatives into primary language learning  

The officer organised internal panel sharing for teachers, discussing the features of the senior secondary curriculum and how to use holistic planning to bridge the transition gaps.  She then co-planned with P3, P5 and P6 teachers, infusing senior secondary elements (such as the use of language arts and critical thinking) into horizontal planning. This gradually helped broaden the depth and breadth of their language learning.    

P3, P5 & P6

Lack of language exposure

Integrating the formal and informal curricula

In order to provide more opportunities for students to practise using English, the team organised different English programmes outside the classroom that were coherently integrated with the formal curriculum. This included the English week, English assembly and tea time with John (a speaking programme run by the NET). The school also trained up some higher form students as English ambassadors to motivate lower form students to study English during recess time, thus making English learning fun and interesting.                 

P1-6

Lack of motivation to read and weak reading skills

Nurturing a reading to learn culture

Inside the classroom
The school targeted at having a balanced coverage of different text types at all levels, infusing more language arts elements such as movies, songs, poems and stories into lessons to stimulate students’ reading motivation.  In addition, they designed different reading tasks to develop students’ reading strategies.  
Outside the classroom
A Buddy Reading Programme was implemented to nurture a positive reading atmosphere in the school.  Some P5 and P6 students were chosen to support P1 and P2 students to read storybooks during lunch, aiming at increasing the lower form students’ motivation and developing the higher form students’ leadership skills.

P1-6

P1,2 5, 6