PSLE English Tips | Oral: Reading Checklist

The second half of the year is as usual, fast and furious. In about two weeks’ time, most P6 pupils will be having their oral examinations for the Prelims. At this point, I believe most pupils will be carrying out oral practices at home. Previously, I created a post on some tips and common errors pupils make during reading and you can read about it here. However, how do you ensure that their practice will benefit them? In order to help my children to be more aware of the expectations and some common errors made when they practise on their own, I have come up with a PEARS oral reading checklist for them!

PEARS represents Punctuation, Emotions, Accuracy, Rhythm and Smoothness (Fluency). This checklist can be used by children when they practise reading on their own; parents, when you are practising with your children and lastly, educators, when you would like your pupils to carry out reading practice in pairs or in small groups. It can be downloaded at the end of the post but before you do that, here are some notes that will help you fully utilise it.

How to use the reading checklist

1. Read before Reading the Passage

This applies to both the reader and the listener. For the readers, the checklist will aid them to be more mindful of what is good (the “Goals”) and also in avoiding the common errors (“Areas to Improve on”). For the listener, reading the elements before hand will help them to be more aware of what to listen out for. The various areas are quite straightforward but do take note that “//” refers to “at the beginning of a new paragraph”.

2. Circle the Areas to be Improved (as much as the listener can manage)

As the children or parents use the checklist, do bear in mind that the listener may not be able to remember all the mistakes that the reader has made. Listeners, try your best to circle the errors as the reader reads and even if not all the mistakes are spotted, having just one area identified will already be useful for the reader to improve on.

3. Prepare One More Set of Reading

To enable listeners to capture the mistakes more accurately, one way is to prepare one more passage for the listener. This allows the listener to underline or circle the mistakes on the passage immediately and will help the listener to identify the areas to be improved on more easily at the end of the reading.