Learning from the Experts! Part 1 of 3

I signed up 3 sharing sessions conducted by schools at the MOE Excel Fest this year. As this was my first year of attending such sharing sessions, I had chosen different area of focus for each sharing session. 

The first session was on "Nurturing Your Child into a Confident and Effective Communicator", conducted by CHIJ Our Lady Queen of Peace. The school shared about how they used Moo-O in school to hone their students' reading fluency skills so that they can eventually communicate confidently and effectively. The parents at the sharing session were given opportunity to try out a story, which was pretty fun and engaging!

Some primary schools are using Moo-O, which unfortunately my son's school is not one of them. The company has a special rate for schools, which unfortunately is not extended to consumers like us, parents! The reason given was that schools purchased a bundle of stories, and hence, the special rate. I suggested to the company that they could offer discount scheme such as buying 5 or 10 stories that would be cheaper than buying each story individually; hopefully they would really look into this and implement it soon!

You can go to http://www.moo-o.com/ to find out more information on Moo-O. The good news is that you can download a free story at http://www.moo-o.com/software/download/ to try it out! :)

Besides Moo-O, the school also shared some learning tips on how parents can help their children, as follows.

1. Choosing books that are:

• enjoyable to read (even for adults)
• packed with good phrases

2. Asking your child:

• literal questions
• inferential questions
• discussion questions

3. Role-modelling:

• read aloud expressively and fluently
• point at the words when reading
• eyes are focusing on the words
• active listening
• agree to disagree

4. Reaching out to reluctant readers:

• read comprehension passages
• identify difficult words and phrases with the child
• have the child retell after a few sentences
• use positive words of encouragement

Last but not least, here's a quote for you to takeaway if you don't remember all the above.

Watch out for the next part in my next post...

Credits to be given to the school for the sharing on Moo-O and learning tips. Any opinion reflected in this post is my own, and not related to the school or Moo-O.