SA2 English Revision: 4 steps to tackle Grammar Cloze for Primary 4

In both the P3 and P4 Paper 2, there is a section called Grammar Cloze. This is broken up into two parts. One (Passage 1) is choosing the correct pronouns, which is easy to score and the other (Passage 2) tests students on their knowledge of subject-verb-agreement. This is not as easy to score full marks. Students can get confused about identifying the subject and then selecting the correct verb. I teach my students to do this section methodically.

Primary 4 English: Four steps to tackle the Grammar Cloze

Step 1: Read carefully

1. Read the passage
2. Highlight the subject
3. Identify it as singular or plural
4. Select the verb in agreement with the subject

Example:

Now that you have read the passage, let’s look at step 2 – identifying the subject.

Step 2: identifying the subject

1. The noun before the verb is ‘people’
2. The noun before the verb is ‘mixture’
3. The noun before the verb is ‘oil’
4. The noun before the verb is ‘method’

This is a good time to mention that some students may highlight two or three words before the verb or even words after the verb. It is good to remind them that the subject is usually a noun. Choose just one and it should come before the verb (unless it is an exception such as ‘there’ or ‘here’)

Next, we move on to step 3 which is identifying if the subject/noun is singular or plural.

Step 3: identifying if the subject/noun is singular or plural

1. people = plural noun
2. mixture = singular noun
3. oil = singular noun
4. method = singular noun

Lastly, step 4 is to select the correct verb.

Step 4: Select the correct verb

1. people (Plural) – enjoy
2. mixture (Singular) – is
3. oil (Singular) – cooks
4. method (Singular) – makes

I hope that this clarifies some doubts on this section of Paper 2 for the P3s and P4s. I wish all the P3 and P4 students all the best for their SA2 Paper 2!