Curriculum
The COSMOTOTS curriculum is based on our conviction that reading and writing are not ends in themselves, but means to an end; the ultimate goal is the development of the mind and character.
Similarly, while we have adopted English as our sole medium of instruction, COSMOTOTS is not just a language center. The English language is used to impart a whole range of intellectual skills in order to prepare children for a successful university career.
Our ten educational programmes flow naturally and continuously from one level to the next. In the first few stages, we aim to instill good reading habits in our children. In the later stages, we build and expand on their reading abilities by challenging them to write about what they have read. Ultimately, we believe that writing is the best way to exercise their thinking faculties.
| Basic Reading | Basic Writing | Intermediate Writing & Reading | Essay Writing (OMEGA) |
|---|---|---|---|
1. Primer The first module endowes children with the confident ability to sound out words. The accent is on nurturing a child's natural affinity for sounds and not on mere memorisation. 2. Intensive Armed with about 50 basic phonic sounds, our students now grapple with the challenges of understanding a set text (which is a simplication of the Don Quixote story by TC Yoong, Education Director of COSMOTOTS). 3. Extensive This module pushes a child to practice what he has learnt and to acquire the neccessary gumption to try new story books independantly. Students are exposed to a greater variety of texts. |
4. Skywalker Along with the on-going development of readership skills, this module teaches students to express their thoughts and opinions in simple sentences. 5. Highflyer The student's objective here is to begin to find ways to connect one sentence to the next in a logical and effective way. 6. Voyager By this level, the increasing complexity of the texts means that our students should begin to have more ideas to communicate. They are consequently expected to start writing in paragraph form. |
7 & 8. Explorer 1 & 2 These two modules consolidate the skills that have been acquired in BASIC READING and BASIC WRITING. Students will now begin to read the classics, and this will push them to become more disciplined and persevering when confronted with intellectual challenges. They will also learn the rudiments of how to write compositions with multiple paragraphs. |
9. Omega 1 - 4 Students now embark on essay writing in earnest. This is where they learn the basics of this tricky art: how to come up with ideas, how to collect salient evidence, and how to tie all their thoughts together. 10. Omega 5 & 6 This final level is where students learn how to construct persuasive and coherent arguments. This is also where their essays should start to show consistent signs of originality. Students will emerge from this module with the confidence to analyse anything whatsoever - be it film, poetry, photography or current affairs. |