All About English Creative Writing

[Champion]

quixation:

i think reading helps in everything to do with the language. The more you read, the more phrases, new vocab, idioms and proverbs as well as sentence structures you are exposed to. The sentence will come out very naturally later on..

Memorizing sentences are just helping a child ace an exam without being a thinker. This may help them now but not later in life.. Is that what we want for our kids? personally, i think we just guide them, let their imagination run wild and write what they want during practices in school, through corrections, they learn too. At the same time, they learn through failures.. always remind my DD, dont fear corrections during practices, Corrections means to correct . If you dont do corrections, how do you know what is correct?

I dont want my DD to just use templates from tuition centers / tutors or other model compositions, its brainwashing.

read model composition and oral guide books because she doesnt read fiction books that talks about local topics like playground, festivals. She reads a lot of mythical fiction hence reading model compositions will help her in some ways. Besides, she reads them just like any story book but its more localized context.

So i think we need to help our kids to be thinkers in future not just to ace the immediate exams. they may feel helpless later if there are no more templates or guidebooks to follow...

just my 2 cents worth...so far its working for my child.. no memorizing..sometimes we even let our imagination run wild and make up funny stories & laugh. Her school stressed on usage of language a lot but i told her \"Always remember you are writing for someone to read, just make sure the reader understands what you are writing.\"

there is a book called THINKING WRITERS' HANDBOOK. That should be easy for most kids. However, they have to read story books to help their basic grammar, synthesis and transformation, etc. My DD wasnt so worried abt 4 picture descriptive writing after I help her understand the concept from this book. Now she is more eager to start & even started creating sentences and storylines. (which i think will also helps in her oral assessment tests)

btw, she is in P1.. so i think by P3, it will be less stressful for us...

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[schen]

Comparing the writers’ place and mind stretcher composition class, what do you all think? Which one is better?

[sembgal]

I bought this book "Write Your Way to an A* The Complete Beginner Composition Guide & Workbook Designed for P1 & P2 Students. I bought the new edition 2014 one. I’m too desperate to improve my DD’s Composition. Based on a single picture, she is expected to write 60 words. However, the model answer provided by her teacher was at least 120 words. To be able to write to that standard, it is certainly not P1 standard. P2 basic requirement is only 80 words. Since I’m so desperate, I have made my dd memorise English model composition. I gave her a few and went through memorization with her. I want her to have a feel of how to write standard composition.


Reading many books will not improve writing if one does not practice but I think memorizing composition will help a little. I also believe in exposing the child to read model composition will help. Memorizing is a desperate measure taken and I won’t encourage it for all children unless the child has the ability to memorise information very fast.

[schen]

sembgal:

I bought this book \"Write Your Way to an A* The Complete Beginner Composition Guide & Workbook Designed for P1 & P2 Students. I bought the new edition 2014 one. I'm too desperate to improve my DD's Composition. Based on a single picture, she is expected to write 60 words. However, the model answer provided by her teacher was at least 120 words. To be able to write to that standard, it is certainly not P1 standard. P2 basic requirement is only 80 words. Since I'm so desperate, I have made my dd memorise English model composition. I gave her a few and went through memorization with her. I want her to have a feel of how to write standard composition.


Reading many books will not improve writing if one does not practice but I think memorizing composition will help a little. I also believe in exposing the child to read model composition will help. Memorizing is a desperate measure taken and I won't encourage it for all children unless the child has the ability to memorise information very fast.

What I hav been doing with DS is for him to read a model compo first, then we will go thru n highlight the nice and important vocab, then I will ask him to rewrite. Practice does make him better!

[sembgal]

My P1 dd has been reading classic books like Charlotte’s Web recently. A child who reads well does not mean the child will write well. The best decision is to outsource it next year to the professional. Teaching own child is not easy.

[schen]

sembgal:

My P1 dd has been reading classic books like Charlotte's Web recently. A child who reads well does not mean the child will write well. The best decision is to outsource it next year to the professional. Teaching own child is not easy.

Hi sembgal, totally agreed with you. Can read doesn't mean can write. My ds is P1 this year too. Initially I am thinking of sending him for creative writing class too. But after going thru some of their materials, I think the most important thing is more practices, even those centres also agree that, so contemplating to try on my own....
Anyway which centre do you consider? Do let me know the feedback, just in case practice at home doesn't work

[Dom88]

Hi,


You might like to try HL Education.
Very low profile English enrichment centre currently located next to Lavender MRT.
Teacher is Ex School Teacher.
My kids have been undergoing the English classes and I have seen improvements.

The teacher actually customize the English classes to the students weakness so class size usually not big.
PM me if you want the teacher contact.

[PSLEmom]

Any feedback on The Alternative Story and mind stretcher? Is it worth spending the money fr the 2 day holiday workshop?

[mashy]

quixation:

Musicstar:

The school teacher gave my dd remark to write more vocabulary and phrases. In my opinion, if did not memorise the phrases how to remember what to write. Is reading story book help in writing?

[quote=\"slmkhoo\"]The tutor told me cannot memorise phrases to apply on writing? Any opinion? She said can give my girl idioms to memorise only.

depends on what the tutor wants. My kids tutor prefers to correct their sentence structures. She believed that the kids should be instill with proper writing skills, not memorising other people's work.

Memorising will make the writing sound forced. If you have time (not just before exams), get the child to read more and internalise the vocab, expressions, grammar etc. The writing will sound more natural.

I realise that memorising is used a lot for Chinese writing, but that is because Chinese formal writing actually requires much more use of standard phrases and expressions, and that is considered good style. It's different for English.

i think reading helps in everything to do with the language. The more you read, the more phrases, new vocab, idioms and proverbs as well as sentence structures you are exposed to. The sentence will come out very naturally later on..

Memorizing sentences are just helping a child ace an exam without being a thinker. This may help them now but not later in life.. Is that what we want for our kids? personally, i think we just guide them, let their imagination run wild and write what they want during practices in school, through corrections, they learn too. At the same time, they learn through failures.. always remind my DD, dont fear corrections during practices, Corrections means to correct . If you dont do corrections, how do you know what is correct?

I dont want my DD to just use templates from tuition centers / tutors or other model compositions, its brainwashing.

read model composition and oral guide books because she doesnt read fiction books that talks about local topics like playground, festivals. She reads a lot of mythical fiction hence reading model compositions will help her in some ways. Besides, she reads them just like any story book but its more localized context.

So i think we need to help our kids to be thinkers in future not just to ace the immediate exams. they may feel helpless later if there are no more templates or guidebooks to follow...

just my 2 cents worth...so far its working for my child.. no memorizing..sometimes we even let our imagination run wild and make up funny stories & laugh. Her school stressed on usage of language a lot but i told her \"Always remember you are writing for someone to read, just make sure the reader understands what you are writing.\"

there is a book called THINKING WRITERS' HANDBOOK. That should be easy for most kids. However, they have to read story books to help their basic grammar, synthesis and transformation, etc. My DD wasnt so worried abt 4 picture descriptive writing after I help her understand the concept from this book. Now she is more eager to start & even started creating sentences and storylines. (which i think will also helps in her oral assessment tests)

btw, she is in P1.. so i think by P3, it will be less stressful for us...[/quote]
Unfortunately I've to disagree that reading helps. My kid reads like crazy. He loves reading and reads a lot. Reading has even affected his attention span in class coz he has been sneakily reading books while the teacher is teaching. But he is stumped when doing compo. He has been failing his compo coz he can't write. He is not creative and he doesn't know where to start.

[sharonkhoo]

slmkhoo:

The tutor told me cannot memorise phrases to apply on writing? Any opinion? She said can give my girl idioms to memorise only.

This quote is DEFINITELY not from me! Something went wrong during the editing, I suppose. My girls have not had any English tutor.