All About English Creative Writing

[mrswongtuition]

ksi:

Yes, but I notice in that case creative writing is not for all children.

Writing is a flair.....in the absence of that, ALL children will learn it as model composition and regurgitate for exams. I have seen that for some kids, this is a painful process but they will do it for exam results sake. I can safely say that majority of the children will reproduce it as exam-smart technique.

A handful of kids really absorb such phrases and use it naturally in their writing as well as their speech.

I have nothing against learning creative writing for the mass market, not at all because in the end, we cannot help that ALL children have to sit for PSLE and do well.

I agree, some simply do not have a flair for writing (like my hubs).

However, given the right motivation and some prodding, they will start writing.

My hubs is in his mid-thirties and he has decided to start writing a book about private investigation & security measures for homes. This is his area of interest

Consistent repetition is key. If the parents learn it too, and converse with their kids in creative writing lingo, the impact will be greater!

[The Alternative Story]

Blobbi:

The Alternative Story:

For your child, if he or she is in primary 1 and is a reader and has no problem in his or her grammar and knows a wide range of vocabulary for his/her level, then you do not have to worry. Your child most probably would not need these classes now.:)

TAS

Tks TAS. I started thinking about writing classes because my son is a very reluctant writer. When he does write, it's quite good (to me :lol:). But he absolutely hates the physical act of writing. Anyway, one thing led to another, I started to consider other reasons for writing classes ... Still mulling, since he's a lot more amenable when someone else does the asking.

Hi Blobbi,

Since he is still young, I can understand why the physical part of writing will put him off:) Maybe these ideas can help:

1) You can have start a book with him. Ask him to put in his favourite characters, and think of an interesting plot- Primary 1 boy finds out that his sister is actually an alien, boy discovers a magic wand and turns his dog into a dinosaur?:)

Everyday he can write one or two sentences and perhaps you can write another one or two and sometimes what you write changes the plot a little and he has to flow with that. I think that might get him excited about writing so its not writing for compositions but writing for fun.

2) Pretend that your family are spies and you are supposed to communicate with each other only through writing for that one day. As there are the house is 'bugged' so you cannot let anyone hear what you are saying.

3) Cut out pictures from magazines (pictures of babies, an eye, a dress, a pram, a camera etc) and then paste them in a scrapbook and write a story linking the pictures together

4) Do a 'Father's Day Scrapbook' for your husband with him. He can cut out pictures from a magazine again and paste one picture on each page of the book and write about his dad with a link to the picture. For example, a picture of a feet- he could write something like 'You were there when I first started walking and cheered me on even when I fell, THANK YOU!' (He could at least be a hallmarks card writer in the future if all other plans fail :lol: )

I think the key is to get him to see the power of words and to enjoy writing. Hope this helps.

TAS

[mrswongtuition]

Blobbi:

Art - won't go cos \"Why should I draw what THEY want? I should draw what I want.\" Anyway, not drawing at home also leh. We're down to whisking eggs, making bubble solutions etc, but the words are not naturally springing forth from his hands yet. :roll:

Use opportunistic teaching.

When playing with bubbles, ask him to pretend he is the bubble and tell about his adventures flying up into the sky!

When whisking, ask him how would he feel if he was the egg. Would he be happy that he is going to be baked into a cake? Or is he sad because whisking is painful?

Make use of every opportunity to tap into their creative minds.

My 3yo boy often tells us stories based on things he sees around him.
He told us a story about a sad caterpillar because it is all alone on the plant, it's mummy & daddy flew away.
\"The caterpillar is so sad. He miss his mummy. Where's his mummy? She flew away. He miss his daddy. His daddy flew away with his mummy.\"

Just today, he told me about hardworking ants (we were staring at red ants near the playground).
\"The ants are very busy. They are busy looking for food. Watch out! A storm is coming! The ants are going to die! Oh no! Mummy, save them!\"

These stories used to be simple questions that we asked him.
\"Is the caterpillar happy?\"
\"Why is the caterpillar alone?\"
\"What are the ants doing?\"
\"Oh no! It's going to rain! What will you do when it rains?\"

I believe that every child has their stories which they want to tell.
Help them by giving them guiding questions. They'll soon learn to piece them up into stories.

[sleepy]

Does mind mapping help in creative writing?

[mrswongtuition]

sleepy:

Does mind mapping help in creative writing?

It does help to generate ideas and develop plots. However, students must know how to use the mindmap to their advantage. I have students who can draw excellent mindmaps with detailed plots, but they could not put it into proper paragraphs and their composition ended up as a 'haphazard piece'.

[Blobbi]

Tks TAS, these are wonderful ideas! The holidays are coming and it would be a fabulous time to start them out. I especially love the spy story - I used to love that myself when I was a kid :).


Mrs Wongtuition, tks for the ideas. So far, I liken DS to the tribes in Africa - all his stories are of the oral tradition :faint: . I've tried to get him to write them down (very numerous and long running stories of parallel worlds), but he says they're a secret. :roll:

Tks all for the wonderful ideas. It sounds like we'll be busy this hols!!

[mrswongtuition]

Blobbi:

Mrs Wongtuition, tks for the ideas. So far, I liken DS to the tribes in Africa - all his stories are of the oral tradition :faint: . I've tried to get him to write them down (very numerous and long running stories of parallel worlds), but he says they're a secret. :roll:

Tks all for the wonderful ideas. It sounds like we'll be busy this hols!!

You can try bringing him to Popular to buy his 'secret journal' to encourage him to write. Allow him to choose a few pens of his favourite colour. Many of my students start writing once they have a journal to call their own. And the incentive of coloured pens is rather attractive at their age.

Since he prefers it to be a secret, promise him that you will not read it unless he gives you permission to.

Writing in his secret journal is also a form of writing. At least it kick starts his 'unwillingness' to write.

[Blobbi]

mrswongtuition:

Blobbi:

Mrs Wongtuition, tks for the ideas. So far, I liken DS to the tribes in Africa - all his stories are of the oral tradition :faint: . I've tried to get him to write them down (very numerous and long running stories of parallel worlds), but he says they're a secret. :roll:

Tks all for the wonderful ideas. It sounds like we'll be busy this hols!!

You can try bringing him to Popular to buy his 'secret journal' to encourage him to write. Allow him to choose a few pens of his favourite colour. Many of my students start writing once they have a journal to call their own. And the incentive of coloured pens is rather attractive at their age.

Since he prefers it to be a secret, promise him that you will not read it unless he gives you permission to.

Writing in his secret journal is also a form of writing. At least it kick starts his 'unwillingness' to write.

Mrswongtuition, u're a treasure trove!

Hopefully, he will take to it this hols.

Thinking through, my goals are very simple - so long as he does his homework without fuss, I'm quite happy. And I want him to use writing naturally, as a tool.

Work In Progress lah. But I hope to start him off on the writing habit, soon.

[Michteach]

Blobbi:

Michteach:

I found using phrases from storybooks very effective as I am feeding the kids continuously with good vocab and effective writing styles from a wide range of authors.

I could let you know what books are especially good for this if you are interested

Hi Michteach,

I'm rather confused about what makes good writing for top marks. Being of the old school, I just read my way to good marks in English. Compositions were done via osmosis, ie, I subconsciously absorbed whatever I read and probably reproduced snippets in my writing.

These days though, I'm stunned that there is such a thing as creative writing classes where kids copy \"model compositions\" and memorise key phrases.

Is it really necessary? My kid is only in P1, but going through kiasuparents, I'm getting a bit worried that I'm out of touch. :roll:

Hi Blobbi,

For myself, I struggled with helping 2 groups of students: helping the good students really write very well and reach their potential and also helping the weak ones to improve.

For the good ones, they can write well in the sense that their grammar is good and they can use apt vocab to describe the scenarios but their writing can be dull in the sense that they do not know how to 'hook' the reader and to write using a richer range of vocab so when The Alternative Story came to do a workshop at my school for teachers, I picked up some of the strategies and got the students to apply them and I could see that the children's writing became more sophisticated and the tension in the story could be felt.

For the weak ones, I also used the strategies to help the students to learn more easily and not hate writing. So that is why I really like using creative writing strategies and borrowing phrases from books. To me, even if your child is ok, I think it is good to expose him to some creative writing, maybe for a start you can get him to be aware of the good vocab in books and get him to use them but also to read for leisure as well so as not to take the joy from reading.

This is from my point of view as a school teacher.

[Michteach]

The Alternative Story:

Michteach:

You can follow them after you have your own twitter account, the company name is The Alternative Story or you can follow them with their twitter name it is - TAlternativeS, if you have any probs, just pm me..I see if I can help with more detailed instructions..happy twitting!

Hi Michteach,

Thanks for the recommendation, we find using Twitter the best way to provide tips for parents and children to help them do well for English. In this way, the children can learn everyday from us and not just when they come for classes.

TAS

Hey TAS,

No worries, I really like the twitter thing you guys did, its free heehee and very informative..:)