All About English Creative Writing

[Wonder-ful]

Hi Esteema,


Thanks for sharing your thoughts.

Really appreciate.

[zac's mum]

marmalade\" post_id=\"1914352\" time=\"1560423814\" user_id=\"40817:

Hi Zac's mum, she is P2 this year.
I asked her to keep a diary but she is quite reluctant, maybe I didn't \"sell\" it in an interesting way...
She said she will only write when she wants to and they are all her secrets. :roll:
I am just afraid that she will not be able to cope as she gets to upper primary.

Hi marmalade, this is one idea that my son’s P2 teacher suggested. I have yet to try it out with my son...

Parent and child can write a short story/compo together. Eg after a day out at Sentosa or a special occasion like birthday party etc. Sit down and take turns to write alternate lines. Parent start with the first sentence, child continues with the 2nd sentence, another child (if you have one) continues with the 3rd sentence...back to parent, and so on. It becomes a fun family activity and you recall your memories together. In the process, you may even discover that other people have different perspectives/recollection of the same event! You can take the chance to mention “point of view”, discuss whether using passive or active tense is more appropriate at which points of the story etc.

[marmalade]

Thanks Zac’s mum.

We did that verbally (when my kids were younger during circle time) but not on writing, ya why not ?
Moving along, if you have any other tip do let me know.

[CSTZ]

Thank you marmalade and Zac's mum.

From your conversation, I learnt the tips.
My P1 kid is good in reading and not keen in writing. I can slowly introduce these all tips to him.
Let me follow for future tips too.

[tanof2]

Joy of Learning 111\" post_id=\"1724903\" time=\"1476017672\" user_id=\"133309:

Hi Joy of Learning111,

Would you be all to share if there is any structure to teaching primary school children creative writing. It is essential to have many good or bombastic words in the compo to score good grades? Also, do you conduct lessons for primary school children and at which level? Thanks.

There are different approaches with some commonalities. For lower primary, the focus is mostly on helping the children to gain basic language skills and proficiency in descriptive writing. For upper primary, the focus is more on narrative; this usually entails a plot mountain with introduction, rising tension, climax and resolution. For both levels, creative writing should be taught as an iterative process with plenty of rewriting and refinement.

Bombastic or purple prose is a big no. Such over-the-top language draws excessive attention to itself often to the point that the reader loses the thread of the content. Creative writing should be content-led, with vocabulary playing a supportive role only. Unfortunately, many tuition centres, teachers and tutors try to disguise their lack of ability to teach creative writing by resorting to the encouragement of bombasticity (I just made up this noun but it seems plausible).

Good words, however, are essential. By ‘good’ I mean words that are appropriate, precise and effective. For instance, it can be as simple as writing ‘wolfed down’ instead of ‘ate quickly’ or ‘sheepish’ instead of ‘embarrassed’.

Yes, I conduct lessons for primary school children at all levels. I will shortly send you a pm.[/quote]Hi joy of learning 111, could PM me your teaching schedules and location?

[dwymum]

I am looking for a teacher for comprehension and Creative writing for my p4 Son in punggol area? Kindly PM have me if anybody knew.

[dwymum]

I am looking for a teacher for English comprehension and Creative writing for my p4 Son in punggol area? Kindly PM me if anybody knew.

[Koolmama]

Hello!


I'm looking for a friend to join my dd for P5 Writer's Toolbox (compo writing) class at Mindstretcher Balmoral as they are a new centre and need a minimum of 2 students to open a class 😄 My older ds enjoyed this writing class when he attended few years ago and scored A* for English 👍 The proposed class timing is on Tuesday 7.30 pm (if I can't find anyone for this timing, we can try Sunday 1.30 pm as their P5 teacher is only available on these 2 days... however the tuition fee for Sunday is slightly higher than for weekdays 😅)

Please message me if you are interested, thanks very much! 🤗

[kiasimom]

Update as of 11/9/19.


Hi all.
As a kiasu mother, I’ve done my fair share of research and visited few centres.
1.) The English School.
They mainly focus on reading and not so much towards Creative Writing. I do not like the idea that they will be placing my son with children of the same age instead of his individual ability.
2.) Mindchamps
We visited Mindchamps and met up with the coach. Honestly we are not very impressed with their teaching materials. The basic criteria for a teacher is the teacher must be able to speak good English. Unfortunately according to the coach, she is not the teacher but she can teach Creative Writing to the kids.
I do not like the teaching materials as they are just photocopies and not a proper textbook or workbook. It is just boring black and white worksheets.
To me, personally, I felt Mindchamps is too commercialise.
3.) GUG Pen+Master writing
We visited the campus at Novena and I must say we are very comfortable with how the teacher assess my son’s ability using Zoophonics. The teaching materials are colourful and it makes my son happy. The teacher is able to explain clearly to me how what my son will be learning and what we will expect. There are a total of 8 levels in this writing programme.
The teacher did an assessment for my son and placed him to the suitable level base on his abilities.
I can feel the passion of an educator.

Finally, I enrolled my son with GUG because I know he will benefit greatly from there.


Hi everyone.
I’m contemplating where to send my 5 years old son to.
He is a high ability learner. He can read very well and is an independent reader.
I’m deciding between GUG writing class and Mindchamps writing class.

Any advice is appreciated.

Thank you.

[Koolmama]

Koolmama\" post_id=\"1932986\" time=\"1567321195\" user_id=\"21152:

Hello!

I'm looking for a friend to join my dd for P5 Writer's Toolbox (compo writing) class at Mindstretcher Balmoral as they are a new centre and need a minimum of 2 students to open a class 😄 My older ds enjoyed this writing class when he attended few years ago and scored A* for English 👍 The proposed class timing is on Tuesday 7.30 pm (if I can't find anyone for this timing, we can try Sunday 1.30 pm as their P5 teacher is only available on these 2 days... however the tuition fee for Sunday is slightly higher than for weekdays 😅)

Please message me if you are interested, thanks very much! 🤗

Oh by the way, if anybody is interested, the class timing will be on Thursdays 3.30 pm
PM me if you are interested, thank you!