All About English Creative Writing
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Hi Parents,
I am new to the forum. I am sharing an original simple piece of writing written by me. I will be happy to share any strategies for Primary School Composition Writing or even more samples of writing. Give me a buzz! Hope this helps. I would like to hear from you as well.
Cheers,
Educator WL
Topic: Gratitude
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The familiar smell of disinfectants lingered in the cold air as Sue was wheeled into the hospital. The hospital was like her second home to her as a cancer patient who had to do chemotherapy fortnightly. She always dreaded the chemotherapy sessions as the side effects were difficult to bear. Being the only child, Sue knew that it hurt her mother to see her suffer in pain. Hence, she always maintained a strong front in front of her loving mother no matter how uncomfortable the sessions were.
\tIt was a special day for Sue as she had completed her last chemotherapy last week and she was due to get her lab report at the hospital. Before her mother wheeled her frail body into the doctor’s room, she took in a long deep breath to contain her nervousness.
\t“Hi Sue! How are you?” greeted Doctor Tan with a wide smile.
\tSue smiled at Doctor Tan. She would be lying if she replied him that she was feeling good.
\t“I have news for you,” Doctor Tan announced.
\tSue’s heart was slamming against her chest at that moment. Her breathing hastened. Could it be that I would no longer have to endure the chemotherapy sessions anymore? Could this be my lucky day? The more she thought about it, the brighter her eyes gleamed with hope. She had waited for this day to come for so long, only to be disappointed time and time again as the cancer cells threatened to make a comeback.
\t“Your lab results were good. No more cancer cells! You need not come for anymore chemotherapy sessions! You did it!” Doctor Tan exclaimed, grinning from ear to ear.
\tSue could not believe what she was hearing. She pinched herself to make sure that she was not dreaming. She was so overwhelmed with gratitude that her eyes were brimming with tears. She hugged her mother tightly. Sue thanked the doctor profusely before leaving the room to announce the news to the nurses who have taken care of her since her first chemotherapy session in the hospital. Strangely, the nurses were nowhere to be found.
\t“Maybe the nurses are assigned a different shift today. It’s alright, we can thank them another day. Let’s pick up some of your other reports before we leave the hospital,” Sue’s mother comforted her. She then wheeled Sue in the direction of a room near lounge area. Strangely, she heard giggles coming from the room.
\tPop!
\tConfetti rained on Sue when she opened the door. Standing in the room were the nurses and her classmates! They had waited in the room to surprise Sue!
\t“Congratulations on winning the battle! You did it!” shouted her classmates. Sue was touched beyond words to see her favourite people in the room. Her classmates had prepared a cake to congratulate her and the nurses presented her with a bouquet of flowers. It was her favourite cake from Cedele which she had been abstaining from due to her health condition.
Sue had never felt such a euphoric sense of freedom and happiness. It was not just because of the surprise celebration, but because of the victory over the long and dreary battle with cancer for three years. The constant vomiting and continual hair loss were something that she wished no one would have to go through. She had many times wished to give up on the chemotherapy sessions but persevered on because of her friends’ and family’s encouragement. She was certainly thankful for the unwavering support and care from the nurses, classmates and her mother. She would not have been able to recover fully without any of their help and encouragement. She hugged them tightly before making a wish and cutting the cake. She sincerely wished for good health for all the people present. Sue would forever be grateful to the people who had helped her in her recovery of her journey with cancer. -
Holy moly! If I can write like that in P6, I won't mind having to go through chemotherapy for that
Good job. -
Oh… that is such good writing. Is that the standard required of children now? My girl is entering P1 next year. How will the children know how to write about such "deep" questions?
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hblmama\" post_id=\"2045045\" time=\"1636106024\" user_id=\"195684:
Not to worry... I don't think that is the standard expected of most P6 students
Oh.. that is such good writing. Is that the standard required of children now? My girl is entering P1 next year. How will the children know how to write about such \"deep\" questions?
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It’s really quite hard to find a center to teach creative writing. I have tried a few lessons at WOW, Write connection and is frustrated at how they all seem to make the child copy good phrases most of the time. WOW especially frustrates my child because they not only made him copy good phrases, but made him rewrite the whole model essay (which can run up to 4 pages long) after every lesson as hwk. He is always angry at having to copy and re-write the whole essay. Not sure if it is because the teacher is new or if the program is like that. I exited after 5 lessons. Not tried TAS but my friend told me it is the same as well - copying & memorising. TLL, Lilmighty and Thinking Factory does not have a pure writing class. Learning Point does have only one writing class at Thomson but it seems to be helmed by a junior teacher. Artistic Strategies seems to be quite fun but when I checked, the classes seem to be taught by very young teachers. Joyous Learning has a Thinking Writer programme but I have heard some people comment that it is quite dry.
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san20sg\" post_id=\"2045363\" time=\"1636325794\" user_id=\"76391:
Hi, if your child’s English is generally good already, I suggest Think Teach Academy’s “One Storyline Approach”. They are geared specifically towards teaching the child how to craft a Compo for exams purposes, and it’s not the usual boring copying good phrases. Creativity is involved on the part of the child.
It's really quite hard to find a center to teach creative writing. I have tried a few lessons at WOW, Write connection and is frustrated at how they all seem to make the child copy good phrases most of the time. WOW especially frustrates my child because they made not only copy good phrases, but made him rewrite the whole model essay (which can run up to 4 pages long) after every lesson as hwk. He is always angry at having to copy and re-write the whole essay. Not sure if it is because the teacher is new or if the program is like that. I exited after 5 lessons. Not tried TAS but my friend told me it is the same as well - copying & memorising. TLL, Lilmighty and Thinking Factory does not have a pure writing class. Learning Point does have only one writing class at Thomson but it seems to be helmed by a junior teacher. Artistic Strategies seems to be quite fun but when I checked, the classes seem to be taught by very young teachers. Joyous Learning has a Thinking Writer programme but I have heard some people comment that it is quite dry.
You can try their free video first and then pay per topic if you wish.
They also have on-site and “live” online lessons if u prefer (which probably entails homework) - my son preferred to “own time own target” with me at home “marking” his compos, no need to re-write. -
I don’t think sending your kid to a class for creative writing will make him an Ernest Hemingway automatically. Creative writing classes will teach the rules of the game, but how you play it is dependent on yourself.
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ChiefKiasu\" post_id=\"2045381\" time=\"1636336636\" user_id=\"3:
I don't disagree with you, but it is well-known that Hemingway benefitted immensely from Gertrude Stein's lectures and mentorship.
I don't think sending your kid to a class for creative writing will make him an Ernest Hemingway automatically. Creative writing classes will teach the rules of the game, but how you play it is dependent on yourself.
Depends on what you hope to get out of creative writing programs, if it is just to train a child to write well for the purpose of exams, as long as a child is diligent and reads regularly, I think most will fulfil this purpose with the caveat that it is not a panacea and overnight results are not realistic.
Just my two cents. -
Thanks Zac’s mum, I will check out Think Teach Academy too.
I really do not know how to teach creative writing and also do not know how best it should be taught. However, when I keep seeing him copy all these model compositions (while whining throughout), it doesn’t feel right to me to make kids copy chunks of phrases and make them rewrite drafts and redrafts of these model essays that he didn’t write by himself. He has enough of these drilling and memorizing from his Chinese lessons and I do not wish him to lose interest in English just like what it did to his Chinese.
I do not feel that this will help him to inculcate a love of the language and bring out his own voice and am also not sure how these copying will help him develop writing skills. -
I’ll be blunt and tell you that in Singapore, the glut of “creative writing” centres out there is due to the demand from parents wanting their kids’ Compo marks to improve. Primary schools simply do not spend much time teaching the kids on how to score in this exam component. If the child’s language foundation is not good, it makes sense to use the method of drilling + memorizing + regurgitating the good phrases. This works especially for kids whose first language is NOT English.
In P3/4 the Compo exam is marked upon 20 (10 marks for Content, 10 marks for Language). The kids have to describe a series of sequential pictures, similar to CL zuowen.
In P5/P6, the Compo exam is marked upon 40 (20 marks for Content, 20 marks for Language). The kids have to write on a given topic (Eg “An unfortunate incident”) and tie in any one of the given Word Art pictures.
The strategy for PSLE is therefore different from P3/P4. One very good exam tip that TTA mentioned was for the student to reiterate the topic at least 3 times throughout the Compo (preferably in the concluding paragraph). This is to “remind” the marker that the essay is NOT out of point. Other simple “rules” that I made my son follow were to throw in at least 5 good phrases, and to use a more creative sort of trick to make his essay stand out from the crowd, Eg a plot twist, or flashback, or reflective point of view, or narrate from the point of view of an inanimate object, whatever.
IMO, exams are not the place to let loose on creativity, cos the markers still expect a fairly typical kind of template answer. I allow my boy free reign on his creative writing when he types out his adventure stories on his laptop. He will write it in the style of a diary (Minecrafter point of view), or a Beyblade challenger etc. He prefers typing to using a pen to write on paper.
To sum up, creative writing is not the same as Compo writing, not in my eyes.
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