All About English Creative Writing

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littlewoman:
Hi TAS,

I noticed that for your book, some of the lower pri children can write very well, even as well as some of the pri 4s. Did they start learning these strategies from preschool? If a child is not naturally good in this area, what do you recommend that I can do at home as a parent to help? Thanks very much!

Hi littlewoman,

We do not have a preschool programme, although we do take in
higher ability K1/K2 kids who join our P1 programme. Many
of these children (lower primary) whose works are in the book
are of higher ability and hence they skip a level and join classes
that are not of their own age. We group the children by ability and
not age. We do this to so that the high ability students
can be stretched further and the lower ability students can follow the
lessons and learn the basics if their basics are not strong.

You can get your child to read at home. You can read with him
or her and pick out certain good vocabulary from the book and show
your child how to use the vocabulary in their writing.

You can also work on his basic grammar structure. You can buy
assessment books that focus on grammar and help him in this area.

Another area to watch out for is spelling. You can help you child
to conquer this area by teaching him how to spell using mnemonically.

Example:

- Cycled

Spelt as CY-C-LED. You tell your child that it is pronounced one way
but to remember the spelling, you can break it up in this way so it
is easier to remember the spelling.

TAS

Leicestergal

Hi TAS,

How do you explain the usage of abstract nouns, for eg, Due to his depression, he could not function properly as a person. I saw these examples in the synthesis assessment books that i have. And how do you explain the difference between 'depressed' and 'depression' and the different usage? :?

jasmineong

Speaking about synthesis, TAS, I noticed that some schools are even starting it at P3 :shock: Can you help me explain about 'unless' so I can explain to my kid next year? thank you!!

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Leicestergal:
Hi TAS,

How do you explain the usage of abstract nouns, for eg, Due to his depression, he could not function properly as a person. I saw these examples in the synthesis assessment books that i have. And how do you explain the difference between 'depressed' and 'depression' and the different usage? :?

Hi Leicestergal,

a) Usually for abstract nouns, it would be good to recognise
the 'form' they come in.

Here are some of the more common ones:

They can end with 'ion'

Examples:

- Competition
- Depression
- Saturation
- Decision

They can also end with 'ness'

Examples:

- Happiness
- Rudeness
- Sadness

They can also end with 'ty/sy/ry'

Examples:

- Jealousy
- Cruelty
- Rivalry

There are some which end with 'th'

Examples:

- Warmth
- Truth

Some end with 'ment'

Examples:

- Merriment
- Judgement

There are some whose last few letters are changed

Examples:

- Belief (changed from Believe)
- Relief (changed from Relieved)

b) Usually abstract nouns like common nouns (tables, chairs etc)
have a particle before them like (a, an, the) or possessive
pronouns like 'his', 'her' to show that the noun belongs to
someone.

Examples:

- Due to his carelessness,...

- Despite her belief that...

- Much to the amazement of ...

'Depressed' is an adjective, a describing word

Example:

He is depressed

'Depression' is an abstract noun

Example:

She could not look after her children because of her depression

Hope this helps

TAS

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jasmineong:
Speaking about synthesis, TAS, I noticed that some schools are even starting it at P3 :shock: Can you help me explain about 'unless' so I can explain to my kid next year? thank you!!

Hi Jasmine,

Yes, that is true, nowadays synthesis is being taught at P3 as well but
this a trend that we noticed that is more prevalent for only some
schools, most schools start at P4 while a few start only at P5.

We have talked about 'unless' before, it can be found at page 43
of this thread. We have also put down what we mentioned on that
page here for easier reference

S&T example 1

- UNLESS

Things to note:

1) The condition in the sentence should be after 'unless'.

2) There should be one positive part in the sentence and one
negative.

QN: If she does her work, she can go out.

Mistake: Unless she does her work(positive), she can
go out (positive)

Correct Ans: Unless she does her work(positive), she cannot
go out. (negative)

3) When the 'must' is taken out of the sentence, remember
to change the verb if necessary.

QN: She must finish up her food before she can go and play.

Mistake: She cannot go and play unless she finish her food.

Correct Ans: She cannot go and play unless she finishes her food.

4) Sentence should be easy to understand.

QN: She should not take her medicine if she is in pain.

Mistake: She should take her medicine unless she is not in pain.
(the reader must think through for a while before understanding what
the sentence means)

Correct Ans: She should not take her medicine unless she is
in pain.

TAS

isabella.026990zola

The Alternative Story:

Hi isabella.zola,

You can make writing fun for him or her.

These are some suggestions to make writing fun:

1) Have a comic strip to tell your story

You can ask him to write a story but instead of pure writing, you can
get your child to draw cartoon characters and use speech bubbles to
show what the characters are saying in the story instead.

2) Combine plots from different stories

Show him different extracts from a story book and ask him to
take a storyline from one book and merge it with another and
come up with his own unique story.

Example:

Story of 3 Little Pigs and the Big Bad Wolf..stop at the part
where he enters the pig's house to blow it down and weave in this
story to 'Jack and the Beanstalk' where the Big Bad Wolf
huffs and puffs and finds himself in the land of giants and he
needs to depend on Jack to survive.

In the end, he realizes that he cannot go around blowing other
animals' houses down just to get what he wants as he realizes that
if Jack had not been unselfish, he would have been killed by the giant.

By doing so, your child does not have to write his own story but
instead he can choose to weave in one part of a story into another
and create something new altogether. This also helps him to be more
creative.

Basically, you can set writing tasks for him that are fun and which
also do not include lots of actual writing yet to get him started

TAS

Hi TAS,

Thank you for your detailed and wonderful ideas!

Your advice on this forum is invaluable! I will try these ideas out and let you know how it goes.

jasmineong

jasmineong

TAS, I went to look for your other posts at other threads and found these postings by you that are commonly asked and commonly confusing to us parents..I post them here so it is easy reference for other parents and me to look through when we are in doubt, thanks for taking the time to post all these tips! :celebrate: I have categorized them, hope I have done it correctly.

-an, a (when 'an' should not be used even when the first letter is a vowel)
http://www.kiasuparents.com/kiasu/forum/viewtopic.php?t=35&postdays=0&postorder=asc&start=540

-\texamples of flashbacks
http://www.kiasuparents.com/kiasu/forum/viewtopic.php?t=35&postdays=0&postorder=asc&start=530

-\tLie, lay, lain, laid (when to use what)
http://www.kiasuparents.com/kiasu/forum/viewtopic.php?t=35&postdays=0&postorder=asc&start=520

-\tdiff between past tense and past continuous tense
http://www.kiasuparents.com/kiasu/forum/viewtopic.php?t=35&postdays=0&postorder=asc&start=500

-\twhom, who (when to use what)
http://www.kiasuparents.com/kiasu/forum/viewtopic.php?t=11809&postdays=0&postorder=asc&start=40

- past tense, past perfect tense
http://www.kiasuparents.com/kiasu/forum/viewtopic.php?t=11809&postdays=0&postorder=asc&start=30

quirkymum

Hi Jasmine,

Thanks for compiling this list. I have been following TAS for a short while but was too busy and tired to go back further into their earlier threads to read what they posted. Now the tips are all in one place, fantastic! :celebrate:

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