All About English Creative Writing

[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..:)

[buds]

The Alternative Story:

Hi buds,

Heyya TAS!

The Alternative Story:

Thanks for the detailed information on Twitter and talking about us:). At this rate, even if you are not at TAS, you can enjoy our privileged card membership haha.

Wow! Seriously?

I'd love that! :love:

The Alternative Story:

We love using Twitter at TAS. You can get further book recommendations on our Twitter account too and we will also update the KSP when we do have fantastic book recommendations.

It's great that you guys are keeping up with the hip and the young uns'
out there... being savvy and all, plus engaging them in more meaningful
twitter following. It's just a fabulous idea! :celebrate:

The Alternative Story:

For parents' workshops, we are having one this holidays- Every Child Can Write. (To teach parents creative writing strategies and showing parents how even movies can be used to teach plot development)

The workshop will be on 29 May and 5 June. Those who sign up in a group of 4 get 50% discount. If you are interested, you can email us or pm us.

Sounds interesting!

PM me the itinerary and content, can?
I'm outta the industry too long, mebbe
getting rusty.. so mebbe a refresher
might do me good? :lol:

The Alternative Story:

TAS

A definite plus having TAS here in KiasuParents! :celebrate:

[junrahmat]

Hey buds,

I'm keen in signing up for the parents workshop too. If we can get 4 people, then we'll be entitled to their 50% disc..

[The Alternative Story]

Hi buds,


We will pm you the details of the privileged card membership and also the parent's workshop.:) We hope to meet you at the workshop:)

It is great for us to join the forum as we can reach out to parents who are really interested in the education of the children and it is easier to work with them concerning their children. Really hats off to the people working to make this forum happen :celebrate:

TAS

[jedamum]

The Alternative Story:

For parents' workshops, we are having one this holidays- Every Child Can Write. (To teach parents creative writing strategies and showing parents how even movies can be used to teach plot development)

The workshop will be on 29 May and 5 June. Those who sign up in a group of 4 get 50% discount. If you are interested, you can email us or pm us.

TAS

TAS,
why don't you update the details of the workshop at http://www.kiasuparents.com/kiasu/forum/viewtopic.php?t=7586&postdays=0&postorder=asc&start=10?
that will benefit more parents who are sourcing for such information.

[buds]

Hi TAS, tks for the PM.

I'll be in touch. Yep, hope to
finally meet you guys. :hi5:

Hey, jedamum is right.
You can consider putting up
your services at Market Place
or publicise your event at Happenings..

[Lynn2]

Hi The Alternative Story


Wanna check with u this.

I have a pri five girl.She reads widely and the teacher told me she writes beautifully.But, to me I feel that she just lack something.Her compo is always around the range 30 to 34 over 50.May I know how we can help her to improve further?She loves writing.

Thanks

[The Alternative Story]

Hi jedamum and buds,


Thanks for the suggestion, we will definitely put up the details of the workshop or the Market Place thread and Happenings thread:)

TAS

[The Alternative Story]

Lynn2:

Hi The Alternative Story


Wanna check with u this.

I have a pri five girl.She reads widely and the teacher told me she writes beautifully.But, to me I feel that she just lack something.Her compo is always around the range 30 to 34 over 50.May I know how we can help her to improve further?She loves writing.

Thanks

Hi Lynn2,

Just a check, is it 34 over 40 or over 50? Because the composition component is over 40 and the situational is over 15 so total marks for paper 1 is 55.

If her composition is around the range of 30-34 over 40, then she is writing very well. She probably has a wide range of vocabulary usage. She definitely has no problem with her grammar as well to get over 30 marks.

However, in order to score above 35, (we do know of students being able to get even as high as 39 in the PSLE from some of our previous experiences as teachers) your child would need to improve in the plot development and probably use writing skills then can hook the reader in. So her writing does not just look good but it has the ability to get hook the reader.

For example (for drowning):
(\"Jie Jie,\" my brother called out to me as I walked to the deckchair to get my goggles. Turning around, I saw to my horror, my 3 year old brother toddle out of the baby pool and began to make his way to the adult pool where he could see some children playing.

\"No!\" I shouted, fear making my voice squeak. My brother smiled his toothy grin at me and before I could run to him, he jumped into the adult pool. His happy grin was replaced by a confused look as he realised that he could not touch the ground.

I shrugged off my bathrobe and dived into the pool. The pool was serene, seemingly unaware of the drama unfolding in it. I could see my brother thrashing about. His tiny legs pumped up and down helplessly as he struggled to get air. I had to get to my brother, I had to. Almost there, I was almost there when a sudden intense pain made me almost double in pain. A leg cramp! Another intense bolt of pain ripped through my leg. I reached out to try to get my brother but the pain was unbearable. Surfacing for a quick gasp of air, I scanned the area for adults. No one. There was no one about except for a few young children happily laughing away.)

This short extract here is one where the reader will feel the urgency of the situation and the reader wants to read on to find out how the story ends, that is successful 'tension development'. It may not be overflowing with good vocabulary but the vocabulary used is appropriate to get the story across. Many children cram in as many good vocabulary phrases to try to score points but then their writing has a very unnatural feel to it and the reader is not able to get hooked as he needs to wade past a lot of phrases to get to the story.

If you have any more questions, you can ask us or you could write our part of your daughter's writing here and we could try to see what the problem is and how to help further enhance her writing.:)

TAS