All About English Creative Writing
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caroline3sg:
Yes, my boy is in K2 now. since there are only like mths til next yr, wouldn't it be a bit later to enrol now? Nonetheless, I will bear your recommendation in mind when the time comes for my ds2.jedamum
Is your son K2 now? How about zoophonics wise owls programme (advanced phonics)? My son is now in wise owls (previously young joey). In wise owls, they have a little comprehension (not every lesson), a little writing (max 5 sentences) (also not every lesson).
It is phonics programme, not english. Seems wise owls is bridging phonics with a little english before we parents embark the children on English grammar, tenses, vocab & creating writing.
Thanks! -
I have decided to 'teach' my boy compo writing (can't said its creative writing, cos i'm not creative :lol:) personally due to schedule clashing and cost savings. Any tips on how to (or care to review a teeny bit on how your kid's tutor teach this topic?) effectively 'teach' or encourage creative writing?
Had bought an assessment book to start with and nearly fainted when I saw the 'model answer'....are P1 students really expected to write that well? Told my boy to write 5 sentences and 3 out of the sentences were as follows...
- The books in the library are arranged neatly.
- The chairs and tables are also arranged neatly.
- The shelves are also arranged neatly.
:roll: :lol:MMM:
MMM,So in the last SA1, I told her to write no more than 5 sentences as the more she writes, she is potentially making more mistakes.
Do schools deduct marks for errors, or award marks for correct answers?
If it is the latter, wouldn't it be better to write more so that the teacher has more opportunity to give marks? That's what I used to do for MY OWN essay writing. -
jedamum:
Kekkkekeke :lol: so young he already knows how to cut and paste to meet requirements... got bright future in front of him... Told my boy to write 5 sentences and 3 out of the sentences were as follows...
- The books in the library are arranged neatly.
- The chairs and tables are also arranged neatly.
- The shelves are also arranged neatly.
:roll: :lol:
.... -
My older boy went through a series of creative writing course-P1 @ I Can Read Advanced Exams and Writing Skills, P2 @ Jan & Elly creative writing, P3 @ Morris Allen English enrichment and end of P3 @ Catherine Khoo's Experiments.
But when I asked him if these helped, his answer is I dunno know. We do not know how to explain for his flair for writing, these courses or his daily reading?
This year, my younger boy was introduced to the 4W and 1H by the sch teacher -When, Where, Who, What and How. But there is so few practices, so far less than 10 compo and some are dictated works, yet this SA2 is testing them on compo :roll:
I am now deciding between spending money and time on 3rd party enrichments or just loading him with reading at home. -
Hi all,
Do any parents have experiences with Learning Point at Simei? Thinking of signing my daughter for creative writing courses there next year (P3). Heard that a screening test has to be conducted b4 they accept you. Any feedback from parents who have kids there at present?
How abt Discovery Vacation Camps during the school holiday? Any parents whose children had attended the Science camp b4? Thanks -
Hi Jennifer,
Thanks for sharing.
Any reason why you did not stick to one particular creative writing centre?
Yes, the course fees can be quite hefty…sufficient to buy plenty of books for self-reading. -
jedamum:
Timing is the deciding factor. The older boy was in afternoon session in P1 (ICR has Sat class, weekdays too rush), then P2 morning session (switched to Jan & Elly afternoon class as Jan & Elly is nearer our place, jsut a few bus tops away), then P3 afternoon session (Morris Allen Sat class, ICR @ Serene Centre has closed down plus we wanted to try the Gifted Prog preparation class).Hi Jennifer,
Thanks for sharing.
Any reason why you did not stick to one particular creative writing centre?
Yes, the course fees can be quite hefty...sufficient to buy plenty of books for self-reading.
I think most centres teach the same stuff-grammer, vocabulary n ideas generation. It all boils down to timing n fees n locations. And the teacher rapport with the students. -
Jennifer:
Yes Jennifer, I had the same experience. My boy was introduced to the 4W and 1H in school too. And yes, less than 10 compo was done in school and I am prepared that the results might not turn out good. I am also thinking, to send him to a Creative Writing class or make him read and write more. I saw a software My Home Tutor at Popular which teaches creative writing and others. Maybe could help a little......?My older boy went through a series of creative writing course-P1 @ I Can Read Advanced Exams and Writing Skills, P2 @ Jan & Elly creative writing, P3 @ Morris Allen English enrichment and end of P3 @ Catherine Khoo's Experiments.
But when I asked him if these helped, his answer is I dunno know. We do not know how to explain for his flair for writing, these courses or his daily reading?
This year, my younger boy was introduced to the 4W and 1H by the sch teacher -When, Where, Who, What and How. But there is so few practices, so far less than 10 compo and some are dictated works, yet this SA2 is testing them on compo :roll:
I am now deciding between spending money and time on 3rd party enrichments or just loading him with reading at home. -
Hi Chief,
Can you help to give summary of the list of english enrichment centres? (Like those that you have done for the chinese enrichment)
Thanks, your effort is appreciated so that we parents can have a clear picture. -
hi all,
Would like to seek advice on English creative writing classes. Any good centres to recommend ?
Thanks.
Rgds,
Ming -
mwchua:
...Would like to seek advice on English creative writing classes. Any good centres to recommend ?...
[Moderator's note: Topics merged.] -
What is creative writing? There seems to be a lot of enrichment centres offering creative writing. Are schools these days looking for creative writing in the student’s work?
I have a P1 boy who is currently attending I Can Read Advanced Exams and Writing Skills. I really don’t see much advance exam and writing skills being taught but I do see a lot of creativity in his writing in his ICR classes. He has lots of funs in class and the teacher encourages a lot of creativity.
So far he has only done a few compo in his P sch…and…I somewhat incline to think that his school teacher in school would be looking for standard stuffs, down to earth and the not so much creative stuffs.
Can anyone here share with me your experience on what the school looks for? Creativity? -
usaik:
What is creative writing?...
Thanks usaik, you brought up an excellent point. Essentially, we tend to equate creative writing to Primary School COMPOSITION. This leads to confusion and disillusion when the child's results come in at the end of the year.
Key goals of Primary School composition
- Grammar
- Spelling
- Sentence construction
- Organization and semantics
- Correct use of words/idioms
Key goals of creative writing:
- Captivating
- Captivating
- And did I say... captivating?
Essentially, you can write the most boring story for Primary school and get top marks as long as your grammar and sentence construction is pristine. Conversely, a Pulitzer prize article/story may not necessarily ace a Primary school English exam.
Of course, a good creative writer will generally have as pre-requisites the necessary skills of a good composition writer. But the focus is really on the ability to open up the mind to create something out of nothing. -
Thanks for sharing the difference b/w creative writing and what school 's actually look out for.
I agree that a good creative writer will generally have as pre-requisites the necessary skills of a good composition writer. However, I personally feel that it is a huge challenge to “enrich” a child to attain the objective of the goal for a Primary school composition without comprising and stifling the creativity of a young beginner writer.
Any tips to share on how to teach a child to constantly stick to the goals of the P Sch composition when his ideas and thoughts are running 2 thousand miles ahead WITHOUT killing the fun and the joy in creative writing. -
usaik:
You are right. In fact, one of the cardinal rules of stimulating creative writing in children is NOT to nitpick on spelling and grammar, but focus on how well the idea is developed. Our children's interest in writing drop to zero when their compositions comes back in a sea of red-ink....I agree that a good creative writer will generally have as pre-requisites the necessary skills of a good composition writer. However, I personally feel that it is a huge challenge to \"enrich\" a child to attain the objective of the goal for a Primary school composition without comprising and stifling the creativity of a young beginner writer.
Any tips to share on how to teach a child to constantly stick to the goals of the P Sch composition when his ideas and thoughts are running 2 thousand miles ahead WITHOUT killing the fun and the joy in creative writing.
The child must be rewarded for creativity first, and delivery second. And delivery is really the part where we can help the child improve on grammar and semantics, which are necessary for primary school.
1. NEVER criticize the child's ideas in his/her writing. At the first reading, praise generously regardless of how outlandish or fantastic the story appears to you. But remain authentic, and don't go overboard if you really dislike the story.
2. Subsequently, challenge the child to rewrite the story, not so much as to improve grammar and spelling, but to improve the impact of the story on the readers. It is not a \"your spelling/grammar sucks, so do corrections\" session. Rather, it can be something like: \"That's a great story, and I've got some tips for you to make it more exciting and readable. Here's how you can make this sentence more enjoyable... and here's how you can organize the story to make it more coherent...\"
Primary schools generally are a lot less on creative writing, and much more on report writing. Early levels do \"picture compositions\", in which children are to extract and describe the story from a sequence of pictures. So there is lesser opportunity to be creative, and since the framework is already given, lesser chance for children to try out different ways of organizing their stories for greater impact. That's exactly how journalists are trained to write. -
I remembered hating composition when I was younger 'cos it's comething that I cannot relate to. Don't think it matters if it's given a better name called \"creative writing\"
What I did recently (so far working) is to blend it with his interest. For instance, he loves to compose with musical notes (produce pieces which doesn't make sense really). So I told him to think of a story and build his music on his piece of story. So he wrote a story on a stormy night and \"compose\" a fast piece of loud music piece symbolising a stormy night. Praises and appreciation of his own composed music is where he gets his motivation for his next piece of work. Didn't force him to do that everyday as he needs his inspiration too :lol:
So if your kid likes to draw, get hhim/her to write a stroy about it and share. That might work too. Good luck. -
ChiefKiasu:
Dear Chief,usaik:
What is creative writing?...
Key goals of Primary School composition
- Grammar
- Spelling
- Sentence construction
- Organization and semantics
- Correct use of words/idioms
My girl will be in P2 next year. Can you recommended some good tution centre/enrichment cente that offer english creative writing courses near Bukit Batok/Bukit Timah /Choa chu kang area. My girl is not very good in composition writing so it does not matter whether it is creative writing so long it can help her on her writing.
I have been looking around but none seems to impress me. My girl was in Jan and Elly for P1 for half a year but I do not see much of improvement in her writing so I want to change her to other place. -
snowyqueen:
Hi snowyqueen, that is precisely my point with regards to how we parents do not really understand what we are signing up for and what exactly is the problem we are trying to solve. We need to spend some time with the child to assess what the real problem is first, before delving into an \"enrichment solution\"....My girl is not very good in composition writing so it does not matter whether it is creative writing so long it can help her on her writing.
I have been looking around but none seems to impress me. My girl was in Jan and Elly for P1 for half a year but I do not see much of improvement in her writing so I want to change her to other place.
There is a difference between learning-to-write (which focuses on grammar and punctuation) and writing-to-learn (which focuses on using the written language for effective communication). During the first 3 years of Primary school, almost all teachers focus on learning-to-write. A child that has unbridled imagination will likely score poorly during these years if he/she does not already have a good foundation of standard English. If this is that case, a creative writing class is unlikely to help the child do better in composition tests.
At the same time, children's writing start from:
\"labelling\" (ie. ability to use nouns and link them together with grammar to form sentences - preschools), to
\"recounting\" (ie. ability to narrate an observation - lower Primary), to
\"expository\" (ie. ability to explain or put forth an idea or concept - upper Primary)
As such, early Primary school English compositions are more of the narrative style, which in turn tend to be chronological in nature (eg. This happened, and then it causes another event, and then... and finally... ). If you listen to how your child describes his day in school to you, you'll get what I mean from all the \"and then\"s that come from him. In fact, most teachers encourage the application of the chronological style, and frown on other, possibly more interesting, writing styles.
This means that if you are looking for your child to do well in composition for Primary school, all you really need to do is to get picture composition assessment books from the bookstore, and do the following for each of the stories:
1. Get your child to verbally narrate to you the action in sequence.
2. Get your child to write down the following on a working sheet of paper.
- Players: Identify the actors/entities in the story, and their relationship
- Setting: Describe the place where the story happened
- Event: Describe the action
- Conclusion: Describe the resolution and learning (moral of the story)
3. Get your child to start writing the composition based on his notes and in the following sections:
- Introduction (Players and setting)
- Body (Event - What happened?)
- Conclusion (So what?)
Try to get the child to supply details in his description through a generous use of adjectives.
If your child do enough of these picture compositions, there is a strong likelihood that he may even get a story with a familiar theme for the exams.
In my humble opinion, I do not believe that courses that teach creative writing can actually help improve composition skills for lower Primary levels, especially if they are true to their goal of encouraging creative writing! Can you imagine all novels having the same Intro-Body-Conclusion format :roll: ? -
\"3. Get your child to start writing the composition based on his notes and in the following sections:
- Introduction (Players and setting)
- Body (Event - What happened?)
- Conclusion (So what?)
Try to get the child to supply details in his description through a generous use of adjectives.
If your child do enough of these picture compositions, there is a strong likelihood that he may even get a story with a familiar theme for the exams.\"
Dear Chief,
Thanks for your opinion. It looks like I can actually coach on my own for my girl's English. However, I feel very uncomfortable if I do not send her to any enrichment course :? Why I say that?
My gal didn't do well for SA1 (low end of Band 2) because I never believe in stressing my child with enrichment courses and to me good results do not neceesary mean success when the child grows up next time. I also didn't prepare her for P1. After the parent review in SA1, I was very humilated by the teacher's comments and I told myself that if this is what the school wants or what the Singapore Education system is all about, nevermind I will follow and I will meet your standard. I can be very kiasu also.
I started her with tuition/enrichment courses in June and I also do a lot of personal coaching to bring up her standard. I even taught the whole Maths syllabus within the June holiday. I did a lot of counselling to make her understand that she must be serious in her study and she must also pay attention in class and hand up her homework on time. Previously I was very busy with my work and I failed to follow up closely what had been covered in school, thinking she could cope on her own.
After the \"humilation\", I wanted to prove to the teacher that she was wrong about my gal. I made a lot of scariface in order to spend time to coach her. Guess what? I almost dropped my Hp when she called me to inform me of her results last week. She even beats one of the top girls in her class for English and Chinese. For Maths, she made a few careless mistakes but could still score above 90 marks. She has progressed well to be one of the top girls in her class for SA2.
What I want to point out is that I am very frustrated with the eductaion system because I need to prepare her in advance for the subjects because there is not much teaching in school. They only want to access the students with worksheets. This is very true especially for English. I am the teacher who has to patiently build up her understanding of grammar and vocabulary. Though the school also covers some but she will not be able to score in exam if purely based on what the school taught.
Now, I am very kiasu already because the Singapore education system forces me to be what I am now. I still want to enrol her to a course who focus on composition writing (no need to be creative writing) but cannot make up my mind which one to choose??? That's why I am not sure how to proceed??? I also feel very pressurized now as I am worried if my gal can keep to her standard when she goes to P2.
My husband keeps challenging me if education is all about marks. I told him that at least for Singapore Education, the answer is absolutely \"Yes\" generally. I really wonder if a child enducation is contributed by tuition/enrichment centres or school? In fact, the reason for me to come to this forum is to hope to find an answer for this dilemna??????????? -
snowyqueen:
...It looks like I can actually coach on my own for my girl's English. However, I feel very uncomfortable if I do not send her to any enrichment course :? Why I say that?...
Hi snowyqueen, if you ask me, I think you have already answered your own question about whether you should be sending your child for English enrichment!
Your child's success in her exams this year is entirely due to your personal efforts in teaching her. I don't think outsourcing the problem to enrichment programmes can achieve anything close to the level that she has gotten. Your child is fortunate to have a parent like you for guidance.
Enrichment programmes are most effective if there is active parental participation in the process. It is not just pay and hope for the best. We have to make it a point to understand what is being taught and see how we can reinforce it at home.
My concern in your case is that you might \"overdose\" your child with enrichment programmes that are too academic-focused in your determination to prove her teacher wrong. That may have lasting negative impact on your daughter who may be doing it primarily because mummy says she must, and not because she herself wants to prove her teacher wrong. Granted that she has already done so well, perhaps it is timely to re-strategise on her external education programme to put more emphasis on why learning is FUN.
I would encourage you to continue to send your daughter to creative writing classes because those will have long-term impact and you should see the benefits when she is in Primary 5 when compositions start to get more expository in nature. Creative writing also give your daughter the reason why she should try to improve on her composition writing skills, so that she can tell her story more effectively.
Jan and Elly is well-liked by parents in our community. Another possibility is to consider http://www.kiasuparents.com/kiasu/enrichment/british-council programmes. If you want it to be a bit more academic, I believe http://www.kiasuparents.com/kiasu/enrichment/learning-labin United Square will be suited to your needs. You may also want to try out http://www.kiasuparents.com/kiasu/enrichment/tony-buzan-learning-centre.