All About English Creative Writing

[pokemon]

TAS,


Are you also conducting english creative writing classes in some pri schools as their enrichment pgm? Im interested to introduce to my ds school since they will be having creative writing enrichment pgm next year.

Btw, for my p1 son’s creative writing in school, its based on a picture with some helping words and they need to write about the picture with at least 60 words. For first half of the year, he has been writing normal compo format but after term 3, he was told my his teacher he cant used names to identify the people in the pix, rather he has to write "a girl, an old lady and etc", and he has to described whatever he see from the pix, its like doing an oral in written format. Ds say has to do this way in their school SA2 paper.

Im puzzled, is this P1 exam format or only for my ds school? Mayb can other parents share their experiences. How about P2? My ds was asking when can he return to writing his own story.

[krazy]

TAS


Package received with thanks.

[The Alternative Story]

pokemon:

TAS,


Are you also conducting english creative writing classes in some pri schools as their enrichment pgm? Im interested to introduce to my ds school since they will be having creative writing enrichment pgm next year.

Btw, for my p1 son's creative writing in school, its based on a picture with some helping words and they need to write about the picture with at least 60 words. For first half of the year, he has been writing normal compo format but after term 3, he was told my his teacher he cant used names to identify the people in the pix, rather he has to write \"a girl, an old lady and etc\", and he has to described whatever he see from the pix, its like doing an oral in written format. Ds say has to do this way in their school SA2 paper.

Im puzzled, is this P1 exam format or only for my ds school? Mayb can other parents share their experiences. How about P2? My ds was asking when can he return to writing his own story.

Hi pokemon,

Yes we are conducting Creative Writing and English programmes in
some schools as part of their enrichment programmes.

If you would like to introduce our programmes to your ds's school,
perhaps you could email us your interest, the school that
your ds is from, the person in the school to contact and we can look
into this?
Our contact details can be found at
http://www.kiasuparents.com/kiasu/forum/viewtopic.php?t=7586&postdays=0&postorder=asc&start=140

So far, we have not heard of other schools that get the children to
write a composition in an 'oral' format where they are not
allowed to give names to the characters and to only describe
what they see in the picture. Maybe you would like to ask your
ds's teacher the rationale for doing so. Perhaps they want to
train certain aspects of composition writing?

Usually the trend at P1 and P2 is that the composition topics given
are more 'mundane'- a trip to the zoo, a walk in the park etc.

Once they reach P3 - P6, the composition topics usually have a
'problem' in the story where the children can 'build tension'
Eg- Fire at home, accident at the park, bee attack etc.

TAS

[The Alternative Story]

krazy:

TAS


Package received with thanks.

No problem

[jedamum]

The Alternative Story:

'Written expression' simply means composition here. But as your child
is in lower primary, they would only need to write a few sentences.

For lower primary students, the teachers look more for clear and simple
sentences. You can emphasize that with your child. I think it is not
so advisable to let his imagination go wild yet. But maybe you could
elaborate on what you mean by that?

However, if you could start him on writing more descriptively now,
that would add 'flavour' to his writing and help it to stand out.

You can remind him to 'show' and not 'tell' a scene.

Example (tell):

- I helped my mother to clean the house. I felt very happy. She told
me that I was very helpful.

Example (show):

- \"Come and help me to tidy the house!\" my mother called out.
Quickly keeping my toys, I went to help her. I took a broom and
began to sweep the floor in big sweeping movements. My mother
smiled at me fondly and we continued to sweep and dust the whole
house together.

Here when we 'show', we use varied sentence structures to make
the story less 'monotonous'. For example, we start some sentences
with \"ly\" or we have a speech in the writing. We also 'show' the
scene by using descriptive words like 'quickly', 'fondly', and
'big sweeping movements'. This helps to paint the picture of what
is happening in the reader's mind and pulls him into the story.

TAS

Hi TAS,

Further to my earlier queries, any idea which one of the following usually has more weightage? contents, sentence structure, or spelling? which should i focus on in terms of priority? My boy uses boring and predictable sentences. While wanting to focus on examination 'criteria', i find his compo extremely boring (but safe). And in instances when he tried to use descriptive wordings, he spelled them wrongly.

[The Alternative Story]

jedamum:

Hi TAS,

Further to my earlier queries, any idea which one of the following usually has more weightage? contents, sentence structure, or spelling? which should i focus on in terms of priority? My boy uses boring and predictable sentences. While wanting to focus on examination 'criteria', i find his compo extremely boring (but safe). And in instances when he tried to use descriptive wordings, he spelled them wrongly.

Hi jedamum,

For most schools, half of the weightage would be for Language-sentence
structure, spelling, punctuation etc and half for Content- Logical
thought flow, good starting, ending, good plot development.

If your son is good at the 'boring but safe' compositions, you can
let it be for now as it is so near SA2. However after SA2, you could
get him to explore using more descriptive phrasing for his writing.

To help him with his spelling, you could break up the words
mnemonically. You can tell him that the word is pronounced one way,
but to remember the spelling, you can break it up in an easy way
to remember the spelling.

Example:

Phrase to describe clouds: Cotton-white clouds

Cotton - COT/TON

White - W/HI/TE

Clouds - Clo/u/ds

Hope this helps.

TAS

[jedamum]

The Alternative Story:

Hi jedamum,

For most schools, half of the weightage would be for Language-sentence
structure, spelling, punctuation etc and half for Content- Logical
thought flow, good starting, ending, good plot development.

If your son is good at the 'boring but safe' compositions, you can
let it be for now as it is so near SA2. However after SA2, you could
get him to explore using more descriptive phrasing for his writing.

To help him with his spelling, you could break up the words
mnemonically. You can tell him that the word is pronounced one way,
but to remember the spelling, you can break it up in an easy way
to remember the spelling.

Example:

Phrase to describe clouds: Cotton-white clouds

Cotton - COT/TON

White - W/HI/TE

Clouds - Clo/u/ds

Hope this helps.

TAS

hi TAS,
Thanks for sharing.
Have a nice weekend ahead.

[The Alternative Story]

jedamum:

hi TAS,
Thanks for sharing.
Have a nice weekend ahead.

Hi jedamum,

No problem, you too
All the best for your son's SA2 exams.

TAS

[MLJ]

Hi TAS,


Would you be doing a grammar workshop soon? :lol:

[Tinkerbelle]

pokemon:

Btw, for my p1 son's creative writing in school, its based on a picture with some helping words and they need to write about the picture with at least 60 words. For first half of the year, he has been writing normal compo format but after term 3, he was told my his teacher he cant used names to identify the people in the pix, rather he has to write \"a girl, an old lady and etc\", and he has to described whatever he see from the pix, its like doing an oral in written format. Ds say has to do this way in their school SA2 paper.

Im puzzled, is this P1 exam format or only for my ds school? Mayb can other parents share their experiences. How about P2? My ds was asking when can he return to writing his own story.

Hi pokemon,
Similar to your DS's sch, my DD's sch's P1 compo is based on 1 picture with some helping words, with a minimum of 60 words. No changes throughout the terms. The last compo DD2 did was also based on this format.

However, what you described about the teacher asking your DS to write a compo without names etc sounds like what my P5 DD did last year to prepare for oral exams. Due to time and manpower constraints, the teacher got the students to do a write-up on what they would say if it was an oral exam, and presented it to the class. Maybe you can check with the teacher if it was her intention to train the kids for oral exams? :lol: