Please could I borrow your Year 4 children for a minute?

[spiderlight]

Literally just one minute!

We had parents' evening yesterday for DS, 8 1/2, in Y4. Apparently he's doing well across the board except that he needs to speed up his writing so that he gets more work down on paper in the allocated time. His teacher has suggested doing a speed challenge with him every day where he picks a topic and we time him to see how much he can write on that topic in one minute - she's said not to worry about neatness or the quality of content initially, but literally just on the number of words on the page. I'm just curious to know what the ballpark is. His topic for this evening was 'The best party ever' - if anyone has a spare Y4 child hanging around, could you please get them to try it and tell me how many words they got down?

[SummerSazz]

I'll ask dd when she gets home from cubs :). Their class has been doing speed writing challenges this week apparently.

[Witchend]

I won't try it with ds because the answer would be that after that minute he was about 10% of the way through a strop because I expected him to write.

[spiderlight]

Witchend We appear to have the same DS!

Thanks Summer

[SummerSazz]

29 words - she's just 9 so a little older. They had 10 mins at school to write about 'the day I met a unicorn'

[PettsWoodParadise]

I think the goal here is not to compare with others but how your own DC improves with number of words over time - so the only person they are trying to best is themselves.

[GeneGreenie]

Would be interesting to read the words your dc are writing. I might see if Ds is up for this challenge tomorrow, although doing homework is like pulling teeth so we shall see.

[Pobspits]

I will try with Ds tomorrow. He has issues with writing speed due to hyper mobility and has some exercises from the OT too which I could try and link for you? They're related to handwriting fluency and speed rather than anything hyper mobility related....

However, it will take me about an hour to get him to stop whining about life being so unfair and how we are so mean before he actually starts writing....

[Theresomethingaboutdairy]

Ooh, I have a year 4 reluctant (boy) writer. I will try this with him tomorrow and report back. His handwriting and general presentation/spelling is shocking though so will attempt to work out what he has actually written first.

[spiderlight]

Pettswood I'm just curious really - DS has improved already in just two attempts, but I'd just like to know vaguely what the range is at this age.

[Cressandra]

witchend
"I won't try it with ds because the answer would be that after that minute he was about 10% of the way through a strop because I expected him to write."

Oh thank goodness. My Y2 would be exactly like that. My Y4 would spend the minute asking numerous questions about the task and possibly beginning to consider finding herself a pencil. Still ahead would be the search for paper, a couple of toilet trips and a complete verbal account ofher day before there'd be any danger of any writing taking place.

[starry0ne]

My DS (8) uses a laptop at school because unless he writes like a snail his writting is unreadable..

[ClashOfUsernames]

I will attempt this with the ds's later. I suspect similar results to the above children... Fading, whining, procrastinating, questioning, tantrumimg and possibly in the end a page with one word written over and over......

[ClashOfUsernames]

*faffing...

[G1veMeStrength]

What a bloody boring depressing task. I would have a tantrum if I had to do this. I mean I know it is important to learn to write but there must be a less soul destroying way than writing down any old crap for the sake of it?

Like playing a song they love and want to learn the lyrics to so they write them out whilst listening to it. Or a comedy video or something they actually want to capture that happens to require fast writing, iyswim.

If Y4 DD did this I reckon she would put 'very very very very very very' a lot of times in front of everything to get the most words per minute.

[ClashOfUsernames]

First attempt: unicorn written 19
Times

Second attempt: 24 words of a story.

Third attempt: 25 word of story of choice.

He is trying to beat his personal best!

8yr old dyslexic boy

[ClashOfUsernames]

And nine words from my possibly dyslexic five year old :)

[Timeforabiscuit]

Year 3 8 year old daughter, whose hand writing is better than mine, completed;

First attempt 11 words in a minute.

Second attempt 13 words

Four words from my ditzy year year old

[Timeforabiscuit]

*ditzy five year old!

[JasperDamerel]

Y4 DD who is working well above expected levels in writing at school managed 26 words. I had a go and did 34.

[TeenAndTween]

(To compare, my, as it turns out dyspraxic, DD would probably have written nothing in 1 minute age 8 as she would still have been trying to work out what to write. Even now age 16 she would be hard pressed to just start writing off the top of her head).

[spiderlight]

Thanks folks!

G1veMeStrength He's enjoying it! We think of a subject between us first so he has a rough idea of what to write, it appeals to his competitive streak and it's literally one minute out of his day.

[TeenAndTween]

Dyspraxic DD age 16. No pre-thinking time.

• 23 words on 'zoos'
• 24 words on 'modern technology'

[starry0ne]

just got DS to do it 20 words...Some unreadable