DS is bright but appalling at English - suggestions?

[Quattrocento]

DS (10) is bright, honestly he is, not being a fond parent. He got a scholarship to his school, and is generally fab at maths and music and science.

But the problem is his English. He is truly bad at the subject. I've read his books - they are horrible to read.

The house is full of books, he has been read with every night. He has a selection of mouth-watering books that he helped to choose.

He has a wide vocabulary, and can express himself with ease verbally. His target is 5a at the end of year 6 (he is currently year 5) and he won't get there.

The reason he won't get there, is that he can't express himself in writing. His sentences are simple and could be mistaken for the work-product of a five-year old. He makes basic spelling mistakes (although he invariably gets a perfect score in his actual spelling tests). He can't punctuate anything. In short, he's pretty abject.

Here's an example of where he was asked to write a descriptive story of what he did one day on his holidays.

"I told Granny I was too tired to walk the dog (he he he) and watched TV. The rest of the day was boring."

Whereas his chum wrote

"I walked through the centre of the city to the Cathedral. It was a blazing hot day. The fountains were playing and there were small children skipping in and out of the swirling water."

How can I get through to him that writing a story is creating a picture? How do I stop him being so insufferably LAZY? Why is he so determined NOT to live up to his potential?

I honestly believe a lot of this is pure gender. I have two duaghters and one son - my eldest daughter was reading from the age of 4 - she's now 20 and is still obsessed with books and my youngest dd is 4 and desperately wants to be able to read - in fact can read simple stories. ds 10 didn't even pick up a book or attempt to write anything until he was about 8! That is, similar to you, despite us encouraging him in the exactly the same way as we did the girls. he's still not mad keen to read or write but what we have found is that if he is reading about the football (arghhhh) he will painstakingly copy the results out and read them to us - I pretend I care which then gets him interested in something else. Horrible histories are a recent favourite. He got 4a as his end of year 5 English assessment which has amazed me!
Find something that really takes your ds fancy and see how it goes!

Um, you say your ds is good at maths, music and science. Rather than being lazy, could he just find English hard, perhaps very hard?

Have you tried the interactive learning zones on the Woodlands Junior School site Quattro?

Our sons sound similar in some ways. Mine loves reading, can't see the point in writing creatively. He hates the pain of sodding wow words! My problem was that he loved reading complex stories, but cannot write like that.

You DS sounds like he has other strengths! I don't know that it is being lazy. My DS has just got level 5 for English, because he decided he would essentially jump through the hoops at the right time.

Writing is such a chore! We aren't all designed to be the next author, maybe your son just doesn't like it? Our DD was very successful at primary literacy stuff, she could trot out wow words 10 for the penny, but now just finishing Year 8, has realised English is so not her thing. She has discovered chemistry, physics, more complex Maths, Latin. Each to their own.

His writing actually sounds more honest, whereas the swirling water sounds a bit forced anyway.

I agree with coolma, I think it is a gender thing. He is direct and to the point, he can't be bothered with fountains and swirling water as they don't interest him. I am sure that he is capable of imagining these if he wants to, but I think you are right that he is being a little lazy in his imagination, purely because he finds it boring. Even the sentence that he wrote highlights a certain laziness and boredom
"I told Granny I was too tired to walk the dog (he he he) and watched TV. The rest of the day was boring."
However, he sounds clever and sounds like he knows all the tricks, so granny will have to watch out for him. I think he is a typical boy, just like William Brown in the Just William books. He is direct and to the point and can't see the point in faffing about.

If you ask him to write a story about two gunslingers at the OK Corral or two pirates having a sword fight on the deck of a ship, or two explorers discovering hidden treasure in the depths of the jungle, I think he will come up with some good imaginative prose. He has to be interested and engaged in what he is doing, and what he did on one day of his holiday is far too mundane for him, which is why he finds it boring. I think he might like adventure books, and maybe even the Just William books, because he sounds like he is a crafty chap, just like William.

Thanks for the reassuring messages - I'll definitely check that site out properly.

Has he ever been tested for dyslexia? Sorry to be blunt, but sounds as if he could be, especially with his strengths in other subjects.

I did once ask if he were dyslexic, on going through his books with the head, and she just laughed and said that she'd got a dyslexic child and that DS's work wasn't the work of a dyslexic child, but of a child who simply couldn't be bothered.

Am sure she's right. It was the spelling test thing that convinced me because I just didn't understand how a dyslexic child would consistently get full marks for his spelling tests.

As an English teacher it was always impressed on us (secondary) that part of the key to getting boys to engage with English is impressing on them the relevance of what they are doing, the logic behind why it is important to paint a picture with words etc etc.

Quat - I have a bright boy whose stories could send tan insomniac to sleep. Conversly, an average DD who writes entire books and poetry.

We recently read Under Sea, Over Stone and when I asked DD what she thought of the book she examined the themes and genre. DS, when asked about the Grey House where it was set, said 'well I assume it's grey.'

"he was asked to write a descriptive story of what he did one day on his holidays"

this is like asking him to write a diary entry, it is insipid and cannot fire up his imagination. The teacher should have chosen themes which would let his imagination roam free. To write inspired prose, he needs to be excited. Instead this topic probably bored him rigid. There are children who know what the teacher expects and who can churn out the relevant prose to order, but they may in fact be far less imaginative than your DS.

I'd really like to ascribe this to uninspiring teaching, but successive English teachers have been having a go and all failing to ignite his imagination.

Thanks for the reassurance though. DS is much happier with the grimly factual, generally.