How do I encourage my ds to write more?

[Joyn]

ds (8, yr3) is doing well at school & is good at writing (assessed 3b, end of yr2,) but doesn't enjoy it. His teacher told me the other day that he's doing fine, but in order to move forward with his writing he really needs to get more down on paper. Teacher is pretty sure the ideas are there, he's just not putting them down on the page. Ds is usually very reluctant to do 'work' out of school, but has asked if we can do some writing over the holidays as he knows one of his targets is to write longer creative writing stories & wants to improve. Any ideas welcome.

wow, this is exactly our situation, only ds was 2a at the end of yr 2. (Have to say things have been made worse as there was a misprint in his end of year report and we thought he was 3a in writing and therefore didn't worry that he didn't seem to be doing any at home )

Great opportunity coming up - thank you letters!!

Also is he seeing any cousins or similar over the Christmas period? What about writing a play for them to perform for the family?

What about a penpal? I think they still exist...

Thanks Joan, what a terrible mistake to make on his report!
Good ideas. I've been trying to get him a penpal for a while actually. I asked a few friends on fb, who had kids of a similar age, but they're just not very good to keeping it going at that age are they. He has a cousin who's only a bit older, that we are going to see at xmas, might see if he's interested. Will definitely task him with some thank you letters!

Anyone any ideas for fun creative writing tasks?

How about a diary for Christmas? To encourage him to write his thoughts, ideas, feelings, etc..

Is he a keen reader? Maybe he would like to write a novel or collection of short stories in the style of his favourite writer and send them to him/her?

You could go on a visit and plan a story around that- an old house, woods, a museum.

Penpals are a good idea, I bet there are others on Mumsnet who would want their DCs to have a penpal. DD has one already or I'd offer.

Is there a TV show he loves? He could write a script out for it -- friends' DS did this for Shaun the Sheep once (sent it off to the producers who sent him back a nice thank you note with original drawings in the margins).

Making a newspaper or magazine?

(I know articles aren't quite as creative, but some people - including me - find it a little less daunting as it doesn't require so much imagination)

That's sweet of them lljkk :) I was obsessed with famous five as a child, and Enid Blyton lived in my town for part of her life - I met her daughter at a talk, and she gave me her address so I could send her my 'novel' inspired by EB's stories. She wrote a 2 page letter back with lots of advice and comments. :)

my ds was like this, he's now in yr 7 and I would say it's not a problem any more. It just clicked, all the books he read gave him the ideas, and he writes fab stories etc now, and enjoys it.

We spent most of junior school being told that his writing wasn't as good as the rest of his work, and panicing over how to get him to write more.

As long as he's reading a variety of books/poems/comics/magazines/fiction/non fiction, i think he'll do it in his own time.

Pinkhebe, I heart you.

Thanks everyone, some great ideas! I think there's a good chance he'll enjoy writing an episode for a tv show or a variation on one of his favourite books, so will give those a try first. (its also a bit easier than starting something entirely from scratch, like you said ponty-something that requires a little less imagination, might make things easier). And he also recently got the diary of a wimpy kid - do it yourself book, so will give some diary entries a try too!

Pink-thanks for your post, it's really reassuring. He does love reading & has plenty of good ideas, so hopefully it will just 'come' at some point. It's the first time he's ever asked to do any writing at home, so maybe that's a good sign too!

ds also enjoyed making his own pokemon cards

Is it the physical aspects of writing he is finding difficult or is it about developing a good beginning, middle or end of story or about ordering thoughts and ideas? Obviously you will need to do different things depending on which of these is the problem. One thing that can help with the latter two is talking about the stories you read together so that your DS can understand how they work. For example is the story about a baddie who gets his come-uppance in the end, does it involve role reversal, does it involve repetition, is it about a problem that needs solving, if it is funny, what makes it funny etc. This will help your DS with seeing a story through to a conclusion.

Well ds agreed to do some writing this afternoon, he quite liked the idea of writing a story based on 1 of his favourite tv programs. He made a great start it had style, pace, anticipation, good punctuation and ... Then it ended! He wrote half an a4 sheet. From what he's written you can see he's got good ideas & has mastered the basics of language etc, he's just reluctant to see it through. How much should one expect an average yr3 boy to write, when writing a story? What about someone working towards a 3a? I told him I really liked the introduction, but it felt a bit like he'd missed the middle out of his story & he had to agree, but decided he'd like to draw a picture to fill up the page instead. When I suggested that his stories should really be about a side long, he gave a very pained expression & said that was way to hard. So I left it at that & thanked him for giving it a go.

So where next?

Sarah, thanks for your reply. He did used to have some fine motor issues, but teachers say these have pretty much evened out now. He doesn't seem like a particularly slow writer & certainly never complains that it's uncomfortable, he just doesn't enjoy actually getting things down on paper. I'm pretty sure if I gave him a dictaphone he'd be a lot happier. It's encouraging him to put his ideas down & keep going, that needs work!

Maybe the thing to try next would be for me to write an intro & him to come up with a middle& end.

That sounds good. Also you could do some planning of stories so he gets his beginning, middle and end before he starts. You could plan in a table grid or using a mind map/spider diagram

Try breaking the writing up into sessions so he does 1/2 side A4 on beginning on one day, then same again on next 2 days for middle and end?

I like that idea Sarah, I think keeping the sessions short will help him to focus, so it makes sense to spread it out over a couple of days. Out of interest, how much would you expect a child his age/NC level to be writing? Is 1/2 a side of a4 still average for a yr3, but less than you'd expect for a child working towards a 3a?

For what it is worth, I think problems with writing "stamina" and carry through are common enough. I thing splitting it up into bits and doing a bit each day is the way to go. That way, he learns how to get a good ending on the story without it being over-facing. I'd admire the picture too and suggest making a "mini-book" so he does the middle and end on subsequent days. AS he matures he should then be able to do more of the task in one go!

Funnily enough we got a dictaphone for DSD last year, she struggles to write as she is dyslexic so writing one sentence takes ages and she can't remember everything she thinks of. Will be good for essays as she gets older too.

We have had a very similar problem with DD (also Y3) - her head is buzzing with ideas but she won't get anything much down on paper. I eventually realised that for her it's organising her thoughts (plus prefectionism) that were the problem. So I taught her to spend five minutes planning what she wanted to write (typically talking her ideas through with me), then writing for 20 minutes, then checking she's done what was asked for another five minutes. To our surprise it helped her no end! :)

Perhaps you could try something similar with your DS? I think sometimes when their brains are buzzing with SOOO many ideas it's difficult for them to know where to start writing, and it becomes a huge task in their heads!

Thanks eye of newt, very sensible approach! Ds wasn't in the mood to talk about strategies today, (he can get very defensive when I talk to him about things he is unsure of, hates me trying to help when he's not in the mood, he's a bit of a perfectionist & doesn't like to get things wrong, so I bit my tongue) but he did do some writing today. He completed his holiday homework, which was a written q&a, no problem filling nearly a side if a4 as it wasn't a creative task.

I can remember being in y3, I had to write a story linked to the Olympics. I had so many plans...got the intro and a bunch of stuff about the training that the runner had done for the marathon (several pages)...then I got bored - she started the race, went into the lead, kept going and won (about 2 paragraphs :o ).

I remember it because the teacher made a really narky comment at the bottom.

Anyway, my point was that it might be worth checking that he's not just getting bored with his characters/plotline and is too impatient to get onto the next thing to bother actually writing it out properly.

Joyn, to get a 3B at the end of Y2, he must have done a significant amount of sustained writing. Is he just choosing to do less in Y3, or has he been over-assessed in Y2?

Fraidylady, no I'm quite certain he wasn't over assessed. It was an external auditor who put him up to 3b, after discussions with his teacher, in the last term towards the end of year 2. He did make big strides in writing towards the end of the year though; going from a 2a -3b in one term. I believe he can do it just prefers not to. He's very goods at the mechanics of language (grammar, punctuation etc,) & uses complex language, with few spelling errors, but his downfall is definitely quantity.

Rue- I think that is definitely a big part of it! He's able, just not willing!