Yr 2 DS doesnt do enough writing

[Flojo1979]

My DS vis 6, and in year 2. His teacher has expressed concern as he cannot be moved on in Literacy and other areas as he doesnt do enough writing.
In 'big write' where they get 50 mins to write up a piece of work they have been learning the week prior, he does approx. 20 words, thats less than 1 word every 2 mins. He can write and is very clever, hes motivated but within seconds drifts off in to day dreaming (he says hes thinking about what to put ). Should I be worried or is the teacher just fussing over something he'll grow out of?

Sounds like my DS in yr 2. He gets spellings that need to be made into a story. However my son only writes a couple of lines. I think he just does the minium he can get away with. His Maths is good , reading book white so probably avaerage. My husband just says oh thats what I was like at school don't worry.
However worry is my middle name so I can't not! I'm too not sure if this is a big problem or not as I have nothing to compare to

DS was exactly like this in yr2. He's not much better in year3. Part of it is thinking what to write if it's a story or requires a creative element, and then how to work in wow words etc. Apparently he does OK now if it's fact based eg about an animal or a science experiment they have done.

I decided not to worry as generally he is doing OK & is summer born. If he's got a bit of writing homework I just jot down 'what, who, why, where, when' to act as a little prompt for the next sentence.

Can I join your club lol :) My Ds has just turned 7 and hates literacy with a passion, whenever they are doing a new topic at school he dreads it as he knows at the end he will have to write something.

It used to still does worry me madly, weve approached this with his teacher who is amazing she's had talks with him and reassured him that she doesnt expect reams and reams of paper . She also finds topics that the Boys can let their imagination go wild with. His maths and reading are great and his imagination is fantastic, he can tell you the most fasinating story that blows me away sometimes. so all in all Im just hoping when he moved to juniors this year he improves but still worrying all the same

Hi

I'll join the club too!! Start of year 2 really worried about writing and letter formation and came on mumsnet for advice. DS has now really found his feet with writing and is so much better will write pages on the subject if he is interested and the teacher is saying he has gone up 4 sub levels over the year. MRZ gave me some tips which he tried for pencil control that helped as did just getting that bit better and seeing he could do it!
Bit like rolling a stone down a hill as he gets better he gets better quicker! Just waiting now for the infamous Yr 3 grind to a halt.

My ds was exactly the same. However, there was absolutely nothing wrong in what he wrote just the amount he wrote. Why waste words when one would do!

In Yr 5 he improved after an exercise that his class did every day. His teacher would give the class the start of a sentence and then they had 5 minutes to continue as imaginatively as they could. It could be about pink elephants, aliens, star wars whatever.

Eventually, the children got used to writing down their ideas very quickly.

Hi, thanks all, its great to know I am not alone! As this seems such a common problem, I wonder why his teacher is making such an issue out of it tiredm your ds teacher sounds a little more forgiving!
treas I think that's a great idea, I'll try that at home every day and see how we go and maybe extend to 10 mins and keep increasing.
Have u noticed how its all boys? Interesting!
fellcreat I'm glad to see there's light at the end of the tunnel!

piggy its so hard not to worry isn't it, especially if the teacher is worried!
iseenodust my ds is summer born, does that make a difference?

As I said in OP he's clever, especially at maths but again comes unstuck even in this if told to write out lots of sums.

If you think it's a physical skill he lacks (rather than attention span thing), maybe encouraging drawing will help... we have had some great success using tracing paper over anything he's interested in (star wars, beast quest, manga cartoons etc). Just make sure it's sticky taped so it doesn't move about, and he's been loving doing it. Helping his fine motor skills greatly, which translates to being able to write quicker, helping get his ideas onto the paper before they drift off.

If it's an attention thing, maybe see if the discussions of the big write can be brought around to an angle he's interested in - dinosaurs ramaging through a school trip, aliens landing on the picnic. Even slightly naughty humour might work to keep him engaged in the project at hand.

I don't think this weeks topic helped 'write at least 100 words (in 50 mins) on snails' !
Forgot to add, he can actually write and has been able from an early age, and doesn't shy away from writing as such eg loves writing xmas cards etc. But just seems to day dream too much these days and doesn't get on with the task at hand.

Teachers really can't win, can they? 90% of posts on MN are complaining about lack of communication, teachers who 'don't do enough' and teachers who 'let children coast', then, when a teacher does mention something to a parent, she is accused of 'fussing' and 'making an issue'.

No we can't can we.

In Yr1 Ds was getting into trouble in 'the big write' - he found it boring 'retelling' bits of traditional stories. If you'd asked him to write a story about a Dragon he would have been off - but he was expected to write down eg 'the first third of George and the Dragon'. This turned him completely off.

This year, with a new teacher, he's doing so much better. Sometimes he'll discuss the picture or whatever with me but increasingly he doesn't want to - and the teacher was surprised when she found out that what he was writing was unrehearsed at home. One thing that has encouraged him to actually get stuck in rather than drifting off in a dream (which he has a tendency to do) is being kept in at break time to finish something off. Whist I normally disagree with breaks being curtailed as I think its extremely important for him to get out and run around, in the circumstances I think that it was a useful lesson - and he's certainly not experienced that problem since then.

Year 3 ds2 is exactly the same, whereas dd in year 3 was writing great elaborate stories?

Umm def seems to be a boy thing!
My DS has been kept in a playtime but he still just sits there daydreaming thinking about what to write.

But surely his teacher will prefer to have him write about something, rather than stick to topic? 50mins on snails being roasted and eaten by dragons is better outcome than 45min daydreaming and then being kept in at recess?

Ah, Jenny, but you're thinking logically there.

Yeah you'd have thought they could differentiate it somewhat to make it more interesting but tbh i doubt he'd write anything no matter what it is about.

Another DS here. It seems like this is definitely a boy thing? Or majority boy thing. Is this in the way they're being taught rather than something that's inherently wrong with them? Sometimes I feel like my son gets penalised for being a male. I keep shrugging that off but it does definitely seem as if boys just develop a lot slower in some areas than girls. But this, if what I read is correct, evens out as they get older. However, it seems that might be too late? My son has already noticed a lot of this and is already pigeonholing himself as just not being good at things.

I used to teach lots of boys who struggled with the "big write" - ages 7-11. Many of them were perfectly fine in terms of thinking skills, ability to communicate, creativity etc. They just struggled in a system designed to suit the more academic or (dare I say) girls. Frustrated the life out of me that I had to get them to do and that they couldn't prove what their mental ability was like in a way that would be accepted formally. Now I have sons I am SOOOO hesitant about sending them to school! Not much help to you op - sorry!

Gentleness - the positive thing is that with a good teacher and into the 2nd year, the big write is suddenly not a problem - and indeed, I am told by ds that he's moved up onto the top table for literacy (not that I believe this completely, but I do believe that he's picked himself out of the bottom quartile where he certainly was in Yr1). And this isn't because we've coached him at home (although we do read a lot and read with him and use a wide vocabulary with him etc).

Good teachers can make a huge difference when a child is ready to make a big step like finding confidence in writing. But even the best teacher can't make the difference until the child is ready. So many boys aren't ready as young as many girls are. But they will be, in their own time. Why on earth that should be at age 6 or 7 (Y2) is not proven and many boys are turned off literacy by being rushed.

50 mins is a long time for a 6 year old, a really long time and to set a word limit sounds like lazy teaching to me (disclaimer I am a teacher and of year 2/3) It would be better for her to write the title and then some objectives the children must have in it such as at least 10 describing words, 4 facts etc etc, boys (most boys) do much better when there is a clear structure to follow, that they can tick of when they are finished, which is why most flourish in maths it's not always the content, it is because of the clear structure and ability for them to see how to be successful; in maths they know they have to do 25 sums (or whatever) with a title like snails and 50 minutes what's their success criteria, how do they know what the teacher wants, except 100 words....

To improve boys literacy, I used to (at home currently) do things like; get them to draw the story/idea first in cartoons style then add the words, never set a limit of words, allow them to write in colour,pen,felt etc, put on funky music during our writing session and a lava lamp so it felt cool, encourage them to write on smaller paper so they felt like they filled it like on post it's or envelopes, get them to write spy messages to each other, desgin their own comics, commentate on football matches, then write a match report for a current team like today's fa cup, write adverts, etc etc basically short, sharp, interesting tasks, writing a rap, a song, a letter to a pen pal....at home you could do some of these things, have fun/cool writing implements lots of different styl of paper, he could write you or someone in the family a letter etc

I've seen boys achieve a level 3 in year 2 with less than half a page, the marking criteria is not about length; a very well known prep school took a boy on 3 lines in his English 7+....

I'm sure you already encourage lots of reading, but lots of boy friendly books will have a huge affect on writing creatively and if he is having trouble with actual writing/hand writing there is a great boy friendly workbook I will post a link to in a minute....

It is hard at this time of year, but if (without sounding cheeky) your son can ask for guidance on what the teacher is looking for it may help him, make a checklist to work through....

Sorry this was so long :)

and you have never heard of Big Writing? {shock}

Big Writing is a term used for an approach to writing that was pioneered by Ros Wilson a very experienced teacher. It focuses on 4 main aspects of the writing process and gives the children the skills to improve their own writing through self assessment, sharing of work and fun, learning games throughout the weekly special writing session.

Mrs, We did big writing every every Friday, but I'm not current now, been at home with my sons for since 2009, so presuming from your shock, they are given 50 minutes to free write, which is what is what we did....but what I guess I meant, was the title snails....is very tricky for year 2 for that length without additional guidance, even within the remit of free for the struggling children surely there can be guidance to help them succeed.....

Anyway, I was just trying to help with suggestions on literacy, boys and writing....sorry if it confused original poster....