need help getting my son writing stories!

[boatinn1206]

Hi everyone. My son is in Year 2 and really hates writing. I cannot seem at all to get him to write a story, even coming up with a name seems a task. His teachers say the same. Its not that he isnt able (he does very well in reading and numeracy) but he just seems to find any writing incredibly daunting and will often start crying at the thought of having to do any. I just really need some advice/tips as to what I can do?

[teafor1]

OP I've got the same sort of child but year 1. Writing is nothing but anguish for us (and the teacher). How I've got my son writing a tiny bit at home without the tears is him writing a non-fiction book. We look up a picture of his choosing, print it out and he tells me what he wants to say about the picture. It's usually 1 sentence long. I write it down and then he copies it into his "book". He does a page every 2 days or so. I let him chew gum while he is writing because it's supposed to aid in concentration and calm him. I want to reduce the panic he is feeling about it all. He's never had gum before and it is only during his writing that he is allowed to have it. Perhaps there are some ideas here you can adapt for your own son?

[Rummikub]

Teacher really needs to take the pressure off. I hope your ds isn't turned off school. I would definitely go to the head about this. Stopping him doing something he is good at is almost cruel. A gentle approach, gradually building confidence would be a good approach. Some great ideas on here.

[simpson]

The Usborne "Write your own story" book is fab.

And I would 2nd (and 3rd) the story cubes.

[troutchicken]

How about playing with Storycubes together at home, might help with confidence. My kids love them

www.storycubes.com/

Sorry don't know how to link

[troutchicken]

Oops cross-posted on the Storycubes then!

[simpson]

The kids in yr2 in my DC school (I read with kids in this class) were writing instructions on how to make a cup of tea the other week .

You could try something like that and make it fun but get him to write each instruction once it's been done iyswim rather than leaving all the writing till afterwards.

[teafor1]

Simpson that is a great idea! I'm going to try that this weekend. We'll bake a cake or something and I'll try to get him to write the instructions as we go. He can take photos of each step and we can make a book. And of course the end reward is cake. :)

[OldRoan]

I think you need to break it down into 2 parts.

The first part is him feeling "creatively confident" - story cubes, talk through ideas, play games where you each say a sentence etc. Use toys, use names of people you know and you could also make some little sentence cards - verbs and nouns on different coloured paper (this is more for organisation than anything else). You feed him the start of a sentence, eg. Mummy went to the Because she wanted to . He's got his opening sentence, probably a silly one, and it takes the pressure off the initial ideas.

The other part is enjoying writing as a process. Does he see people writing at home? Not a criticism, but lots of parents wait until children are in bed before writing even eg. A shopping list, and this means they have little exposure to the writing process. Ask him to write your shopping list for you ( go through the cupboards and say "eggs please, DS, and some biscuits") - he'll feel a sense of purpose.

It could also be sensory stuff - maybe he doesn't like scratchy pencils on school paper? Try writing in sand, in shaving foam, with sticks in the mud, in chalk on the pavement... Don't worry about pairing the story and the writing. They are two separate things. Good luck!

[boatinn1206]

Thanks everyone. This is my first ever post on MN and the advice has been brilliant. I am going to speak with class teacher first (to give her oppurtunity to try something else before going to head, as she is only 27 and relatively new to teaching) if I still feel uneasy after that I will approach the head. I am going to try some of the suggestions because they sound so much more funand I think that is what is lacking so far.

Thanks everyone!

[OutragedFromLeeds]

Will he type? Could he send an email to a family member in another country? Or type a story? Film review?

How about writing a postcard next time you go somewhere exciting? To send to Granny or someone? Could you get him a pen friend?

[simpson]

Tea - my DD did this with pancakes, which of course is the end reward! She loved it

[katalex]

Hi boatinn. I have no advice I'm afraid as I have a dd in year 4 with a similar problem so I would be interested to find out what your ds's teacher suggests.

Dd has always hated writing, even though she has no problems writing the words or spelling and reads several levels above average. She has loads of ideas, a great imagination and (so teachers have told me) a vocabulary that is beyond her years. For the last 3 years teachers have told me that they know she is at one level but they can only assess her at a much lower level because she doesn't write enough to demonstrate what she is capable of. Last year was very stressful for her because she was only writing 1 or 2 sentences (and sometimes nothing!) in a big write session when other children were writing a whole page. She was getting very upset because her teacher was telling her off for not writing enough (she thought she was being lazy, daydreaming). It got better when I went in to explain how overwhelming this task is for her.

This year she has a teacher who doesn't mind that she is slow to get her ideas on paper but it is still a concern to me that she is only writing 3 or 4 sentences in a session when she should be writing a whole page and I can imagine she will be expected to write even more in years 5 and 6 and there will be an even bigger gap. For the last two weeks she has had homework which literally just says 'write a story'. This fills her with dread. I spent an hour with her at the weekend trying to get her to write a story. We talked about ideas and I prompted her to think of descriptions and events but, after the hour, she had still only written the opening paragraph of 4 sentences.

I'm not pushing her to do more for worry that it will make things worse but I do worry what's going to happen in the next two years and in secondary school where she will be expected to write so much more. I understand how she feels as I have always struggled with thinking of what to write. I have no imagination so I have trouble helping her come up with ideas.

Sorry to hijack your post. I hope your ds's teacher has some good suggestions for you. Please let us know what he/she says.

[MrsCakesPremonition]

For the last 3 years teachers have told me that they know she is at one level but they can only assess her at a much lower level because she doesn't write enough to demonstrate what she is capable of.

^^ this rings so many bells for me. I heard it constantly about DD from Y1 right through to Y4. The teachers knew she was bright and capable but she just wasn't writing. Luckily they were all supportive of her and now, at the end of Y4 and going into Y5, something seems to have clicked and she is producing reams of writing. I think the key was that she knew she needed to write more, but was never put under too much pressure so that she got turned off writing.

Hopefully your DD will click too.

[katalex]

Thanks for sharing your experience MrsCakes. That gives me some hope that maybe it will just click for my dd too.

[shebird]

As my DD in Y2 is under pressure to write more her handwriting and spelling has gone downhill and because she is aware of this she does not want to write at all. There are so many elements to remember when writing with letter formation, spelling, punctuation, before you even begin to think of a story. Trying to get what is in your head onto paper is a big task and some will struggle more than others. Her teacher has suggested focusing on small things like lists, instructions or letter writing as facts are easier than stories.

[kesstrel]

This obsession schools have with story-writing and forcing all children to do it is enfuriating. Why can't they write about their experiences, for example, at least to start off with? There is no evidence whatsoever that ALL children are naturally creative story-tellers, or that they "ought" to be. Not only that, but it is quite possible that the endless analysing of stories that goes on throughout primary may be switching some kids off reading.

What's worse is that having spent most of their time in literacy and later English on fiction, they then get thrown in at the deep end when they hit GCS£s, suddenly expected to produce coherent essays which count toward their English mark two months into year 10. I am now going through that process with dd2, and she is struggling even though she is very bright. At least she is better off than dd1, because dd2's year 8 teacher told them she was going to teach them how to write an essay, even though it wasn't on the curriculum (!!!) and did so at the end of the year. But of course that is nowhere near enough: essay-type writing is a skill you need to practise extensively, with constructive feedback, to improve. This is more true nowadays than ever before; because textbooks are no longer used, most kids these days have very little exposure to reading anything in that style, so they are lacking a mental model of the relevant structure, terminology etc.

If primary school parents realised the damage this obsession with fiction writing was doing, I think there would be a lot of fuss about it; but by the time your child comes up against Year 10, it's too late!

[CecilyP]

How would I report a teacher though because when i have questioned methods in past it hasnt gone down well. They have never mentioned Senco, seem to think he can do it as he excels in reading, spelling and numeracy ;(

The chances are that he will be able to do this in the fullness of time but the way they are going about it is likely to put him right off. The teacher seems to be panicking about SATs, rather than thinking how best to encourage your DS and bring him on.

DS was a good reader, good at maths, but wasn't really writing at all at this time in P3 (Y2), though he was by the summer term. The school just encouraged rather than trying to force.

I agree with others that being confronted by a blank sheet with someone demanding you write a story (on the pain of missing maths!) must be spectacularly daunting.

It would be better he started with words, maybe captions, then lines and sentences before he can manage a whole story.

[Hatice]

My ds1 struggled with writing all through primary and often wrote only the date in year 1 and 2. He was very able at maths and was reading way ahead of his peers. He found writing so difficult despite having a good imagination.

Ds1(15) is now in year 11. His handwriting is still difficult to read ( doesn't like typing) but his main issue was mental blocks when writing and this can still sometimes be an issue. However at parents evening recently I was told that he is predicted to get an A in his GCSE English paper.

I tried so many things over the years.
Mind-mapping can be helpful as the ideas don't have to come in order and it takes the pressure off. I suggested this to his very supportive year 4 teacher. She used it whole class and it helped him get something down on paper.

Silly sentences: You write a sentence/ start of a sentence and fold down the paper. He writes the next bit and folds down the paper. Someone else writes the next bit. Continue until the page is finished. Then you share the silly story.

Clipboards for shopping lists, current interest and even writing out maths problems for you to solve ( model first).

Make up stories together verbally using odds and ends where one object is the main character and for e.g. a paper clip becomes the treasure. Introduce a villain, something that goes wrong a hero e.t.c. Don't worry about a name for the story until the end. I bet many famous authors can't think of their book title at the start. To develop this further use drawings or indeed the objects to turn this into a story board/ story plan.

If he can tell stories verbally type/write the story for him with his name as the author. It may give him a great sense of achievement.

I now work as a key stage one teaching assistant and find children love acting out stories using props such as dressing up clothes, puppets and silly voices. Learning should be fun.

I would not be happy at anyone stopping my child from doing maths. My ds when aged 6 would probably have refused to do anything if his teacher had used maths as a reward for finishing writing.

By the way ds still loves maths and is thinking of doing further maths as at A level.

[mammadiggingdeep]

Let him write in big poster paper with a marker pen...chalkboard and chalk...anything that's 'fun'...

If he's good at telling the stories- you scribe it for him, let him see how great his story looks written down.

I agree with a pp who suggested cartoon speech marks/ comic style. Let him write a story about his favourite super hero/ video game character.

Write your own stories, hand written and read it to him. Share the writing...you write a sentence, he writes a sentence.

Font feel under pressure about the SATs- honestly, you want him to write because he enjoys it and sees the purpose not to reach a level.

[eimmum]

Hi :-) you could be describing my DS. After 2 older sisters it was really hard for me to see him struggling with writing. Like your DS is is one of the top readers and on top maths table. He had a fab year 2 teacher who really encouraged his writing. She used the reward of challenging maths problems if he completed his writing. So instead of stopping his maths maybe his teacher could use his love of maths as a reward. She also used to encourage me to look at his school writing on a Friday. He is in year 3 now and still struggles, refuses to write and hates writing. My friend has assessed him and he has poor working memory which probably contributes to his writing issues. She has set dictation for him which takes away the effort of thinking what to write and is helping with the physical aspect of writing. She is spending time with him with story cubes etc. Even 2 weeks in it is helping. I am sure he will be able to write eventually but there is such pressure for our children to write at such and early age and it is worse for the majority of boys. The one time when he was happy to write lots was a project. We did some cooking, I took lots of photos, printed them on paper and he wrote a sentence or two describing what was happening. It was amazing. The trigger of the photos really helped, so maybe try that. Other than that I can sympathise. I have shed tears at times with the frustration.

[kw13]

My son was given something called Write Stuff for Boys for a recent birthday - and it has transformed his interest in writing!