Teachers - How does this writing fare for year 3?

[LL0015]

DD is achieving and happy. But has the fear factor and doesn't attempt work for fear of failing. Personality trait which I hope will improve as she grows.

She generally refuses to do written homework, and I confess I lost my temper with her and shouted. She then produced this... (copied exactly including punct).
So is this low, middle or high for year 3 please (summer born)? Is a little bit of pressure worthwhile? It's not a tactic I have ever employed before.

Topic homework is to write a prehistoric adventure story and make sure your story reflects the time it is set. I gave her access to BBC Wales website on Iron age which gave her the ideas and spellings below. She then spent 35 minutes (!) to write this... (her handwriting is lovely btw )

One day a long time ago in the Iron age were three celts they lived on a hillfort. That day one of them was collecting wool to make a cloak he went to get some dye to make the cloak colorful. Also that day another one was making Iron tools while another was out hunting for food. They kept doing lots of jobs but after they had an adventure. They went walking into the woods. When they got to the woods they met six gods SABRINA -Water goddess, DAGDA - God of goodness, TARANIS - God of the sky, LUG - God of light, CERNUNOS - Horned god and MATRONA - Mother goddess they were so surprised they had never met them in the woods before.

I can't really help with identifying whether this is low, middle or high for year 3 because the new National Curriculum expectations have changed - but if you look at this document it sets out the draft 'performance indicators' including the National Standard writing expectations for the end of year 2 on pg 32 - 33. So ideally, by the end of year 3, you'd want her to be a bit beyond this level in her writing (remember also that it's not possible to know from one piece).

Rather than pressuring her, one thing you could work on with your daughter is story genre (see this word document) and making sure that she connects the different books she reads to the different genre that she will be asked to write.

Another activity, which doesn't require too much writing but will definitely help to improve her writing overall, is shared writing. For example let's say you wanted to help her improve her use of adjectives. Ask her to write a very simple sentence e.g. The cat sat on the mat. You take a turn and add to the sentence: The black cat sat on the mat. Her turn: The black cat sat on the fluffy rug - and so on.

You can take simple sentences in all sorts of different directions. It's great to focus on the word that opens the sentence, for example can she add a 'ly' word to the front of a sentence (e.g. Happily, the black cat sat on the fluffy rug). Then there's expanding her use of joining words, such as 'when, if, but, because or with, while etc.. In fact she doesn't need to even write things down - you can just do it verbally - can you think of a sentence using the word 'Enviously'?

Or you could both write a character description, trying to use all of your senses to describe someone or the same exercise but about a place. Also you can point out interesting sentences to her in the books you read to her - or get her to hunt out one interesting sentence to show you when she reads to herself.

Feeling frustrated is understandable. Homework, especially writing homework when DC don't enjoy it and see it as a chore can feel like a chore for the whole family - especially as it can take so long once you include arguing time too. However if you are able to fit in a little bit of fun writing a few times a week and model to your daughter than writing can be fun too it can really help with the fear factor. Even more so if the pressure isn't on and lots of praise is awarded for effort.

Thank you diamond, that is extraordinarily excellent advice!

How old is year three?

7 yr
8 in May

I think your DD did OK with making use of her resources etc but the main thing that sticks out for me is punctuation. In your shoes, I'd be making sure she knows where full stops and capital letters go. Also well done to her for researching it even if you had to make her do it - she did pick out some interesting things there.

I'd say she would be more comfortable writing something that wasn't fictional from what she's written in your example. DD is also in Y3 and is the opposite (loves stories and hates non-fiction). Maybe you could play some games with things like story dice to try and help her work out how to build a story? Also, the piece is quite short and doesn't really flow in terms of what happens, nor is there a conclusion of any kind. Even a sentence like 'they went back to their village really excited about the gods they had seen' or something would be a sort of resolution to the situation that she's set up in the story.

You're most welcome!

I really empathise with your situation, my DD is in a school with very high expectations & writing is something she has struggled with and I just found it so hard to help as it was a trauma even mentioning the idea of writing at home. The joint writing really helped as we were then a team as did just working on the components of writing as there is less to write but still lots can be learnt.

Story endings are often the hardest for reluctant writers as they just want to stop by then - however, as Opopanax says, it's a good thing to focus on too. You could try making up a story for her & asking her to finish it or ask her if she can come up with an alternative ending to a story she knows really well. Adding how characters are now feeling can be a good way to finish a story if she struggles with endings.