improving dd's writing. yr6 quantity and quality?

[notanothercheesesandwich]

Ongoing feedback at parents evenings is that she doesn't write enough. She is a bit dreamy/unfocused and can take a while to get started (quite similar to her procrastinating mother!) She has got the intelligence to do well, has good spelling, understands grammer concepts and punctuation, so is really doing herself a disservice by not evidencing what she knows.

Any suggestions on how to improve? This has been ongoing for years and so far no teacher has managed to motivate her to improve. She has on occasion shown improvement and that has been noticed and rewarded but it has lasted. She is quite an emotional soul and was in tears on Friday when her teacher said to her after a distance write that it really wasn't enough. DD'S opinion is her teacher should accept her for who she is, sob sob, no one understands her! I dared offer the explanation that her teacher can recognise the skills she has and wants to help her demonstrate them.

If you have a tape recorder, or a phone that can be used to record, if she can DICTATE her ideas, then play it back and review or amend as necessary. Then when she is happy with the result, finally she can write or type the finished work.

When I was a Yr2 TA, I would get very reluctant 'writers' to dictate their ideas to me, and I would type on the computer to their dictation. This motivated them, as they liked seeing their text appear on the screen.

Maybe if she is doing a story or a 'recount' you can encourage extended writing if her first effort is not very impressive.

Books on grammar and punctuation written by Lynne Truss (some are aimed at children) are entertaining and useful. Her famous one is about a Panda in a restaurant: "Eat, Shoots and Leaves".

www.lynnetruss.com/pages/content/index.asp?PageID=9

thank you. We have eat, shoots and leaves. I have just ordered a handwriting book with some exercises aimed at 10-11 year old with the hope of improving the look and speed of her handwriting but also as just more general writing practice. it suggests writing out your favourite song lyrics etc. I'll try getting her to dictate sometimes so she gets to enjoy having her ideas down.

You've said that her SPaG is good, but does she actually have ideas of what to write or is that what slows her up?

It may be too simplistic as my dds is a bit younger, but my dd2's reluctance to write was solved by me forking out for a tantalising collection of pretty notebooks, a secret diary, pretty writing paper and pens with smells/glitter and other effects. I also got her grandmas to promise to write back to her if she wrote to them. I didn't make it about school at all, and I didn't hassle her. She started writing things.she was interested it (letters and stories) and because she was practicing she got faster at school, got more positive feedback, so was happier to write.