writing child not working at expected le

[confused426]

Please can someone recommend a book/online resource that will help me get my son enjoying writing and making progress in written language. I would like to work with him over the summer break . I do not want anything too onerous. I need something that is quite systematic yet not too rigid. i would like something that is engaging and fun to use.
My son is an extremely reluctant writer. He is not SEN and doesn't have any learning disability. His reading is fine, and his oral comprehension is good. His maths is OK
His punctuation is erratic, spelling often phonic, and although he has a good vocabulary he will use a basic adjectives, phrases etc if it means less writing. When he does standardised spelling and grammar tests he meets the expected standards.
I am a teacher so I have a good knowledge of expectations etc for his age. My concern is mainly with .lack of confidence and corresponding lack of attainment and enthusiasm.

title meant to say level

How old is he?

I found forcing encouraging a reluctant child to write was really counterproductive and would suggest not doing it, but maybe your child is less reluctant than mine was!!

If you're looking for more creativity, how about oral storytelling? Things like you say one sentence he says the next - get as over the top as you like.

The other thing to do is look at sentence improvement (again, I'd do it orally with a reluctant writer). So you start with "the cat sat on the mat". You might then add a couple of adjectives and become "The huge cat sat on the fluffy mat". Then put in a more interesting verb: The huge cat lounged on the fluffy mat. add an adjective "The huge cat lounged gracelessly on the fluffy mat. Then add a more interesting sentence starter/construction so: "Quite unexpectedly, the huge cat lounged gracelessly on the fluffy mat" .... you get the idea!

My son sounds similar - will always take the easiest option.

Last hols we offered to perform and film a puppet show with him. He enthusiastically wrote pages and pages! Loved his end result.

He's also just got into choose your own adventure stories, so that's something I want to suggest as a project this hols.

My ds uses pobble365 from pobble for inspiration for creative writing.
Also enjoy making book of knowledge using "article - a - day" from readworks
And "free writing" helped him put something on the paper instead of being away with fairies.

Thanks will have a look at suggestions. He is 9 in October.

I'm a teacher - feel free to take on my advice or disregard. My suggestion is to find him something he loves reading and work from there.
I'm working with a group of reluctant writers at the moment and using a Dorling Kindersley non-fiction book about robots to get mine enthused at the moment. When you've got them enthusiastic about reading, the writing is easy.
We've had lots and lots of discussions about robots (high quality conversation will aid writing) and we've used our imaginations. "Wouldn't it be awesome if we had a robot that did XYZ?" Then, and this is key, you have a purpose for writing - and that's really important. For me it was "let's imagine we're on Dragon's Den and need some money so we can build our robot. What do we need to say to persuade them?"
At this point, resist the urge to correct every last missing capital. Praise the work, find its positives. Then suggest if it's going to REALLY important people, it needs to be perfect, so let's fix the little errors together. It gives pride knowing they're correcting for a purpose, not just because they "got it wrong."

It's so easy discourage kids in writing by shoving WHSmith GPS books, etc in front of them and expecting that to be a quick fix. (Not suggesting that's you, OP.) And I feel very strongly about raiding enthusiasm for children's writing. Sorry this is a bit garbled - making dinner at the same time!

I'm liking some of these ideas. I have two reluctant writers so always looking for new ones.

For 'systematic yet not too rigid', I recommend 'Write On' by Karen Newell which has really helped my kids as well as me to have a range of ideas broken down into step-by-step processes. You can see the most samples on Amazon though the PDF version is cheaper elsewhere. It's made it easier to do little and often and bring more fun into writing in my house.

It starts from words to sentences to paragraphs and essays. I've been doing it with my 8 year old, she happily asks for it. We were going through the suggested order (as I'm still doing with my older two) until she hit around 45 (out of 100) which seemed to stretch her too far. She now rolls 4 10-sided dice to pick one. Today's involved her drawing up a package for an sale with name and slogans and then a description underneath. There are a couple I skip (the ones on accents and dialects from the past goes over my kids' heads) but all in all we're quite happy with it.

Might be worth looking at nanowrimo site as they have a kids site too.

Have you seen story cubes- dice with pictures on that you roll then try to tell a story using the pictures.

I have also seen a book about writing a book which my BIL brought for my DD.

You need to find a type of book that interests him to read. Maybe even comics and getting him to make a comic if it sparks something.

I don’t think this is something you can force and it can end up counter productive.
Good luck

Look at Nessy

Aimed at dyslexic kids who are known to be reluctant writers. It's all cartoons and fun games and you can track use progress

Two things to say on this thread

1. Don't panic
2. Relax

You are (as you know) doing the right thing about doing some work over the summer because the kids show signs of slipping backwards when they get back into school after the long summer break

But don't force it. I was in the exact same situation as you with my DS. He struggled with reading and struggled with writing. Probably because he never cared for either and I made his summers a bit of a misery by being over-enthusiastic and getting him to do stuff he really wasn't inclined to do. But he was in the bottom set for English and I knew he was bright so I felt we probably needed to intervene.

Thank you so much for the words of wisdom and ideas. I am busy Googling some of the resources suggested. Question to Green Tulip: did Nessy Learning have much of an impact on your child's writing? I have used it briefly and my son liked it. But I wondered if, because it was all online based if it would be as beneficial as pencil and paper.
I know in my heart of hearts that panic is not going to help anyone but it is difficult when so much of the curriculum is literacy based.

The thing that made biggest difference to my ds's writing ability was doing "free writing". (If you are a teacher you must know what it is?)
Doing that for 3 minutes(it was suggested to be 1 minute but he preferred longer.) everyday made a big difference.
He did some form of writing everyday for few minutes, even during summer holiday.
2 years later, teacher said she cannot believe he had problem in writing.

Please can someone recommend a book/online resource that will help me get my son enjoying writing

I realise I might be stating the obvious, but you know that he might just not enjoy writing, don't you ?
I don't like swimming. dh doesn't like singing. Some people love reading, others just don't enjoy it. I don't think you can make someone enjoy something they don't enjoy.

All that said, ds ended up choosing to do English Lit for A-level (along with other 'essay writing' subjects), and he didn't enjoy writing, nor write well when he was 9. What we decided though, was it would build resentment and just fuel a lot of anger to make him spend his holidays doing something he really didn't like. He used to enjoy reading (still does) so we encouaged him to read as much as he wanted, and we talked about books with him, and talked about all sort of things - encouraged him to express his pov, form opions, forma reasoned arguments etc - all verbally, so when he had to write, he had all the tools to do so.]Also, encourage him to lots of fine motor muscle practice through modelling with things like play dough, plasticine, clay, and lego and other construction (do they still do meccanno ?)

BackforGood, problem these days is, that you need to be able to write, like it or not. My ds's school is horrible in that sense. They make you finish the work during breaks, if you can't during lesson in KS2.

Yes it did. It was recommended by the educational psychologist.

The better they spell and string sentences together the better

Also - they don't need to reinvent the wheel - just do as the teacher asks -

"these days" like it is a new invention

Yes, I know, but there is a difference between being able to do something, and enjoying doing something. The OP said he doesn't have SEN and his reading and comprehension are fine.

i said his reading and comprehension is reasonable. When we discuss books and so on it is clear he has a good understanding of what he reads and has opinions on characters etc, however, when comprehension involves writing an answer, as it inevitably does at school, his answers are brief, often without punctuation and succinct to the point of lacking any sort of detail.

BackforGood, it is indeed these days, because of new SATs. Everything to do with writing have to follow rules and expectations. It's different from my days, that anything creative was encouraged, and praised.

Okay, I'm leaving the thread after this, but just wanted to note I was replying to the OP asking if we could "recommend a book/online resource that will help me get my son enjoying writing". she didn't ask 'how can I get my ds to get a top level in his Yr6 SATS. That is a different question.

BackforGood, why the hostility? I have no intention of it at all.

I only responded to you because you quoted my comment. And I have no intention to get my ds's writing to get top level in yr6 SATS either.

I only tried to help my ds with his writing because if he struggles, he is the one that suffers by losing breaks at school, and he was willing to put efforts in.

I just want to add... that it might be important that you separate writing practice e.g. using worksheets etc. and creative writing. This is something I learnt from mumsnet...

You say your son doesn't have any SEN... but I have a very bright year 3 boy who it turns out has a 'visuomotor integration deficit' which means he can write in the physical sense but is floored by writing out things he is actually thinking. He was (and sometimes still is) accused of 'not trying hard enough' 'not applying himself' etc.

I spent a horrible summer barking up the wrong tree trying to get him to write more e.g. write a diary etc. when what I should have done is just a little worksheet practice of actual letters, stuff to develop his fine motor skills (as people have suggested above) and even things like climbing. To encourage the creative writing and just keeping his confidence up I would get him to tell me stories, I would write them out and he would copy them...

Honestly, tread carefully because loss of confidence or interest is a bigger problem... and you have already suggested that that is a concern.