Year 8 English help

[theelvisyears]

Hi,

Sullen 13 year old coming to the end of year 8 eventually admitted that he was disappointed in his recent English test result - 5B I think.

He is typical boy - good at science and maths. His writing is terrible, he doesn't check for basic things like capitalisation and punctuation and struggles with the analysis of poetry and prose.

English was always my strongest, so think I can help him at home - but whats the best way? Get those Study guide books?

Thanks in advance.

A couple of things spring to mind. Does he know how to punctuate correctly and is simply careless, or is there a more fundamental lack of understanding? Also, does he read independently?

If I wanted to tackle these issues over the summer in a way that wouldn't make him feel like he was devoting his summer to additional tuition, I would get him reading. The more he reads, the more he will develop an innate understanding of the accurate structure and punctuation of sentences.

Then, I would kind of do a makeshift book club. Read whatever he is reading and have conversations about it. So, if you were reading 'Holes' (which my Y8s of his level adore) you could ask him how he thought Stanley was feeling when a particular event occurred, and what words helped him to figure that out. Or you could ask him what he thought of the atmosphere at the opening of the book, and how the style of writing gave him that impression. Then, tell him what you thought. Just have a conversation about it. At this point, the most important thing is getting him to engage positively with literature.

Was this an English comprehension test done in exam conditions, because my yr7 daughter did one last week and has result already. I only ask because her friend, who is usually average at English, was v upset to get a 3 something. If it was, I think it might need slightly different skills. She likened it to year 6 level 6 reading. She did extra well but is v good at exams and has been taught during her level 6 reading to look at the mark scheme and answer accordingly. If it was the same sort of test then perhaps it's more of an exams technique problem.