formulaic writing

[kiwik]

Has anyone just taught their kids a formula for writing school creative writing. My son has just turned six and he finds it impossible to think of a story that is an acceptable length in the half hour given. I am thinking of teaching him a step by step process for creating a story that ticks all the boxes but is probably not very inspired. He is simply not ready yet and his inability to do this is used as an excuse not to extend him in other areas.

 

Of course this is what the teacher is paid for!

 

 

[Irene Lynn]

My son is the same age, but he has not been required to do anything like this. He can come up with amazing and very long stories, but if he were to have to write a story, it would be very short and "sweet" (probably not too sweet. He is very much a boy.) with a very complicated picture, which no one would understand without his explanation. LOL He has been required to write 1-2 sentences and draw a picture to illustrate it. Often he gets the picture done and part of a sentence. Sometimes he completes the assignment. I can't imagine him being able to write for 1/2 an hour!

 

If he had to try, I might give him some pointers, but I would rather have him keep his imagination and flow of a good story at home and turn in lame assignments at school, until his skills match his creative ability. I don't want him to get into bad habits that are limiting. My dd had wonderful ideas and beautiful speech, but did NOT write well or much at all until she was 9. We homeschooled her. Her writing kept picking up until she was taking the National Novel Writing Month challenge or going beyond it. Now she is majoring in writing. I know that path is not the right one for everyone, but that influences my advice. I didn't force her into early writing that she didn't care about. I think she would have felt unsuccessful and developed a negative feeling toward it. That is what I most tried to avoid. Some would get that feeling of failure from an inability to do the school assignments, so I might do things differently for someone else. We will see what my son will need as he is required to write more. I grew to hate writing, so I avoided it like the plague for years. I want my kids to enjoy it.

 

I'm sorry that this is being used to hold your son back in other areas.

[mathnerd]

My son's PS uses a curriculum called "Step up to Writing". It is formulaic in the sense that it teaches how to begin, how to narrate and how to end the narrative. I have seen that it helps my son a lot.

[Paige]

Is he expected to write it all out himself? Is this first grade or kindergarten? It sounds like a little much. Have you tried having him dictate a story? For my older children, I give them a guide and checklist. Today it was like this- Title, Indent and capitalize, sentences to introduce characters and set up story, introduce problem, climax, resolution. I would not give that to a young 6yr old, however.

[kiwik]

He is 3 moths in to what is equivalent to first grade. I don't have any problems with his writing as i know it will come. I do have a problem with his creative being used as an excuse to not extend him in any other area.

[nansk]

In Singapore schools, they teach formulaic narratives based on 4 pictures in sequence.

First, they teach the hamburger writing style - intro, body, conclusion.

Second, they teach writing the 5Ws and 1H - Who, What, When, Where, Why, and How. These usually go in the intro and body.

Third, they teach that the conclusion should state the lesson learnt (the pictures usually depict a small accident or mishap).

 

I can post more details if you are interested.

[Heathermomster]

http://pinterest.com/bushnelllisa/first-grade-writing-prompts/

http://www.oakdale.k12.ca.us/teachers-and-staff/ELAContinuum/Docs/Lessons/01/01DailyWritingJournalPrompts.pdf

http://www.teach-nology.com/worksheets/language_arts/prompts/

[kiwik]

In Singapore schools, they teach formulaic narratives based on 4 pictures in sequence.

First, they teach the hamburger writing style - intro, body, conclusion.

Second, they teach writing the 5Ws and 1H - Who, What, When, Where, Why, and How. These usually go in the intro and body.

Third, they teach that the conclusion should state the lesson learnt (the pictures usually depict a small accident or mishap).

 

I can post more details if you are interested.

 

That would be good if you could.

 

Here they just seem to go straight to the 5w and a H. So the poor kid is expected to sit down after lunch on Monday and write a story about whatever the topic is then the next day they edit it. I think it takes him a while to work out what to write and his writing is pretty average speedwise I think. I don't think he really has to write 2 pages (but the other kids in his reading/maths/spelling groups are all nearly 7 so they do more). He does however have to write at least 4 sentences and try to start them in different ways, punctuate them correctly etc.

[nansk]

I will scan some pages from dd's composition book later tonight. For now, here is a recent blog post by a primary school teacher and another blog post for upper primary students.

 

ETA: I wanted to add that my dd is now in Primary 3 (3rd grade) and even now, they don't write an entire composition in one sitting. They write the intro paragraph one day, edit it the next day, then they write the body (1-3 paragraphs) on the third day, edit it the next day, then finally they write the conclusion on the last day. So, they write one composition over the whole week. I think they do maybe 1 or 2 compositions a month.

 

Also, when she does a composition for homework, I help her by writing down first what she narrates (her initial thoughts based on the picture given). We edit/expand it, then I write the final version as she re-narrates, and finally, she copies this version out neatly into her school composition book. So it is mostly her input, but I help with the hard work of writing/editing/re-writing.

 

I'll add that compared to the WTM method of teaching writing, this is a lot of writing (and only narrative writing at that) and I am not happy with this method, but we do what needs to be done.

[Arcadia]

In Singapore schools, they teach formulaic narratives based on 4 pictures in sequence.

First, they teach the hamburger writing style - intro, body, conclusion.

Second, they teach writing the 5Ws and 1H - Who, What, When, Where, Why, and How. These usually go in the intro and body.

Third, they teach that the conclusion should state the lesson learnt (the pictures usually depict a small accident or mishap).

 

I can post more details if you are interested.

 

Here my older boy's teacher taught the same way. However each teacher has their own way of teaching writing since there is no curriculum.

 

They don't have those four pictures with helping words composition here though.

[Alessandra]

In Singapore schools, they teach formulaic narratives based on 4 pictures in sequence.

First, they teach the hamburger writing style - intro, body, conclusion.

Second, they teach writing the 5Ws and 1H - Who, What, When, Where, Why, and How. These usually go in the intro and body.

Third, they teach that the conclusion should state the lesson learnt (the pictures usually depict a small accident or mishap).

 

I can post more details if you are interested.

 

I will scan some pages from dd's composition book later tonight. For now, here is a recent blog post by a primary school teacher and another blog post for upper primary students.

 

ETA: I wanted to add that my dd is now in Primary 3 (3rd grade) and even now, they don't write an entire composition in one sitting. They write the intro paragraph one day, edit it the next day, then they write the body (1-3 paragraphs) on the third day, edit it the next day, then finally they write the conclusion on the last day. So, they write one composition over the whole week. I think they do maybe 1 or 2 compositions a month.

 

Also, when she does a composition for homework, I help her by writing down first what she narrates (her initial thoughts based on the picture given). We edit/expand it, then I write the final version as she re-narrates, and finally, she copies this version out neatly into her school composition book. So it is mostly her input, but I help with the hard work of writing/editing/re-writing.

 

I'll add that compared to the WTM method of teaching writing, this is a lot of writing (and only narrative writing at that) and I am not happy with this method, but we do what needs to be done.

 

 

Thank you. I'm following your posts -- I appreciate them.

[kiwik]

Thought I would update. I was reading a thread on five paragraph essays (I had forgotten about them) and the teacher put as his aim for next term to write 4+ sentences so I thought we would work on a 5 sentence story. 1/ who,when,where intro, 2/ first thing /what 3/ second .. 4/ third ... 5/ concluding sentence why/feeling.

 

When he is older he can use the same thing as an outline for a five paragraph story/essay.

[nansk]

Coming back to update that I finally managed to scan and upload two pages (one, two) from an assessment book that teaches composition, and one from dd's school.

[mytwomonkeys]

when my children are just learning to write, i use this formula. we expand from the simplicity of this of course as they get older, but this works wonderfully as a "formula" in the beginning stages of getting their thoughts on paper.

[kiwik]

when my children are just learning to write, i use this formula. we expand from the simplicity of this of course as they get older, but this works wonderfully as a "formula" in the beginning stages of getting their thoughts on paper.

 

 

That is what I am working on. Then I have to teach him to be able to do it in half an hour without the numbers stage as that is not in their system.

[kiwik]

Coming back to update that I finally managed to scan and upload two pages (one, two) from an assessment book that teaches composition, and one from dd's school.

 

 

Will look at this tonight. Thanks.