My son has always been an avid reader, at 3 and without any special programs or tutoring he learned to read. In fourthgrade his reading level was 8th grade. His 5th grade state tests put him above 95% of other students in the state in math, reading, comprehension and science. However we have always had issues getting him to write an essay, his writing level is third grade at best, it takes hours for him to write a paragraph and even then it's simple and doesn't make much sence. He is now starting six grade and his grades are suffering because he is not creative and I am frustrated because I dot know how to help hi
. Are there any creative writin tips or products (books) that may help him?
Have him tested. I once worked at a school for gifted students and some of them could not write or read, but their IQ's were very high and there were just some kincks in the way their brains worked. My daughter is also an avid reader and sometimes has trouble writing, because she wants it to be perfect or has so many ideas and doesen't know where to start. I do agree with the others on helping, but testing may help.
Does he need to write 5 paragraph essays? Or 3?
Start with a one paragraph essay.
On a piece of paper have him write his Topic
then underneath write his 3 points
Then start with a paragraph.
Sentence 1: Topic sentence
Sentence 2: Three point sentence
Sentence 3: First point sentence
Sentence 4: a supporting sentence for the first point
Sentence 5: Second point sentence
Sentence 6: a supporting sentence for the 2nd point
Sentence 7: Third point sentence
Sentence 8: A supporting sentence for the 3rd point
Sentence 9: Concluding sentence
1. I have three favorite foods. 2. These foods are pizza, hamburgers, and ice cream. 3. My first favorite food is pizza. 4. I like pzza because of its great Italian taste. 5. My second favorite food is hamburgers. 6. To me, the best kind is the hamburger that has all the trimmings, even onions. 7. My third favorite food is ice cream. 8. I love ice cream because I love sweet, creamy things to eat. 9. I enjoy eating all kinds of foods, but my favorits will probably always be pizza, hamburgers, adn ice cream.
This is taken from Shurley Grammar Grade 5. The same kind of paragraph is in the Grade 3, 4 and 6 books.
Start with something he knows. Be very specific and have him come up with three points. It could be anything. Then he writes supporting sentences, the why sentences. After he can write a paragraph he can go to three paragraph essays then 5 paragraph essays, using the same form.
Outlines are really hard to master if you can't master a paragraph.
In the Institute for Excellence in Writing, IEW, they teach topic key word outlines. This helped my daughter immensely. YOu take a paragraph and write only the key words from each sentence, then rewrite the paragraph and see how close you can get to the original.
I homeschool and use Shurley Grammar for my 4th grader. My 7th grader is now in Rod and Staff which is much more advanced.
In the teacher stores you can get the Daily Sentences, or Daily Writings, they are little half sized books that give a topic to write a paragraph about, or correct a sentence, a math problem, geography. Check out Barnes and Noble.
At last do not ask hm to be creative. Just get the points down adn three supporting sentences. Work from there.
You have some great suggestions here already! In addition to the "stream of consciousness" ideas (just get thoughts down; go back & edit later), here's another for you. Have him speak it first. Many people think writing must be formal and that it's a big deal. It doesn't have to be that way. Get a little recorder / dictaphone thing; sometimes your computer will have recording software. Have him talk about the topic first, then use that recording as a basis for writing.
Similarly, he can start to improve his writing by speaking while he writes. Many of us are quite used to speaking our thoughts but see writing as intimidating. If necessary, you can have him speak while you write EXACTLY what he says (no editing for correctness, mama). Then, have him go back, review & correct (structure, phrasing, clarity, etc). A few successes will help him understand that writing is just getting his thoughts across in a different way -- no better, no worse.
I tell people "just tell me on paper what you'd tell me in person." Unmystifying writing makes it more approachable and less scary.
Patience & humor to you both!
A pre-writing activity that will help him through his writer's block is called power writing. You can do it 3 times a week at home to build up his writing skills. Here are the rules:
1. Give him one topic such as school, friends, summer, holidays, games, sports, etc...
2. He gets 2 minutes only to write about that topic (eventually you want to increase the time to 10 minutes over a couple of weeks)
3. He can write ANYTHING that comes to his mind.
4. He has to keep writing without stopping until the timer is up. Even if he writes "I can't think of anything to write about" over and over that's okay because he'll get tired of that.
5. there is no wrong answer.
6. Spelling, punctuation, capitalization don't matter at this stage because it's a free-writing activity to build his confidence.
7. After the time is up he will count every word he wrote and write that number at the top of his paper.
8. Repeat the activity 2 more times using a new topic.
9. The goal is to try to beat his highest score.
You might do the activity with him. You can read what you wrote to each other. Have him keep everything he writes because he might be able to use it in the future. (perhaps have him write in a spiral notebook.)
Encourage him to use this strategy when given a topic to write about in school. Hope this helps.
are you having him try to write them? or type them? i know that both my brother and sister had issues like that and teaching them to type made it a LOT easier on them than trying to write it out.
also try having him start with a paragraph next to him and try to have him mimic how that is written. not copy it obviously, but so he can refer back to it.
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tell him to read lot of books. Only reading can help the student to solve the problem of writing
All student won't be have all talent together. some will be good in reading and some will be good in writing. You don't have to worry about this. Practice can change anything. Tell you son to write story or something whenever he is free that will increase his writing skills. when they ask to write the essay tell him to do and if you think that it is not possible by him yo can take the help of <a href="http://buy-custom-essays-online.essayboards.com/">... custom essays online </a>
Essay writing is not an easy task to come up with. Every students might have some qualities in them. I think your son has got great reading ability. The writing ability can also be improved. You go through the articles that provides the tips to write the best essays. Or check out the samples and examples of writing the essays. Or you can seek assistance from the online essay writing services. You can first go though the best essay writing services reviews and identify the best writing company.
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I had a similar problem when I was in high school and I still have problems with writer's block. A blank page/screen scares me to death sometimes. What helped me the most was when a teacher gave journal writing as an assignment. We wrote them on books we read. This really helped me because I was freed from worrying about writing pretty, well-written sentences. It also allowed me to just write my thoughts without worrying whether they would be deemed good enough or that my arguments were well supported. Maybe he can start keeping a journal to write his thoughts anything just to get the words flowing.
Sometimes when I am having trouble getting started with something I need to write, I start writing any thoughts I have on the idea and not worry about the flow. Once I get started then I can go back and edit to get it to make sense. Generally, it's only the first couple of paragraphs that need a lot of editing after that it seems to come much more easily.
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I agree 100% with Margie M.
Your child doesn't need creativity he needs to have a baseline on how to do things. You dont do evcerything or "get it" all on your own as a kid. You need to teach him the basics of writing that essay/paragraph , that is what we all use daily from childhood to adult life. You use the same outline ALWAYS. His part is doing it on the subject. It's easy once ya get it down. Work with him and write quite a few yourself and give him confidence when it's good enough but not great.
I wonder if you could get a high school student
or a college student to mentor him.
I think it's wonderful that he's such a good reader.
Meanwhile, see if you can get him to write
some VERY simple sentences.
One noun, one verb.
Totally basic, with no complex parts.
If he can do that, maybe try a few simple adjectives.
He shouldn't be trying to write any paragraphs until he can write sentences.
It's too bad the school didn't alert you about this before now.
Does the school have any counseling resources?
They may be able to refer you to a person or group
that can coach your son.
If I lived closer, I'd give it a try myself.
He probably has a LOT of stress and anxiety associated
with trying to write. See if you can find ways to relieve the stress
so that he will be more open to coaching and mentoring.
I am a totally backwards writer. In college I was in Psychology so we had to write lots of research type stuff. I found that I could not write the outline, or abstract, until I had it completely done. I would just ramble along free style writing and then i would go back and see what stuff went together. It made sense after a while and I always got good grades on them.
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