Many children find it hard to express themselves in writing: some may find it difficult to put their ideas down on paper; others lack confidence because they have yet to master the rules of spelling and punctuation. There are also many children who simply do not enjoy writing because they see it as a chore.
At Better Tuition, our inspiring teachers engage with students to identify where the problem lies. We then work on ways to reset the reluctant writer’s approach to writing.
Parents and carers often come to us at Better Tuition because it can be so very difficult to motivate a reluctant writer to pick up a pen and write. We have all sorts of resources and techniques to get young people writing and nothing gives us greater satisfaction than seeing the pleasure a young person can get from completing a beautifully constructed piece of writing.
We have put together a list of helpful techniques to use with your reluctant writer, all of which are suitable for home or classroom.
1. Talk it through – a rehearsal helps young writers to think of ideas.
2. Act it out – this is especially helpful when writing to argue or writing from another person’s point of view. Can be used to generate for and against arguments.
3. Use props and visual stimuli – googling images, or using evocative objects, eg WW1 memorabilia, can generate enthusiasm for the topic.
4. Provide a model – encourage a young writer to critique your writing. For example, ask questions about punctuation, adjectives or spelling in your piece. This gives them the reassurance of knowing exactly what is expected.
5. Paired composition – it can be effective to write in pairs: it makes a weak writer feel less exposed. You could agree to take turns in writing sentences.
6. Free writing – challenge your child – alone or in a group – to write about a given topic for five minutes only. It’s important to give a specific topic (good ones are ‘summer’, ‘the forest’ or ‘the fight’) and to give a time limit (so that they know it will soon be over).
Many young people feel under huge pressure when writing. Praise and encouragement are the key to developing confidence: there is always something positive to be said about a piece of writing. No matter how many mistakes a young writer makes, you should always focus on the positives. You can target skill areas next time.
The key to developing technical accuracy and fluent communication is the targeting of key areas, such as punctuation, vocabulary and imagination. Focus on one at a time, and make sure your targets are manageable and realistic. For example, a young writer should be able to use full stops confidently and accurately before moving on to interior punctuation such as commas and speech marks.
