Creative Writing Help

Creative Writing Help!

With English Language paper 1 coming up next Friday here are some top tips to help your child with the creative writing section of the paper. It's worth 50% of their marks on this paper so worth checking they know what to do!

Tip 1 - The Picture is a trampoline- so BOUNCE!!

If doing AQA - choose the description but tell them they don't need to stick with the picture. It's just there to speark ideas - they can put anything they want in it. They can change seasons - they can flashback 50 years. They can flash forward 1000 years. An object they put in it can remind them of some other place that is totally different. Maybe an icy place? Maybe an icy place they have already practised a paragraph on!!! The point is the picture is a trampoline not a prison. Teach them to BOUNCE off it and write what they want.

Tip 2 - Time doesn't stand still

Kids seem to have been taught in year 3 that if you are doing a description NOTHING can happen. This is rubbish and makes them run out of things to say once they have done a paragraph. Just tell them to TELL THE STORY of 5 MINUTES. A lot can happen in 5 minutes as well we know! Keeping it to 5 minutes means they don't get carried away and start trying to write a novel. They definitely can't write a novel in 45 minutes. Keep it simple. Someone falls through ice, down a cliff, off a boat. A car hits a wall, a shop, an old man. The lift gets stuck. The paracute doesn't open. The boat sinks. 

Tip 3 Start with the sky - end with the sky.

Start with the sky - end with the sky.It's changed. ta da - cyclical structure. Examiners LOVE a cyclical structure!

Tip 4 ISPACED starters - google it

If you're helping them practise try telling them they can't start a sentence with it/ the/ I/ he etc Now sit back and watch them squirm. This is because they are having to think hard about varying their sentence structure, They were taught this in Year 4 but they FORGOT! Make them remember.

Tip 5 - Vocab and spag

If your kid is a wibbly speller they can't help it. Tell them it's only a mark or two so not to worry. If they can't use full stops, commas and exclamation marks you have a problem. Teach them quickly! If their vocab is weak then a couple of ambitious words per par will do. Some all-purpose ambitious words they sort of know and could use in a variety of situations are:

melancholy/illuminate/ominous/labyrinth/intricate

Good Luck!