Writing for independent school exam

[ninanina]

I would like to ask for help in these two issues:
1. I find that when doing the writing part of the independent exam, probably due to time pressure, my ds sometimes creates ambiguous sentences. His writing seems quite good but some sentences he builds are incorrect. How could I help him with this?
2. Where could I find/read some somples of year 6 children's writing? Is there any website? I would like to see other children's level of writing and pieces they have managed to produce in half an hour, to compare to my ds writing to see where we stand. It seems for my ds half an hour seems little time to do a very thought out piece, I wonder if other children manage to produce very high quality pieces of writing in this time. I am simply not sure how much to expect of him. I would be very grateful for any help or guidanće, as we do not have much experience here.

[Goodheart]

2. Where could I find/read some somples of year 6 children's writing? Is there any website? I would like to see other children's level of writing and pieces they have managed to produce in half an hour, to compare to my ds writing to see where we stand. It seems for my ds half an hour seems little time to do a very thought out piece, I wonder if other children manage to produce very high quality pieces of writing in this time. I am simply not sure how much to expect of him. I would be very grateful for any help or guidanće, as we do not have much experience here.

Checkout http://www.elevenplusexams.co.uk/advice ... ay-writing (right at the very bottom of the page) on this very web site for three sample essays were written by children preparing for their 11-plus selective examinations for entry into senior independent school. Enjoy.

[Daogroupie]

Which schools is he sitting<

Yes, other Y6 students do produce a very high standard of writing in 30 minutes, especially those who have been working with this format for a while now. Students who sat DAO and HBS have had to do this already so they are at a strong advantage compared to students who only had to sit a 100% CEM exam.

Can you give an example of a sentence that he builds that is incorrect? He will lose marks for this as other students will not do this and will write coherent stories that will gain high marks. DG

[yoyo123]

https://www.gov.uk/government/publicati ... sh-writing" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

This is for end of KS2, but shows what is expected.

[ninanina]

Thank you. The links are very helpful, they actually show the real writing the children produced.

I wouldn't like to embarrass him by posting his incorrect sentences, he would never forgive me! But in general, I can see he kind of gets lost in punctuating his sentences correctly. He will finish his sentence by saying that someone was walking, and then he will place a full stop and start a new sentence with "to the palace far away." I don't get why he would make a new sentence here and how to explain to him not to do it..?
Sometimes he makes a long sentence by joining lots of clauses with and... and... and...
Is it too late to improve his style?

[grgygirl]

I think at this stage you have to just keep plugging away at getting him to recognise his own mistakes. My ds does this too - his brain is faster than his physical writing speed so he often 'jumps' ahead in a composition which results in it not making sense. The good thing about the indies is they take into account the school report and will interview too so all is not lost on an average exam performance (I hope!).

[PettswoodFiona]

I would suggest you get the message across by asking him to read out aloud his writing, following the rules that a full stop means take a break for a second and a comma for a moment etc. It should become apparent to him that it doesn't flow, he can then use the technique in his head and he can hopefully start to see it more naturally. Re-use of and is going to happen a bit but again if it makes the sentence stilted this should come out in the reading aloud and offer some alternative ideas. My English teacher insisted we could not reuse a word in the same sentence which is another technique but can be unhelpful when trying to get moods across when repetition can actually be a method of conveying a sentiment. Try banning some common written words such as 'like' or 'walk' to force them to think of alternatives and in day to day life ask for synonyms when having conversations- DD saw it as a fun game and not testing.

I will add I am not an expert just a parent who got their DD through state and independent tests so if an expert comes along with better techniques then do disregard my suggestions.

[yoyo123]

I get the children in my class to shut their eyes and then listen while someone reads their story, as it was written, to them.

Very effective.

[Daogroupie]

It is not too late at all. Students can make dramatic improvements once they understand where they are going wrong.

He needs to compare his work with others and then he will be able to see what he is doing wrong.

Has school drawn attention to this at all? DG

[ToadMum]

It is not too late at all. Students can make dramatic improvements once they understand where they are going wrong.

He needs to compare his work with others and then he will be able to see what he is doing wrong.

Has school drawn attention to this at all? DG

Well, he needs to compare his work with that of others which has been assessed as better...

Probably not what St Paul's etc are looking for (but how nice if the were ), but I particularly like the Bronze award winner's entry in the 10-13 category here

http://bbc.in/1qPxPF1