Reading age of 15+, how does it help in GS ?

[mystery]

Advice required from experienced parents.
I was told during last parents' evening that both DSs are currently at a reading age of 15+ (they were 10 yrs 2 months then). I do not find them doing great in english though, they are predicted 5b-5a by end of Year 6. I thought that good reading age should reflect in creative writing which I don't think they are good at.

I know that they had good spelling age (few years ahead of their age) and that will help them to use correct spellings in their writing probably. But was wondering will higher reading age will help them in any way in secondary school and if so, in which way ?

What do you mean by 5b 5a in English? If they are currently in year 6 they will get a grade for spag ( external test) reading ( external test) and writing ( teacher assessed).

What makes you say they are not good at creative writing and how much does this matter anyhow? Reading is important for learning in all subjects so they are off to a great start.

[indiemom]

What do you mean by 5b 5a in English? If they are currently in year 6 they will get a grade for spag ( external test) reading ( external test) and writing ( teacher assessed).

What makes you say they are not good at creative writing and how much does this matter anyhow? Reading is important for learning in all subjects so they are off to a great start.

I meant that the class teacher told me that DSs' expected grade when they appear for their SATS in 2015 is around 5b or 5a in english, hope that answers your first question .

As I check their writing, I find that their creative writing is not good, the story is not quite coherrant, at times disconnected and not a logical conclusion at times.

I feel that you are a bit upset with my post, I was simply asking a question to this forum as I am was a bit confused with the fact and now some of the experienced posters have cleared that confusion for me. I was simply looking for some kind of answer to this, that's all.

You asked me a question - how much creative writing matter anyhow ?

I think to be able to write well is important in every walk of live including secondary schools, not only for english suject but also for other languages and then at a later date for personal statements.

[mystery]

Oh no - I was not upset. Please don't feel bad. You ask what use good reading is and it is incredibly useful at secondary school. Writing should be well taught at secondary so I would not worry about that too much right now. However, if you do want to improve the structure of their writing at home there are plenty of materials around.

I find the same with my children these days - I wish there was more emphasis on logical structure and content than all the different genres. Hopefully secondary / grammar school will improve these faults.

There is no mark for English so you may like to ask the teachers to split down their prediction into spag ( external test), writing ( teacher assessed) and reading ( external test). You might also like to ask if they are being taught and entered for level 6 papers in spag and reading.

[indiemom]

There is no mark for English so you may like to ask the teachers to split down their prediction into spag ( external test), writing ( teacher assessed) and reading ( external test). You might also like to ask if they are being taught and entered for level 6 papers in spag and reading.

Thanks a lot for your suggestion , will ask my school if that can be done atleast for reading. For SPAG I am not that sure as their spelling age is good but they are do a lot of careless mistakes (boys being boys ) in punctuation and grammar, so whether level 6 paper will be suitable for them or not I don't know. Tt's at times frustrating as well as funny to find how they invent so bizzare and shocking words specially for the 'tense' of some verbs !!! and when asked the same question, they can perfectly answer that - don't know how they manage to invent those words !!!!!

[salsa]

Hi Indiemom,
To me, if your children are inventing words, they are being creative! Didn't Shakespeare do it all the time?

I don't know if reading age is linked to creative writing or not. However, we have read to our children all their life and still do. They read every day. They both have very vivid imaginations and can produce stories without effort. Making them readable is another matter. For that there are elements that they have to remember. My older boy has a particular style. He loves to create suspense and uses short sentences. He likes hooking you and keep you guessing. His stories have to be action packed and preferably with lots of monsters and impossible things. "Magical realism". He has a blog and other children comment on his stories and they seem to like them.

Now, I have read that for children to be creative they have to be free to create their own games and not have their lives too organised/prescribed where they follow instructions. Presumably this prescribed approach is what is affecting Chinese children and damaging their creativity. I don't know if this is true or not. However, I do let my boys do their own thing a lot. They have 1 hour audio-visual per day and have to come up with other ways of amusing themselves after that. Not easy, there is a lot of effort and mess, but that's what we are doing.

What I have done to help them is to get them to tell me the story and record it. Later, they have written what they said. Writing on a computer also helps as you can edit easily.

The creative writing helped indirectly whilst taking the 11+ as my son had to come up with varied vocabulary and had to think about his grammar.

He is in year 7 at Dartford Grammar School and his English teacher was shocked at the level of English in his class. I believe his level of English helps him a lot in doing all his assignments.

I hope it helps!

[indiemom]

@salsa

thanks a lot for your detailed post.

Much appreciated.

[salsa]

Most welcome. Everyone is different and what works for one child may not work for another.