7th grader struggling to write

Last year in 6th grade my pretty smart kid struggled in English. As a result I added reading for 30 minutes and writing about it as a chore. Today I was the first time we started, asked him to write two pages about his favorite character. He was struggling, hard. 1.5 hours later and he had half a page just recapping the story.

I suggested lots of sentence starters. Reminded him we have to practice writing to get better. That I just want him to be more prepared this year and he seems to understand the why. But he sits there just staring at the page like it’s the worst thing ever. He even said he rather shovel dog poop lol

Am I approaching this wrong? I don’t want him to be miserable writing but I do think he needs to do it more. I told him it doesn’t have to be perfect, just want him to stream his thoughts on paper. I thought 2 pages was age appropriate but am I wrong?

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Maybe start smaller and build up to longer.

I can't remember back to grade 7, but I'm pretty sure we were writing much longer. I know I had a 30 page project due in history class, but we had a month to do it. No idea how much writing is normal now

Since this is a 30 minute chore I would start with reading the book and asking for a paragraph long response to a question you ask about something in the book. That will seem a lot less daunting than two whole pages

Maybe try letting him use Ai some to give him suggestions

Help him break it down. Doing a spider web bubble. Maybe you can title each bubble: characters, struggles, main plot, thoughts... just to get him writing. Or instead of having him start with a 1st paragraph let him start with a middle? Sometimes it helped my students to write backwards. In 7th grade he should be able to write 5 paragraphs, 6-8 sentences each.

Could it be that...he's also not reading the book? You two could read together. Take him to the library and let him choose and you guys each get a copy and read the book together and talk about it.

to love to write you must love to read.. to love to read you must read what you are interested in. you can’t force him but you can inspire him

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