You've received excellent advice above already - I'll just add one question: Do you think that the trigger on this assignment is due to having to start with 6 people he *knows*? I think that one thing I might have tried, to keep the assignment somewhat close to the original, is to have him try to either start with a brief biography of someone who is a real person but also someone who's completely removed from any association with your ds - perhaps a famous author or figure from history or a marine scientist etc - pick someone that is associated with a *subject* your ds is interested in, someone that he can find some brief biographical info on. Have him write up a short bio on that person, then have him fictionalize a story about that person. If he has trouble with parts of this assignment, scaffold it for him and try to get him through it - that way you've basically covered the intent of the original assignment, build a fictional story from a real-life story.
Best wishes,
polarbear
