DIPLOMADO

Didáctica de la enseñanza –
aprendizaje del inglés

Módulo V: Didáctica de la escritura en inglés

 Didactics of writing in english

UNIT I: Writing skills 02

1. The definition of writing
2. Steps in the Writing Process
3. The productive skill- writing
4. Writing Style
5. Academic and Creative writing
6. The Academic writing elements
7. The stages of academic writing
8. Defining Creative Writing
9. Teaching Writing Stages
10. The writing process

UNIT II: Model for improving student writing skills 34

1. Specific Strategies for Improving Student Writing Skills
2. Teaching writing methods
3. Metacognition in the writing process
4. Developing Writing Skills Model
5. The training program “Developing Writing Skills”
6. Designing the experiment on “Developing the writing skills”

UNIT III: Lesson outlines 77

1. Examples of writing lesson planning

UNIT IV: Teaching english as foreign language paper

81
1. Teaching Theory of Writing
2. The Nature of Writing
3. The Essence of Writing
4. Process of Writing
5. Writing Sequences
6. The Analysis of Writing Activity in the Classroom
7. Aspects of Writing
8. The Characteristics of Good Writing
9. Problems of Writing
10. Limitation of Teacher in Writing Class

1
 UNIT I: WRITING SKILLS

1. The definition of writing

The writing process is the series of overlapping steps

that most writers follow in composing texts. Also called
the composing process. The writing process is an
approach to writing that entails the recursive phases
of pre-writing, drafting, revising, editing, and
publishing. In composition classrooms before the
1980s, writing was often treated as an orderly
sequence of discrete activities. Since then as a result
of studies conducted by Sondra Perl, Nancy Sommers,
and others. The stages of the writing process have
come to be recognized as fluid and recursive.

Beginning in the mid-1990s, research in the field of composition studies began to

shift again, from an emphasis on process to "a 'post-process' focus with the
emphasis on pedagogical and theoretical examination of culture, race, class,
and gender" (p.22, Edith Babin and Kimberly Harrison, Contemporary Composition
Studies, Greenwood, 1999). Composing has been variously described as "thinking
on paper," "the making of meaning," and "deciding what one wants to say and
how one is going to say it. "In his article "The Post-Process Movement in
Composition Studies," composition researcher Bruce McComiskey points out that
"social approaches to writing instruction view composing as a process (no less
than expressivist and cognitivist approaches do), yet the difference is that these
approaches define composing as a social (not individual) process" [Flower, p.21]

English writing is thought to be an essential skill for success in the modern global
economy [Davis]. Many experts would go as far to say that without certain
knowledge of English reading skills and English writing skills, a career would be
somewhat limited if it pertains to doing business in English-speaking countries at
even a rudimentary level. Therefore, it is recommended that English writing
become part of the arsenal of any global businessperson who wishes to advance

2
his or her career in the global marketplace. The good news is that while English
reading and English speaking are best taught in either an online forum or an in-
class course designed for learners interested in English, English writing can be
taught at a pace consistent with the initial writing ability of the learner of English
writing.

Good writing is essential for success in school and the 21st Century workplace.
Writing is a complex combination of skills which is best taught by breaking down
the process [Wardle Elisab.p. 12]. The writing process involves a series of steps to
follow in producing a finished piece of writing.

Educators have found that by focusing on the

process of writing, almost everyone learns to write
successfully. By breaking down writing step-by-step,
the mystery is removed and writer’s block is reduced.
Most importantly, students discover the benefits of
constructive feedback on their writing, and they
progressively master, and even enjoy, writing.

3
 Pre-writing

Drafting

Revising

Editing

Publishing

2. Steps in the writing process

Pre-writing: This is the planning phase of the writing process,

when students brainstorm, research, gather and outline ideas,
often using diagrams for mapping out their thoughts.
Audience and purpose should be considered at this point,
and for the older students, a working thesis statement needs
to be started.

Drafting: Students create their initial composition by writing

down all their ideas in an organized way to convey a
particular idea or present an argument. Audience and
purpose need to be finalized.

4
 Revising: Students review, modify, and reorganize their work
by rearranging, adding, or deleting content, and by making
the tone, style, and content appropriate for the intended
audience. The goal of this phase of the writing process is to
improve the draft.

Editing: At this point in the writing process, writers proofread

and correct errors in grammar and mechanics, and edit to
improve style and clarity. Having another writer’s feedback in
this stage is helpful.

Publishing: In this last step of the writing process, the final

writing is shared with the group. Sharing can be accomplished
in a variety of ways, and with the help of computers, it can
even be printed or published online.

Teaching the writing process empowers students by asking them to talk

about their writing at every step of the writing process. Students submit work
according to a set schedule of lessons and assignments, and instructors provide
feedback on the work, mixing encouragement with constructive criticism.
Students apply these comments to the next step in that assignment. Both
exchange comments about the writing, creating a conversation between
instructor and student — both about the content of the writing and about the
process of doing the work. Historically, educators have struggled with the
challenge of teaching students how to write well, traditionally focusing on the
finished product. Since the 1970s, writing instruction has been changing. Teachers
no longer emphasize the finished product; instead, they teach the “writing
process.”

One of the strengths of the structure of the writing process is its usefulness for a
wide range of diverse learners. Students are taught a variety of styles to structure
their thinking, ranging from analytical outlines to highly visual graphic

5
organizers. Students explore ways for organizing and visualizing their ideas that is
the most effective for them. For instance, many right-brained visual thinkers find
the highly-graphical spatial bubble-diagram organizers most effective in the pre-
writing stage. Verbal thinkers like to use lists, charts and free writing to organize
their thoughts.

The writing process begins with brainstorming. Some advanced writers will try
to start with a prewriting outline or collection of ideas that exists only in their head,
but they are required to put it in writing, either by way of a graphic organizer or in
a more linear format, like listing or free writing. Students also create a topical
outline to help organize their ideas, and the advanced students are required to
develop a working thesis statement. The goal is for students to become personally
invested in their work. Because writing is recursive and any of the steps can be
repeated, most academic or professional writers recognize that writing can be a
messy process. Teachers and students alike regard rough drafts as “sloppy copies”
due to the number of changes and corrections that are noted on them. During
the writing process, the writer moves fluidly back and forth between the tasks that
contribute to creating the final written product. For instance, once they draft their
essay, the first step in revision might be to realize that the structure does not work.
The initially conceived structure might be incomplete, poorly organized, or include
too many divergent ideas that don’t support their topic or thesis. At this point, the
writer might return to the key points in a graphic organizer or outline as a way of
reconsidering the structure. The writers might add, delete or change things on their
outlines, while also rereading their essay and editing some of the passages to
improve content and clarity. If the writer decides on a new structure, whole
paragraphs may be moved around, deleted or rewritten. Having someone else
read the revised writing helps the writer see if it needs further revision. When the
writer is satisfied with content and organization, it’s time to proofread for any issues
in grammar, usage and mechanics. Finally, the writer will fine-tune the writing,
maybe rework some of the transitions as a final editorial revision, and then publish
the work to their audience. The process is complete.

For many students, writing can be intimidating, upsetting and mystifying.

Parents who try to teach writing find that their children can be defensive about
any criticism on their writing, and without any kind of teacher’s guide, critiquing

6
their children’s writing can be a surprisingly difficult process and source of
friction. IN present times the emphasis is on the process of writing rather than the
finished product, much of the sensitivity about receiving constructive criticism is
eliminated; in fact, comments from students indicate they love the feedback
[Elbow]. By approaching writing as a process, instructors encourage students to
postpone closure on a piece of writing until they have explored all of its
possibilities. Breaking the act of writing down into distinct steps enables students to
maintain perspective on their writing, to understand that the feedback is about a
specific aspect of their writing, and to discover they can master and yes, even
enjoy writing!

3. The productive skill- writing

The goal of foreign language study is to learn a language in order to read its
literature or in order to benefit from the mental discipline and intellectual
development that result from foreign language study [p.5 Richards]. Writing is an
essential skill in our everyday lives and that makes it a really important aspect of
our teaching too. Students need to know how to take notes as well as how to
write essays and letters, which makes this basic skill as important as speaking or
listening.

The productive skills are speaking and writing, because learners doing these
need to produce language. They are also known as active skills. They can be
compared with the receptive skills of listening and reading.

Learners have already spent time practicing receptive skills with a shape
poem, by listening to it and reading it. They now move on to productive skills by
group writing their own, based on the example. The teacher has two main roles;
the first role is to facilitate the communication process between all participants in
the classroom, and between these participants and the various activities and
texts. The second role is to act as an independent participant within the learning-
teaching group. The latter role is closely related to the objectives of the first role
and arises from it. These roles imply a set of secondary roles for the teacher; first, as
an organizer of resources and as a resource himself;...[p. 167, Richards J. C.,
Rodgers T. S. Approaches and Methods in Language Teaching (Second Edition).

7
Cambridge: CUP, 2001. 270 p.] When the student learns a language, he develops
both receptive skills and productive skills. Receptive skills include understanding
when the student listens and when he reads. He receives the language and
decodes the meaning to understand the message.

Productive skills are speaking and writing. The student uses the language that
he has acquired and produce a message through speech or written text that he
wants others to understand. When a student is “learning English”, he is learning all
of these skills. He will be strong in some and weak in others. The student may have
different strengths and weaknesses.

Another example of receptive and productive skills is related to the study of

vocabulary. It is easy to develop the receptive vocabulary. The student can study
words independently, memorizing the definitions, the word forms, the collocations
and different uses of the words in context. The student’s receptive vocabulary can
grow and when he sees a list of words to study in his class, he might recognize
some of them already. He will see many new words in his reading texts or hear
some in the listening exercises but the words he studies are ones that he should try
to use when he writes or speaks. Independent practice can help him practice his
receptive skills. Just like the example of vocabulary, to do extra reading and extra
listening on his own to improve your receptive skills. Improving your productive skills
by himself is more difficult. The student can write something alone but he can
improve more when someone reads what he writes. He can speak to himself in a
mirror, but it is better practice speaking to another person. However, just like the
example with vocabulary, the more that the student develops his receptive skills,
the more that they can affect his productive skills in a positive way. Reading more
will help him write better. Listening more will help the student improve his speaking
skills. Productive skills improve from stronger receptive skills. This term, makes the
decision to do all he can outside of class and take advantage of his time inside of
class and he will improve both his receptive and his productive skills!
Certain activities, such as working with literature and project work, seek to
integrate work on both receptive and productive skills. It demands the
collaborative work between the teacher and students [The Vermont Writing
Collaborative: Writing for Understanding, p.xiii. Authentic Education, 2008. ].

8
 Writing is a visual form of communication, either printed in hard-copy or in
electronic form. It follows conventions that are mutually understandable by the
writer and the reader, even if these conventions change over time or are used
with specific meanings in smaller speech communities (e.g., special texting rules
used by a group of teenagers). Writing is considered a productive skill because
the writer creates new language and does not only interpret existing information.
Here are some common terms used in the discussion of writing:

Medium Different media in which we write (letters, computers, cellphone

texting, etc.) that require different styles of writing and different
communicative conventions.
Content Ideas ("the story") that the author intends to convey to the
audience.
Genre Type of expressive style a piece of writing has (e.g., poetry, short
story, lecture notes, etc.)
Lexicon Vocabulary that is needed to convey the author's intended
meaning.
Grammar Formal aspect of language (e.g., subject-verb-agreement, tense,
aspect markers, references, etc.)
Pragmatics Implicit messages a text conveys to the reader; shared
expectations for communication by a social group (e.g., ways to
greet in a letter, appropriate ways of phrasing ideas, etc.)
Orthography The way to write letters or symbols of written language; handwriting.
Mechanics Punctuation, spelling (accuracy), capitalization, etc.

Writing skills are important because they are a good way to reinforce what a
student has learned as they will benefit from seeing new vocabulary in written
form. Speaking and listening are natural, though, and as such they do not strictly
need to be learned. For example, if an English person moves to France, they will
eventually learn to speak French just from being around native French speakers.
They will, however, struggle to write in French. Consequently, writing can be
frustrating and disliked. When we speak, we do not really think about the
grammatical correctness or the mechanics of what we are saying. Everything
flows as speech happens rather quickly; we do not repeat our speech to check
for mistakes or the appropriateness of what we are saying. Writing, on the other
hand, does not flow smoothly. We write a few lines, re-read them, edit what we've
written if necessary, and then carry on the process - we are constantly checking
for correctness.

9
 For these reasons, teachers need to make writing an enjoyable activity that our
students will not want to avoid. The teachers need to encourage students, initially
at least, to write without worrying about the correctness of everything they put to
paper - get them to generate ideas and then edit their written English afterwards.
It is also important to be involved every step of the way as leaving the students to
produce a written piece of work with little help can be a rather daunting prospect
for them. Furthermore, to help the students become self-sufficient writers, rather
than marking a student's work in red pen and handing it back to them it is much
better to meet individually with them to discuss the strong and weak points of their
work. For students to improve their skills in written English, they need to attain
correctness and accuracy in:

Grammar;
Vocabulary;
Spelling;
Punctuation;
Layout conventions;
A range of sentence structures;
Linkage of information across sentences and paragraphs to develop a
topic;
Appropriate register for the type of writing;
Awareness of the conventions in different genres of writing, such as letters,
poems, essays etc.

4. Writing Style

Perhaps we should base our teaching on the assumption that, for a great deal of
time anyway, language production consists of piecing together the readymade
units appropriate for a particular situation and that comprehension relies on
knowing which of these
patterns to predict in these
situations[p.133, Richards].

Writing style is much like any

other type of style in that it

10
helps the students express who they are. It is how the writer chooses to express
himself or herself through writing. Each person has their own personal fashion style,
whether they mean to or not. The clothes and accessories that students choose to
wear each day can define personal style. If someone throws on a T-shirt and jeans
with some old flip flops, they are expressing a casual and laid back style. On the
other hand, if someone chooses a button-down shirt and leather shoes, they are
showing the world that they mean business. The same goes for writing. Just like
clothes, writing can express a specific style. There are four main types of writing –
expository, persuasive, descriptive, and narrative – and each one has a specific
style.

Expository writing is a general category that includes all types of essays (with
the exception of persuasive essays). The main purpose of expository writing is to
explain a concept or idea while including details for support. Such writing is usually
based on a subject and therefore requires facts, not opinions, for examples and

11
supportive detail. This type of writing is generally used in textbooks or ‘how to’
articles and essays. As such, these essays and articles follow an organized and
logical sequence. An expository style of writing is more formal and straightforward,
so the casual language or slang that you would use with friends is not acceptable.

Slightly similar to expository writing, persuasive writing is usually found in article

and essay form. It also relies on specific details and examples for support;
however, persuasive writing does not rely heavily on facts. In a persuasive piece,
the writer is often expressing an opinion and trying to persuade the audience to
do something or to agree with the writer’s point of view. It must be clear and
concise, but it can also be a bit more forceful and dramatic to help convince the
reader. For example, sometimes writers will exaggerate their details to affect the
reader in a more emotional way than in an expository essay.

Fiction and poetry are filled with descriptive language, since the purpose is not
to inform but to entertain. Someone may read this type of writing to enjoy the
beauty of the language and writing itself. Therefore, this style tends to use more
adjectives and adverbs, as well as figurative language and imagery, to create
detail that allows the reader to envision the scenery and events in their minds.

Like descriptive writing, narrative writing aims to entertain the reader; however,
instead of trying to entertain the reader with beauty of its language, the writer is
trying to tell a story. If an author adopts an expository writing style to tell a story,
the author can quickly bore the reader. Narrative writing will use more descriptive
language and imagery, because the author wants the reader to imagine the
characters, scenes, and setting in order to become part of the story’s world and
to connect to its plot. Narrative writers can also change their style depending on
the type of story. For example, if a writer wants to create a suspenseful story, they
might use short, choppy sentences to build up to the most exciting moment.
Therefore, the genre or category of the narrative can influence the style of writing
as well.

5. Academic and Creative writing

There are actually only two major styles a student needs to know.

12
13
 All in all, academic writing is more restrictive than creative writing. That’s as
much as a student needs to know about writing styles. However, let’s consider also
the following styles – they stretch beyond the sphere of scholarly writing:

Technical writing-involving a lot of specific terms, technical writing

has a set structure.

Business writing-business writing is looser, yet it also follows the

laws of the formal style.

Casual writing-allowing the author to use a mixed approach and

rich vocabulary, casual writing is the most “democratic” of the all
styles.

Despite the numerous and quite different types, writing styles are still
homogeneous enough for you to remember them well. Writing is a skill that is
required in many contexts throughout life. However, academic writing does many
of the things that personal writing does not: it has its own set of rules and practices.
These rules and practices may be organized around a formal order or structure in
which to present ideas, in addition to ensuring that ideas are supported by author
citations in the literature. In contrast to personal writing contexts, academic writing
is different because it deals with the underlying theories and causes governing
processes and practices in everyday life, as well as exploring alternative
explanations for these events. Academic writing follows a particular ‘tone’ and
adheres to traditional conventions of punctuation, grammar, and spelling.

The structure of academic writing is a beginning, middle, and end. This simple
structure is typical of an essay format, as well as other assignment writing tasks,
which may not have a clearly articulated structure.

6. The academic writing elements

Referencing: A significant difference between academic writing and

other writing genres is based on the citation and referencing of
published authors.

14
 Abstract thought: Traditionally, academic topics have focused on
abstract things, like ideas and concepts, which cannot, necessarily, be
given in a concrete or physical form. While writing meeting minutes or
covering letters of CVs draw on physical, practical, and functional tasks,
academic writing is often more likely to focus on abstract processes and
relationships. Yet, despite the abstract, non-material structure of some
academic topics, the student may be able to borrow concrete and
physically oriented words to explain these abstract ideas and the
relationships between them.

Academic tone: Like all varieties of writing, academic writing has its own
tone, which dictates the choice of words and phrasing.

The audience: It is important to remember who the student is writing for.

Being conscious of academic tone suggests that the student is aware of
his audience and respect the formality normally associated with
academic writing. When writing academically, he must target a more
general audience than just your lecturer and/or marker. He should
assume that his readers will be intelligent thinking people, but they may
not be specifically informed of your topic. Do not presume that the
reader knows all the terms and concepts associated with the work.

Punctuation and grammar: In academic writing the student should

always follow rules of punctuation and grammar, especially as the end-
user or consumer of his writing, unlike a friend, is likely to be very different
from him and will not always know to what he is referring. Hence, it is
vital that the student is clear. Punctuation and the conventions of
grammar are universally known systems (within English speaking cultures)
that maintain clarity and avoid ambiguity in expression.

Academic writing is also used for publications that are read by teacher and
researchers or presented at conferences. A very broad definition of academic
writing could include any writing assignment given in an academic setting. Some

15
are self-explanatory and some have a brief explanation. Here is a list of
documents where academic writing is used:

▪ Books and book reports;

▪ Translations;
▪ Essays;
▪ Research paper or research article;
▪ Conference paper;
▪ Academic journal;
▪ Dissertation and Thesis - These are written to obtaining an advanced degree at
a college or university;
▪ Abstract - This is a short summary of a long document;
▪ Explication - This is a work which explains part of a particular work;
▪ There are some things to remember about the characteristics of academic
writing;
▪ Planning - There is a certain amount of planning before the student starts writing
the paper; so, it will be analytical and organized;
▪ Outline - A proper outline is a must for academic writing. An outline will not only
help the student formulate his thoughts, but will sometimes make him aware of
certain relationships between topics. It will help him determine the pertinent
information to be included in his paper;
▪ Tone - A formal tone is used. The student does not use slang words, jargon,
abbreviations, or many clichés;
▪ Language - The language in the paper needs to be clear and words need to
be chosen for their precision. A thesaurus is a good tool to help you pick just the
right words to explain the issues;
▪ Point-of-view-The point of view in the third person, as the focus of academic
writing is to educate on the facts, not support an opinion;
▪ Approach - Deductive reasoning is a big part of academic writing as the
readers have to follow the path that brought the student to his conclusion;

Deductive reasoning and an analytical approach are important in academic

writing. Much planning and forethought are needed to have a well-organized
paper. There’s no great mystique about an "academic writing style". The most
important thing is to keep the student’s writing clear and concise and make sure

16
that he gets his ideas over in a comprehensible form. It's clear expression of these
ideas that will impress the tutor, not a string of long, inappropriate words found in
the student‘s dictionary. A wide range of vocabulary is of course important, but
the student must use the right word, and shorter ones are often better than longer
ones.

The most important thing to remember is generally to try to avoid everyday,

informal language, especially colloquial expressions and slang.

Also, spoken language is naturally full of hesitations, repetitions, grammatical

errors and unfinished ideas. In the student‘s writing, however, structure is much
more important: sentences should be complete and ideas arranged into
paragraphs or sections, and the student should aim for perfection in his grammar
and spelling. However, especially if English is not his first language, he must not
become too obsessed with this, to the point perhaps of copying word for word
from his sources. What’s important is that the student clearly show his
understanding of the subject and his ability to manipulate information to answer a
specific question or complete a specific task, and as long as any grammar errors
he makes don’t impede this, then it shouldn’t be a problem.

17
7. The stages of academic writing
An academic paper has three distinct sections - the
introduction, body and conclusion:
Introduction:
In the introduction, the student
must grab the reader’s
attention and identify the thesis
of the paper. It can be done this
by starting with: Several
questions, A quote from a
famous work or person, Some
interesting facts or information,
A definition of an important
term related to the work
1111
Body:
Conclusion:
This is the main part of the work
and the paragraphs must be
In the conclusion, the student
clearly written and be arranged
re-emphasizes the thesis and
in a logical order, like
summarizes all the main points.
chronologically or in order of
The conclusion consists of one
importance. Each initial
paragraph which shows the
sentence links the preceding
final conclusion to the reader.
paragraph and the whole
section flows smoothly.
18
8. Defining creative writing

Traditionally referred to as literature, creative writing is an art of sorts – the art of

making things up. It’s writing done in a way that is not academic or technical but
still attracts an audience. Though the definition is rather loose, creative writing can
for the most part be considered any writing that is original and self-expressive. A
news article, for example, cannot be considered creative writing because its main
goal is to present facts and not to express the feelings of the writer. While a news
article can be entertaining, its main purpose is to present the facts. Creative
writing is most popularly understood to be writing that comes from the
imagination, writing that is ‘not true‘.

Creative writing is the very fine art of making things up, in the most attractive,
apt and convincing way possible. It’s the telling of lies in order to reveal
illuminating and dark truths about the world and our place in it. There is a
tendency to think of Poetry, Fiction and Plays. Of course, some creative writing is
partly based inspired by real events or based (auto)biography. The purpose of
creative writing is to both entertain and share human experience, like love or loss.
Writers attempt to get at a truth about humanity through poetics and storytelling.
When students would like to try their hands at creative writing, the first step is to
use the imagination. Types of creative writing include:

▪ Poetry;
▪ Plays ;
▪ Movie and television scripts ;
▪ Fiction (novels, novellas, and short stories) ;
▪ Songs ;
▪ Speeches ;
▪ Memoirs;
▪ Personal essays.

Some nonfiction types of writing can also be considered creative writing.

Memoirs and personal essays, for example, can be written creatively to inform the
readers about their life in an expressive way. Because these types are written in
first person, it’s easier for them to be creative.

19
 Techniques used in creative writing include:

Character development ;
Plot development ;
Vivid setting ;
Underlying theme ;
Point of view;
Dialogue;
Anecdotes ;
Metaphors and similes;
Figures of speech ;
Imaginative language ;
Emotional appeal ;
Heavy description ;

Examples of Creative Writing:

a) Poetry and Songs:

A poem or a song tends to be more elusive, or mysterious, because it has

limited space. Because of its spatial limitations, however, it can make leaps
in subject and time, and it doesn’t have to rely on narrative structure. In
poetry and songs, literary devices, like similes and metaphors, can be used
to take the readers to surprising places. There are used shocking
comparisons; how immediately is captured the reader’s attention. The goal
of the poems is to build the idea of life as an eyeball and makes the reader
really try to visualize it.

9. Teaching writing stages

Before distinguishing the writing stages it should be paid attention on a four-step

instructional method for teaching writing strategies [Eagle].The steps are these:

20
a. Identifying a strategy worth teaching. Identifying strategies worth teaching
means looking for strategies that will be genuinely helpful. In the case of
struggling writers, strategies worth teaching are the ones which will help them
overcome their writing difficulties. The best way to identify such strategies is by
talking with struggling writers, asking them about how they write, what they
think about while writing, and what they see as difficulties. Additional insight
can be gained by studying student papers to infer where writers are having
difficulty and by observing writers at work.

b. Introducing the strategy by modeling it. Introducing strategies by modeling

them generally means some form of composing out loud in front of students. It
can be done with groups or whole classes by writing at an overhead projector.
The teachers speak their thoughts while writing, calling particular attention to
the strategy they are recommending for students. Sometimes they ask students
to contribute to the writing the teacher is doing, to copy the writing for
themselves, or to compose a similar piece of writing in connection with the
writing the teacher is doing. They also model writing strategies during individual
conferences with students.

c. Scaffolding students learning of the strategy. Scaffolding the learning of a

writing strategy means helping students to try the strategy with teacher
assistance. This is best done in a writing workshop. The workshop setting is ideal
for giving varying degrees of assistance according to individual needs. It is also
ideal for conferring with individuals and for setting up partnerships and peer
groups so that students can assist each other in the learning of strategies. Even
when a writing workshop is not used, some amount of in-class writing with
teacher assistance is necessary to make sure that writers practice using the
strategy being taught.

21
 d. Repeated practice and reinforcement. Helping students to work toward
independent mastery of the strategy through repeated practice and
reinforcement means giving them opportunities to use the strategy many times
with decreasing amounts of assistance each time. The idea here is that it is better
to teach a few key writing strategies well than it is to teach many of them
insufficiently. Students value and master the things they do repeatedly. In a way,
this gets back to identifying strategies worth teaching look for ones that are
crucial to writing processes, such as strategies for planning particular types of
writing, or for structuring texts certain ways. Then model, practice and repeat .

A novel or a play, on the other hand, has plenty of time to unfold. Therefore,
fiction usually contains plot and character development. As a creative writer, the
story must captivate readers, create a relationship between the readers and the
characters. This requires both physical and emotional details so that readers will
empathize with the action and whatever pain or pleasure the characters
undergo.

10. The writing process

22
The writing stages are:

a) Brainstorming:
In order to write a paper for a class, students need ways to move from the
received knowledge of the course material to some separate, more
synthesized or analyzed understanding of the course material. For some
students this begins to happen internally or through “thinking,” unvoiced
mulling, sorting, comparing, speculating, applying, etc. that leads them to
new perspectives, understanding, questions, reactions about the course
material. This thinking is often furthered through class discussion and some
students automatically, internally move from these initial sortings of ideas into
complex, logical interpretations of material at this point. But, for more
students, their thinking will remain an unorganized, vague set of ideas
referring to the subject. Many will have trouble moving beyond this vague
sense or simple reaction toward ideas that are more processed, complex, or
“deep.” It can be fostered by moving to a deeper understanding by
providing opportunities to externalize and fix their ideas on paper so that
they may both see their ideas and then begin to see the relationships

23
between them. The following activities will help students both generate and
clarify initial responses to course material:

➢ Free-writing: Choosing of a topic, idea, question the student

would like to consider. It can be a specific detail or a broad

concept-whatever you are interested in exploring at the moment.
Do not concern with spelling, grammar, or punctuation. The goal is
to generate as much as the student can about the topic in a short
period of time and to get used to the feeling of articulating ideas on
the page. It’s ok if it’s messy or makes sense only to the student. The
student can repeat this exercise several times, using the same or a
variety of topics connecting to his subject. Read what the student
has written to see if he has discovered anything about his subject or
found a line of questioning he’d like to pursue.

➢ Clustering/Webbing: Putting of a word the student would like to

explore in the center of a piece of paper and put a circle around it.
As fast as the student can, free-associate or jot down anywhere on
the page as many words as the student can think of associated with
the center word. If the student gets stuck, go back to the center
word and launch again. Speed is important and quantity is your
goal. Don’t discount any word or phrase that comes to the student,
just put it down on the page. Jot words for between 5-10 minutes.
When the student is finished he will have a page filled with seemingly
random words. Read around on the page and see if he has
discovered anything or can see connections between any ideas.

➢ Listing: On a piece of paper list all the ideas the student can think

of connected to subjects he is considering exploring. Consider any

idea or observation as valid and worthy of listing. List quickly and
then set the list aside for a few minutes. Come back and read the list
and do the exercise again.

24
➢ Cubing: This technique helps the student look at your subject from

six different points of view (imagine the 6 sides of a cube and you
get the idea). Take the topic or idea and 1) describe it, 2) compare
it, 3) associate it with something else you know, 4) analyze it
(meaning break it into parts), 5) apply it to a situation you are familiar
with, 6) argue for or against it. Write at a paragraph, page, or more
about each of the six points of view on your subject.

➢ Journalistic questions: Write these questions down the left hand

margin of a piece of paper: Who? What? Where? When? How? And

Why? Think about the topic in terms of each question.

➢ What? So What? Now what? To begin to explore an idea first ask

the student, “What do I want to explore?” and write about that topic
for a page or more. Then read what the student has written and ask
“So what?” of the ideas expressed so far. Again, write for a page or
more. Finally ask the student, “Now what?” to begin to think about
what else the student might consider or where he might go next with
an idea.

➢ Defining terms: Although this suggestion is simple and may seem

obvious, it is often overlooked. Write definitions for key terms or

concepts in the student‘s own words. Find others’ articulations of the
terms in his course readings, the dictionary, or through conversations
and compare the definitions to your own.

➢ Summarizing positions: Sometimes it’s helpful to simply describe

what the student knows as a way to solidify his own understanding of

something before he tries to analyze or synthesize new ideas. The
student can summarize readings by individual articles or he can
combine what the student thinks is like perspectives into a summary

25
 of a position. Try to be brief in the description of the readings. Write a
paragraph or up to a page describing a reading or a position.

➢ Metaphor writing Metaphors or similes are comparisons sometimes

using the words “like” or “as.” For example, “writing is like swimming”
or the “sky is as blue as map water” or “the keyboard wrinkled with
ideas.” When the student creates a metaphor, he puts one idea in
terms of another and thereby creates a new vision of the original
idea. Sometimes it may be easier to create a metaphor or simile may
help the student understand his view of an idea before he can put it
fully into sentences or paragraphs. Write a metaphor or simile and
then explain to someone why the metaphor works or what it means
to the student.

➢ Applying ideas to personal circumstance or known situations:

Sometimes ideas come clearest when the student can put them in a
frame that is meaningful to him. Take a concept from his reading
assignments and apply it so a situation in his own life or to a current
event with which the student is familiar. The student may not end up
using this application in your final draft, but applying it to something
the student knows will help him to understand it better and prepare
him to analyze the idea.

b) Organizing

Some students have something on the page to work with, they can begin
the decision-making process crucial to developing a coherent idea or
argument. At this point, students will choose which ideas most appeal to
them, which ideas seem to fit together, which ideas need to be set aside,
and which ideas need further exploration. The following activities will help
students make decisions as they shape ideas:

➢ Drawing diagrams: Sometimes it helps to look for the shape the

ideas seem to be taking as the student develops them. Jot down the

26
 student‘s main ideas on the page and then see if he can connect
them in some way. Do they form a square? A circle? An umbrella
with spokes coming down? A pyramid? Does one idea seem to sit on
a shelf above another idea?

➢ Making charts or piles: Try sorting the student ‘s ideas into

separate piles by putting ideas on note cards or scraps of paper and

physically moving them into different piles or by cutting and pasting
ideas into a variety of groups on the computer screen or by making
charts that illustrate the relationships between ideas. Common charts
include timelines, author’s around a dinner table, and
comparison/contrast charts.

➢ Scrap pile: Be prepared to keep a scrap pile of ideas somewhere

as the student works. Some people keep this pile as a separate

document as they work; others keep notes at the bottom of a page
where they store scrap sentences or thoughts for potential use later
on. Remember that it is sometimes important to throw out ideas as a
way to clarify and improve the ones the student is trying to develop
along the way.

➢ Shifting viewpoints (role-playing): When the student begins to feel

he has some understanding of the idea, it sometimes helps to look at

it from another person’s point of view. It can be done this by role-
playing someone who disagrees with his conclusions or who has a
different set of assumptions about his subject. Make a list or write a
dialogue to begin to reveal the other perspective.

➢ Applying an idea to a new situation: If the student has developed

a working thesis, test it out by applying it to another event or

situation. If the student‘s idea is clear, it will probably work again or
the student will find other supporting instances of his theory.

1|||||

27
➢ Problem/Solution writing: Sometimes it helps to look at the

student‘s ideas through a problem-solving lens. To do so, first briefly

outline the problem as the student see it or defines it. Make sure the
student is through in listing all the elements that contribute to the
creation of the problem. Next, make a list of potential solutions.
Remember there is likely to be more than one solution.

➢ Theory/application writing: If the student‘s assignment asks him to

develop a theory or an argument, abstract it from the situation at

hand. Does his theory hold through the text? Would it apply to a new
situation or can he think of a similar situation that works in the same
way? Explain ideas on paper of to a friend.

➢ Defining critical questions: The student may have lots of evidence

or information and still feel uncertain what he should do with it or

how he should write about it. Look at the student‘s evidence and see
if he can find repeated information or a repeated missing piece. See
if the student can write a question of a series of questions that
summarize the most important ideas in your paper. Once the student
has the critical questions, the student can begin to organize his ideas
around potential answers to the question.

➢ Explaining/teaching idea to someone else: Sometimes the most

efficient way to clarify the student‘s ideas is to explain them to

someone else. The other person need not be knowledgeable about
his subject-in fact it sometimes helps if they aren’t familiar with the
topic-but should be willing to listen and interrupt the student when he
or she doesn’t follow. As the teacher teaches the student‘s ideas to
someone, else he may begin to have more confidence in the shape
of his ideas or you may be able to identify the holes in argument and
be more able to fix them.

28
 ➢ Lining up evidence: If the student thinks he has a good idea of

how something works, find evidence in course material, through

research in the library or on the web that supports his thinking. If the
student‘s ideas are strong, he should find supporting evidence to
corroborate his ideas.

➢ Rewriting idea: Sometimes what helps most is rewriting an idea

over the course of several days. Take the central idea and briefly
explain it in a paragraph or two. The next day, without looking at the
previous day’s writing, write a new paragraph explaining the ideas.
Try it again the next day. Over the course of three days, the student
may find his ideas clarifying, complicating, or developing holes. In all
cases, the student will have a better idea of what he needs to do
next in writing his draft.

c) Drafting.

As students have been working with their ideas, they have been making a
series of choices about their ideas that will lead them to feel “ready” to put
them in a more complete, coherent form; they will feel “ready to write” their
ideas in something closer to the assignment or paper form. But for most, the
tough moments of really “writing” begin at this point. They may still feel that
they “have ideas” but have trouble “getting them on the page.” Some will
suddenly be thrust into “writing a paper” mode and be both constrained
and guided by their assumptions about what an assignment asks them to do,
what academic writing is, and what prior experience has taught them about
writing for teachers. These exercises may ease their entry into shaping their
ideas for an assignment:

➢ Clarify all questions about the assignment: Before the student

begins writing a draft, make sure the student has a thorough

understanding of what the assignment requires. He can do this by
summarizing his understanding of the assignment and emailing his
summary to teacher. If the student has questions about points to

29
emphasize, the amount of evidence needed, etc. get clarification
early.

➢ Write a letter describing what the paper is going to be about: One

of the simplest, most efficient exercises the student can do to sort

through ideas is to write a letter to himself about what he is planning
to write in the paper. He might start out, “My paper is going to be
about….” And go on to articulate what evidence have to back up
his ideas, what parts still feel rough to him about his ideas. In about
20 minutes, the student can easily have a good sense of what he is
ready to write and the problems the student still need to solve in your
paper.

➢ Write a full draft Sometimes the student doesn’t know what he

thinks until he sees what he has said. Writing a full draft, even if the
student thinks the draft has problems, is sometimes important. He
may find his thesis appear in his conclusion paragraph.

➢ Turn the ideas into a five-minute speech Pretend the student has to

give a 5 minute speech to his classmates. How would the speech

begin? What’s the main point? What key information would be
included? How much detail does the listener need to give? What
evidence will be most convincing or compelling for the audience?
➢ Make a sketch of the paper Sometimes it helps to literally line up

or order the evidence before writing. The student can do so quickly

by making a numbered list of his points. The ideas should flow
logically from one point to the next.

➢ Make an outline If the student has successfully used formal

outlines in the past he may use one to structure his paper. If he didn’t
use outlines, then it might be useful to try some of the other
techniques listed here to get the ideas on the page.

30
 ➢ Start with the easiest part If the student has trouble getting started

on a draft, it should be written what he feels is the easiest part first.

There’s nothing magic about starting at the beginning, unless that is
the easiest part for the student.

➢ Write the body of the paper first Sometimes it’s helpful NOT to write

the beginning or introductory paragraph first. It should be paid

attention to what the student has to say in the bulk of his draft and
then go back to craft a suitable beginning.

➢ Write about feelings about writing Sometimes it’s helpful to begin a

writing session by spending 5-10 minutes writing about the feelings

the student has about the assignment. Doing so can help him set
aside uncertainty and frustration and help him get motivated to
write his draft.

➢ Write in alternatives (postpone decision-making) the student may

need to test out more than one idea before he settles into a
particular direction for a paper. It’s actually more efficient to spend
time writing in several directions i.e. trying out one idea for a while,
then trying out another idea, than it is to try to fit all of ideas into one
less coherent draft. The writing may take the form of brief overviews
that begin, “If I were going to write about XYZ idea, I would…” until
the student is able to see which option suits the assignment and his
needs.

➢ Write with a timer sometimes what the student needs most is to get

all of his ideas out on paper in a single sitting. To do so the student

should set a goal for the portion of his draft that he must complete
during the allotted time and not to get up from his seat until the timer
goes off.

d) Revising

31
As students use language to shape ideas, they begin to feel the need to test
their ideas or move beyond their own perspectives. Sometimes the students
have ideas that make good sense to them, but seem to lose or confuse
readers. Once students have a complete draft of a paper, they need ways
to share their ideas to learn points where their ideas need further
development. With feedback from an audience, students are better able to
see the final decisions they still need to make in order for their ideas to reach
someone.

These decisions may be ones of word choice, organization, logic, evidence,

and tone. Keep in mind that this juncture can be unsettling for some
students. Having made lots of major decisions in getting their ideas down on
the page, they may be reluctant to tackle another round of decision-making
required for revising or clarifying ideas or sentences. Remind students that
ideas don’t exist apart from words, but in the words themselves. They will
need to be able to sell their ideas through the words and arrangement of
words on the page for a specific audience.

➢ Talk your paper the student should tell a friend what your paper is

about and pay attention to his explanation. Are all of the ideas he
describes actually in the paper? Where did he start in explaining his
ideas. Does his paper match his description? Can the listener easily
find all of the ideas he mention in his description?

➢ Ask someone to read the student‘s paper out loud to the

audience Ask a friend to read the student‘s draft out loud to the
audience. The student must ask the questions if the audience
understood what they heard, what were the main ideas, the
purpose.

➢ Share the draft with the teacher and a classmate most teachers

are willing to read a draft of a paper. The teacher gives them the
assessment of the strengths and weaknesses of the draft, the

32
students are asked to exchange papers with a classmate several
days before the due date.

➢ Look at the sentences Often the student will need to analyze his

draft of the sentence level. To do so, they must break the paper into
a series of discrete sentences by putting a return after each period
or end punctuation. The students may try reading the sentences
starting with the last sentence of the draft and moving up. Doing so
will take them out of context and force the student to see them as
individual bits of communication rather than familiar points.

➢ Discuss key terms in the student‘s paper with someone else After

completing a draft, it’s sometimes helpful to look back at the key

terms the student is using to convey his ideas. It’s easy, in the midst of
thinking about an idea, to write in loaded language or code in
which certain key words come to have special meaning for the
student that aren’t necessarily shared by a reader.

➢ Outline the student‘s draft After the student has a complete draft,

he must go back and outline what he has said. Next to each

paragraph the student must write a word or phrase that summarizes
the content of that paragraph. He might also look to see if he has
topic sentences that convey the ideas of individual paragraphs. If he
can’t summarize the content of a paragraph, he probably used
multiple ideas in that paragraph that may need revising. He must
respond on questions: How does the list flow? Is it clear how one
idea connects to the next?

➢ Underline the main point the student must highlight the main point

of his paper. It should probably be (although it will depend on the

assignment) in one sentence somewhere on the first page. The
student’s draft should not read like a mystery novel in which the
reader has to wait until the end to have all the pieces fit together.

33
➢ Ask a reader to judge specific elements of the student‘s paper

Share the student‘s draft with someone and ask them to read for
something specific i.e. organization, punctuation, transitions. A
reader will give more specific feedback to the student you if you
give them some specific direction.

34
 Conclusions to Unit I

Writing skills are important because they are a good way to reinforce what
a student has learned as they will benefit from seeing new vocabulary in written
form. Writing style is much like any other type of style in that it helps the students
express who they are. It is how the writer chooses to express himself or herself
through writing. Each person has their own personal fashion style, whether they
mean to or not. The forms of writing are: Expository writing is a general category
that includes all types of essays (with the exception of persuasive essays). The
main purpose of expository writing is to explain a concept or idea while including
details for support. Slightly similar to expository writing, persuasive writing is usually
found in article and essay form. It also relies on specific details and examples for
support; however, persuasive writing does not rely heavily on facts. Fiction and
poetry are filled with descriptive language, since the purpose is not to inform but
to entertain.

Like descriptive writing, narrative writing aims to entertain the reader; however,
instead of trying to entertain the reader with beauty of its language, the writer is
trying to tell a story. The types of writing are: academic and creative. Academic
writing has its own set of rules and practices. These rules and practices may be
organized around a formal order or structure in which to present ideas, in addition
to ensuring that ideas are supported by author citations in the literature. An
academic paper has three distinct sections - the introduction, body and
conclusion. Creative writing is an art of sorts - the art of making things up. It's
writing done in a way that is not academic or technical but still attracts an
audience. Though the definition is rather loose, creative writing can for the most
part be considered any writing that is original and self-expressive. Teaching writing
strategies are: Brainstorming, drafting, organizing and revising.

The steps that are used in a writing process are:

1. Identifying a strategy worth teaching

2. Introducing the strategy by modeling it
3. Scaffolding students' learning of the strategy.
4. Repeated practice and reinforcement.

35
UNIT II: MODEL FOR IMPROVING STUDENT WRITING SKILLS

1. Specific Strategies for Improving Student Writing Skills

The educational program can help students improve their writing skills by:

▪ Increasing student motivation to have good writing skills;

▪ Providing instruction in writing processes and rules;
▪ Providing writing practice;
▪ Providing constructive feedback about the students' writing.

With high motivation, students will find ways to improve their writing and will
persist in the effort. To write well, students need to apply appropriate processes,
such as starting early, and to apply the rules of writing, such as grammar rules.
Writing practice helps most when students receive clear, specific feedback about
what to do the same and what to do differently in the future. These strategies are
organized according to the order in which an academic might implement
them. Following each strategy is a word that describes whether the strategy
targets motivation, instruction, practice or feedback. The teacher must know:

a) Emphasize to students that good writing skills are important, both to their
satisfactory completion of the unit and to their future careers. Encourage
students to improve their writing skills.(Motivation)
b) Provide students with an anecdote about the implications of substandard
writing or the value of good writing. For example, the teacher may talk about
a job candidate who missed selection due to his or her poor writing.
(Motivation)
c) Read aloud quality writing done by a former student, and encourage students
to listen to its flow. With the permission of the writer, name and praise him or
her. (Motivation, Instruction)
d) Encourage students to pay close attention to the grammar and punctuation
they see in textbooks and other books and articles, as well as in any sample
paper. (Instruction)

36
e) Encourage students to complete a writing unit and refer students to writing
skills web sites. (Instruction)
f) Explain to students that certain writing skills are fundamental to almost all types
of writing, but there are also purpose specific writing skills and styles.
(Instruction)
g) Tell students: With practice and feedback on performance, writing becomes
better. Learning most complex skills involves many attempts; students need
not feel discouraged if they are not instantly accomplished writers in a specific
genre. Once a certain level of skill has been reached, the process of writing
becomes increasingly enjoyable. (Motivation)
h) Describe to students the process used to write journal articles and reports and
how using the process benefits the student. This process might include starting
with an outline, completing several drafts of the document, checking the
writing against the requirements, and asking another individual to proofread
the document. (Motivation, Instruction)
i) Give students handouts containing important writing rules and web sites with
content such as UNE's writing fact sheets are good sources of concise rules
regarding grammar and punctuation. (Instruction)
j) Teach students one important rule relating to grammar or punctuation in each
lecture or in each unit. (Instruction)
k) Give students a course-related worksheet, have them write a summary of its
content, and then ask them to critique each other’s writing. (Practice ,
Feedback)
l) Toward the end of a lecture, ask students to spend five minutes writing a
summary of the content of the lecture. Next, have students critique each
other's writing. (Practice, Feedback)
m) Give a writing assignment and in the marking criteria set aside a specific
number of points for writing quality. Give students a copy of the marking
criteria before they begin writing. (Practice, Motivation)
n) Explain to students before they complete a writing assignment the most
common writing errors made in the past as well as the rules the errors
violate. (Instruction)

37
o) Provide students with a list of poorly structured sentences from assignments of
prior years. Ask the students to improve the sentences, and then discuss the
improvements as a class. (Practice, Feedback)
p) Provide students with a checklist of writing-process suggestions they can apply
to a written assignment. Ask them to submit a completed checklist with the
assignment. (Instruction)
q) To the extent feasible, correct writing errors on student papers and provide
printed statements of important rules violated by the errors. (Feedback,
Instruction)
r) Encourage students to learn the rules they violated in making the errors.
(Instruction)
s) Praise students freely for excellent or improved writing. (Motivation)

Teaching writing requires both ingenuity and experience [p.12, Davis, B. G.

(2002).] as well as a bag of tricks that combines tried-and-true ideas with new
strategies and technologies. And with this in mind, there is a list of strategies both
old and new that help student’s get a handle on teaching writing in a way that
helps each students.

a. Old: Journaling. Sometimes students just need to put pencil to paper and daily
journaling is a great way to teach them how to express themselves through
the written word.
b. New: Blogging. A classroom blog is a great way for students to interact with
each other in an informal, written way. Use a tool like SchoolNet to start a
classroom blog and allow students to post their own thoughtful articles,
questions and comments.
c. Old: Classroom Discussion. A good old-fashioned classroom discussion is still
one of the best ways to teach kids to dig deeper and enhance
comprehension, which can, in turn, transfer to their written work.
d. New: Online Literacy Tools. Web-based literacy tools (WriteToLearn) meet
individual instructional needs for all students including struggling readers,
providing teachers an effective method of supplementing their classroom
instruction.

38
e. Old: Writing Circles. Group your students according to reading level and
watch them motivate and push each other as they work through a difficult
text and respond through writing and discussion.
f. New: Online Book Clubs. Find an online forum where children discuss books
and ask your students to contribute their thoughts and reactions in writing. Or,
it can be started a just-for-the-class book club with students using Facebook.

2. Teaching writing methods

a. Prewriting: Prewriting gives the students the tools and foundation for successful
writing. Prewriting alleviates students’ anxiety freeing their minds to focus on
words after generating ideas instead of completing both steps simultaneously.
Prewriting gives the students confidence and direction as they write not to
mention improve the quality of their ideas and organization in their writing.

b. Brainstorming: Brainstorming is an activity with which most people are familiar.

The object in brainstorming is to compile as large a list as possible of potential
examples for a given topic. This is a great activity to do in small groups or with
the entire class. Brainstorming a list of ice cream flavors is an easy one to start
with when introducing the concept. Naturally, one idea will spark another, so
it is helpful to have students working together when brainstorming. Give the
students permission to be as creative as they like. Anything goes with
brainstorming. Challenge the students to come up with as many examples as
they possibly can for whatever topic they are given.

c. Free writing: Free writing is an individual activity for getting thoughts from the
student’s head on to paper. Free writing is simply putting on paper every
thought that is going through the students’ heads. Like with brainstorming,
anything goes. The goal of this activity is to never let the pen or pencil stop
writing. The students must understand that though they will begin with a
particular topic in mind, it is okay to veer off on tangents as they write. Spelling
and grammar are not important for this activity; it is ideas that they are trying
to grasp. Give the students a set length of time for this activity. Primary level
students may write to two or three minutes; older students can probably write
for five to ten minutes.

39
d. Journalistic Questions: Journalistic questions approach a topic in a more
structured manner. First, are reviewed the question words: who, what, where,
when, why and how. Then, are made up questions starting with each of these
words. For example, on topic habits are asked the following questions “Who
has good study habits? Who benefits from good study habits? What are the
good habits? Where do people with good study habits study? Where to they
keep their books? Where do they organize notes and homework? When do
they study? When do they complete assignments? ...” There are an infinite
number of questions that can be asked about any given subject. This activity
can be done either individually or in groups with success. Students must write
answers to each question. When finished prewriting, they must organize their
thoughts in preparation for writing.

e. Cluster Mapping: Cluster mapping, also called idea webbing, is a great way
to show relationships between ideas. Cluster mapping is also part idea
generation and part organization, so students will know exactly how to group
their ideas once they are ready to write. Students must write the topic in the
center of the page and put a circle around it. Then with younger children, let
them think of questions about the topic. Each question should be written in a
bubble connected to the central topic. Students must spread these bubbles
out over the page as they will be adding to each additional ideas. Then, the
students are to answer the questions connecting still smaller bubbles to the
bubbles containing the questions. If their question was “What do spiders do?”
then they might make connecting bubbles saying they capture flies, they spin
webs, they scare nursery rhyme characters, etc. With students who have more
knowledge about their central topic, their bubbles connected to the central
idea should include subtopics and/or details about the subtopics. A student
may start with spiders as the central theme, make a connecting bubble with
the subtopic of diet, then connect bubbles to that subtopic with different
types of insects on which spiders feed. Generally speaking, each of the
subtopics would be one paragraph in a composed piece of writing with
examples and support for the idea surrounding it.

40
f. Flow Charting: Flow charting is similar to cluster mapping in that it shows
relationships between ideas. However, flow charting is most effective when
examining cause and effect relationships. With the central theme drug abuse
in the center of the page, to the left students are to make list of causes for
drug abuse with arrows pointing at the central idea. What causes drug
abuse? Peer pressure, medical need, parental example and boredom are all
potential causes of drug abuse. Each would therefore be in its own box in the
diagram with an arrow pointing from it to the central idea of drug abuse. Then
are to be examined the effects of drug abuse and place those in separate
boxes to the right of the central idea each with an arrow going from the
central idea to it. Homelessness, loss of jobs, failure in school, isolation, further
abuse and addiction may all be results of drug abuse. When writing, students
can focus on either half of the diagram (causes of drug abuse or effects of
drug abuse) or follow the cause and effect pathway from cause to effect and
cause to effect. Depending on the topic, students may create a chain of
cause and effect relationships and choose to write about the series.

g. Double/Triple Entry: Double or Triple Entry is another focused brainstorming

activity. This is especially useful when comparing and contrasting two or three
topics or when exploring two or three areas of one topic. With this prewriting
method, students must make two (or three) columns on their paper. Each
column should have a topic which focuses the idea generation. For example,
if the students were going to compare love and hate, they might label
columns similarities and differences and list their ideas in the appropriate
sections. If the students are writing about their ethnic heritage in comparison
to another, they could have them label one column with each culture. When
finished, students should have a good idea of the points on which they can
compare or contrast their topics.

The elements of Writing Instruction Method are: grammar, inquiry, peer

assistance, prewriting activities, process writing, product goals, sentence
combining, strategy instruction, study models, summarization instruction, word
processing. The average effect size is seen in the following chart:

41
 Scaffolding students’ writing [Graham, S., & Perin, D. (2007). A meta-analysis of writing
instruction for adolescent students. Journal of Educational Psychology, 99, 445-476.]
This involves students engaging in activities (such as using a semantic
Prewriting
web or brainstorming ideas) designed to help them generate or
organize ideas for their composition.
This involves engaging students in activities that help them develop
ideas and content for a particular writing task by analyzing immediate
Inquiry
and concrete data (e.g., comparing and contrasting cases or
collecting and evaluating evidence).
Procedural This involves providing external supports (such as prompts, guides, hints,
facilitation
or heuristics) designed to facilitate one or more writing processes, such
as planning or revising.
Peer This involves students working together to plan, draft, and/or revise their
assistance when
compositions.
writing
Study of This involves students examining examples of one or more specific
models
types of text and attempting to emulate the patterns or forms in these
examples in their own writing.
Product goals These involve assigning students specific goals for the written product
they are to complete.
Feedback This involves students receiving input from others about the adequacy
of their written product.
Alternative modes of composing
Alternative Word processing This involves students using word processing computer
modes of
programs to compose their composition.
composing:

3. Metacognition in the writing process

Metacognition is an individual’s knowledge of their own cognitive processes

and their ability to control these processes by organizing, monitoring and
modifying them as a function of learning. It refers to the ability to reflect upon the
task demand and independently select and employ the appropriate reading,
writing, math or learning strategy [Graham, p.33]. Metacognition is an important
aspect of student learning. It involves self regulation, reflection upon an
individual’s performance strengths, weaknesses, learning and study strategies.
Metacognition is the foundation upon which students become independent
readers and writers. It also underlies student’s abilities to generalize math problem
solving strategies.

42
 The English classrooms are full of students who have not developed
metacognitive strategies. They are dependent learners who are not aware of
what they need. They rely upon teachers and tutors for constant support. There
should be integrated and infused Metacognitive Writing Strategies into content:

• Learn material more efficiently ;

• Retain information longer ;
• Generalize skills .

Studies of the learning process have found that students are more able to
learn complex skills when they can think “metacognitively,” that is, when they
think about their own thinking and performance so they can consciously monitor
and change it. In fact, studies have found that successful writers engage in an
internal dialogue in which they talk to themselves  sometimes even muttering
aloud - about audience, purpose, form, and content. They ask and answer for
themselves certain questions: Who are they writing for? Why? What do they know
and what do they need to find out? They maintain this ongoing internal dialogue
as they organize ideas, plan, draft, edit, and revise. Successful writers guide their
thinking with metacognitive strategies that help them write purposefully.

This basic research has led to strategies for teaching writing that help novice
writers learn how to engage in this kind of self-talk and self-monitoring. In one
study, teachers of fourth- and fifth-grade students were taught how to implement
these strategies in their classrooms. The teachers analyzed texts for their students,
modeled the writing process, guided students as they wrote, and provided
students with opportunities for independent writing over the course of a year.
Those students who engaged in these kinds of self-regulating metacognitive
strategies and who were able to explain their writing process improved their
academic performance.

While there were significant differences in the writing knowledge between

those students with and those without learning disabilities within the comparison
group, the students with learning disabilities in the “metacognitive” group were
just as able to describe and use the writing strategies — such as the ability to
organize, evaluate, and revise their papers in appropriate ways — as were the
general education students in the comparison group. Sometimes, the students

43
with learning disabilities who had received this strategy instruction even outscored
the general education students. (Source: Englert, Raphael, & Anderson in “Socially
Mediated Instruction: Improving Students’ Knowledge and Talk about Writing.”
Elementary School Journal, 92(4), 411–449).

Carnegie Mellon, professor Dr. Marsha Lovett identifies the three major steps in
teaching metacognition as:

1. Teaching students that their ability to learn is mutable;

2. Teaching planning and goal-setting; and
3. Giving students ample opportunities to practice monitoring their
learning and adapting as necessary.

The goal of teaching metacognition is to equip students with the tools

necessary to monitor their own learning. They can create goals for themselves,
attempt to meet those goals, and revise their plan. Metacognition can be used to
help students master all subjects. For example, while tackling a reading
assignment, a student can monitor his own comprehension by questioning the text
and effectively taking notes along the way. To prepare for a writing assignment, a
student can brainstorm using popular models like word webs and graphic
organizers. Metacognition is particularly effective when integrated with
technology. Students can use graphic design programs to create diagrams and
organizers. They can communicate on social networks or in collaborative
documents while doing their homework to share thoughts and ideas on the
assignments. Some teachers even require their students to keep blogs, so they can
record what they know, what they want to know, and what they’ve learned, and
easily share that process with their peers.

44
4. Developing Writing Skills Model

Planning

Drafting

Researching

Academic

Refine position

Reposition

Redrafting

Writing skills
Brainstorming

Drafting

Free writing

Flow charting
Creative

Double Triple entry

Cluster mapping

Organising

45
 5. The training program “Developing Writing Skills”

The training program “Developing writing skills” was designed to help students
acquire writing skills and practice writing fluency as well as story-writing skills. It
offers free practice of narrative tenses and sequential linking words, and helps
foster cooperation and a sense of achievement as students work together to
prepare and write their stories. It also solves the problem of giving up valuable
class time to lengthy writing exercises and stops writing being such a lonely
experience.

Activity 1. Writing a story

The students must be aware of the steps they should proceed while writing a
story:

46
Procedure:

Step 1

• Tell the students they are going to write a story entitled ‘A Wonderful
Day’ and that they are going to be the narrator in the story.

• Draw 4 big circles on the board. In the first circle write ‘Who am I?’
and ask your students to decide on the main character of the story (You
could use a picture to stimulate imagination):

▪ How old am I?
▪ What do I do?
▪ What do I look like?
▪ What am I like?
▪ Who are my friends?
▪ What family have I got?
▪ What kind of relationship do I have with them?
▪ What do I like doing?
▪ Etc.
▪ Write up their ideas.

Step 2

• In the second circle write ‘Morning’ and ask the students to decide
what I did to make it such a wonderful day and write up their ideas.
• Repeat the procedure for the third and fourth circles substituting
‘Morning’ for ‘Afternoon’ and ‘Evening’.

Step 3

• Put the students into groups and tell them each group is going to
write one part of the story: morning, afternoon or evening.

47
 Step 4

• Give the students about twenty minutes to discuss together and write
their part of the story then collect the strips back and arrange them
together.
• I find it helps if you read the text aloud and the students follow. Go
over the text with the students and tell them what you think they did well.
• If you want you can also analyse the texts for errors.

Activity 2: Postcards: Using postcards in class can be a motivating writing task

and add a level of stimulation for students. My students have always been very
fond of this activity as they don't have to write too much and it involves a level of
communication and imagination.

Preparation: a stack of postcards (1 or 2 for each student) or provide a piece

of paper and get the students to draw their own picture on it. Alternatively, if your
students have Internet access and email addresses they can write e-cards.

48
 Procedure:

• Give out the postcards (one for each student or pair of students) or get the
students to choose an e-card.
• Ask the students to look at the picture on the postcard and imagine that
this is something they saw whilst on holiday. If the students are drawing their
own pictures, get them to draw something from their last holiday.
• Now ask them to write the postcard to a friend telling them about their
imaginary holiday and how the picture relates to it.
• Once they have written the cards ask them to exchange them with
someone else (if you've used e-cards, they can email them to someone
else in the class).
• Ask the students to read the postcard they have received and then write a
response to it.
• During the activity it is best to concentrate on communication rather than
accuracy, but at the end of the activity you can collect up the cards and
see what errors were made and prepare a correction slot for the next class.

Activity 3: A business letter: learners attempt to re-write an inappropriately

informal business letter in a more appropriate, formal style.

49
Procedure:

• In order to get students thinking about business letters, ask how many
reasons they can think of for writing this type of letter. Give a couple of
examples, then get students to brainstorm in pairs, before feeding back to
the class.
• Give learners the inappropriately informal letter (Worksheet 1). Ask a few
simple comprehension questions.

✓ Have they been in contact before?

✓ What's it about?
✓ What are the problems with the system?

• Then ask what's wrong with the text. (Too informal, doesn't follow letter-
writing conventions). Elicit some of the kinds of things they will need to
change to make it more formal (vocabulary, sentence structure, layout,
paragraphing, greeting and close).
• In pairs, students re-write the letter to make it more appropriate as a formal
letter. Don't help them too much at this stage - the idea is that students
write the best letter they are capable of using their existing language
resources. This creates a need for the conventional letter-writing language,
which may be 'missing' from their current knowledge.
• Give students [Elbow, Peter, p.11] the model letter and ask them to
compare it with their letter. Emphasize that the model is only one possible
way of re-writing the letter - this can lead to a discussion on whether any
differences are equally correct. Ask the students to identify language from
the model which they could use to improve their letter. In this way, some of
the conventional sentence frames which are so common in business letters
are 'fed in'.
• At this stage you might also wish to draw attention to the conventional
greetings and endings for formal letters. (In British English, if the name of the
person is used, e.g. Dear Mr. Jones, then the ending is Yours sincerely. If you
don't know the name of the person you are writing to, then the letter begins
Dear Sir / Madam, and ends Yours faithfully.) It may also be worth
highlighting the punctuation used here, i.e. a comma after the greeting, as

50
 this can vary between languages. In addition, some students are not
familiar with the form of address Ms, which refers to a woman without
specifying her marital status.

Activity 4. Writing poems: begin by brainstorming topics related to the future

through acrostic poems or pictures. Ask your students to imagine they're living in
the year 2100. What's life like? What can they see around them? How far has
space and technology advanced?

• Example poem:

F lying saucers
U Piter
T Ime machines
AstronaU Ts
MaR tians
GeneticE ngineering

• Here are the poems below as a model for the students:

• When I look into the future

There are robots

There are aliens
There are saucers in the sky
But there aren't any birds.

• When I look into the future

There's a memory stick in my head
There's a tracking device under my feet
There's a monitor behind my eyes
But there isn't a computer.

Example structure:

• When I look into the future

There 's/are…

51
There 's/are...
There 's/are…
But there isn't/aren't any …
• On a more personal note, the future could be explored through the
senses. You could use this example as a model to elicit ideas from your students.
Play some relaxing background music and ask them to close their eyes and
imagine the sensations as they think of different words.

Example:

• My / The future is… (yellow)

It tastes like… (pasta)
It smells like… (a lemon)
It sounds like… (a mandolin)
It feels like… (a cat)
It looks like… (the sunrise)
• Ask students to complete the sentences below to generate ideas for a
poem about their own future dreams. Here are two possible structures for their
poems:
• In my future life
I might …
I could…
I may…..
But I'll definitely…
• In my future life
I'd like to be …
I'd like to...
And…
Then…
Please…
• Here's a poem on a lighter note as an example of what they could
produce.
• In my future life
I'd like to be a cat,
I'd like to sleep for 12 hours

52
Then dance around my flat.
I'd like to play by moonlight
And sunbathe in the sun,
I'd like to climb a palm tree
And catch my tail for fun.
I'd like to dine on fresh fish
Then drink a sea of milk,
I'd like to live-that's my last wish
Please ban all dogs from Earth!

Writing a haiku

It is easy to learn to write a haiku, but it can take a lot of practice to learn how
to do it well. These lessons will give the students the basics for writing your own
haiku. It’s up to you to practice by writing a lot of them so you will get very good
at it.A haiku is an unrhymed three-line poem. It is based on a traditional Japanese
poetic form. Though there are different ways to write haiku, the traditional pattern
in English is to write the first and last lines with five syllables each, and the middle
line with seven syllables. In other words, the pattern of syllables looks like this:

Line 1: 5 syllables
Line 2: 7 syllables
Line 3: 5 syllables

Here’s another way to visualize the same thing:

12345
1234567
12345

Most often, haiku poems are about seasons or nature, though can be written
haikus about anything. One more thing to keep in mind is that the last line of a
haiku usually makes an observation. That is, the third line points out something
about the subject you are writing about. Let’s see how we can put these few rules
together get your started writing your own haiku poems.

53
 Haiku About Seasons

First it is selected a season: spring, summer, fall, or winter. Then it is made an

observation. The pattern is of 5, 7, 5.

Winter is coming.
Snow will be arriving soon.
We should rake the leaves.

Writing a cinquain

Activity 5. Writing a narrative: Students often get muddled when writing a

narrative because they concentrate too much on the plot of the story. As a result
tenses and syntax suffer. This activity helps students both with a storyline and with
the tenses.

There should be identified the following steps in writing a narrative:

54
It should be kept in mind the structure of a narrative:

55
 A sample activity:

Preparation: Make copies of these questions for each pair / group of students

1. What was Mr. Jones's job?

2. What was he going to do?
3. Why?
4. What was the weather like?
5. What did he decide to do after that?
6. What didn't he want to do?
7. Why?
8. What was the surprising end?

NB: The teacher chooses which tense to focus on depending on the class
(for example you could ask What did Mr. Jones used to do? or What would he like
to do next? What has he done that no-one else knows about? etc.). Also the
teacher may ask about different vocabulary too instead of the weather e.g. What
was he wearing at the time?

Procedure

• Tell students that there is a text for them to read but unfortunately it is lost
or at home! However, there are still the comprehension questions.

• Give out the questions to each pair of students and ask them to
▪ Read all the questions and then
▪ Write the answers to them.

• The answers should have some connection with each other and should be
in note form only.

• Now, using their answers, they have to construct a story about Mr Jones.
Either now or previously the students need to have appropriate linking words
(however, all of a sudden, so... etc.).

56
 • When the students have finished writing swap the stories with another pair.
They should read the text and see if they can answer the comprehension
questions.

• Put the stories up around the classroom for everyone to read and get
them to decide which one is the best / funniest / most unusual?
• Using postcards in class can be a motivating writing task and add a level
of stimulation for students. My students have always been very fond of this activity
as they don't have to write too much and it involves a level of communication
and imagination.

Writing can be much more motivating if the writer has a chance to play a role.
In this activity the students will have the chance to write to an imaginary romantic
partner.

Activity 6. Writing Role-play

Writing role-play demands a lot of energy and collaborative group work. This
massive work can be represented through the following chart:

57
 Preparation

Photocopy the role cards for the student. You can download the role cards
below.

Procedure:

• Draw three pictures on the board of three people (two women and one
man) Sue, Jane and Paul at a party.
• Read the situation from the role play to students to explain how they all
met.
• Divide the class into four groups and tell them that it is now two weeks
after the party and that the people have started to write letters to each other.

58
 • Give out role cards to each group for them to read, or ask each group to
leave the classroom one by one and show them a role card. Explain to them that
they have to write a letter (they can do this alone, in pairs or in groups). Make sure
that the different groups don't talk to each other.
• Give the students time to write the letter but be sure to give them a firm
time limit. Remind them that they must finish the letter with the last line provided.
• When they have finished the letters you can either ask them to read the
letters aloud or you can regroup them (if they have written letters alone) into
groups of four. The important thing is that they must read the letters in the correct
order to tell the story. When the letters have been read you can take them in to
mark or you can follow this up by getting a different partner to respond to the
letter so that the students keep exchanging the letters.

Activity 7. Writing predictions: This is a creative-writing exercise in which the

teacher moulds the story but allows plenty of scope for the students' creative
expression. It includes the following stages:

59
60
 Procedure

• The students work in pairs or groups of three. The teacher dictates a part
of a story and then gives instructions on how the students should continue the next
part of the story in their pairs. This usually involves adding description or dialogue.

• Once the students have added a part to the story, the teacher once
again dictates the next part and asks them once again to add more.

• This process can continue for 5 or 6 paragraphs or until the students lose
concentration.
• The present perfect is a tense that many students have problems with.
Most course books provide only controlled grammar sentences where students
choose the correct tense.

This activity leads students into writing a short story using the past simple,
present perfect simple and continuous, but in a more creative way.

Procedure

• Tell the students they are going to write a short story.

• Get the students to read the following questions and decide, with a
partner, what the missing words are, but not answer the questions now.

• Monitor well to check they understand the activity. There are no 'correct'
answers, they should use their imagination.

1. What is his / her name?

2. What is __________ about them? (e.g. strange / unusual / nice...)
3. What was their --problem last year?
4. What happened?
5. Why have they become so __________ ?
6. How many __________ have they -__________ ?
7. Who have they been __________ recently?
8. What have they been __________ for the last five years?

61
 • Now the students, working in pairs still, have to answer the questions. The
answers should link the questions together to form the basis of a story.

• Next ask students to draw their characters. This is fun and brings the
character to life. Students can laugh at each other's drawings.

• Using the notes above, students put the story together. They can add
more information if they wish but they should not make it complicated.

• Students then swap their story with another pair to edit. They read the
story and underline any errors they notice, or question any word or phrase they
don't understand.

• The stories are returned to their owners who make changes as necessary
depending on the comments that were made by the editing pair.

By slowly guiding them through the stages the end result is their own and
usually grammatically correct.

Activity 8. Chatting: This activity simulates ‘chatting’ – a popular (online)

communication process which has features common to both speaking and
writing.

It can be used in the language-learning classroom for students who still find it
too difficult to speak without first having a little ‘thinking’ time, and also as a
means of moving students away from being overly concerned with accuracy,
and focusing more on successful communication. The students really enjoy this
activity, especially the fact of being ‘allowed’ to write notes in class!

62
 Procedure

• For the first time the teacher spends a few minutes discussing online
‘chatting’ with students, highlighting some of the key features through concept-
checking questions, such as: ‘Do you spend a long time thinking how to formulate
each message when chatting?’; ‘What is more important when chatting, writing
everything correctly, or communicating quickly?’.

• The teacher pre-teaches some useful emailing / chatting abbreviations.

Basic items could include: u=you; 2=too; c=see; 8=ate, (and any more you / your
students might know). Students should also be encouraged to use contractions,
and forms such as ‘gonna’, ‘wanna’.

• Then the teacher arranges the classroom so that each student is sitting
back-to-back with a partner.

63
 • It is choosen a suitable subject for students to ‘chat’ about, such as:
‘Discuss your favourite sports’. Subjects requiring students to reach a solution are
particularly effective, for example: ‘Arrange to meet up with your partner at the
weekend and decide what you are going to do together’.

• Explain to students that in order to communicate, they write a message on

the first line of their paper, say ‘Hi, how are you?’, and ‘send’ it over their shoulder
to their partner, who will respond and pass the paper back as quickly as possible.

• Set a time limit for the activity, say fifteen minutes, and then students start
chatting.

• Whilst students are chatting, the teacher stands back and observes, only
getting involved if anybody seems to be interfering with the communication
process by taking too long to write back.

• At the end of the chatting session the teacher asks students to report back
- either on the content of their chat or on how successfully they communicated.
More advanced students can analyse their messages and discuss how in this
situation communication is more important than accuracy.

• Another follow-up activity can involve students talking aloud with their
partner about the same subject they chatted on (i.e. redoing the activity, but
without that extra ‘thinking time’).

Activity 9. Describing people: This is an activity which is really useful for helping
learners to write more fluently and can also help to diagnose problems with
students' written work and ability to formulate questions. It can be used it at the
beginning or end of a class as a fun filler, or as an integral part of the lesson.

64
65
 • Give out a sheet of A4 paper (219mm x 297mm) to each student and ask
them to watch and follow your instructions.
• Hold up your paper and fold it in half. Then fold it in half again and then
again. Press hard on the paper and then open it out. The folds should have
divided the paper into eight rectangles. Use the fold lines to tear the page into
eight rectangular pieces of paper.

• Once they all have their eight pieces of paper, ask the students to write
their names in the bottom right-hand corner of each piece.
• Next ask them to think of another person in the class and to think of a
question they would like to ask them.
• Tell them to write the name of the person on the top left-hand corner and
then to write the question on the piece of paper.
• Once they have done this, tell them to pass the paper to the person the
question was intended for.
• Students then read any questions they got and start to write replies.
• Students who didn't get a question can start writing another question for
someone else.
• Get the students to keep writing and answering questions until all their
pieces of paper are used up.

In the early stages it is needed to prompt the students to keep writing and
also to make sure they are using English, but try not to interrupt ones who are busy
writing or to correct anything at this stage. This is a good way of diagnosing
problems with your students writing. You can collect up all the pieces of paper at
the end and look through them for common mistakes to focus on next lesson. It is
important however to respect your students privacy and anonymity as some of
the communications between them could be quite personal.

Activity 10. Songs: using songs in the classroom is great as the students enjoy it
a lot! This activity is really good and involves group work and the four main
language skills. The students respond to music and write a story.

66
 Procedure

• First, choose different types of songs (rock, pop, country music, etc.).

• Divide the class in groups (of 4, for example) and give each group a blank
piece of paper.

• Ask them to make a cross on it dividing the paper into four equal parts. Tell
them to number the parts from 1 to 4 (in this case).

• Explain that each student in the group will use one part of the paper.

• Play the CD/tape with the first song and ask student number 1 to draw
something on it according either to what he/she feels or something related to the
lyrics.

• Change the song and follow the same procedure with the others.

• After they finish drawing, say that they are supposed to make up a story
following the sequence of their drawings. Give them time to prepare it then ask
everybody to present their story to the class. Explain that each student is going to
tell his/her part of the story.

This activity can be used at all levels. The skills used are writing, speaking
and reading. The grammar aim can be the present tense, present continuous or
simple past.

Activity 11. Writing a letter: This activity would follow input work on writing in a
particular style - for example, an informal letter inviting a friend to visit your home
town for a holiday. First it is presented the structure of a letter:

67
 Preparation: Set up the context for the letter, or do a layout on the board to
make sure that everyone knows how to lay out an informal letter.

Procedure

• Put the students in pairs or groups of three.

• Give them a large piece of paper and say, 'Right, everyone, I want you
to write your address, write the opening greeting and then stop. And you do it
immediately and you do it straight onto the paper.' And they do that. Then you
say, 'OK now you're going to write the letter. But as you write it, at some point you'll
hear me say 'Freeze!' and when I say 'Freeze!', I mean 'Freeze', even if you're in the
middle of a word - you stop writing. If you're in the middle of a sentence you stop
writing.'

• The students begin to write. I check that everyone has written something
before I say 'Freeze!' for the first time. I try to hurry the ones along that are lagging
behind a little.

68
 • When I say 'Freeze!', I transfer each paper to the next group so that
everyone's working with another piece of paper with a letter on it. I give the
following instruction which is to read, correct, improve and continue. So, they work
on the letter that they've received and then they continue that letter.

• A bit later I say 'Freeze!' and off we go again. Transfer letters, read,
correct, improve and continue.

It's always good to get the paper back to the original group just before the
ending and again the same instruction - read, correct and improve and this time
you say 'close'. So they bring it to a final.

Activity 12. Argument essays: used action research to help students organize
their argument essays and so improve their writing. Firstly, the students are taught
to fill in the scheme that is represented below. They come up with ideas and
arguments and organize the ideas logically.

To improve students' poor performance when writing argument essays, it

can be investigated this problem by analyzing the students' writing. This analysis
made her think that a possible cause of the problem was that students did not
know how to organize argument essays or paragraphs in such essays. So, it can
used the following solutions:

• Explain the overall organization of an argument essay to students.

69
 • Explain paragraph organisation.

• Give students a list of connectives which they could use in their essays.
Make sure that they understand the relationships that are implied by these
connectives.

• Give students a model argument essay. Once they have read it, ask them
to draw a spider-diagram of the essay in the following way:
o Firstly, identify the thesis. Write it in a circle in the middle of a blank piece
of paper.
o Next, identify the claims or statements that are made to support this thesis.
Write these around the thesis.
o Then identify and list the details and examples which are given to support
each claim/statement.
o Finally, write relevant connectors between the thesis and the
claims/statements and between the claims/statements themselves.

• Give students a topic. Once they have completed pre-writing activities,

like discussing the topic or reading about it, ask them to write a statement of their
point of view of the topic. Then ask them to develop a spider-diagram around this
statement.
• Ask students to use this spider-diagram to write their essay.

6. Designing the experiment on “Developing the writing skills”

Performing the research I used the following test- retest model which consists of
the following stages:

70
 In the stage of preparation materials I determined the treatment group and
control group which are two classes of VIth Form that study English language at
“Mihai Eminescu” Highschool and started to design the Training Program “Tasks
that develop the writing skills” for the treatment group. In this stage I also worked
on hypothesis of the experiment that is WRITING SKILLS CAN BE DEVELOPED
THROUGH A SPECIALIZED TRAINING PROGRAM that contains a set of task-based
activities intended to develop and facilitate the writing process. The students must
be taught to be aware of the stages of writing process, techniques that are used
during the writing process, writing styles.

71
 In the pilot testing I diagnosed the initial level of writing skills and I discovered
that the both groups: the treatment and control groups scored the similar
averages. Treatment group had the score of …., and control group…..

Pilot testing Writing skills

Treatment Group Control Group
40% 30%

Writing skills

70%

60%
30%
50%

40%

30%

20% 40%

10%

0%

Treatment Group Control Group

During one academic year I have implemented the training program

“Developing writing skills” in the treatment group and at the end of the program I
have retested the writing skills for the treatment group and control group. As a
result I obtained much higher results for the treatment group, but the results for the
control group have not changed, as they have not participated in the training
program. The results can be seen in the following tables:

The treatment group and the grades for each activity for the entire training
program “Developing writing skills”.

72
Nr Code A1 A2 A3 A4 A5 A6 A7 A8 A9 A10 A11 A12 A13 A14 A15 A16 A17 A18 A19 A20 Overall
1 C101 8 7 8 8 8 8 9 9 9 8 9 9 8 9 8 8 8 9 8 8 8,30
2 C102 8 8 9 8 8 8 8 9 8 9 8 9 9 8 9 8 9 8 9 8 8,40
3 C103 9 8 7 9 8 9 8 9 9 8 9 8 8 8 9 6 8 7 8 9 8,20
4 C104 8 10 8 10 9 8 9 8 9 9 9 9 8 8 9 9 10 10 10 9 8,95
5 C105 9 8 7 8 9 8 9 8 8 9 8 8 8 8 8 8 9 8 8 7 8,15
6 C106 8 9 8 9 8 9 9 7 7 8 7 8 9 8 8 8 9 8 9 9 8,25
7 C107 7 8 7 8 8 9 7 9 8 7 8 9 7 9 8 9 9 9 9 9 8,20
8 C108 9 9 9 9 9 9 9 10 9 10 9 10 10 9 10 9 8 10 10 10 9,35
9 C109 8 7 8 7 8 9 8 7 8 7 8 9 8 7 9 8 9 8 9 9 8,05
10 C110 6 7 8 9 8 7 8 9 7 9 8 7 8 9 6 8 9 8 9 9 7,95
11 C111 7 6 7 8 9 8 9 6 8 7 8 9 8 8 9 9 7 8 8 7 7,80
12 C112 7 8 7 9 8 8 8 9 8 9 8 7 8 9 8 7 6 7 9 8 7,90
13 C113 8 8 7 8 6 9 6 6 8 9 8 9 9 7 6 9 8 9 8 9 7,85
14 C114 9 8 9 9 9 9 9 9 9 9 9 10 10 10 9 9 9 9 10 9 9,15
15 C115 8 9 10 9 8 9 9 8 9 9 9 7 9 9 9 10 9 10 10 9 8,95
 The control group and the grades for the activities in the educational program demanded by the curriculum:

Nr Code A1 A2 A3 A4 A5 A6 A7 A8 A9 A10 A11 A12 A13 A14 A15 A16 A17 A18 A19 A20 Overall
1 C201 6 6 6 6 5 7 5 6 7 6 6 7 5 6 6 6 5 7 6 6 6,00
2 C202 7 6 7 8 9 8 9 6 7 7 8 9 8 8 9 9 7 8 8 7 7,75
3 C203 7 8 7 9 8 9 7 9 7 9 8 7 8 9 8 7 6 7 9 8 7,85
4 C204 8 8 7 8 6 9 10 10 8 9 8 9 9 7 10 9 8 9 8 9 8,45
5 C205 8 8 8 8 8 8 8 8 8 8 8 8 8 8 9 7 9 7 8 8 8,00
6 C206 8 9 8 7 8 8 9 8 9 7 9 7 6 8 9 8 9 8 7 8 8,00
7 C207 9 9 8 9 9 9 10 10 9 8 9 9 8 9 9 8 8 9 8 8 8,75
8 C208 8 8 7 8 7 6 7 8 7 6 8 8 8 8 7 8 7 7 8 8 7,45
9 C209 7 8 7 7 8 9 8 9 7 8 9 8 7 7 9 10 8 7 8 9 8,00
10 C210 8 7 8 7 9 8 9 8 9 8 9 9 8 8 10 9 8 8 10 9 8,45
11 C211 9 8 7 8 7 8 9 8 8 9 8 8 7 8 7 8 9 8 8 7 7,95
12 C212 7 7 8 6 8 6 7 7 7 6 7 8 6 8 6 6 7 8 7 7 7,00
13 C213 7 8 7 8 8 7 7 9 8 7 8 6 7 7 8 9 9 7 8 9 7,70
14 C214 9 8 9 8 9 8 9 8 9 8 9 8 7 9 8 9 8 7 8 7 8,25
15 C215 8 7 8 7 8 9 8 7 8 7 8 9 8 7 9 8 7 8 9 8 7,90

74
 The progress of the treatment group throughout the training program can be
seen more clearly if I am to compare results with the control group in the following
chart:

Retest Control and Treatment Groups

70
60
50
40
30
20
10
0

control group treatment group

In this diagram can be seen the progress of the treatment group while
accomplishing the tasks from the training program “Developing Writing Skills”
compared to control group in pilot-testing and re-test.

Overall score
80

80
70
60 40

50
40 40
30
30
20
Treatment Group
10
0
Control Group
Pilot-testing
Retest-test

Control Group Treatment Group

 The control group has a progress of only 10% (in pilot-testing it accumulated 30
% and in retest- 40%), but the treatment group has a progress of 40 % (in pilot-
testing it accumulated 40% and in retest- 80%).

76
 Conclusions to Unit II

The educational program “Developing writing skills” can help students improve
their writing skills by:

✓ Increasing student motivation to have good writing skills;

✓ Providing instruction in writing processes and rules;
✓ Providing writing practice;
✓ Providing constructive feedback about the students’ writing.

These strategies are organized according to the order in which an academic

program might implement them. Following each strategy is a word that describes
whether the strategy targets motivation, instruction, practice, or feedback. The
teacher must:

1. Emphasize to students that good writing skills are important, both to their
satisfactory completion of the unit and to their future careers. Encourage students
to improve their writing skills. (Motivation)

2. Provide students with an anecdote about the implications of substandard

writing or the value of good writing. For example, the teacher may talk about a
job candidate who missed selection due to his or her poor writing. (Motivation)

3. Read aloud quality writing done by a former student, and encourage

students to listen to its flow. With the permission of the writer, name and praise him
or her. (Motivation, Instruction)

4. Encourage students to pay close attention to the grammar and punctuation

they see in textbooks and other books and articles, as well as in any sample
paper. (Instruction)

5. Encourage students to complete a writing unit and refer students to writing

skills web sites. (Instruction)

6. Explain to students that certain writing skills are fundamental to almost all
types of writing, but there are also purpose-specific writing skills and styles.
(Instruction)

77
 7. Tell students: With practice and feedback on performance, writing becomes
better. Learning most complex skills involves many attempts; students need not
feel discouraged if they are not instantly accomplished writers in a specific genre.
Once a certain level of skill has been reached, the process of writing becomes
increasingly enyoable. (Motivation)

8. Describe to students the process used to write journal articles and reports
and how using the process benefits the student. This process might include starting
with an outline, completing several drafts of the document, checking the writing
against the requirements, and asking another individual to proofread the
document. (Motivation, Instruction)

9. Give students handouts containing important writing rules and web sites with
content such as UNE’s writing fact sheets are good sources of concise rules
regarding grammar and punctuation. (Instruction)

10. Teach students one important rule relating to grammar or punctuation in

each lecture or in each unit. (Instruction)

11. Give students a course-related worksheet, have them write a summary of its
content, and then ask them to critique each others writing. (Practice, Feedback)

12. Toward the end of a lecture, ask students to spend five minutes writing a
summary of the content of the lecture. Next, have students critique each other’s
writing. (Practice, Feedback)

13. Give a writing assignment and in the marking criteria set aside a specific
number of points for writing quality. Give students a copy of the marking criteria
before they begin writing. (Practice, Motivation)

14. Explain to students before they complete a writing assignment the most
common writing errors made in the past as well as the rules the errors
violate. (Instruction)

15. Provide students with a list of poorly structured sentences from assignments
of prior years. Ask the students to improve the sentences, and then discuss the
improvements as a class. (Practice, Feedback)

78
 16. Provide students with a checklist of writing-process suggestions they can
apply to a written assignment. Ask them to submit a completed checklist with the
assignment. (Instruction)

17. To the extent feasible, correct writing errors on student papers and provide
printed statements of important rules violated by the errors. (Feedback,
Instruction)

18. Encourage students to learn the rules they violated in making the
errors. (Instruction)

19. Praise students freely for excellent or improved writing. (Motivation)

During one academic year it was implemented the training program

“Developing writing skills” in the treatment group and at the end of the program
when it was retested the writing skills for the treatment group and control group
there were obtained much higher results for the treatment group, but the results
for the control group have not changed, as they have not participated in the
training program.

79
 UNIT III: LESSON OUTLINES

1. Examples of writing lesson planning

Level: Intermediate

Time: 45 minutes

Purpose: To simplify writing an account of a news story

by using ideas from the class.

Preparation: Over a week tear out pictures from the

newspaper. It can be local, national or
international news. With a small class (under
15 students) you should offer one picture per
student. With more than 15 students you can
have one picture per pair. You should stick
each picture on an A 4 sheet of paper.

Lesson outline:

- Give out the pictures. If you have more pictures than students in the class
let them choose which they want.
- Tell them to look at her/his own picture and write down four or five words or
phrases that immediately come to mind. They write their ideas on the sheet
beneath the picture.
- They pass the paper on to their neighbour who reads the words/phrases
and adds four or five of her/his own. Then the picture is passed on again
and other words/phrases are added. This procedure is repeated about
eight times. It becomes increasingly difficult for the students to come up
with additional ideas, but in my experience their contributions will be more
interesting towards the end.
- When each picture with about 30-40 words/phrases is given back to the
original student she/he has got a resource with which to write a short report
on the picture.

80
Variation for advanced classes:

While the pictures are going round the students should decide whether their
words are fact or opinion and write them into different columns on the sheet.
When they have got the 30-40 words/phrases back they have to order them
and write their account accordingly.

Level: Intermediate

Time: 40-45 minutes

Purpose: As an interim stage between question

and answer and free writing.

Preparation: None.

Lesson outline:

1. Give the class a topic that interests them and write it on the board, e.g.
My best friend
Places I have been
A teacher that I have experienced

2. Let them write one short sentence at the top of an A 4 sheet of paper, e.g.
My best friend is called Anna.
Last year I went to Mexico.
When I was at school my class teacher was Mr. Evans.

3. They pass the paper on to the next student, who then writes 15-20 questions
about their statement. (Don't be tempted to reduce the number of questions
that they have to write – the last ones on their list are the most interesting.) Tell
them to leave a space between each question. At this stage you should go
round correcting any mistakes they have made.

4. The papers are passed on again. The students read the statement and the
questions that go with it and she/he answers them all (inventing answers as
she/he wishes). The answers go in the spaces left between the questions. As
before you point out any errors that occur.

81
5. Once more the papers are passed on. The task now is to write an account
based on the statement, the questions and answers she/he receives.

6. You might want to set this for homework or for the next lesson. With a weak
class I would recommend you to take the papers and check the questions and
answers and give them out next lesson for the account to be written.

In this activity the students do not have to concentrate on the content, which
frees them to work on style and expression.

The accounts are each given back to the student who wrote the original
statement. After having read the account they can comment either in writing
or orally to the whole class.

Level: Lower intermediate

Time: 40-45 minutes

Purpose: To revise adjectives and adverbs in a context

that is provided by the students. These grammar
items usually occur spontaneously in the following
activity.

Preparation: Tell the students to bring in a photo of a friend or

one of their family.

Lesson outline:

1. Get the students to pass on the photo to the next student without telling
her/him who it is or making any other comment.
2. Looking at the photo they have to write notes about the person. Physical
appearance – age / height / figure / build / hair – character and
personality. Give the students enough time and go round helping with
words.
3. Get them to pass the papers to the next student, but not the photo.
4. They have to read the notes of the previous student and write an account
of the person in the photo (without seeing it).

82
 5. The photo goes back to its owner together with the account. Each student
has to present the photo to the class and say whether or not the account is
accurate.

A Funny Story

Last week something really funny happened. It was Saturday morning, and my
sister and I were getting ready to go to the grocery store with my mother. When
we were almost ready, my mother suddenly stopped.

“Oh no!” she said.

“What?” I asked her.

“I can’t find my keys! Where are my keys?” she yelled.

My mother looked very worried. She thought she had lost her keys, and she was
worried that my dad might get angry. She started running around the house,
looking for her keys.

“Mom!” I said.

“Not now!” she said, running around the house. “I need to find the keys!”

“Uh, Mom!” I said again.

“What!?” she stopped and looked at me with an angry face.

“Your keys are in your hand!” I said.

My mother looked in her hand, and there they were. She was holding they keys
the whole time. My mother looked very embarrassed, and my sister and I
couldn’t stop laughing!

83
 UNIT IV: TEACHING ENGLISH AS FOREIGN
LANGUAGE PAPER

1. Teaching Theory of Writing

• Writing, according to JB Heaton (1988) in principle, is an activity in

which the writer poured his ideas, his opinions, his experience and his
ideas into linguistic form by using the rules of writing such content
(content), grammar (structure), mechanics (mechanics), organizing
ideas (organization) and vocabulary (vocabulary) in order to be
understood by the reader. Thus, writing is essentially to convey an
idea to the reader with a specific purpose in a particular social
context.

• Correspondingly, Sharples said that writing as a process and mental

activity complex that takes planning, thought process analytic and
synthetic, knowledge and mastery, linguistic features, and
knowledge of the social environment and culture as expressed
Sharpless (1999: 6).
• According Nurgiantoro (1987: 270), the activity of writing is a form of
manifestation of the ability to speak the last master student after
listening, speaking, and reading. Writing is more difficult to master
than other skills.

• Weigle (2002: 29) says that writing is not merely requiring the
cognitive and linguistic abilities of the author but also to understand
the social and cultural context. This becomes relevant because
writing takes place in a social context which has certain special
purpose or in accordance with the needs and conditions of its
readers.

• Sperling (1996) in Weigle (2002: 29) says that writing is an activity that
formed the use of language, determined and influenced by the

84
 social and cultural realities and the individual itself has a social
purpose.

2. The Nature of Writing

Regarding the nature of writing, Hyland (2003: 9) says that writing is a way
to convey, express feelings and shares the experience of the author to the
reader by using written language.

3. The Essence of Writing

Writing, which is defined as an activity conveying a message (ideas,

feelings, experiences, or information), is a skill that is very important in the life
of every individual. These skills are necessary not only in education but also
in work and community life. Therefore, writing proficiency is one of the
prerequisites for improving the quality of processes and learning output,
develop themselves and their careers, and participate in the development
of civilization. By being aware of the essence, readers should be more
motivated to develop writing skills. In the context of learning, the essences
of writing skills are seen from essential activity of noting, summarizing, or
creating reports. Learning can and should be done through verbal
discussion, but everything that is studied only orally tends to be superficial
and is easily forgotten. Therefore, successful learning always helped by
writing activities. Write reinforce ideas and thoughts. By writing, individuals
are helped to understand record, organize, and reflect new concepts to
learn and synthesis it with concepts that have previously been held in the
mind. The activities of understanding, recording, organizing, reflecting, and
synthesizing are the main core of each lesson; and writing is the most
effective activities for facilitate that fifth activities.

The importance of writing skills emphasized by Hogan (2005) saying that

every professional judged on writing skills. Someone who is not adept at
writing is seen as less intelligent, educated and competent. Instead,

85
excelling communicate deemed intelligent, educated and competent.
Career Development Services of Salford University supports this by asserting
that written and interpersonal communication skills are essential to success.
Writing skills effectively are a key in the process of applying for positions that
require higher education qualifications.

The essence of writing skills in the development of civilization can be seen

from the fact that writing is the main element forming civilization.
Inheritance complex ideas and thoughts from generation to generation to
later be developed by following generations can only be done effectively
through writing. It is no exaggeration when great thinkers like Carlyle, Kant,
and Mirabeau strongly believe that the invention of writing really is forming
the beginnings of civilization. Gelb (1969: 221-222), the American historian
who pioneered research into the writing system, concluding that if the
language distinguishes humans from animals, the article distinguishes
civilized man from the savage man. Writing only contained in civilization,
and civilization would not exist without writing.

The importance of writing skills in the development of civilization is

evidenced by the history reveals that the progress of a country is closely
linked to the activity of reading and writing community. In fact, both of
these activities is an indicator of the progress of civilization of a nation. In
other words, the more advanced civilization of a nation more and more
papers are produced and read. World meters (based on data from
UNESCO) and Nielsen Book Services Ltd. exposing the United States ranks
first in terms of number of titles published, (328 259 title in 2010).

China is ranked third by the number of titles 189 295. Indonesia, which in
2009 published 24,000 titles is ranked 19th, while Singapore, with a
population of 5.3 million inhabitants, 12 156 books published in 2007, was
ranked 34th. From the scientific literature, these conditions are not much
different. Based on data SCimago (2013), the United States ranks first, with
5,285,514 publications, followed by China in second place, with 2,248,278
publications. Indonesia is ranked 42 with number 12 871 publications. The
position of Indonesia under Singapore (rank 32, with 126 881 publications)

86
 and Malaysia (rank 42, with 75 530 publications). In fact, a small country of
Singapore is in position 32 with 108 522 publications.

4. Process of Writing

According to Jeremy Harmer:

In the ‘real world’, this typically involves planning what we are going to write,
drafting it, reviewing and editing what we have written and then producing a
final (and satisfactory) version. Many people have thought that this is a linear
process, but a closer examination of how writers of all different kinds are
involve it in the writing process suggest that we do all of these things again and
again, sometimes in a chaotic order. Thus, we may plan, draft, re-plan, draft,
edit, re-edit, re-plan, etc. before we produce our final version.

We will need to encourage students to plan, draft and edit in this way, even
though this may be time consuming and may meet, initially, which some
resistance on their part. By doing so, we will help them to be better writers both
in exams, for example, and in their post-class English lives.

5. Writing Sequences

a) Pre-intermediate

This guided writing sequences shows how student’s at a fairly early level can
be helped to write within a certain genre so that when they do the final
writing task, they have everything they need to do it successfully. For
example: post card.

b) Pre-intermediate upwards

This level is where students start to write communicatively.

c) Upper-intermediate

87
 In this levels students write more details and will take some times. As the
sequence progress, student analyze the report genre, look at some
language points, gather information, draft their report and produce a final
version (thus immersing themselves not only in the writing product but in the
process of the writing).

6. The Analysis of Writing Activity in the Classroom

Before starting the learning, the teacher gives some instructions to the
learners in order to make sure learners’ understands.

The teacher begins with cooperative story writing activity in which teacher
has prepared a dice and ask a student to throw the dice once. Number
that appears after the dice throw describes number of the word that will be
written in white board. It was done continuously until the story ends.

The advantages of this method:

It is appropriate for beginner because the method is enjoyable.

Because the learners’ characters are they like studying and playing, limited
attention, like to saying by their self, enthusiastic high study, full of curiosity,
understand the learning lively.

Disadvantages:

It is only used to beginner level and it is not suitable to be used in larger

class.

7. Aspects of Writing

Writing:

a. Beginning
b. Alphabets
c. Syllable
d. Word

88
 e. Sentence
f. Paragraph
g. Essay
h. Announcement
i. Letter
j. Article
k. Poem
l. Report
m. Speech
n. Poetry.

8. The Characteristics of Good Writing

So, what constitutes good writing? Opinions on the matter vary widely. There
will be different traits that make good fiction versus good poetry or good
nonfiction. However, we can cull together a general list of the characteristics of
good writing (in no particular order):

a. Clarity and focus: In good writing, everything makes sense and readers
don’t get lost or have to reread passages to figure out what’s going on.
Focused writing sticks with the plot or core idea without running off on
too many tangents.
b. Organization: A well organized piece of writing is not only clear, it’s
presented in a way that is logical and aesthetically pleasing. You can
tell non-linear stories or place your thesis at the end of an essay and get
away with it as long as your scenes or ideas are well ordered.
c. Ideas and themes: Is the topic of your paper relevant? Does your story
come complete with themes? Can the reader visualize your poem? For
a piece of writing to be considered well crafted, it has to contain clearly
identifiable ideas and themes.
d. Voice: This is what sets you apart from all other writers. It’s your unique
way of stringing words together, formulating ideas, and relating scenes
or images to the reader. In any piece of writing, the voice should be
consistent and identifiable.

89
 e. Language (word choice): We writers can never underestimate or fail to
appreciate our most valuable tools: words. Good writing includes
precise and accurate word choices and well crafted sentences.
f. Grammar and style: Many writers would wish this one away, but for a
piece of writing to be considered good (let alone great), it has to follow
the rules of grammar (and break those rules only when there’s a good
reason). Style is also important in ensuring that a piece of writing is clear
and consistent. Make sure you keep a grammar book and style guide
handy.
g. Credibility or believability: Nothing says bad writing like getting the facts
wrong or misrepresenting oneself. In fiction, the story must be believable
(even if it’s impossible), and in nonfiction, accurate research can make
or break a writer.
h. Thought-provoking or emotionally inspiring: Perhaps the most important
quality of good writing is how the reader responds to it. Does she come
away with a fresh perspective and new ideas? Does he close the cover
with tears in his eyes or a sense of victory? How readers react to your
work will fully determine your success as a writer.

9. Problems of Writing

Problem Comment
Too much A common complaint of lecturers is that students in general
description, not tend to describe rather than analyze in their writing. It is
enough analysis usually not enough simply to outline what you have read.
You need to evaluate the ideas, compare them with those
of other writers, and examine issues and perspectives
critically.
Poor structure • Linking words
• Transition sentences
• Careful paragraphing
• 'Signpost' expressions
• Sub-headings
• Consistency between introductions and conclusions

90
 Wrong register • Do not use contractions.
(language too • Use academic written, not spoken English.
informal) • Avoid slang or colloquial language and idiom.
Ineffective • Avoid 'patchwork paraphrasing'.
paraphrasing
Too many quotes • Whilst it is important to refer to other writers in academic
writing, it is also important not to rely too heavily on their
words. Try to paraphrase much more than you quote.
Poor choice of • Only use a direct quote if it is particularly well-expressed
quotes or the ideas are particularly significant. Appropriate
quotes used sparingly can greatly improve your writing,
but using too many quotes, particularly if they are not
well chosen, will detract from your writing.
Insufficient or • Quantity of your references
inadequate sources • Quality of your references
Incorrect • Ensure you understand the style required for the
referencing particular assignment.
Plagiarism • Failure to acknowledge the source of all ideas is a
serious matter. Copying directly from another text
without acknowledgement is even more serious.

10. Limitation of Teacher in Writing Class

Teachers more play role as facilitator and respondent to students’ writing.

As a facilitator, teachers give guidance to help students involved in
development of thinking and re-emergence ideas in writing process, but
they are prohibited to force their ideas into students’ writing. Teachers role
are giving feedback in form of correction or comment.

91