TEACHING WRITING

What Writing Involves?what is writing? writing is a system for interpersonal communication using visible signs or graphic symbols on a flat surface such as paper, cloth or even stone slabs.

purposes of writing: 1. to get things done. 2.to inform. 3.to persuade. 4.to maintain relationships. 5.to document occurences, events,etc. 6.to record feeling, experiences, observations. etc.

types of writing: 1.narration - story, autobiography, science fiction, etc. 2.description - details of people, places, things, concepts, etc. 3.exposition - explanation, factual information, instruction, etc. 4.persuasion - advertisements, political essays, brochures,etc. 5.argumentation - opinions,discussions, evaluations, etc.

what a writer needs to know. 1.subject matter - Writer need to have relevant information about the topic. 2.purpose - Writer must have a clear purpose for writing. This will affect the way he writes. 3.interaction and a sense of audience - A writer needs to know that writing involves interaction. He needs to know who he is writing for.

4.language - A writes needs a repertoire of language adequate for his needs. This involve not only knowing a range of sentence patterns & words, its also involve awareness of appropriacy in choice of register, stylistic variants in expressing ideas, knowledge of English idioms and so on. 5.conventions - Writing is a social activity & like most social activities,it has conventions that have to be followed.

6.thinking skills - A writer needs different kinds of thinking skills. He needs to discriminate what is important & what is nor, logics to carry through an argument, imagination & creativity. 7.organizational skills - Able to produce wellformed paragraphs with clear main ideas & supporting details, able to sequence ideas logically & produce coherent text using appropriate cohesive devices.

8.value systems - A writer lives by certain values & holds views about everything. These values & views affect the way a writer writes. 9.mechanics - A writer must know to write legibly, spell wordshe want to use, aware of the use of punctuation, etc. 10.the writing process - a writer needs to know the process a good writer goes through: selecting a topic, getting ideas, drafting, revising, editing, proof-reading, & publishing.

Teaching Writing Skillswhy teach writing? 1.writing activities is important for consolidating language learned in other skill. 2.writing activities serve as a record of what has been learnt orally & also help retention of vocabulary & sentences structures. 3.integrating writing with other skills makes the learning event realistic.

STAGES IN LEARNING TO WRITE4 development stages of writing - writing readiness - early writing - developmental writing - mature writing

What is writing readiness??Writing readiness - the skill and understanding necessary for minimum success in completing a writing task

Building fine motor skillsIn order to write meaningfully, first build up the fine motor skills 1. Scribbling with crayons 2. Making circles and other basic shape 3. Gaining more control of small muscle cutting 4. Making representational drawing 5. Beginning to recognize letter write their name 6. Consolidating letter recognition label room

How to help writing readinesswrites names writes other words recognize written names and some words realizes the permanency of words begin imitate letters

What is early writing?A period when a child begins to show interest in writing and posses some basic writing skill Early writing - spelling - sentences building

General GuidelinesShould focus on compositional aspects first before moving into technical aspects build interest, motivation and helps language development Learning mechanics and other writing convention for effective communicative writing example paragraphing, handwriting, etc Increase knowledge on grammar, vocab, sentence, construction, etc through listening and reading

Early writing instructionELT Methodology Principle and Practice 2nd edition ( page 147 )

Provide meaningful context for learning the mechanics of writing this helps them see the importance of good handwriting and spelling Use pupils own oral composition for giving insight into writing teaching short composition even before they could write Constantly keep the benefits of learning to write before them eg: importance of making shopping list Read to your pupils a variety of reading material Develops pupils natural curiosity and thinking skills encourage them to write something they want

Spelling and its problemsCorrect spelling is very important in effective written communication The goal of writing, therefore spelling instruction is important component in teaching writing Problem in English Language- some letters have more than one sound. Eg C ( car/circle)- some symbols have no sound value of their own. Eg H (hour) - there are over 600,000 words in English ( impossible to teach them all )

Common approaches in spelling programsMulti-pronged approach Focus on teaching relationship between the most common phonemes of English Focus on teaching the most common words( Chitravelu page 152)

Focus on developing visual memory for shapes of words recognize spelling error because they dont look right Develop relevant dictionary skills for self-help Focus in helping pupils devise ways of helping themselves to remember common but troublesome words (eg : mnemonics)

Basic principle and practice in teaching spellingDeal with spelling points as they rise Spelling rules are difficult to remember, so give as many as clear examples as possible Give brief and frequent practice Provide opportunities for pupils to write a word many times until they remember Identify misspelled word in a text, underline and correct with pupils Make spelling scrapbook Encourage pupils to make a new list of new or unfamiliar word from their reading or anything

Spelling activitiesAnagram words in scramble forms, students need to rearrange Building as many words as possible from one long word Missing letters disguised copying activity Puzzles crossword puzzles, word maze Dictation

Sentence BuildingPurposes of sentences building Power to captivate entertain Power to motivate Educate Correct structure Flow of thought/idea A start for a longer piece of work

PrincipleWe can model many sentences to them - Recasting - Expansion Do not over do the correction Start from basic Start with writing something familiar Start with stories even they cannot write

DEVELOPMENT WRITINGParagraph writing Grammar Text organization Dictation

Pre- writing

PROCESS APPROACH

Publication

Writing

Select topicPRE-WRITING

Authentic topic The topic are close or related to the pupils life Brainstorming Listing Quick write Mind mapping Ideas are organized according to their importance in the essay/writing piece. The ideas are arranged in so that it will flow smoothly.

Generate ideasOrganize ideas

Drafting Feedback/ conferencing Rewriting/ revising Editing

The pupils will create the draft according to the ideas gathered. After the first draft are done, it will be read by other pupils to get the feedback or any better ideas. The pupils will rewrite their essay according to the suitable feedbacks received. Do proof read to detect any mistake in the essay. The final editing to correct mistakes or adding and removing ideas will be done in this stage.

WRITING

SIMPLIFICATION AND ADAPTATION OF MATERIALS FOR MIXED ABILITY CLASSES

Control the amount of help given

Control the interaction mode

Give different targets achievements

Evaluate according to individual capability and progress

Use process approach

Evaluating writingReasons:To encourage pupils to continue making the efforts to write better. To point out areas needed to improve To appreciate the good points in pupils writing To show progress

Issues in evaluating:Should all work be assessed?Pedagogical usefulness Practicality

Who should evaluate and what should each evaluator role be? Teacher evaluation Peer evaluation Students self-evaluation

Devices that can be used for making evaluation effectiveReason for evaluating writing Ways of evaluatingHolistic marking Selective marking Dual focus marking

Dealing with correctionsUnderline errors without changing it If the error made are in topics that are not yet learnt, just leave it. If the mistakes made are repeating and consistent, draw the pupils attention to it.