Authentic Writing Activities as Motivators for Writing

By Yael Ganot

Instructor: Dr. Maureen RajuanAchva Academic College

The Purpose of the Research• Many teachers and students find the teaching and learning of writing a difficult

and threatening task.

"Writing contrived, formulaic essays does not prepare students for the writing they will be doing in the real world. We email to friends, co-workers; we may write a letter of complaint… but how often are we asked to construct a well-

supported response to a prompt?" (Kixmiller, 2004)

Authentic writing may be the solution to our pupils'

fear of writing (Kixmiller, 2004; Koeller &Mitchel, 1996/1997; Lidval, 2008; Lindblom, 2007),

What is Authentic writing?

Many teachers define authentic

writing as writing that is

enjoyable, interesting and

motivating, or relevant for the

pupils (Duke, Hall, Purcell-

Gates & Tower, 2007).

However, authentic writing

includes other essential

elements:

Areas of Interest

Using technology as it plays a central role in

their life (Facbook, Twitter)

Personal life experiences

Having a choice in what they write

“Students have to care about their writing to write well, and they care about things in which they are interested (Routman, 2000).”

Having a Real Purpose for Writing

Our pupils need to see how their writing reflects writing in real life

situations, outside of school, and how it can contribute to them.

Pupils Want Their Voices to be Heard-Real Audience "By real we mean a reader who will read the written text for its communicative

purpose and not solely for evaluation, as so often happens to writing done in instructional contexts."

(Duke, Purcell-Gates, Hall & Tower, 2006/2007, p.6)

Methoda. Setting and Participants

7th grade

28 pupils

18 boys 10 girls

mainstream junior high in the peripheral

south of Israel .

low socio- economic area

one weekly hour

b. Action plan

Every week, I used a different authentic writing prompt in relation to the

topics that we learned in the Writers Metter Project:

Each writing activity included the essential elements of authenticity:

choice in what pupils wrote, a real purpose ,an interesting topic and a real audience to

read their writing.

I Am Family and Friends

The Bedouin Culture

Holocaust Memorial

DayMy Future

Letters to Bedouin

pupils

Family traditions

posters

Letters to Holocaust survivors

Letters to their families

Questions for

pupils from

America

c. Assessment of Action- Research Tools:

1. A Questionnaire * The purpose of the questionnaire was to examine my pupils’ attitude and feelings towards the diverse authentic writing prompts that I used in each lesson.

* The questionnaire was written in English but the pupils were allowed to answer the open part in their mother tongue (Hebrew).

* The questionnaire was given at the end of every lesson for a total of nine

lessons.

A questionnaire

Gender: Girl / Boy

Yes I am not sure No

1. Did you like the subject you wrote about?

2. Do you feel good when you present?

3. Is your writing getting better?

4. Did the subject help you write?

* What would help you improve your writing?

* Today I learned

* Do you have more comments/ suggestions?

Research tool 2: Observer Feedback

• Questionnaire for the observers:• Date: ____________________1. How many students participated? ________________________________.2. How many students did the assignment? ____________________________.3. Did the authentic writing prompt motivate the pupils to write?

_______________________________________________________________________________.

4. Was the authentic writing prompt helpful for promoting student learning? How? _______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________.

5. Do you have any suggestions for other authentic activities? _______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________.

Research tool 3: Personal reflection on lessons

The following example was written after a lesson in which my

pupils wrote a Thank You/ Happy Passover letter to their parents:

“I really enjoyed watching the pupils working with such enthusiasm, asking for assistance and eager to finish their letters on time so that I would send it to their parents…- I was satisfied by their participation but mostly by the fact that the most problematic pupils in class were actually engaged in the activity…I was very proud of them today “(April 2nd, 2014).

Results….

Results • Example of pupil’s response to questionnaire:

A questionnaire

Gender: Girl / Boy

Yes I am not sure No

1. Did you like the subject you wrote about?

2. Do you feel good when you present?

3. Is your writing getting better?

4. Did the subject help you write?

* What would help you improve your writing?

* Today I learned

* Do you have more comments/ suggestions?

Example of pupil’s response to questionnaire

האחרונים בשיעורים שעשינו כמו ומעניינים משמעותיים מכתבים לאנשים לכתוב להמשיך

- חיים ואיך אוהבים הם מה הבדואית התרבות על

וכיף מעניין שיעור היה

Questionnaire for the observers:

Date: April 2nd

1. How many students participated? All except for two

2. How many students did the assignment? Everyone

3. Did the authentic writing prompt motivate the pupils to write? Definitely. They seemed very happy to write to their loved ones and to be able to choose who to write to. Some of the girls got really excited by the idea of writing a letter to their boyfriends. The majority of the class wrote to their parents some beautiful, loving letters.

4. Was the authentic writing prompt helpful for promoting student learning? How?

I think that since it was so important for them to send beautiful and correct letters, it was a good practice of a friendly letter format. Also, they used important vocabulary of family, friends, holidays.

5. Do you have any suggestions for other authentic activities? Maybe something with technology.

• Some of my pupils’ writings: Family Traditions Posters

• Letters to Bedouin pupils:

Letter to Holocaust survivorsMay 7th, 2014

Dear Holocaust Survivor,

Hi, my name is Lidor and I am in 7th grade.

I want to tell you that you beat Hitler!

I know how hard it was for you, but despite all your suffering you are still

alive! You give an example to many people to never give up…!

I am proud of you and wish you the best.

I hope to hear from you soon.

Love,

Lidor

ConclusionsBased on my pupils’ answers to the questionnaires:

• The majority of my pupils answered that they enjoyed the subjects they wrote about and

felt that they helped them to write.

• The majority of the class felt an improvement in their writings from the beginning of the

year.

• When asked what would help them to write, many responded with answers such as: Doing

more activities like today, writing letters to people, writing about interesting topics, etc.

• Regarding the question about whether they like to present their writing, most of the pupils

answered that they did. However, among those who answered that they weren’t sure, or

no, the majority were boys (only one girl said she didn’t).

Based on my pupils’ reactions, my observations, and my peers’ feedback: I’ve learned that a real audience for our pupils’ writing has the most significant affect on their motivation to write. “…Even the boys who were considered to be "tough" wanted to take part and wrote wonderful letters to their moms" (April 2nd, 2014).

Pupils who refused to write in the beginning of the year, submitted to me wonderful stories or letters, relative to their level, by the end of the year.

Since the authentic writing activities made them enthusiastic, my pupils: * put in more effort * used the dictionary and expanded their vocabulary * paid attention to grammar. Thus, their final products significantly improved over time.