Teaching Writing

Everything in writing begins with language. Language begins with listening.--Jeanette Winterson

By the end of this Writing Workshop, you will be able to:

• define what writing is and identify the three stages of the writing process.

• explain and illustrate examples of controlled writing tasks and how to use them.

• assess the advantages and disadvantages of using dictation to teach writing.

• illustrate ways to use photos and pictures to teach writing.

What is Writing?

Writing is a recursive* process; writers first prepare, then write, then revise and correct their work. At any stage in the process, writers may need to return to an earlier stage to re-prepare, re-read or re-write their work.

* Recursive means returning again and again to something already written

What are the three stages of writing?

1. Pre-writing: teachers prepare students by providing the necessary language, discussing ideas, identifying the format or audience, and presenting composition skills.

2. Writing

3. Post-writing: the teacher, the writer, and or peers read the writing and identify problems in content, composition, and mechanics.

How does the pre-writing stage prepare students for

writing?

• Collecting information: Writers may use information they already know or research for information. Writers can use a variety of graphic organizers and other techniques to collect information.

• Selecting information: Writers should choose the ideas that most closely connect to their topic and which best support the main idea.

• Organizing information: How will information be grouped? In what order will ideas be presented? Graphic organizers are helpful.

In the writing stage* students write, re-read, and re-write their works as necessary.

*Research shows that good writers read and change their work constantly while working.

In the post-writing stage, students revise their work.

The post-writing stage is important for longer or more structured writing like essays or research papers. In this stage, we check that:

• the content and information are correct.• the writing is appropriately structured and

considers the audience.• the spelling, grammar, punctuation. and

capitalization are correct.

In the post-writing stage, peers and teachers can also revise students’ work.

Teachers and peers may revise the writing and provide feedback.•The teacher can use a code to indicate mistakes and problems.•Peers can read and edit the writing. Peer editing requires practice, and teachers can provide peers with an editing checklist or rating scale to focus on important issues.

• Writers should correct errors and problems themselves.

Sample Correction Code

1. R-O- Run -On Sentence

2. Frag- Fragment

3. S/V Agr or Pro/N Agr-subject/verb or pronoun/noun agreement

4. Vb.T-Verb tense

5. Vb. ch- Verb choice

6. Pro- Pronoun

7. Poss- Possessive noun

8. Poss adj- Possessive adjective

9. Prep- Preposition

10. Art- Article

11. Sing or Pl- Singular or Plural

12. Wd F- Word Form

13. Punc- Punctuation

14. Sp- Spelling

15. Cap or No Cap- Capital letter or no capital letter

16. V- Missing Word

17. Indent- Indentation

Sample Essay Peer Editing Form Essay Question Evaluation Form

Student Name _______________ Your name ___________________ .................................................................................................Grading criteria:Each paragraph begins with appropriate topic sentence Yes

NoMinimum of three sentences per paragraph Yes

NoCorrect use of capital letters and punctuation Yes NoProper spelling and grammar Yes NoEssay is typed and double spaced Yes NoClear sentences Yes NoAll requirements of the question are met Yes

NoInformation is accurate Yes NoEssay ends with satisfactory conclusion Yes

NoEssay demonstrates thought and good understanding Yes No 

Creative Writing Tasks

essay, composition advertisement email letter

autobiography or biography

poem paragraph menu

recipe sentences advice report

sign newspaper article

résumé instructions

diary or journal entry notes play, skit, or short drama

personal ads: Male, 23, loves music and dancing, seeks female 21-25, with same interests

• Twitter feed, text messages

• poster

With a partner, brainstorm ways to introduce writing (see suggestions below).

Think-Pair-Share: What is the value of teaching writing at lower levels?

Examples of Controlled Writing:

1. Cloze: Listen to your facilitator and then complete the sentences.

Paper ____________________ wood. It ____________________

by the Chinese in _______________________

2. Re-ordering words: Write the sentences in the correct order.

get up/We/before/weekends./9:00/on/never

we/to play/the park/After/soccer./go to/breakfast

a big/soccer/and eat/come/After/home/lunch./we

3. Substitution: Write a sentence like this about yourself:

José likes football and chocolate ice cream.

4. Correct the Facts: Rewrite the sentences below so that they match the picture.

The man is walking down the street. She is carrying flowers on her head. She is carrying an umbrella. She is holding her shirt.

DictationThink-Pair-Share- Discuss the advantages and disadvantages of using dictation to teach writing.

An alternative to dictation that focuses on meaning: Students listen to a text and try to reconstruct it from

prompts.

George---fishing

friend’s house---bus---river

tree---fishing

a few minutes---George---small fish

Matching Sentence Halves

This is a great way to get students to think about sentence construction and meaning.

Every Picture Tells A Story Photographs can be used for creative writing

exercises. For younger children, choose photographs with images they can relate to. Teens and adults can relate to almost any photo.

Quote Exercise:1)Pick one photo.2)Write a quote about the person in the photo.

3) Pass the photo to your left.4) Write a quote about the photo that was just passed to you.

5) Pass the photo to your left.6) Write a paragraph about the photo that you have in front of you. Include both quotes in your narrative.

What will you takeWhat will you takeaway from this workshop?away from this workshop?