TEACHING WRITING

Isis Estévez Alvarado

Elías Morales Rocha

WRITING OR NOT WRITING.( IT ’S NOT A QUESTION)

WRITING IN THE CLASSROOM

Needs that require to work on writing skills:

Academic study

Examination, Preparation and Bussines English

Writing involves different kind of mental process.

TEACHING THE SKILL WRITING

Set writing task

Collecting in

Mark

YOU CAN DO AS TEACHER :

Choose a topic

choose a genre

get ideas

discuss ideas with others to get new perspectives

find grammar and lexis suitable for the text

study sample and model texts similar to what they want

to write

co-write sections of text in groups

write a final version, find appropriate readers.

STAGES OF TEACHING WRITING (SEOW)

Planing.

Drafting.

Revisng.

Editing.

Responding

Evaluating.

Post-writing

OLD SCHOOL WRITING VS

CREATIVE WRITING

Write real letters / emails Think of real people to whom students can write, eg Members of Parliament, manufacturing companies, fan clubs, local newspapers, other schools, etc. Send them. Get replies. Write back.

Write your own newsletter, magazine, blog, etc

Class magazine, school magazine, fan newsletter, local news, campaigning on environmental or political issues, etc.

Advertise (ideas, school events, products, etc)

Advertise around the school, around town; send in your ads to local papers.

Send comments, replies to discussions, reviews, etc to websites

There are now a wide number of discussions, message boards and newsgroups specifically for students or for special-interest groups. Many shop and consumer sites invite reader reviews of books, products, events, etc.

Write questionnaires and then use them out In the street

These can be written in English or in the learners' own language. Write up the results. Publish them!

Long-term projects These are a good way of integrating writing with other work. The aim could be a file or book at the end .

Apply for things, fill in forms register for things, etc \

This can be done directly online if students have Internet access or printed out on paper.

S T E P 1 . A S C E R TA I N I N G G O A L S A N D I N S T I T U T I O N A L

S T E P S I N P L A N I N G A W R I T I N G C O U R S E A N D T R A I N I N G T E A C H E R S O F W R I T I N G

CONSTRAINS:• MINISTRIES OF

EDUCATION• EXAMININ AND

ACCREDITATION AGENCIES.

Writing in 1L

ConfortableFree.

Self-assured.Open.Loud

Psotive

Writing in 2L

I’m not the real me.I’m choking in a word that won’t come out.

Institutional Constraints ----- Form committes, find ways.

STEP 3 . PLANNING CONTENT.

STEP 3

Is there a correct content of writing classes?

Social issues Personal Experiences

Cultural Issues Literature

Etc.

BRAINSTORMING

Rhetorical Model

Students need topics that allowed

them to generate ideas, find the forms

to fit ideas and invite risk taking.

STEP 5 . DRAWING UP A SYLABUS

TYPES OF THE SYLLABUS ORGANIZATION FOR

WRITING COURSES.

STRUCTURAL.- Organizated around grammar and

sentece patterns. (sentences, descriptions,

analyses… etc)

FUNCTIONAL.- Organizated around Rhetorical

activities: describing, defining, explaining, arguing,

persuading, comparing and contrasting, classifying.

TOPICAL.- Organized around themes: housing, health,

house, education or abstractions like succes or courage.

SITUATIONAL.- Organized around situational

transactions: Applying for a jobs, writing letter to the

newspaper, writing bussines memo etc.

SKILLS AND PROCESS.- Organized around skills ad

process as generating ideas, organizing ideas, revising,

writing fluency, writing efective.

STEP 7. - PREPARATING ACTIVITIES AND ROLES

The teacher have to be student to.

Think about what students will be doing and

lerning in the classroom rather than the

comprehensiveness of the information we will

imparting.

“Banking”: depositing knowledge in the learner’s

head.

STEP 9 . - EVALUATING THE COURSE

Use of questionenaires, reflective logs.

PORTFOLIOS

Include some specified types of writing: in-class

writing and revised work.

Another teacher could be the evlatuator, and the

teacher becomes in a coach.

1.- Introduce the topic

Get students interested, maybe by reading a text (article, letter; advert, etc) showing figures, discussing some key issues, etc.

2.- Introduce and summarise the main writing task

Make sure students are clear what they have to do. They need to know the genre (magazine article? letter? formal report? etc), who they are writing for and why. Avoid bland, 'genre-free text for no particular audience' writing tasks.

3.- Brainstorm ideas

Whole class: use the board to collect as many ideas as possible. Small groups: speak and take notes.

4.- Fast-write A very good way to overcome 'blank page' terror and get ideas flowing is to 'fast-write' (see Section 7).

5 5.- Select and reject ideas

What's worth leaving but?

6 6.- Sort and order ideas

Start to plan structure of text by arranging ideas.

7 7.- Decide on specific requirements: style, information, layout, etc

How is the text to be laid out, paragraphed, organised? Are there any special rules (eg if it's a letter, report, etc)? Are there things that must be included or stated in a certain way?

8 8.- Focus on useful models

Help students to study sample(s) of written texts similar to the one they are writing. Focus on content, message, organization, grammar, phrases, etc.

9 9.- Plan the text

Use notes, sketches or cut-up cards to start organising a possible shape for the text.

10.- Get feedback

At various points, you, other students or groups can read and make helpful comments / suggestions about a text. This help may be on the content and message, the organisation, the language, etc.

11.- Prepre draft(s)

Students often benefit from preparing a draft version before the final one. This gives them the chance to get reader reactions and corrections. .

12.-Edit Students carefully go through their own text, checking if it says what they want it to, if it reads clearly and smoothly, if its language is correct, eta.

13.- Prepare final text

Based on feedback, students write a finished text

14.- Readers! Rather than simply 'mark' a text, get other students to respond to it in some^ more realistic ways.

CLASSROOM ACTIVITIES AND STRATEGIES TO

DEVELOP THE WRITING SKILL

Text-starts

A lot of real-life writing involves looking at other

texts and summarising, reporting, responding to

them, selecting ideas from them, commenting on

them, etc. Supplying 'text-starts' can be a good way

to provide useful writing work for students and

practise reading / writing skills that are useful in

professional life and academic research.

FAST-WRITING

start writing about the topic;

not stop writing;

not put their pen down at all;

not worry about spelling, grammar, etc;

write 'um, um, um' or 'rubbish' or something else if they can't

think of what to write;

not stop to go back and read what they have written;

keep writing till you say 'stop' (which will be after five / eight / ten

minutes or however long you think is appropriate for your group).

USING A DIALOGUE JOURNAL

Be creative and adapt the activity to the

situation and the learner's needs.

Keeping a dialogue journal can be a practical way to

help learners develop reading and writing fluency:

improve spelling and handwriting

understand that writing is a means of communicating, and

make reading and writing part of everyday life.

STEPS

1.Write a personal message in the journal that is designed

to get a response from the learner.

Examples: Start with a question such as

"Have you planted your garden? What do you usually

plant?"

"What is the next event to celebrate? How will you

celebrate it?"

2. Have the learner write a response and return the

journal to the teacher to continue the dialogue.

Have the class discuss and agree upon a question for the

next entry in the journals.

Have learners exchange journals and read each other's

thoughts and ideas.

3. Continue to exchange the journal in this way to keep

the dialogue going

CONFERENCE WRITING

Conference writing is an activity where writers discuss and share their writing with an individual or group.

WRITING FLUENCY ACTIVITY

Fluency in writing, as in reading, should be one

of the aims even of beginning lessons.

This writing fluency activity helps learners learn to:

transfer a flow of speech to written words on paper

visualize spoken words, phrases, and sentences as they hear

them

write entire chunks of speech rather than syllable by

syllable

write fluidly rather than haltingly

Begin working word by word. Progress as soon as possible to

phrases and then to entire sentences, according to the learners'

ability.

Encourage the learners to write the entire chunk (word, phrase,

or sentence) without stopping to correct mistakes.

Encourage them to write quickly but legibly.

Work on problem words only after a sentence has been written.

Do not stop during writing to sound out letters or make

corrections.

WRITING FLUENCY ACTIVITY

FREE RESOURCES THAT WILL IMPROVE YOUR

WRITING SKILLS

1. Grammar, Punctuation & Co.

Ultimate Style: The Rules Of Writing

HyperGrammar

Grammar Girl

Grammar Girl provides short,

friendly tips to improve your writing.

Covering the grammar rules and word

choice guidelines that can confound

even the best writers. Grammar Girl

makes complex grammar questions

simple with memory tricks to help you

recall and apply those troublesome

grammar rules.

2. COMMON MISTAKES AND PROBLEMS

Common Errors in English

A collection of common errors in English, with

detailed explanations and descriptions of each error.

AskOxford: Better Writing

A very useful reference for classic errors and helpful

hints with a terrible site navigation.

Dr. Grammar’s Frequently Asked Questions

Answers to common grammar questions related to

English grammar, with examples and additional

explanations.

3. GENERAL WRITING SKILLS

Writer’s Digest

Writer’s Digest offers information on writing better

and getting published. The site also includes

community forums, blogs and huge lists of resources

for writers

Infoplease: General Writing Skills

Various articles that aim to teach students how to

write better.

The Elements of

Style

A freely available

online version of the

book “The Elements

of Style” by William

Strunk, Jr., the classic

reference book.

Poynter Writing Tools

A blog dedicated to

writers and journalists.

Poynter also provides 

Fifty Writing Tools: Qui

ck List

, a collection of

podcasts related to

writing.

4. PRACTICAL GUIDES TO BETTER WRITING SKILLS

Copywriting 101: An Introduction to Copywriting

This tutorial is designed to get you up and running

with the basics of writing great copy in ten easy

lessons..

A Guide to Writing Well

“This guide was mainly distilled from

On Writing Well by William Zinsser and

The Elements of Style by Strunk and

White. Other sources are listed in the

bibliography. My memory being

stubborn and lazy, I compiled this so I

could easily refresh myself on writing

well. I hope it will also be helpful to

others.”

THANKS

Better to write for yourself and have no

public, than to write for the public and have no

self. Cyril Connolly, The New Statesman

The original writer is not one who imitates

nobody, but one whom nobody can imitate. ~

François-René de Chateaubriand