Principles of Writing
1. Teach students helpful writing techniques...
a. Know your audience
b. Plan and prepare
c. Set realistic goals
d. Revise, get feedback, then edit
2. Keep the balance between the writing process and what you write (the product)
3. Know your audience, especially regarding their culture and literary schemata
4. Draw connections between the reading and writing processes
5. Use as many real-world writing tasks as humanly possible.
6. Emphasize the entire writing process
a. Brainstorming/Freewriting
b. Write a draft
c. Revise (then return to previous step)
d. Finalize after extensive editing, including peer-editing
7. Provide interactive writing opportunities
8. Be sensitive when correcting errors, but don’t shy from correction
9. Explain and model the proper writing process and conventions
Types of Writing Performance
1. Imitation: Dictation
2. Controlled: Change present tense to past
3. Guided: Write about a video clip
4. Self-writing: Journal
5. Display writing: short-answer, essay answers, research papers
6. “Real” Writing
a. Academic: collaboration
b. Vocational/Technical: memos
c. Personal: email
Evaluation and Assessment
1. Content: what the writing is about
2. Organization: how the writing is organized
3. Discourse: How the paper “flows”
4. Syntax: Using it correctly for the task
5. Vocabulary: Self-explanatory
6. Mechanics: Dot the Is, Cross the Ts
Critically Thinking
1. Where should the emphasis be placed on a student's writing task, product or process? Why?
2. How can you use authentic writing tasks in groups/pairs?
3. Defend your position on the role of the teacher being either a model or an editor.
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I believe that a greater emphasis should be placed on the process. If students are taught the "right" way to write something then there is a lesser chance for the product to come out incorrectly. The product is important, but there are many more lessons to be learned in the journey, rather than the destination.
ReplyDeleteAuthentic writing tasks in pairs could be writing letters to each other. Then once they must write a reply.
ReplyDeleteAnother paired activity could be like what we are doing now: have the students summarize a piece of writing, given by the teacher. They must collaborate to understand the meaning and to paraphrase it.
Paired again: have the students prepare a rough draft of a piece, then have the students do peer evaluations.
I cannot think of a group activity that would use authentic writing.
Question 2: How can you use authentic writing tasks in groups/pairs?
ReplyDeleteI think one way to use authentic writing tasks in groups or pairs is to have a group (or pair) write a letter to one another talking about their summer vacation plans or another interesting subject to the students. Have them learn proper greetings/courtesy and closing when speaking to different kinds of people.
Another thing you could do is have the students each write one paragraph of a story, with the teacher maybe picking the topic. They students could go around the group and maybe only see the last sentence of the paragraph of the previous student and they would have to continue the story that way.
2. How can you use authentic writing tasks in groups/pairs?
ReplyDeleteSs could be put in pairs and be given a real life situation, example: You're in a restaurant and the dish you ordered is NOT satisfactory. You could role-play with your partner. One of the Ss pretends to be the waiter and the other S is the dissatisfied customer. The writing assignment for each student would be to write down their dialogue.
Other real-life situations could be: returning a faulty product to a store; disputing a bill in which you were charged double,...
Ronda
1. Where should the emphasis be placed on a student's writing task, product or process? Why?
ReplyDeleteI want to say that the greatest emphasis should be placed on the process.
Ultimately, the consistent goal of the principles could be satisfactory results; that is, "product". However, importance of principles of writing would be clearer in the course of trials and errors. Students will have better skills and knowledge in the process.
Question 3: The teacher's role should be that of a model. Correction should occur, but if the teacher is handing back papers full of red ink, it could do more harm then good. Instead of telling the students they're wrong, the teacher should recognize patterns in errors and re-model in the correct way.
ReplyDeleteWhere should the emphasis be placed on a student's writing task, product or process? Why?
ReplyDeleteThe emphasis should be on a student's writing process not their product. While both are important and necessary, the process seems to be more critical than the product. If you look at the finished product only you can't really see if they learned each step properly to be able to reproduce that sort of talent again.
Q2:
ReplyDeleteAuthentic wiring activities can increase students’ creativity and interest in writing.
As a whole class activity, publishing a class newsletter will be helpful for students to have opportunities to write a variety of writing topics/skills. If you have a large group of students, you can divide them up into several groups and have them make a group newsletter. You can also suggest students to create a family newsletter so that they can have more fun with other family members while learning to write. Introducing pen-pal service will provide a good chance for students to make friends around the world while allowing them to focus on writing skills.
As a pair work, you can teach them the tips for a peer-review and have them to write up some helpful and polite critiques on partner’s writings.