Teaching Writing 2019 (web-presentation)

Teaching Writing: modern approaches and techniques for schools

Alexey Konobeiev, PhD

Titul Publishers

201 9

What is Teaching Writing?

• Teaching the mechanics of writing (penmanship, spelling);
• Teaching meaningful writing (different genres and text types, e.g. creative writing, academic writing, functional writing etc.).
• Today we will focus on teaching meaningful writing as a skill.

Approaches to teaching writing

Some of the most popular approaches to teaching writing are:

• Product-based approach;
• Process-oriented approach;
• Genre-based approach.

They all focus on slightly different aspects of writing and follow distinctly different procedures.

Product-based approach

• Students are given a model text to reproduce;
• They analyse grammar and vocabulary, answer questions to make sure they understand the meaning of the text.
• Then they try to write a very similar text, following the model as closely as possible, sometimes changing the person or the tense.

Product-based approach

+

-

• Good for vocabulary and grammar instruction;
• Quick results;
• Easy-to-grade papers

• Students reproduce one and only model in most situations, even when this model is inappropriate;
• Students tend to overlook such essential features of writing as audience and purpose

Genre-based approach

• Students study a number of texts of a particular genre (e.g. a romantic short story);
• Students look for features of the genre (the style of the story, how the story begins, when the culmination takes place and how it resolves etc.) and decide on what features they are going to use in their stories;
• Students change whatever grammar and vocabulary they need to change, and then construct their own stories of this particular genre, not reproducing the texts they have analysed.

Genre-based approach

+

• -
• Requires ability to analyse style, register etc;
• Requires experience in reading a variety of texts of different genres;
• There are no “pure examples” of genres (they belong to “fuzzy notions”) and therefore texts are difficult to grade or to choose objectively good or bad examples.

• Good for analysing stylistic features of texts;
• Good for working with archetypal plots;
• Allows for flexibility and self-expression

Process-oriented approach

• This approach reproduces stages of “natural” writing:
• Students decide on the audience of their text;
• Students get ideas and organise them;
• Students write the first draft of their work;
• Students analyse a sample text to see what is good about it and what they have done better in their drafts;
• Students edit their texts to get the final versions.

Process-oriented approach

+

-

• Reproduces “natural” stages of writing with focus on audience, purpose, style, register etc.
• Teaches students to be flexible writers in any situation;
• Uses sample texts but does not use them as “perfect models” for further reproduction.

• Requires time to build strong writing habits

Approaches in your classroom

Which of these approaches would you use when you want:

• to teach to write very formal, form-dependent writing (e.g. letter of application, letter of complaint etc.?)
• To teach a literary type of writing (e.g. a poem, a story?)?
• To teach essay writing?

A few general rules

No matter what approach you choose, a few general rules help to make teaching writing successful:

• The topic should be interesting for students;
• Students should be familiar with the content they are going to write about;
• Students should have enough vocabulary to write on a particular subject / topic;
• Writing is not a separate skill, it follows speaking, reading and / or listening activities.

What “writing practice” may look like?

• A follow-up activity after reading, listening and discussion (often as homework);
• A mini-lesson on an aspect of writing (e.g. how to how to determine the audience, how to collect ideas, how to organise ideas, how to write an interesting beginning etc.) – as a part of a regular lesson.

Types of writing

• There are many classifications of types of writing, e.g. creative and academic writing, fiction and non-fiction etc.
• For practical purposes in EFL lessons it is easier to teach descriptive, narrative and discursive (explanatory, persuasive and argumentative) writing.
• Let us look at activities to teach these three types of writing. Today we will focus mainly on activities for elementary and pre-intermediate students.

Descriptive writing

Descriptive texts are usually organised according to patterns of description:

• Top-down or bottom-up for buildings and people;
• Background to foreground and vice versa for pictures;
• Center to edges, edges to center;
• Left to right, right – to left for rooms;
• A walking tour of a house.

Exercises to teach patterns of description

• Jumbled sentences : cut up a description into separate sentences. Ask students to put sentences in order of a particular patters, changing prepositions of place where needed.
• A distorted description : give students a picture and a description that does not follow a pattern. Ask students to change the order of sentences so that the description is easy to reproduce.

Brushing up vocabulary

• Labeling exercise: give students a picture. Ask them to label its elements. Then ask students to describe the picture.
• Alternarively, use a labelled picture for describing, OR
• Use a “wrong” picture, students need to describe what is wrong in it.

R. Millrood

Anna Taylor. Easy Stories 2

Arthur Frost. In the City

Arthur Frost. In the City.

Controlled description

• Finish the sentences (students are given a picture and a set of unfinished sentences, e.g. This is a … Its head is …, Its ears are …, Its eyes are …,

its fur is…)

Less controlled exercises

• Picture dictation : students work in pairs. Student A gets a simple picture to describe to Student B. Student B draws the picture or writes down the dictation. Then compare the works of students Bs.
• Corr ect the description : give students a picture and a description with some mistakes in it, ask them to correct the mistakes (can be done individually, in pairs or in small groups)

Ideas for description:

• An unusual animal;
• A funny person;
• Your favourite animal / your pet;
• Your favourite place;
• Your room;
• A cartoon / film character that you like

Narrative writing

• Narrative writing is usually organised chronologically, with an occasional flashback.
• Activities to teach narrative writing may include:
• Jumbled sentences : cut up a story and ask students to arrange it in chronological order;
• Snowball stories : students work together to create a story, adding sentences one by one;
• A picture-based story : use a comic strip. Delete / hide words in the speech bubbles. Ask students to arrange the pictures in a logical order, write the words and tell the story. OR: students can create their own comics using free online resources.

Free comic strips creators

• https://www.storyboardthat.com/
• http://www.makebeliefscomix.com/
• http://goanimate.com/
• http://www.toondoo.com/
• http://pixton.com/
• http://www.garfield.com/fungames/comiccreator.html
• http://comiqs.com/editor/
• http://superherosquad.marvel.com/create_your_own_comic
• http://www.howtoons.com/

More narrative writing activities

• “ What if?”. Use a well-known story (e.g. Red Riding Hood). Change one pivotal element e.g. the Wolf has no teeth). Ask students to discuss and write the story with this element changed.

More narrative writing ideas

• The happiest moment in my life was when...
• The strangest dream I ever had was...
• My best vacation was when I went to...
• The last time the power went out, I...
• etc.

Discursive writing

• No matter whether you write to persuade or to explain, you need to give arguments.
• Form information on how to teach argumentative writing watch the webinar «How to teach argumentative writing: activities for EFL lessons and for exam practice» https://www.englishteachers.ru/education/event/1489

Audience in discursive writing

• Writing for a particular audience is crucial in persuasive writing. It defines the choice of arguments, style and, to some extent, vocabulary.
• Possible audiences: parents, teachers, local authorities.
• Possible goals: to explain reasons for, to persuade that, to reach an agreement.

Building a sense of the audience

• Ask the class to do the same task, only let every student pick (or randomly draw) an audience, for example: a letter about Russian winter holidays to a friend in Canada / Africa; an article about a celebrity for a teen / beauty / adventure / nature magazine etc.

Some discursive writing ideas

• Explain to your parents why children need pocket money;
• Persuade your teacher to give less homework;
• Persuade your parents that you need a later curfew;
• Persuade your school administration that you need a different uniform or dress code;
• Explain to your school administration why break times at school should be longer;
• Explain to your teacher why students should be allowed to pick their seats in class;
• etc.

https://www.englishteachers.ru/education/event/1514

Только 2 дня !

СКИДКИ по промокоду TWRITING :

• 30% - на покупку билета на ОЧНОЕ участие и 20% - на покупку билета на ДИСТАНЦИОННОЕ участие в семинаре 26 октября 2019 г. “Teaching writing: practical techniques for ESL lessons” / “ Обучение письменной речи: практические приемы для уроков английского языка” https://www.englishteachers.ru/education#seminar ;
• Скидки на покупку билетов действительны до 23.59 по мск 16 октября ТОЛЬКО ПРИ ПОКУПКЕ НА САЙТЕ https://www.englishteachers.ru (в разделе Обучение – Семинары);
• При покупке любого продукта в поле «Промокод» нужно ввести TWRITING и система автоматически пересчитает стоимость покупки с учётом скидки.

Summing up

• What information was new for you?
• What techniques or activities will be useful in your class?
• What activities will take some training and getting used to?
• What techniques or activities are you going to try and use in the next few months?

Questions? Comments?

• [email protected]
• www.titul.ru , www.englishteachers.ru