Unit 8: Techniques for teaching writing and lesson planning môn Tiếng anh | Trường Đại học Kiến trúc Đà Nẵng

TEACHING WRITING Aims
To help you get a clear view of the way you teach writing.
To get you to use different techniques of teaching writing, and correcting students' mistakes. Instructions
Look at the writing tasks and answer the questions. a.
Which task is easier for students to write? Why? b.
Which task helps students identify clearer aims for writing? Why? c.
What is the text type for each task? Which one is clearer? d.
Which task gives a clear Idea of who (the audience) to write for? TASK A
Write about your two-day trip at the Youth Union Camp in Nha Trang, taking part in some
interesting activities with other students. You should write about 70 words. TASK B
You have just spent 2 days at the Youth Union Camp in Nha Trang, taking part in some
interesting activities with other pupils. Write a report to your class using the information in
your diary below. You should write about 70 words. Saturday AM went swimming/ sightseeing PM singing competition Sunday AM cooking competition, games PM
public speaking competition, more games Start with this: REPORT ON CAMP ACTIVITIES
We arrived in Nha Trang at about 7.30……………………………………………………..
………………………………………………………………………………………………
………………………………………………………………………………………………
………………………………………………………………………………………………
………………………………………………………………………………………………
Shape of a Writing Lesson Instructions
On poster arrange these ideas to show the shape of a writing lesson. POST-WRITING sharing and comparing feedback & correction PRE-WRITING
making use of words and structures needed for the writing task
establishing the who, what, why WHILE WRITING performing the writing drafting and re-drafting
2. Order the sections of the jumbled writing lesson plan on the next page. Fill in the table with names of each activity. Teaching points: Revision e.g. - Word Cue Drill PRE WRITING - - - WHILE WRITING - POST WRITING - Exhibition
Each group copies their postcards onto a poster and illustrate it. Students move around the
classroom and read the different postcards from "around the world". Pre-teach a postcard wet
interesting places a lot of = many (to) be on vacation
Writing a Postcard about Being on Vacation Word Cue Drill Example exchange S1: Where's Hoa from? Hoa / VIETNAM Jo / AUSTRALIA S2: She's from Vietnam. Tomiko / JAPAN John / BRITAIN
S1: What language does she speak? Li / CHINA Susan / CANADA S2. She speaks Vietnamese. Matching
Ss work in teams to put the words in three Answer Key: columns Country City Interetsing Place Country City Interesting Place Japan Tokyo Mount Fujiama Vietnam Hue The Citadel
Japan Beijing The Statue of Liberty Tokyo
The USA New York The Status of Liberty
Vietnam Sydney The USA France China China Beijing The Great Wall
The Eiffel lower the Citadel Bondi Beach Paris Australia Sydney Bondi Beach
Hue The Great Wall New York Australia Fujiama France paris The Eiffel Tower Board Drill Example Exchange S1: Where are you? Ss use the Grid as cues
S2: I'm in Japan. I'm visiting Tokyo.
S1: What are you going to do tomorrow?
S2: I'm going to visit Mount Fujiama.
Comprehension Questions (with Answer Key)
Who's the postcard from? (Nhan) Where is he? (in London)
What's the weather like (cool and wet) Is he travelling by train?
What's he going to do tomorrow? (visit the tower o London) Who's the postcard to? (Minh) Where is he? (Hanoi) Transformation Writing Group 1: Postcard from Japan, Group 2: from Vietnam, Group 3: from the USA, Group 4: from China, Group 5: from Australia, Group 6: from France
Techniques for While-Writing (Controlled) Instructions
Match these explanations of While-writing techniques to the examples that follow.
EXPLANATIONS OF WHILE-WRITING TECHNIQUES 1. Substitution boxes
The teacher puts a box full of words on the board. The words fit together to either make
one sentence or lots of short sentences. The class is divided into strong groups and weak
groups. The stronger groups write down one long sentence while the weaker ones write
down as many different short sentences as possible. For stronger groups, the sentence
with the most words In the given time is the winner. For weaker groups, the group with
the most sentences is the winner. 2. Transformation writing
The teacher gives students handouts with a short paragraph or a letter. The students
rewrite the paragraph or letter as required by the teacher. The teacher can change
information in the paragraph in three different ways: change the grammar (e.g. from
the future to the past or from 'I’ ‘to 'he');change the facts (e.g. from England to Vietnam);
change the meaning (e.g. from 'sad’ to 'happy'). 3. Questions and answers
The teacher gives students a series of questions. The students answer the questions in
full sentences. The students have to, where possible, combine two sentences into put
the sentences together to form a coherent paragraph. 4. Write-it-up
The students write notes or fill in grids using the information collected from any
speaking. listening or reading activities. Then thy 'write it up' in full sentences, or as a paragraph. 5. Recall
This technique is used in the final stage of a lesson. After listening to / reading a story,
students are asked to rewrite it, using their own language. Students can work In pairs or groups. EXAMPLES
a) In group, rewrite the text in your own words, using the picture.
b) Work in four groups. Each group writes about a season, using the words in the box. Group 1: spring Group 2 summer Group 3: fall Group 4: winter Rice hot mountains and green river the Morning warm yellow is trees beautiful cold Evening cool blue weather gray flowers Afternoon house tall very night
New Tieng Anh 6, Unit 13: Activities and the Seasons, Lesson 1, ELTTP Lesson Plan Book 2
c) Rewrite the text on page 132, change “Minh” to “I” Answer Key
I like walking. On the weekend, I often go walking in the mountains. I usually go with two friends.
My friends and I often wear strong boots and warm clothes etc.
New Tieng Ant 6, Unit 13: Activities and the Seasons, Lesson 3, ELTIP Lesson Plan Book 2
d) Answer the questions in full sentences. Join some of the answers together into longer
sentences. Copy the sentences out in the order you think is logical. Planning a holiday 1
1. Where are you going to go? 6. What are you going to bring with you?
2. Who are you going to go with?
7. Where are you going to stay?
3. What season are you going to go in? 8. How long are you going to stay for?
4. What is the weather like then?
9. What are you going to do there?
5. How are you going to travel?
New Tieng Auth 6,Unit 14: Making Plans 6, ELTTP Lesson Plan Book 2
e) Write about your friends. Use 'he' or 'she' and the information in the table. Name Season Weather Usually Usually do Usually take Hoai Fill Cool
The mountains Go camping A picnic & hot drinks
New Tieng Anh 6, Unit 13: Activities and the Seasons, Lesson 5, ELTTP Book 2
Correcting Written Work Instructions
1. Agree or disagree with these statements. Agree Disagree Statements
(1) When the teacher corrects students by writing the right answer for
them In their books, the students don't study It or remember It. The
students will continue to make the same written errors again and again.
(2) When the teacher elicits correction from the students and encourages
them to correct themselves, the students learn from their mistakes.
(3) The teacher should correct every mistake the students make.
(4) Mistakes are bad. The teacher should not encourage them.
(5) students are not able to correct their own mistakes.
(6) In a good lesson the students don't make any mistakes
(7) A mistake is a learning step. When a student "makes a mistake", it
means the student is trying out something new ; it means real
learning is taking place in the lesson.
(8) Students don't like correcting each other and don't like to be corrected by each other.
(9) The teacher should use a red pen to correct students', written work so
that it is clear to the students what they have done wrong.
(10) Writing in real life is a process of draft-redraft; no one ever "gets it
right" the first time. Writing in a foreign language should follow the same process. 2. Read and discuss. THE ROLE OF CORRECTION
Traditional attitudes to mistakes and corrections
In the past, a lot of teachers all over the world thought that it was a bad thing if a student made a
mistake. To them, it showed that the student was being stupid, or lazy, and in some cases,
deliberately rude to the teacher for not playing attention or for not learning the lesson carefully
enough. Instead of helping students to write better, the teacher would put lost of crosses or put “Do
it again” at the bottom of the page as if the student had done something wrong or impolite. If the
teacher did correct the students. If would be by writing the correct model in the students’ book and
getting them to copy it. For these traditional teacher, a perfect writing lesson would be a lesson
where no mistakes were made by the students.
The communicative approach to mistakes and correction
In the communicative approach, mistakes are seen as positive steps towards learning. If students
make mistake, it shows they are trying to formulate sentences and express ideas for themselves –
not simple copy the teacher’s model. They are taking the model, and then adapting it to make it
into something they really want to write. They are learning by doing, and because this is a process,
students will not come up with a perfect ‘product’ – an essay, a paragraph or even a sentence with
no mistakes – the first time. For communicative approach teacher, no mistakes in a lesson means
no real learning has taken place. Correction is seen as a technique to get students to refine what
they want to say. Correction is an integral part of the lesson. The teacher’s attitude towards
correction is positive and correction techniques are used to encourage students, not to put feel
stupid. For these teachers, a perfect lesson is a lesson full of students mistakes and students
correcting themselves and each other Memory and correction
Real learning takes place when students are given the opportunity to internalise language and memorise
it. Often, rote repetition without understanding does not help internaisation or memory. For this reason,
it is better for the teacher to elicit the correction from the students, not just write the correct answer in
the students' books for them. If the teacher elicits correction from the students, by underlining the
mistake and even coding what type it is, the students must think, discover their mistake, choose an
alternative word or words and write it/them again on their own in their books. Students remember the
correction for longer because their teacher has given them Independence, encouragement and made
them learn actively by getting them to write down their own corrections.
Students' ability to do self / peer correction
A lot of teachers believe that students are not able to correct themselves or each other and that the teacher
must give them a right model to copy. This simply is not true. Nearly all correctable errors are
mechanical (accuracy) errors ani as soon as the teacher points out to the student where the mistake in
the sentence is, students quickly and easily correct it for themselves. If the mistake is a vocabulary
mistake and students cannot self-correct, again, in nearly every case, another student in the class can
supply the new word, Students are happy to help each other and this sort of peer correction encourages
students to be independent of the teacher and learn from each other instead.
What to correct and what not to correct
It is not necessary for the teacher to correct every mistake that occurs in piece of a student's writing. If
the teacher takes a red pen and crosses out every mistake, the students' workbooks will look like a
battlefield. This is very de-motivating for students. Too much red ink makes them feel that they are not
able to write well, and they do not want lose face again, so they will not want to write anything
experimental or different or personal the next time they are given a writing task. Psychologically, the
red. Pen is telling them just to copy something from a book (however meaningless) that has no mistakes.
So teachers should in the first place give up using a red' pen. The point of correction is not to show
students that the leacher is right and they are wrong. The point is to encourage them to express
themselves and to self-correct. Use a pencil Write lightly and keep an eraser handy because often
teachers make mistakes too and correct things which later turn out to be not wrong at alit Secondly,
teachers should not correct every mistake; they should make a decision and select the most important
things - depending on what the target language or the focus of the lesson was. This requires real self-
restraint in the teacher - the temptation is to correct everything. The problem with correcting everything
is that major mistakes and minor mistakes all get lumped together - it is not helpful to the learning
process - the teacher is not providing a systematic scheme for the student's self-improvement. A system for correcting
Underline the mistake ii the text and code what kind of mistake it is in the margin. For example, using the following code: ⁀ : wrong order ^ : missing word vocab : wrong vocabulary Drafting and redrafting
It is important that the teacher emphasises to the students that nobody writes perfectly in a first draft in
their own native language, let alone in a foreign language. Writing, by nature, is a process. This means
there will always be a first draft, some correction and then a second draft. Think of a job application or
a business letter - it may take three or four drafts until the writer gets it right. Students need to learn this,
need to train, and their motivation needs to be sustained, through the process of:
- students, write the first draft on rough paper
- teacher annotates corrections - students do self correction
- students copy out the corrected piece as second draft into their books.
The teacher's job is to instill this process students so that it becomes a habit for them - learning to draft,
correct and redraft is a skill for life. 3.
Adapt the following marking scheme for use in your own class. use Vietnamese definitions if necessary. Marking Scheme Personalised Scheme √ good point sp. spelling G. grammar Voca. wrong word (vocabulary) ^ missing word / too many words ? not clear at all linking UC uncountable noun C countable noun Punc. Punctuation WO word order Art. Article T tense Prep preposition 4. Read these guidelines.
Dealing with written corrections: the steps
In the 'while-writing' of the lesson, get students to use rough paper (not their books) so they
understand this is a draft version. On the rough paper, get students to write on every other line, with a
clear left-hand margin. This gives the teacher space to insert corrections in the line space above the error.
Use pencil to mark with. Have an eraser handy. Don't press hard or write very big
Underline the error in the text. Underline where the problem is: a whole phrase or just the last letter and
the space following for a missing 's'
Annotate the errors using the marking scheme symbols in the margin. If there is more than one error in
one line, write a sequence of symbols in the margin in the same order that they appear in the student's script. lOMoAR cPSD| 58511332
Remember lo include ticks tor 'good point'
Don't over correct: concentrate on grammar and vocabulary OR
punctuation, space and letter formation - don't correct everything.
If necessary, add a comment at the bottom in Vietnamese praising or giving students points to work on.
Hand back the scripts in the following lesson. Put the marking scheme key on the board and get student
to copy it into the back of their books.
Put a few example sentences with underlined and annotated errors on the board. Use hybrid
sentences inspired by typical errors which you have collected from their scripts. Elicit the
corrections from the whole class, getting students to refer to the key for help.
Put the students into groups of four: strong, weak, weak, and strong, in each group. Seat the strong students on the outside.
When the class understands how to use the key, tell them to do their own corrections. Students write the
correction in the line space above the error.
When the strong students finish, get them to help the weaker students with their corrections.
Get students to copy the corrected script into their exercise books in the lesson or for homework.
This is their first draft and should only contain one or two mistakes. Got students to tear up and
throw away their first drafts.
5. Now correct the following writing.
I am Lan. I am fifteen years. I short and thin
I very like English because English popular on the world.
I have three class English every week.
I to try study English therefore I speak with people foreign.
My vocabulary not many, so l cannot to say many sentence Can you to help?