Teaching Writing: Techniques, Strategies, and Correction Methods
Teaching Writing
Reason for Teaching Writing
There are many reasons for encouraging students to write in the classroom. Firstly, writing provides opportunities for Language Processing (“it is thinking about the language”), because writing gives students more thinking time than they get when they have to speak. Secondly, students use writing to learn or practice with language they have been studying. It is “writing for learning“. It is based on the observation that students’ thought and understanding can grow and clarify through the process of writing. And finally, “writing for writing“. It is directed at developing the students’ skills as writers. The main purpose for activities of this type is that students should become better at writing.
Writing Issues
The kind of writing we ask students to do and the way we ask them to do it will depend on their individual differences: age, level, learning style, interests, etc. One of our decisions about what to get students to write will depend on what genres we think they need to write in. Regarding genres, we should highlight:
- There are many types of texts: Tales, posters, notes, etc.
- We can also use the Internet: web 2.0., blogs, emails, wikis, etc.
- We have to recognize the features of the different types of texts and the models for guided writing. For example, a model for a letter (with the different parts, vocabulary, etc.)
Moreover, when students are writing-for-writing, we will want to involve them in the process of writing: planning what we are going to write, drafting it, reviewing and editing what we have written, and then producing a final version. And finally, it’s essential to build a writing habit in our students. We need to engage them, from early levels, with activities that are easy and enjoyable to take part in.
Writing Sequences
Examples of Writing Activities
- Postcard: In this writing sequence, students read a postcard and they have to decide where the words in the box should go. They also can discuss their holiday and they have to decide where they will send the postcard from and what they want to say.
- Instant Writing: In this activity, the teacher dictates half a sentence and students have to complete it.
- Using Music and Pictures: In this type of activity, students write freely while listening to music or seeing pictures.
- Newspapers and Magazines: The different kinds of text found in newspapers and magazines offer a range of possibilities for genre analysis, followed by writing within that genre.
- Brochures and Guides: Teachers can get students to look at a variety of brochures (e.g., for a town, entertainment venue) to analyze, for example, how they are put together. They can then write their own brochure or town guide, using this analysis to help them.
- Poetry: Many teachers like getting students to write poems because it allows them to express themselves in a way that other genres, perhaps, do not.
- Collaborative Writing (including wikis): Students gain a lot from constructing texts together. The teacher can have them build up a letter on the board, where each line is written by a different student.
- Writing to Each Other (including e-mails): The main objective of this activity is that students write texts for others. They can write an e-mail, a postal letter, etc.
- Writing in Other Genres: Apart from these writing sequences, students can write personal narratives and other stories. Students also can write discursive essays.
Correcting Written Work
Some pieces of written work are completely full of mistakes, but teachers shouldn’t over-correct because it can have a very demotivating effect.
One way of avoiding the over-correction problem is for teachers to tell their students that for a particular piece of work they are only going to correct mistakes of punctuation, or only spelling, or only grammar, etc. Another technique that many teachers use is to agree on a list of written symbols (e.g., S=spelling), because this makes correction look less damaging. The way teachers react to students’ writing will depend on what kind of writing it is. But whatever kind of writing students have been doing, teachers need to react not just to the form of what they have written, but also to the content. The teacher has to correct at the end, although during the process, he/she can give his/her opinion, suggestions, etc. It will help students in their production. The teacher has to check that students revise corrected work and he/she can use different evaluation tools (e.g., Rubrics).
Handwriting
Teachers can’t ask students to change their handwriting style, but they can encourage neatness and legibility. The teacher can show them examples of certain letters, and the teacher can demonstrate the strokes necessary for making those shapes. The teacher also can ask them to write in the air to give them confidence or to trace letters on lined paper which demonstrates the position and height of letters.
The younger the children, the more help they will need with the mechanics of writing.