Strategy to Teach English Successfully

Many institutions and teachers have a reputation for real success in teaching English. Others have a poor reputation. For example, they say that they have learnt a lot of English at school. Others say that they have studied for three, four years or more, but learnt almost nothing.The main test in for real success in teaching and learning should be whether or not the learners are able to communicate at all in English.Can they understand simple instruction, letters, articles? Can they respond an interview? Can they use certain functional expressions in aconversation? Can they comprehend simple paragraphs? Can they ask for directions in the street? Can they express their opinion in a discussion? Can they write letters or reports? And, can they pass recognized Examinations in English, like KET, PET, IELTS, TOEIC, orTOEFL?

We know success is not just being able to repeat memorizes sentences or complete grammar exercises, - but more than that, the learners should have ability to use English effectively in real communication situations. Success is not the same as getting 8, 9 or 10 in course tests - though it may indicate some progress

Successful teachers and institutions where they teach may be different in many ways. Their teaching skill is affected by their experiences, trainings, size of class, hours of teaching in a week, methodology and the materials they usually use. However, successful teachers tend to have certain things in common. They usually:

. Have practical command in English, not just a knowledge of grammar rules.

. Use English most of the time in every class, including beginners' classes.

. Emphasize more on learners' practice, instead of teacher explanations.

. Use time for real-communicative activities, not just practice of language forms.

. Focus their teaching on their learners' needs, not just 'finishing' the syllabus or course book.

A teacher's development of a command of English should be along-life hobby as well as a professional obligation. Of course, aknowledge of the rules and terminology of grammar and vocabulary is also useful. But language teaching is much more than just the transferof knowledge.  By using English in or out of classroom, their learners constantly experience the real communicative use of English. It motivates the learners and improves their exposure to the languagethrough listening comprehension and gives them opportunity to speakEnglish.
Finally, put the learners at the centre of teaching. Your success as a teacher is based entirely on their success as learners.

Hopefully this short ideas will benefit those interested in English teaching.

WAYS TO TEACH WRITING

WAYS TO TEACH WRITING

Writing an English composition and writing an Indonesian one are quite different. It takes students quite a long time for them to be familiar with the format and elements in writing a paragraph in English. In fact, every part of textbooks can become the source of writing. Thus, if teachers incorporate a wide variety of writing activities into their teaching, students can have the motivation to write more and meanwhile, they will not get bored. In this article, I provide teachers with quite a few writing activities I take advantage of in my English class. Many of these activities integrate the Internet into writing practice, which can further arouse students’ interest in English writing.

Writing is a long process of learning. As soon as students start to learn English, they should start to write in English. It is my belief that variety is the spice of life. No matter how interesting one activity is when students first do it, they will get bored if they have tried it for more than three times. Thus, as high school English teachers, it is our responsibility to integrate all kinds of writing activities into the English teaching.

How to Motivate Students to Write More

   The first thing we should do is to encourage students to write more. The more they write, the more improvement they will make. I suggest students begin with sentence level exercises. The following are the most preliminary activities:

1. Expanding words and phrases into sentences
2. Expanding sentences by adding modifiers
3. Making sentences by using specific patterns
4. Translating sentences

These activities can be incorporated in everyday teaching. As for paragraph level, we may make use of the activities, such as:

1. Answering one “question for discussion” based on the reading in their textbook (Students are asked to answer in 30 to 50 words.)
2. Keeping a journal (Ten students share the same notebook. In this way, each student writes every other week and he/she can read other students’ journals. The teacher only needs to read 5 to 6 students’ journals a day and gives students responses instead of scores.)
3. Writing e-mails (Students are asked to write e-mails to teachers, or classmates. They have to send copies of these e-mails to the English teacher.)
4. Participating in English Discussion Board (Not every discussion board is safe. Teachers should guide students to participating in safe discussion board)
5. Keeping an online diary (Teachers guide students to make comments on teachers’ blog. Later on students can start their own blogs as well.)

The above activities are not restricted to freshmen or sophomores. As I mentioned before, students depend on change for their motivation of learning. With the varieties of these activities, students are not aware that they are learning how to write.

Materials for Students to Write About

   Choosing what to write about is always giving English teachers and students a headache. In fact, writing activities can be generated from other kinds of language learning materials. Generally speaking, materials may be from (A) Reading, (B) Pictures, (C) Videos, (D) the Internet, etc.

1. Writing & Reading

On the basis of the readings in textbooks, we can introduce several writing activities to students. If the reading passage is a story, teachers can guide students to:

a.       predict

b.      answer 5W questions and then combine them into a summary;

c.       write about the beginning, middle and end of the story and then combine them into a summary;

d.      describe the story’s setting, characters and event;

e.       write about the problem & solution/cause & effect of the story;

f.       write a summary or response of the story.

g.      write a following up story

If the reading is an expository, teachers can utilize ready-made graphic organizers (For example, http://www.eduplace.com/graphicorganizer/) or use software such as Inspiration or KidPix to draw the structure of the reading. After students are familiar with the structure, they can write a composition of the same structure but on a different topic. The example is below:

      Water: Where Has It All Gone?

Factors        Problem     Solution

 

 After students fill out the form based on the reading, they are asked to pick a problem, imitate the structure of the reading and write a composition of their own. 

2. Writing & Pictures

Students are asked to describe a picture or a comic strip instead of writing a formal composition in their English Proficiency Exam. Teachers can find single pictures from books, newspapers, magazines and the Internet. (For example, http://www.intoon.com/index.shtml?) Comic strips can also be found in newspapers and the Internet. (For example, http://www.comics.com/comics/peanuts/).  It will be easier for students if they do group discussion first. Teachers should remind students to begin their stories with a topic sentence.

3. Writing & Videos

If videos tell us stories, we can apply the activities similar to those based on readings in textbooks. Besides, chain story is a good choice. After watching a video and after discussion, students take turns telling the story. They have to mention every detail because each student should have something to say. Later on, students have to write down all their sentences. In this way, every one of them helps make up the story. If students are asked to watch informative videos, they can do activities like those related to expository articles.

4. Writing & the Internet

There are numerous websites and tools on the Internet which are very helpful to both teachers and students. Some of the following are mentioned in “Ways to Motivate Students to Write More,” but I am going to give a better description of how to take advantage of the Internet.

a.       E-mail

Every teacher has got to have an e-mail account, which is not only for receiving students’ e-mails and homework. The teacher can give students the password so that when students work in groups, they can send whatever they find to the account and then the other group members can open the files, read and even edit them. 

b.      Discussion Board

The discussion board in school magazine is participated in by senior high schools students and teachers and they are discussing about the movies, the reading materials and all activities happen at the school.

c.  Blog

Blog is short for web log. Actually it is an online journal. If English teachers want to apply Blog to their writing class, they have to register in a blog website first and then have the students register, too. Having a username and password, teachers can do the following activities:

(a)    Having students leave comments on the articles in their teacher’s blog.

(b)   Having students post journals in their own blogs and leave comments in other students’ blogs.

(c)    Having students post journals and make comments in their class blog.

These activities are applicable both because there are many free blogs available on the Internet (such as http://www.blogger.com) and because students are more willing to write on the Internet.

Formal Writing

   If the students have tried the website Paragraphpunch, they’ll know the standard writing procedure is Prewriting à Planning à Drafting à Revising à Editing. If they have not, it is essential for teachers to introduce the procedure to students. Besides, teachers must emphasize that an effective paragraph should contain a topic sentence, organized details, transitional words and a concluding sentence. The website http://palc.sd40.bc.ca/palc/Quiz/Writing/paragraph1.htm has eight multiple choices, which can reinforce the process of writing paragraphs. As for kinds of paragraphs, generally speaking, we have “giving examples”, “giving reasons”, “process”, “definition”, “cause & effect, comparison & contrast, narrative, descriptive, argument, summary and response, etc. Before students write any of the paragraphs, teachers had better give them some samples, instruct them to analyze the format of the paragraphs and then have them copy the format, writing their own paragraphs.

   After students are capable of writing a paragraph with appropriate elements and structure, teachers can ask them to expand their paragraphs into essays. Once students have the ability to write essays, they can try Criterion, an online writing evaluation. (http://criterion.ets.org/cwe/student/). Criterion is not free and it is about TOFEL level, so it may be difficult for most senior high school students.

Conclusion

      Writing is a long term course. It takes three whole years for students to be familiar with the format of writing in English. As teachers, we should figure out ways in which students can enjoy writing. Most importantly, teachers have to motivate their students to write and encourage them to write more. As long as students are willing to write, their writing ability will surely improve.

Implementing the Jigsaw Method

Implementing the Jigsaw Method in Teaching Writing of Descriptive Texts at SMAN 1 Srengat

English has the main courses which students have to be capable with such as reading, listening, writing and speaking. Writing is one of the important courses in the English lesson especially for senior high school students. According to teacher’s guideline, writing courses in senior high school are classified into writing descriptive text, narrative text, report text, recount text, analytical exposition text, etc. The teachers are supposed to have brilliant methods to help the students easily organize the ideas in order to pass the writing courses. One of the methods that can be accomplished in writing course especially in teaching descriptive texts is called jigsaw. Jigsaw is defined as a kind of cooperative learning technique which has a grouping strategy where the members of the class are organized into “home” group. The students are then reorganized into “expert” groups containing one or two member(s) from each “home” group. In this way the students discuss the material (teacher’s hand made material descriptive text about Agnes Monica). By using the jigsaw method, the students can efficiently learn how to write descriptive texts in the form of peer-teaching. The purpose of this essay is to underscore the implementation of the jigsaw method; grouping, sharing and writing.

To start this method, we deal with the grouping step. In this step the students will have dependent activities. The class activities are mostly conducted by the teacher which causes the students being passive in the class. However, in this method, students are divided into small groups to share the material taught without being interrupted by the teacher. The teacher only appears to divide them into “home” group and “expert” group. “Home” group means the original group where the students are given the various topics toward the material that is explained. For example, the teacher divides the class into 8 groups consisting of 5 - 6 students with one title of descriptive text topic, Agnes Monica. In this “home” group, teacher gives each member a different clue. The teacher gives the pictures that symbolize Identification, Description 1, and Description 2 which are the generic structure of the descriptive text (actually the structure is only consisted of identification and description but since it is necessary to have 3 structure so the teacher initiated to divide the descriptive text into 3 structures). Then, the teacher reorganizes each of the group members to gather discussing the pictures related to the topic given in the “expert” group. When the teacher gives 3 topics as our example, there are also 3 “expert” groups. This activity obviously aims to gain the students participation as well. This activity apparently enables the students to increase their self-esteem in writing descriptive texts. As a proof, the writer did this method and it shows that students in SMA Negeri 1 Srengat can easily comprehend the material while they are divided into groups because they learn without being forced by the teacher.

The next step of this teaching method is the sharing step. As soon as they all have got their duties, they move to the “expert” group. The students will enjoy their turn to tell their pictures and shares to other friends in the “expert” group. They feel free to express their ideas about the pictures with their friends in the “expert” group. Here, they are given a chance to talk about the pictures and share their opinion in order to be able to report what they have been discussed to the “home” group. For instance, student 1 is assigned to the Identification where the picture has Agnes Monica photo, her date of birth, original name, address and family. Student 2 deals with the description 1 which the picture given was a photo of Agnes Monica with details description on his appearance, attitude and several questions that aim to lead the students into the paragraph of description of Agnes Monica  physical appearance. Student 3 gets the description 2 which is the description of Agnes Monica career. Many researchers prove that this kind of sharing in using jigsaw method can improve the ability of students in writing genre based text, because by sharing the students can get the ideas of the story easily. The writer believes that sharing in jigsaw can help students to make their ideas of writing descriptive text run smoothly.

The last step is writing. In this step, the students are motivated to write and work together to describe pictures that have been discussed in the “expert” group. After they finished discussing in the “expert” group, they need to come back to the “home” group. In the “home” group they share about what they have got from the “expert” group and combine the each story into a complete story. The each part of the generic structure becomes one unit of descriptive text in the “home” group. In the writing step they are appointed to write down the result of the discussion in the “expert” group. The three students combine the identification, description 1 about physical appearance and the description 2 about career that they got to be written as a descriptive text. At last the students arrange the three different generic structures into one whole text and present it in front of the class.

In a brief, we can simply say this essay that the jigsaw method can be applied in teaching writing of descriptive texts that is sequenced into three steps, which are grouping, sharing and writing. These three steps are actually part of one great method provided by the teacher to decrease the cases beyond students in senior high school that mostly have difficulties in writing courses.

Topics for Writing

Topics for Writing 

Hypothetical

What would you do if you were late for an important appointment?
What would you do if someone accused you of a crime you didn't commit?
What would you do if you got lost in an unfamiliar city?
What would you do if you left something in a locked building?
What would you do if your best friend stole something from you?
What would you do if you didn't have enough money to pay your bills?
What would you do if your children were caught shoplifting?
What would you do if your car got a flat tire on the freeway?
If you could change one thing about your past, what would it be?
If you could change one major historical event, what would it be?

Description

Describe a famous park or recreation area in your home country.
Describe an interesting neighbor you have had.
Describe something you could never give away.
Describe a place you will never forget.
Describe a sporting event you attended recently.
Describe a memorable birthday celebration.
Describe a place you go for recreation or exercise.
Describe your childhood home.
Describe someone you respect deeply.
Describe the nightlife in a city you are familiar with.

Narration

Tell about a recent interview.
Tell about a time when you lost something.
Tell about one of your fondest childhood memories.
Tell about a time when you lied to your parents, boss, or teacher.
Tell about a time when you were treated unfairly.
Briefly tell about a movie you saw recently.
Tell about something you made ?from scratch.?
Tell about a "close call" you had recently.
Tell about something you wish had never happened.
Tell about a time when you inadvertently caused trouble for someone else.

Opinion

What is your opinion about cellular phones?
What is your opinion about women in the military?
What is your opinion about a current politician?
What is your opinion about violence on television?
What is your opinion about fortune telling?
What is your opinion about the tabloids?
What is your opinion about legalizing marijuana?
What is your opinion about the welfare system?
What is your opinion about cloning?
What is your opinion about recycling?

Instructions

Tell how to find something on the Internet.
Tell how to feed family members who drop by unexpectedly.
Tell how to dump a boyfriend/girlfriend.
Tell how to get from your house to the supermarket.
Tell what to do in an earthquake.
Tell how to get someone to fall in love with you.
Tell how to make a paper airplane.
Tell how to get a good table at a restaurant.
Tell how to get a discount on an expensive item.
Tell how to discipline an unruly child.

Ideas For Teaching Writing

Ideas For Teaching Writing

Tips For Teaching Handwriting

1. Work on hand-eye coordination with craft projects.
2. Work on skills one at a time. Letter Height, Spacing, Slants, and Line Alignment.
3. Once all skills are mastered begin to group skills together.
4. Use high-frequency words and words that have meaning to students.
5. Provide parents with a handwriting guide. Handwriting Tips for Lefties:
6. Position the paper to the extreme left of the child's mid-line.
7. Angle the paper so that it is parallel with the child's forearm
8. Put masking tape on their desks to help them align the paper.

Creating Photo Essays

Photo essays are a special type of writing; they tell stories with a group of photographs that are connected to a theme. One activity using photo essays as a type of writing includes having students pick a topic (in any content area) that they would like to "write" about. Tell them that they have to collect photographs or pictures that represent the topic. Once they have their collections and you gave them a chance to discuss the relevance of the photos to the topic, ask them to arrange the photos in such a way (sequentially, etc.) that tell a story or relay the message related to the topic they chose. Students love to express their thoughts about topics using this medium. If you have technology to complete this activity, you can have students cut and paste their story using photos or images that they find on the Internet. This is a great activity for group work.

How to Make a Big Book

Pick a book with illustration, short story, rhyme, song, or poem to enlarge. Have materials like large pieces of paper or posterboard, plenty of crayons, markers, paints, or other art materials. Divide the text of the writing leaving half of the page for the illustrations (can be copied or done freehand by the children). Include an author page, illustrations, and copyright information (date, year, etc.). Have the children design a cover; put the pages in sequence; bind the book together with metal or plastic rings, yarn, or other binding materials.

Creating A Story In Sequential Order

The teacher gives the students a paragraph to get the story started and pupils add their sentences alternately. It's great fun building a short story with students. After story building, students can create illustrations based on the short story.

Spelling Twist

"Looking for a fun, new twist for studying spelling words. This one worked for me. Each child will say each spelling word, spell it then say it again while doing the twist. This process is repeated 3 times for each word. Some of the boys preferred to do Karate moves instead of the Twist. This sets a rhythm to the words as well as makes for a fun and exercising way to study the words. The class had so much fun it was no suprise that spelling test grades increased. We had a class vote on this being included in our weekly spelling curriculum, 100% voted in favor."

A Class Newspaper

Nearly every teacher finds it hard to encourage children to write creatively. The idea of creating a class newspaper with their own creative writings helped children not only to write creatively but to engage fully in the writing process (drafting, editing etc.) and to learn more about newspapers.
The children did create themselves a class newspaper.

Creating A Story In Sequential Order

The teacher gives the students a paragraph to get the story started and pupils add their sentences alternately. It's great fun building a short story with students. After story building, students can create illustrations based on the short story.

Create An Author's Corner

Set up a table that becomes the Authors' Corner in your room. This table should be filled with different colored paper with lines, without lines. Construction paper should be available, colored pencils or washable markers. There could be pieces of material, string, feathers, anything that will provoke creativity in the students. This is the place where the students become authors and write books. For the younger student, a form paper can be displayed with Title, Author, Illustrator. They can fill in the blanks. A dedication page can be prepared. Again, the students can fill in the blanks. There can be an idea box to motivate students. Maybe some starter sentences. Anything that encourages children to write. The book can be 2 pages or 5 pages. The length is not important. A love for writing is the reason for this corner. Ask the students what else should be on the table. They have great ideas!

Students Practice Using Possessive Pronouns through Writing