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.