TEACHING WRITING TO YOUNG LEARNERS

Writing is not always easy

Writing is a good thing (1)

Writing is a good thing (2)

Writing activities with younger children

Writing for Older Children

The steps of Dictogloss

WRITING ACTIVITIESControlled and guided activities are being done to practice the language.

Free activities should allow for self expression at however low a level, and content is what matters most.

The activities move from controlled to being free

Writing activities

Controlled writing activities (1)

Copying

• Disguised word copying • Copying from the board• Making notes • Whisper writing

Controlled writing activities (2)

Guided writing activities

• Fill in exercises• Dictation• Letters/cards/invitations

Free writing activities

• The language is the pupils’ own language• Teacher should be initiator and helper• The more language the pupils have, the easier it is to work.• The correcting should be done ehile they are working on it.• Teacher does not always have to correct all the mistake• The aim is to produce a piece of writing which is as correct

as you can expect from them• Older pupils beyong beginner should be encouraged to

rewrite their work.• Ideally each pupil should have a folder or ring binder

Pre-writing activities

• Talking about the subject• Words stars• Vocabulary charts• Topic vocabulary

Writing activities

free writing

• Covers wider range of activities• Pupils can take writing home• Their writing can be displayed and look

back too see the progress• Take time to make writing as good as

possible.

Dos on free writing

• Concentrate first on content• Spend a lot of time on pre-writing work• Make sure that it springs naturally from

other language work• Try to make sense of whatever the pupuils

have written and say something positive about it

• Encourage but don’t insist on rewriting• Display the material whenever possible• Keep all the pupils writing

Don’ts on free writing

• Announce the subject out of the blue and expect the pupils to be able write about it

• Set an exercise as homework without any preparation

• Correct all the mistakes you can find• Set work which is beyond the pupils

language capability

TEACHING STUDENTS TO WRITE

Teaching handwriting

• Teachers can follow a two-stage approach:a.RecognitionRecognize specific letters within a sequence of

letters. The teacher can draw letters or words in the air which SS have to identify.

b.Production Teacher can give dictation of individual words and

asks SS to write down, gives an alphabetical list of animals and SS have to write the words in one of three columns, gives questions and SS have to write one-word answer.

Teaching Punctuation

• SS at elementary level can study a collection of words and identify + rewrite which ones are written in capital letters or not

• SS are asked to give punctuations such as full stops and commas

• SS can be shown a sentence and ask to identify what punctuation is used and why

Sentence Paragraph and Text●Sentence production (elementary level): SS are

given one or two model sentences and then have to write similar sentences based on information given or on their own thoughts

●Paragraph construction (elementary level): it employs a “substitution drill” style of procedure to encourage SS to write a paragraph which is almost identical to one they have just read.

●Free text construction (elementary level): it uses the technique of parallel writing but it leaves the SS free to decide how closely they wish to follow the original model or based on their imagination.

Teaching writing to children