Writing for acquisition

2008 TFLA Fall Conference Cameron Stephen Cy-Fair High School http://www.bobcatspanish.com Writing for acquisition

First things first… • If you haven’t yet, introduce yourself to your neighbors… you may not know it yet but they could be your best resources.

Preparing for the 21st Century • We must acquire the ability to understand and be understood in the languages of the world-wide neighborhood… • The key to successful communication: knowing how, when, and why to say what to whom… • Students who start earlier have a distinct advantage. ACTFL Performance Guidelines, 8

Considerations on the writing process • What are the qualities that make a good L2 writer?

Important considerations on behalf of the L2 writer • Detrimentally, L2 writers spend less or no time planning before writing. • All stages of the composing process are slower and more laborious. • Many L2 writers experience overload when they write. • L2 writers spend less time reviewing and revising their work and even when they do, they do so superficially. • Low proficiency L2 writers tend to fix on surface-level features, such as grammatical choices and mechanics, rather than on global issues such as rhetorical problems and audience awareness. • Inexperienced L2 writers simply retell information from other texts and resources rather than synthesizing the information to change the information to create a new text from it. (Williams, 31)

A Nation at Risk “…the educational foundations of our society are presently being eroded by a rising tide of mediocrity that threatens our very future as a Nation and a people.” (Terrence H. Bell, 1)

Known models for effective writing instruction • Establish a sustained routine • Assign meaningful tasks that build on personal experiences and reflection • Timely feedback to students on completed tasks • Shared understanding of expectations including for feedback, rubrics, and self-evaluation • Specific instruction in the writing process Topics and Trends: Effective Writing Instruction

The role of reading • Reading is especially important because it provides L2 learners with exposure to vocabulary, spelling, structures, and usage that learners may not get form everyday conversation or even from lectures, thus improving the quality and range of input they get. It can also dramatically increase the amount of input they receive in the target language…skillful writers and writers with rich vocabularies are usually also extensive readers. (Williams, 3)

Considerations on the writing process • What should we do to prepare our students to write (Pre-Writing Activities)?

Strategies for Developing Writing Skills: Pre-writing • Weekly journals • Journalistic/Reporter’s Formula • Who? What? Where? When? Why? How? • Trigger words • Brainstorming words about a given topic • Brainstorm orally with a partner • Create an outline • Writing Roulette • Group writing

Guidelines for journaling • Assign journal entries only if you are prepared to promptly respond to them. • Respond to the content. • Do NOT grade journal entries. • Integrate journal topics with other assignments and activities. • Keep open-ended topics to a minimum. • Set guidelines and expectations. (Williams, 42-49)

Characteristics of quality writing activities: Pre-writing • Prepare students for success with adequate vocabulary and grammar to be able to successfully complete the task. • Vocabulary Building Activities • Brainstorms • Puzzles • Flash Cards • Definitions • Graphic Organizers • Opportunities to explore topics and themes • Discover relationships between ideas • Begin to write topic sentences

Considerations on the writing process • Is there a difference between using writing to improve L2 usage and writing to improve writer’s skills? • If there is a difference, where does our responsibility as Foreign Language teachers lie?

A Nation at Risk “Our goal must be to develop the talents of all to their fullest. Attaining that goal requires that we expect and assist all students to work to the limits of their capabilities.” (Terrence H. Bell, 5)

Strategies for Developing Writing Skills: Writing • Summaries • Character Analysis • Compare and Contrast • Response to art • Picture Sequences • Letters • Newspaper Articles • Literary Analysis

Characteristics of quality writing activities: Writing • Quality writing activities include a clear communicative function that students will be able to identify. • Describing pictures • Letters • Formal Synthesis Essays • Dialogues or Skits • Surveys • Developing the survey and reporting back on data obtained.

Considerations onthe writing process • After the students write, what should we do next?

Feedback “For students, the feedback they receive from both instructors and peers may be the most significant component in their successful development as writers.” (Ferris, 119)

Characteristics of quality writing activities: Post-writing • Share with partner or small group • Trade, peer edit, and revise • Share with class • Orally • On an overhead transparency • Reflect • Oral or written questions that ask students to reflect on their writing • Feedback • Teacher feedback • Revision

Guiding Principles forTeacher Feedback (Ferris, 119) • Choose carefully on which draft to respond • Be selective and prioritize issues and problems • Tailor comments to each student • Encourage student using their name and referring to previous work • Be clear • Be careful not to take over a student’s text

Guiding Principles for Effective Peer Feedback (Ferris, 165) • Utilize peer feedback consistently. • Explain the benefits of peer feedback to students. • Prepare students carefully for peer response. • Form pairs or groups thoughtfully. • Provide structure for peer review sessions. • Monitor peer review sessions. • Hold students responsible for taking peer feedback opportunities seriously.

Characteristics of quality writing activities: Example of an Essay • Pre-Writing • Form pairs or small groups • Brainstorm • Writing Process • Write paragraphs using questions or guides (guided composition) • Share paragraphs with partner or group • Write the essay individually • Post-writing • Share with partner, group, or class • Reflect • Revise • Evaluate or Assess • Review Grammar and Vocabulary

Considerations onthe writing process • Should students write at home?

Other Considerations • CALL • Plagiarism

In summary • Learners should write a lot. • Writing tasks should reflect authentic purposes and genres. • Each task should be beneficial. • Goals should be clear. • There should be guidance and scaffolding for all tasks and activities. • Content and activities should be recycled. • Expectations should be clear. • We should not view advanced language acquisition as a prerequisite for L2 writing. Writing skills will develop over time as will the learner's language skills. Writing can assist language development. (Williams, 39-40)

A Nation at Risk “The search for solutions to our educational problems must also include a commitment to life-long learning.” (Terrence H. Bell, 5)

Writing Activities

Icebreakers • Activity #1- Typically, this activity is an oral getting-to-know-you first day of class activity where students find other learners with specified characteristics (i.e. El Gran Juego de Firmas) • Find a classmate with one sister or one brother or find a classmate who rides a bike to school • Students write up the results to report who they found that fit into each category. • Activity #2- One-on-one interviews • Learners interview a partner using prompt questions or regarding current events/ significant issues. • Interviewers then write up the results of the interviews or simply lists the responses. (Williams, 43-49)

Writing Activity- ¿Cómo se hace? • Write instructions to perform one of the following activities: • To eat rice with chopsticks • To eat a Mexican taco • To tie shoelaces • To make a collect phone call • To shave • To put on makeup • To play the guitar • To dance (tango, merengue, flamenco) • To make a peanut butter sandwich Idea from Billie Hulke

Writing Activity- Post Cards • Teacher instructions: Buy post cards while on vacation or around town. Xerox both sides to do the following activity. • Student instructions: You have been on vacation and have purchased post cards at every location that you have visited. Imagine that you are still at one of those locations and write a text for each post card. Idea from Billie Hulke

Children’s storiesand fairy tales • Learners begin with a skeletal story and with specific instructions from the teacher (e.g., add descriptive adjectives, expand the story in a controlled manner. • Teachers should reduce the story line to 10-12 simple sentences first and then decide how students can elaborate on the story. (Williams, 42-49)

Strip Stories • Take a story depicts a series of events, either in pictures or in sentences (e.g. the old AP picture sequences). It is important for this to be successful that there is a clear sequence of events. The sequence is cut up and learners have to reassemble the pictures or sentences in the appropriate order. If using pictures, learners would then provide the narrative on their own. (Williams, p. 42-49)

Chain stories • Learners supply a short stretch of text and then pass it on to a classmate to continue the next segment. • With low proficiency learners, students may provide illogical text, change the time frame, or offer other very-creative-but-not-on-task text additions. (Williams, 42-49)

Story Completions • Teacher provides most of a text from a published story or a newspaper article. Students, working individually or collaboratively, must decide how the story should end. Finished stories are then shared. • Great activity to use with "La noche boca arriba" (Williams, 42-49)

Responding to pictures • Find a picture that students can then tell a story about • Great for Ser vs. Estar

Advertisements • The teacher provides an advertisement to a pair or small group. The students discuss the advertisement while analyzing and exploring the issues that it presents, such as the intended audience. Learners will then write a critique of the ad focusing on the points that were brought out in the discussion with their pair/small group. (Williams, 42-49)

Proverbs • Share a proverb and have the students discuss what the English equivalent would be. The have students write out their interpretation of the proverb. This activity could be done as a class or the teacher could give pairs/small groups different proverbs and then have students switch pairs/small groups, share the proverbs and interpretations, and students could write while reporting on multiple proverbs. (Williams, 42-49)

Mailbox Game • Materials • One large cardboard box made into a mailbox. • Individual mailboxes for students and teacher with each person's name written on it. • Note paper, pencils or pens, and some kind of sealer (stapler, gummed stickers, scotch tape). • Literature based on letters. ("Unacarta a Dios") • Procedure • Introduce students to the concept and format of letters. Explain different options for the salutation and closing of letters. • Read books with letter-writing themes. • Explain to the students that they can write each other letters or notes when they have some free time. They should "mail" them in the large mailbox. You should also write notes or letters, especially if you want to communicate something to the student. Initially, it might be prudent to establish a rule that a student must respond to all letters received to ensure that students who write letters in turn receive letters. • One student is nominated the mail carrier. At a set time, the "mail carrier" delivers the letters to the boxes with the appropriate name. This should be done while the other students are busy working on something else. • Allow students to pick up their mail without disrupting other activities. Brisk and Harrington

Summarizing • A good summary should: • Contain a clear topic sentence, expressing the main idea(s) of the original author or the main findings based on a set of data • Include major supporting ideas and arguments • State the source • Use different language that the original text • Be shorter than the original text • Summaries should not: • Include details • Include the writer's opinions • Distort the original author's meaning • Use language of the original text • Success in using summaries depends upon: • Teaching students the appropriate vocabulary necessary to complete the task. • Learning and practicing different ways to say the same things- circumlocution.

Writing for acquisition