Improving Student Writing

1. Improving Student Writing Katie Bain English Language Fellow

2. “We learn to swim if there is a body of water available and usually only if someone teaches us. We learn to write if we are members of a literate society, and usually only if someone teaches us.” Eric Lenneberg psycholinguist, 1967 (Brown, 2007, p. 390)

3. Objective • Participants will be able to identify • principles for teaching writing skills • ways to assess writing • strategies and activities to teach writing AND • Participants will discuss how writing principles could influence their classroom practice.

4. Considerations Process versus Product Contrastive Rhetoric Differences between L1 and L2 Authenticity Voice and Identity

5. Process vs. Product • Discuss: • What is “a process approach” to teaching writing? • Do you foresee resistance to this in your classrooms? How so? How can you mitigate these problems? • Are there alternatives to teaching writing as a process?

6. Contrastive Rhetoric Theory Different types of languages have different trends or patterns in writing. –Kaplan English in the U.S. Deductive & linear: Thesis/topic sentence, main idea, support . . . , conclusion5 Romance languages (Spanish, French, Italian, Portuguese, Romanian) Development by digression; takes lots of time; begin with topic, go off on tangent, contradict tangent, conclude with main idea; flowery, fancy, formal, intensifiers, reiteration, say it up to 7 times (average is 3 times) each time gets bigger, better, more flowery than before.10 • Sending a message in English discourse pattern may come across as a rude command • English speakers want them to get to the point quickly • Credibility issue for interpreting/translating (longer in Spanish)

7. Contrastive Rhetoric and L1 / L2 Differences Do you agree with contrastive rhetoric? Do you know of differences between your students’ writing (in English) and the type of writing you are familiar with at the university level? List some differences that you predict or know about. How do these differences influence how you might approach teaching writing?

8. Characteristics of Written Language • Permanence • Production Time • Distance • Complexity • Vocabulary • Form (Brown, 2007)

9. Permanence Once a writer publishes or sends a written message, it is gone! The power to amend has left! (Brown, 2007)

10. Production Time The battle between the quick nature of classroom writing tasks and the need for TIME to develop writing skills. (Brown, 2007)

11. Distance Writers need to be able to understand their audience…their anticipated background knowledge, cultural, age, interests, etc.

12. Complexity Good writing is usually different than speaking. Writers have to think about avoiding redundancy, combining sentences, and syntactical variety.

13. Vocabulary Writing requires a higher development of vocabulary than speaking.

14. Form The conventions of different forms of writing must be understood. Describing, explaining, illustrating, defending, arguing, criticizing, etc.

15. Principles for Teaching Writing Teach, model, explain practices of good writers. Think about your students’ backgrounds. Make connections between reading and writing. Authenticate writing as much as possible. Get students used to the steps of process writing. Be kind but specific when giving feedback. Give clear instructions on form or types of writing. (Brown, 2007)

16. Teach, model, explain practices of good writers. Good writers… • Write a lot! • Are not afraid to write their thoughts freely. • Edit and revise. • Think about their audience. • Think about the format and know its structure (but are not married to the structure).

17. Think about your students’ backgrounds.

18. Make connections between reading and writing. Students can write about what they read. Students can write in similar ways that authors have written, on a sentence or structural level. She raced fast, determined, her lungs bursting. He moved slowly, afraid, his heart pounding. High School Grammar Guide.pdf

19. Give students authentic writing opportunities as much as possible. Think of ways that students can write for “real” audiences. Brainstorm how!

20. Get students used to the steps of process writing.

21. Be kind but specific when giving feedback. Recognize their voice, and praise it. Focus on a couple of key aspects to grade. Be clear about what you want.

22. Give clear instructions on form or types of writing. Forms of Writing

23. Assessing Writing RUBRICS!!!!!! Self-evaluations Peer evaluations Informal discussions about writing Responding in written form to student writing

24. RUBRICS/Checklists http://rubistar.4teachers.org/ Essay Writing Checklist Rubric Rubric Writing Portfolio Example Writing Portfolio Example - High Level

25. Activities for Students Writing MODEL, model, model Freewriting Journal Writing Assess writing samples as a class Facebook status updates Twitter posts Blogs Writing contests Create a class book or newspaper Exit slips Writer’s workshop Learning Logs

26. More Activities • Comics • Picture sequencing • Storytelling • Abstract (Let me tell you about a time when…) • Orientation • Remarkable event • Reaction • Coda (Jones, 2012) • Summarizing (WHO, WANTED, BUT, SO) • Re-write lyrics to a song. • Write the script for a TV episode (or portion of) that you watch in class. • Write new endings for stories or movies. • Tutoring

27. Storytelling • Abstract (Let me tell you about a time when…) • Orientation • Remarkable event • Reaction • Coda (And that’s why…/Ever since then…)

28. Graphic Organizers for Pre-Writing http://www.eduplace.com/graphicorganizer/ Cluster 1 Sandwich Sequence Graphic Organizer Story Map 1 Story Map 2

29. A Writing Lesson Plan Writing Plan Lesson Plan

34. What other ideas do you have that you have used or could use?

35. Sources Brown, H. D. (2007). Teaching by principles: an interactive approach to language pedagogy. (3rd ed., pp. 390-419). White Plains, NY: Pearson Education, Inc. Jones, R.E. (2012) “Creating a Storytelling Classroom for a Story Telling World.” Forum. V. 50 N. 3

36. THANK YOU! Katie Bain ktbain53@gmail.com elfellowkbain.wordpress.com