350 likes | 589 Views
Building a community of writers:. Enhancing students’ writing skills through cooperative writing groups. Background of students. CMI school Many students have writing difficulties e.g have nothing to write about; write only one draft; have no habit to edit their work. Teacher’s concern.
E N D
Building a community of writers: Enhancing students’ writing skills through cooperative writing groups
Background of students • CMI school • Many students have writing difficulties • e.g have nothing to write about; write only one draft; have no habit to edit their work
Teacher’s concern How can I help my students tackle these problems?
Strategies identified • Writing groups • Co-operative learning • Process writing
Writing groups • A writing group is an assembly of people sharing and improving writing. • Gere, 1987
Literature review Writing groups can produce higher quality writing Nothing to write about Gere, 1987
Literature review Writing groups can reduce anxiety about writing; Students can experience intellectual growth Nothing to write about Sadler, 1990
Cooperative learning • Cooperative learning groups can provide a supportive environment for second language students and reduce students’ anxiety. It makes it easier for students to exchange their ideas more comfortably. • (Kagan, 1993) • Cooperative learning group work allows second language learners the opportunities to generate more ideasand beexposed to different points of view contributed by group members. • (McDonell ,1992)
Process writing • Through peer revision, students can provide new perspectives and new ideas to help each other write and rewrite. • Through peer editing, it is hoped that writers will be more aware of avoiding making own mistakes when correcting others’ mistakes.
Objectives • To teach students how to conduct a simple survey, write a report and design a poster • To cultivate a positive attitude towards healthy eating • To sharpen students’ peer editing skills • To develop students collaborative skills
Using Cooperative Writing Groups to enhance students’ writing skills
Using Cooperative Writing Groups to enhance students’ writing skills
Using Cooperative Writing Groups to enhance students’ writing skills Three step interview
Using Cooperative Writing Groups to enhance students’ writing skills
Using Cooperative Writing Groups to enhance students’ writing skills
Using Cooperative Writing Groups to enhance students’ writing skills
Grouping method • Appoint a leader who speaks better English • Mix boys with girls • Team building activities before setting students to group work e.g. choosing group names, games
Group Processing & Social Skills • Teach social skills • e.g. turn-taking, listen to others carefully, respect others’ opinions, help classmates, encourage classmates etc.
Findings:Nothing to write about “I can learn more ideas from my group members” “We have lots of ideas in our groups” “I learned more from different perspectives of my group members” Students perceived that more ideas were generated during discussion in the pre-writing stage. 71% of the students agreed that “My group gives me more ideas than I write alone at the planning stage”.
Findings:Writing only one draft and having no habit to edit their work 1. Students revised more than they wrote alone. I
Findings I have improved my writing skills e.g. vocabulary and tenses. 2. Students peer-edited more than they wrote alone. 83% of the students believed their writing skills had been improved in “spelling”, “ “learning more vocabulary”, “tenses” & “capital and small letters”. I have learned what common mistakes were made when I peer-edited their work e.g. Capital and small letters, verbs, and writing complete sentences.
Findings 3. Collaborative Skills were developed in groups Teaching Observation Group processing ProcessingForm
Findings 4. 91% of the students agreed that cooperative writing groups could enhance their writing skills ( “I’ve got group mates to correct my mistakes!” “If I know how to correct others, then I know how to avoid the mistakes.” “When we discuss together, we can have more ideas.”
CL Strategies Think-pair-share/Think–pair-square CL Diagrams from: Cooperative Learning : A Sourcebook of Lesson Plans for Teacher Education
CL Strategies Numbered Heads Together CL Diagrams from: Cooperative Learning : A Sourcebook of Lesson Plans for Teacher Education
CL Strategies 3.Roundrobin CL Diagrams from: Cooperative Learning : A Sourcebook of Lesson Plans for Teacher Education
CL Strategies Assigning roles • English monitor • Time-keeper • Secretary • Reporter • Writer
Three –step- interview Step one • The partners interview each other in pairs Step two • They reverse their roles Step three • Roundrobin (student 1 shares, student 2 shares, student 3 shares and student 4 shares)
T-chart to show appropriate behavior Sounds like Looks like Would you say that again please? Smile