How to teach Writing

How to teach Writing

1. Writing is a skill that is highly required nowadays. Written communication, for example, is the most common form of business communication. Emails and formal letters fulfill conversational-like purposes that the students have to master if they were to integrate today’s job market. Writing serves not only communicative purposes in professional activities but also in social ones. In our every day lives, we write or reply to invitation letters, thank-you letters, text messages, etc. Even journals carry a social-communicative load. Journal writers try to communicate their thoughts and feelings to themselves.

   • How to teach writing in EFL and ESL classrooms
     • How to teach writing presupposes some prerequisites. Teachers of English should be aware of not only the theoretical underpinnings of the writing tasks but also the practical procedures that contribute to the success of the writing lesson. In the following section, we will have a look at:
       • The basic knowledge that learners should develop in the writing lesson
       • The different types of writing activities.
       • Writing as a tool for learning.
       • Writing as a major syllabus component.
       • Writing as a major syllabus component.

2. Very few native speakers will ever start writing at the top of the first page and continue straight through until they finish at bottom of the last one. The entire process has five steps, but the first step in the writing process is coming up with your thoughts and ideas, also known as prewriting. Prewriting helps students gather ideas and give them a bank of possibilities for their writing. This way, as students write they do not have to make decisions simultaneously about content and language. Help your students get a head start before they write with any of these six methods for prewriting. The bank of ideas they will generate will be an invaluable resource as they write.

   • How To Generate Writing Ideas
     • Brainstorming
       • Brainstorming is an activity with which most people are familiar. The object in brainstorming is to compile as large a list as possible of potential examples for a given topic. This is a great activity to do in small groups or with the entire class. Brainstorming a list of ice cream flavors is an easy one to start with when introducing the concept. Naturally, one idea will spark another, so it is helpful to have students working together when brainstorming. Give your students permission to be as creative as they like. Anything goes with brainstorming. Challenge your students to come up with as many examples as they possibly can for whatever topic you give them.
     • Free writing
       • Free writing is an individual activity for getting thoughts from your head on to paper. Explain the concept of stream of consciousness to your students and tell them that free writing is simply putting on paper every thought that is going through their heads. Like with brainstorming, anything goes. The goal of this activity is to never let your pen or pencil stop writing. Help students understand that though they will begin with a particular topic in mind, it is okay to veer off on tangents as they write. Spelling and grammar are not important for this activity; it is ideas that we are trying to grasp. Give your students a set length of time for this activity.
     • Cluster Mapping
       • Cluster mapping, also called idea webbing, is a great way to show relationships between ideas. Cluster mapping is also part idea generation and part organization, so students will know exactly how to group their ideas once they are ready to write. To begin, write your topic in the center of the page and put a circle around it. Then you can move in one of two directions. With younger children, have them think of questions about the topic. For example, if the topic is spiders, they may ask, “What do spiders eat? Where to spiders live? What do spiders look like?” Each question should be written in a bubble connected to the central topic.
     • Flow Charting
       • Flow charting is similar to cluster mapping in that it shows relationships between ideas. However, flow charting is most effective when examining cause and effect relationships. With the central theme drug abuse in the center of your page, to the left students would make list of causes for drug abuse with arrows pointing at the central idea. What causes drug abuse? Peer pressure, medical need, parental example and boredom are all potential causes of drug abuse.

3. Activities

   • Cards
     • When you assign homework, your students don’t see a greater purpose. Some of them realize that homework is important for learning and grades. That’s not motivating enough. Cards are a real-life project with a purpose. Whenever there’s a holiday, you can use this method to get them to write and have fun while doing that. Let them design and write cards for Father’s Day, Valentine’s Day, Christmas, and all other holidays.
   • Birthday Messages
     • Whenever someone has a birthday, get the entire class to write a message. You can get a big piece of paper, where everyone will have space to write. You can also turn this into an art project, so the students will make it more beautiful.
   • Cut Out My Name
     • This is a great way to teach cursive writing. Get some paper and fold each piece lengthwise. Each student should write their name in cursive on one half, with the fold being at the bottom. Cut around the upper side of the name. When you unfold the paper, you’ll get a symmetrical figure. Each name gives a different figure. What does it look like? A bug! Let them draw or paint on the clean side of the paper.
   • Vocabulary Challenge
     • Pick a new word for them to learn. Think of something unusual. Explain the word. Tell them to use it in a sentence. Then, tell them to write a short story around that sentence. If you turn this into a team activity, it will be more fun.