Becoming a writer: helping pupils develop their writing skills Dr Clare Furneaux Department of English Language & Applied Linguistics University of Reading
FAAPI Pre-Conference Events Š University of Reading 2008
September 2013 www.reading.ac.uk
Introduction: 3 Key questions
A.What is writing?
B.Why do we teach it? C.How can we teach it? 2
Task: Imagine your boss asks you: ‘Please write a report on the FAAPI Pre-Conference Event for colleagues who could not attend.’
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Your reactions to this writing task: Complete the following sentence: ‘When I think about this writing task, I feel …….’ e.g. delighted; cross …..
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Would you prefer to: OR‌ write the report?
speak to colleagues?
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Further complication: Imagine ‌.
you have to write this report in your second language! Now how do you feel? Better?
Or
Worse? 6
Writing is a challenge!
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A. What is writing?
What is involved in producing a piece of writing?
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Focus on: language
SYNTAX: sentence structure, sentence boundaries, stylistic choice, etc
GRAMMAR: rules for verbs, agreement, articles, pronouns, etc
MECHANICS: handwriting, spelling, punctuation, etc
Focus on: composing
CONTENT: relevance, clarity, originality, logic, etc
GENRE: text types
Clear fluent and effective communication of ideas
THE WRITER’S PROCESS: generating ideas, getting started, writing drafts, revising
ORGANISATION: paragraphs, topic and support, cohesions and unity
AUDIENCE: the reader/s
WORD CHOICE: vocabulary, idiom, tone
Adapted from Raimes (1983)
PURPOSE: the reason for writing
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Writing is:
• a process • a product • a social/cultural activity
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Writing is a process
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Cyclical model of the writing process DRAFTING
STRUCTURING
GENERATING IDEAS
White and Arndt (1991)
REVIEWING
FOCUSING
EVALUATING
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Writing is a product
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Writing is a social/cultural activity
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B. Why do we teach writing?
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Is our aim to teach……? • language?
(i.e. grammar, vocabulary…)
• language for writing?
(vs speaking)
• English language writing?
(vs Spanish)
• composing? 16
C: How can we teach writing? whole text writing tasks
genre awareness
reviewing / redrafting
bringing writing into the classroom
generating ideas
By helping pupils with ‌
peer review
setting goals
drafting support
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Bringing writing into the classroom - not just a homework activity
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Helping pupils‌ to generate and organise ideas
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and‌ to set goals (developing a central theme/focus)
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and‌ providing support/ advice while writing (drafting)
encouraging peer support
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and‌ encouraging reviewing
and re-drafting
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and‌ helping students to build up knowledge of text features
through analysing appropriate texts
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Showing a holistic perspective Providing whole text writing tasks Not just word, sentence or paragraph-level tasks
Doing the writing tasks too • Pupils see: A skilled process An “expert” draft of their own task
• Pupils learn: All writers struggle/ change/ correct
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Summary: The teacher can help by • designing tasks that: bring writing into the classroom • not leaving it mainly as a homework activity
provide whole-text writing tasks, which the pupils see the teacher doing too • they see a skilled process and expert drafts
• getting students started: help students to generate/organise ideas assist with goal setting help the writer develop a central theme/focus 25
and by: • supporting students during drafting encourage peer support • through checklists
• facilitate self-evaluation • through reviewing and re-drafting
helping students to build up knowledge of text features • though reading and analysing appropriate texts 26
Happy teaching! Any questions?
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References Raimes, A. 1983. Techniques in Teaching Writing. New York: Oxford University Press. White, R.V. and V. Arndt. 1991. Process Writing. London: Longman.
Contact: c.l.furneaux@reading.ac.uk
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