Ten Ways to Make Students Hate Writing

Svetlana SuchkovaKirov, 10-11 February, 2010

Why Writing?

Invention of writing 5000 years ago created civilization.

Most complex language skillStill neglected in many institutionsTeachers’ how, what, when

67% of students NEED it for their future career73% HATE writing tasks

WHY?

Workshop Focus & Objectives

Objective: to give a brief overview of teaching writing strategies through discussion, experience sharing, and practice

Writing as an end and as a processAssessment of written papersParagraph as a basic unit of writingActivities and tasks to foster better writing

Based on classroom observation and experienceFocused on Russian learners’ difficulties

Questions to Reflect On

What types of writing am I supposed to teach? Why?How often do I give writing tasks in class?Do I always pre-teach writing tasks?How much attention do I pay to teaching textual organization, format features, and register?What types of exercises do I use to help students write better?How do I correct papers? What criteria do I use?

How’s Writing Taught?

According to Baseline Study (2002) on non-linguistic English programs:

only 7% of teachers taught students to plan, draft, and edit their texts

about 60% of students estimated their skill of writing on professional topics as low or very low at the end of the course

What’s Writing as a Process?

Things writers usually do when they write

identify why they are writingidentify whom they are writing fordecide on the topicgather material through observing, brainstorming, making notes or lists, talking to others, and reading plan how to go about the task and how to organize the materialwrite a draftread the draft criticallyrevise for content, organization, and mistakes prepare more drafts and then a final versionproofread for errors

What is the teacher’s role?

Writing Case (1): What to Correct?

Theory of crisys nature was mansioned by K.Marks. And it is still actuall. Marks mansioned main idea of crisis – crysis is the reason of the difrence between producing and consumption. Producing problems leads to the higher prices which in their turn leads to lover consumption. There are lots of problems of nowadays financial crisis. It’s a lot costs for manufacturer to keep on producing unbuyable goods. That’s why there are a lot of unsatisfied consumers. The unemployment problem is a result of low level of consumption and producing. So, we could see a lot of problems of FC.

Writing Case (2): What to Correct?

The theory of crisis nature was worked out by K. Marx. His ideas are still up-to-date. Marx formulated the fundamentals of the economic crisis: the cause of crisis is a disproportion between production and consumption. Production problems lead to higher prices which, in their turn, lead to lower consumption. There are lots of problems of today’s financial crisis. It costs the manufacturer a lot to keep on producing unusable goods. That’s why, there are a lot of unsatisfied consumers. The unemployment problem is the result of low level of consumption and production. So, we can see a lot of difficulties caused by the financial crisis.

What Assessment Criteria?

Content

Textual organization

Range of vocabulary and structures

Register

Accuracy

What Principal Difficulties?

Inability to structure a text properly: divide it into meaningful parts, formulate the main idea clearly and develop it

Lack of cohesion or coherence

Inconsistent register

Poor vocabulary, primitive grammar

Plagiarizing

Where to Start?

conclusion

introduction

main body

Paragraph level

basic unit: unified,

coherent, and cohesive

set of sentences all

about the same topic

and developing one

central idea about this

topic

< 70 words, 4-8

sentences

Paragraph Level Activities

Focus on

paragraph structure: introduction, main body, and conclusion

basic features: unity, coherence, cohesion

purpose & paragraph types: description, process, opinion, comparison-contrast, narration, or problem-solution

text organization models: listing, sequence, comparison-contrast, and cause-effect

Unity

Find a sentence that is not related to the meaning of the rest of the paragraph.

In American culture, the rose is a symbol of beauty and love. A young man gives roses to his sweetheart to show her how much he loves her. Large bouquets of roses are given to beauty queens, such as Miss America and Miss Universe. The gift of even a single rose shows the person receiving it that someone cares. Roses can be found in many colors and varieties.

Unity (activities)

Read a paragraph and odd a phrase out

Read a paragraph and cross out a sentence that is not related to the meaning of the rest of the paragraph

Find irrelevant sentences in a paragraph

Write a paragraph and insert an absurd phrase/sentence for your friend to find

Paragraph Structure

The following paragraph has a topic sentence and specific details supporting some general statements. Write appropriate statements and a conclusion.

A person can be famous for a number of reasons. ___________. For instance, Michael Jordan has phenomenal court skills and superhuman physical presence. Few other basketball players have ever matched his leaping ability. _____________________. As Thomas Alva Edison said, “Genius is one percent inspiration and ninety-nine percent perspiration.” _____________________. A good example is a citizen of a small town in Alabama who accidentally became the only witness to the landing of the flying saucer, and the next day his portraits appeared in every American paper. So, _____________________.

Development Part

The following paragraph contains four statements relating to the main idea. Two of them have supporting details, and two - do not. Which two statements need specific supporting details? Write those two sentences and examples of supporting details for these two sentences.

There are several reasons why I’m really happy in my new job. For one thing, the hours are flexible: I can work from 9:00 to 5:00 on some days and 12:00 noon to 8:00 on other days. Second, the job pays well - $20 an hour as a minimum. Third, my boss is supportive of me and of the other employees. Best of all, I love the work because I’ve always been fascinated by solving problems. I think I’ll be working at this job for a long time.

Topic Sentence /Conclusion (activities)

Identify the topic sentence / conclusion in a model paragraph

Choose an appropriate topic sentence / conclusion from some suggested

Write the topic sentence /conclusion for each set of details

Read the paragraph and write the topic sentence /conclusion

Match the topic sentence and conclusion

Coherence

Organize the sentences so that they make a good paragraph.

A. The careless driver was a woman.B. A bad event in my life last year turned into something

good.C. She was busy talking to a friend and didn’t see the red

light.D. The bad thing was that a driver ran into the back of my car

when I stopped for a red light.E. My car is still a mess, but I have a great girlfriend.F. After the crash, I jumped out of the car.G. We started dating.H. She was beautiful, with long black hair and green eyes!I. I was really mad!J. Then I met the driver.

B, D, F, I, J, A, H, G, E

Coherence (activities)

Rewrite a paragraph in a more effective order

Organize the jumbled sentences

Read a paragraph and find sentences which are out of logical order. Rewrite it

Write a jumbled paragraph and give it to your friend to rearrange the ideas

Make up a story from the stripes which are given in a jumbled order

Cohesion (activities)

Find the linking words in a paragraph and identify what type of organization they followFill in the links on a sentence level (each pattern of organization separately and mixed)Use signal words to combine each set of sentences into one sentenceFill in the gaps choosing the right linking words from those given in bracketsConstruct a paragraph combining suggested sentences Make up a card for a partner with three sentences to illustrate each pattern of organization. Ask him/her to underline all the signals and identify the pattern

Proofreading

Find spelling mistakes in the sentences below. Each sentence has just one letter wrong which makes all the difference.

1) They lived happily even after.2) Today’s special: Frozen soap with mushrooms.3) Rivaldino was sent off for licking Figo on the knee.4) Enjoy the desert on your own: Hire a cat to take

you there!5) Have you ever thought of changing your wife? I

bet you have. Who hasn’t?6) Jack will be highly honoured; he will be deceived

even by the Prime Minister.7) Mrs. Bently passed away yesterday at the age of

93. She was loved by all who knew her will.Source: Medgyes, Peter (2002) p207.

Ten Ways to Make Students HATE Writing

1) teach writing for no real-life purpose2) always give writing as a home task3) focus on the product rather than on the process of

writing4) underestimate the importance of teaching basic

conventions of composition5) isolate writing from other language skills 6) allow no interaction between students7) take responsibility for the success yourself 8) use the same approach to everyone in class 9) overcorrect 10) hate writing yourself

How can we make it a pleasure?

Learn to write with us: a process-based writing textbook

by Suchkova S., Dudnikova G., Adayeva O.

reflective practice approachskills integratedsystem of various tasks at every stage from paragraph to article, essay, review, story, report, CV, letters, etc.tips and effective writing strategiespunctuation guide and appendices

How to Make Writing Less Stressful?

choose relevant tasks

combine writing with other skills and simple text analysis tasks

train writing strategies

teach conventions

provide exercises focused on vocabulary development, spelling and grammar

THANK YOU

Questions and comments are welcomesuchkova_s@yahoo.com