Writing lessons are an incredibly important part of the students’ language progress if not their education attainments. Yet, many teachers find it hard to get students to write. In this blog post, we will look at some ways or rather key elements on how to make writing lessons workable.
It is natural to have some hesitation on the progress of lessons and classroom tasks due to various issues, some of which the structure of lessons. Many teachers are reluctant to teach writing because their students don’t want to in the sense that writing tasks are usually difficult if not boring. Certain others render their hesitation to the fact that writing lessons are usually written exercises to practice grammar or vocabulary. Some teachers affirm that they did succeed to get their students to write, but they don’t really see the point. As like the remaining language skills, writing lessons can be effective and fun! The following lines provide a few tips for dynamic and communicative writing lessons.
Authentic Tasks engage Students
One of the great tips to get students thoroughly involved into writing lessons is to make tasks authentic. Instead of getting students to write “an essay,” or “a paragraph”, which doesn’t have a communicative goal, an audience or honestly any point, consider the real need of your students. Think of what your students might actually need to write in real life, mainly these days. Don’t get them away from Social media posts, Restaurant reviews, Emails to friends, businesses, or colleagues, Postcards from a trip abroad and so many engaging tasks. These can help students engage into writing and thus practice language items for a real world purpose.
A carefully selected Text to work on!
If you provide a helpful text to students, they will spend less time in getting their paragraphs and essays done. Once you determine your writing task, try to adopt or find a model of the task that the students can reference as they work. It becomes a solid platform to rely on; they are going to see the structure and format of the text you want them to produce. More than that, it will provide further words and phrases they might use in their own writing.
Provide a Feedback
If they are done with their writing, allow them to read and enjoy other classmates’ work. Consider what would happen to the piece of writing in real life. If it’s a social media post, the student would post it and then expect others to read or comment on it. If it’s an email, the student would send it and wait for a reply. Whatever would happen to the piece of writing in the “real world” is exactly what your publishing stage should recreate in class.
Invite students to give a feedback on their peers’ work. You can have students “post” their writing around the room by sticking their papers up on the walls. Here is a great tip. Let them walk around and read all the other students’ posts, like a gallery-style. In an online classroom, students could type into a shared Google document so that all students can access and read each other’s texts. Mind that students love being able to read and appreciate all of their classmates’ work. In other words, students find it rewarding to have their work read by others.
In the end, there is a host of tips and hacks to get students to write enthusiastically and successfully. These lessons should be tailored in a way that allows students to develop self-expression. Writing tasks should involve scaffolding to build upon previous knowledge and provide meaningful feedback. Allowing for peer review, collaborative brainstorming, and modelling examples can help stimulate dialogue and student engagement. Incorporating technology into the lesson can be so beneficial that it helps keep students engaged and focused on the task. Ultimately, writing lessons should be varied, creative, and structured in a way that encourages students to independently practice their writing skills.