Writing is perhaps one of the skills that are most frequently put on the back burner in class. Why? Because it is quite time-consuming in terms of getting a piece completed and having it revised. What can we possibly do then? Which option do we have?
Do not lose it. The first thing to do is to provide our students with the tools that will allow them to express their ideas using the precise words. Contextualizing is equally important.
When it comes to writing, I regard it as a 4-step process:
- Pre-writing
- Writing
- Revising
- Proofreading
As you can see, it is not a matter of requesting a number of words on a specific topic, reminding the importance of grammar and vocabulary usage; in fact, writing starts when you present a topic to the class, teach related words, ask about your student’s previous knowledge of the topic and, together, come up with some options to express their viewpoints and feelings about a certain issue.
It is also important to emphasize the use of connectors, collocations to make their ideas organized and be coherent. Easier said than done? Here are some tips:
- Involve everyone in the topic: arise mindfulness and curiosity
- Brainstorm ideas. You will be surprised with the number of rich aspects you may have not contemplated when choosing the topic.
- Pre-teach vocabulary or organize related terminology using mind maps, a list, a few-minute-pair work, among others.
- Prepare a framework, so they know what information should be included in each paragraph. This helps to prevent literal translation as well.
- Remark the importance of revising the text before submitting it. This may be one of the hardest steps, since some sensitive students do not like to admit that some ideas can be expressed in alternative ways, which in turn means substituting, adding or deleting some segments that may have demanded them a lot of effort.
- And last, but not least important: proofread. Invite other students to read their peers’ pieces of writing and exchange viewpoints about them. When teaching online, it is an advantage to form pairs, so students will have to chance to speak their minds. If students are in intermediate level, they can use a correction code to point out some mistakes that may have been unnoticed by the authors. This correction code is incredibly helpful since it also means that each student is testing themselves when correcting someone else’s paper. Students normally find this stage challenging and fruitful. Try it and see!
And now it is your turn:
Are you up to take this challenge?
