TECHNIQUES FOR

TEACHING WRITING SKILLS

Pictures

Readings

All language skills

Teaching Practical Writing

Controlled Writing

Prepared by:

Aileen

Geoffrey

Maziziana

Melanie

Yohanieca

Techniques For Teaching Writing Skills

Pictures

Readings

All Language

Skills

Teaching Practical Writing

Controlled Writing

PICTURES

Why Pictures Can Be as Valuable Resources

• A shared experience in the classroom • A need for common language forms to use in the

classroom • A variety of tasks • A focus of interest for students

General Strategies for Using Any Pictures

Whole-class Discussion

• Generated by many types of pictures – posters, textbook, pictures, magazine pictures.

Provide a student audience for student writers

• Give half-picture and another half to students in pairs.

• Students can communicate and convey real information to each other.

Different pictures – frees you from the necessity of obtaining the class a sets of them

• Promote a real communicative task.

Real communicative tasks with students provide the pictures themselves

• Teacher is relieved of the task of finding pictures

• Students have personal meaning for answering questions and writing about it in the classroom

Don’t limit classroom work with what pupils can see in the pictures only

• Students can make – inferences, predictions, suppositions about the world beyond the picture – so let them IMAGINE what happen before or after of the moment in the picture shown.

TECHNIQUES IN USING PICTURES

One Picture –

Many Different

Techniques

One Picture – A Sequence

of Tasks

Picture Sets

Diagrams, Tables,

Graphs & Charts

Maps

One Picture – Many Different Techniques

* This picture is based on a sketch of an American bedroom (you can, of course, vary the sketch or change the room)

Examples of Different Techniques

• Draw the diagram (unlabeled) on the board.

• Students write down words that could be used to label the items in the room drawn.

• Do class discussion to discuss how to label the diagram.

• In small groups, students discuss other words & phrases they need in order to describe the room. E.g.: next to, on the left, etc.

• Teacher erases the diagram & students write description based on their memory.

• Students exchange papers & draw diagram of the room their partner has described.

Description

• Divide class into pairs of students & give a picture to Student 1 of each pair, who writes a description of it. Students 2 tries to draw a sketch of the room described.

• While Student 1 is writing about the picture, Student 2 writes a description of a room that he knows well. S2 gives S1 the description, S1 tries to draw a labelled sketch of the room & furniture.

• Both students look at the two sketches & its descriptions. They make lists of similarities & differences between the two rooms. Together, they write a composition of these similarities & differences.

Description, Comparison & Contrast

•Prepare index cards with one sentence on each, which together form a paragraph about the picture.

•Hand out one index card to each pair or small group of students.

•The task for the whole class is to put the sentences on the cards in order so that they form a paragraph.

Paragraph Assembly

•Index cards can be used, with the information on the cards separated so that each card contains a sentence that combines with another to make a new sentence.

•Each student finds a partner whose sentence will combine with the one he has.

•Partners consider the options of how to combine the two ideas to make one sentence.

•With the new sentences, they students can discuss how to organise those sentences to make a paragraph.

Sentence Combining

• Prepare a paragraph about the picture & write it on the board but omit the ending.

• Students discuss how to end the paragraph. Then they compare their versions with each other’s.

Paragraph Completion

• Students pretend to be an old lady (Maria) aged 60 years-old & is writing to a grandchild to describe her room in her old family house in Catskill.

• Students rewrite the paragraph using the past tense: “My bedroom was small...”

Controlled Composition

• Ask students to discus in small groups what they would write in a paragraph beginning with:

• Maria’s room in her home in Catskill is very colourful. Or...

• Maria’s room in her home in Catskill is very drab.

• They list all the details they would include, imagining the colours, curtains, ornaments, wall & floor coverings, & bed cover.

• In groups, students write a paragraph together, including details that develop the idea in the first sentence.

Guided Composition

• In pairs/groups, students imagine that the diagram shows a room at a summer sports camp.

• They are working for the camp’s advertising agency & have to prepare a brochure to attract young people to the summer sports camp.

• The brochure started with “Every younger who comes to Waterside Camp has an extremely attractive private room.”

• The students discuss what details should be included and write a paragraph.

• They read their own aloud to each other & discuss which one works the best, & why.

Role-play

•In groups of 4, give each student in the group a card with a word on it. Tell them that they have been invited to go to United States to live with the Johnson family in their private house in Catskill & they want to know about the room they will live in.

•The groups compile questions about the items on their cards.

•Collect questions & redistribute to different groups.

•Each group write a letter to Maria.

Questions &

Answers

•Students look at the plan of room & discuss about what other room in the house might look like.

•In groups, produce a plan and describe to a different room in the house.

•Together, these make up a description of a whole house.

Beyond the

Picture

One Picture – A Sequence of Tasks

Examples of Tasks • Task 1: In groups, students discuss the answer to the

question: “What is happening in the picture?”. They write down words & phrases that they use. The groups compare their results.

• Task 2: In groups, students discuss the answers to such questions: – How old are the two people getting married?

– Do their parents want them to get married?

– What jobs do the two people have?

– Will the couple have children? When? How many?

– Have you ever been to a wedding? Was it like this one?

The groups report the whole class the results of the discussion. Teacher writes necessary vocabulary words & idioms on the board.

• Task 3: The class reads a paragraph

describing Maria’s traditional reading. The

students examine the paragraph &

determine which sentence makes the main

point. They list the details the writer

includes to show the reader why he can

make that point.

• Task 4: Students imagine that they are

Maria, writing a letter to a friend abroad,

six months before the wedding, telling her

what the wedding will be like.

• Task 5: In groups, students discuss and

write a description of the wedding in the

picture above for a local newspaper.

• Task 6: The students, after discussion,

write to a group of American students to

describe a typical traditional wedding in

their country.

Picture Sets

Examples of Activities

• Individually, students write a list of

sentences about a picture sequence frame

by frame.

• The whole class works with the picture

sequence, but with the pictures out of

order. In groups, the students discuss

which order is correct for the pictures &

why. Then, they write a story.

Give a different line

diagram to each

student in a pair.

Each one writes

instructions on how

to draw the diagram.

Give each student in a pair

a table. Students can make

comparisons based on the

tables given.

Give students a model of a family tree. Ask students to

draw as much as they can of their family tree.

Students fill out

the following chart

about who does

the jobs in their

home. Then, they

exchange charts

with a partner &

use the

information on the

new chart to write

a paragraph. Ask

the students to

begin with a

sentence that

makes a

generalisation

about the details

on the chart.

MAPS

In pairs, given a

map. One students

write questions

based on the map.

The other students

write the answers.

Both partners role-

play the dialogue

they have created.

READINGS

TECHNIQUES IN USING

READINGS

Copy

Examine Cohesive

Links

Examine Punctuation & Grammar

Examine Sentence

Arrangement

Summarize

Complete

Speculate

React

COPY

• Frequently used with elementary-level students.

• Mastering what might be a new alphabet, moving the hand on the page from left to right & developing fluency of handwriting.

• Practice with the mechanics of:

– Punctuation

– Spelling

– Capitalization

– Paragraph indention

• Problem with copying : Can it be a

meaningful technique for writing?

• In real world, we use to copy something

such as an address, recipe, quotation, etc.

• We can ask our students to copy down

some information that they will then

really use.

• We can ask students to write out the

passage for a partner.

COPY: EXAMPLES

• Example 1: Based on discussion in groups,

each student copies the answers –

assembling variety of ideas in their

notebooks.

• Example 2: A good piece of writing is

copied as a model – can be referred for

practicing in dictation or summary writing.

• Example 3: Teacher writes new vocabulary

words – students copy new words.

EXAMINE COHESIVE LINKS

• Discover the devices the writer has used

to connect one sentence to another to

make the text cohesive.

• Students need to learn about the devices

that make a text cohesive:

– Personal pronouns

– Adjectives

– Demonstrative pronouns

– Connecting words

• Problem with connecting words: Students have no familiarity with the connecting words that are so necessary in a piece of writing.

• Examples of connecting words:

– Add an idea: Also, In addition, Furthermore

– Show sequence: First, then, next, after that, finally

– Show result: Consequently, As a result, Therefore, So)

– Show Contrast – but, however, nevertheless, on the other hand)

EXAMINE COHESIVE LINKS : EXAMPLES

• 1)Students read a passage, circle all

pronouns & possessive adjectives. Draw a

line to connect the circled words.

• 2) Ask your students to find a reading passage in their textbook & copy it out but leave blanks for any connecting words Papers with blanks are passed on to other students who fill in the connecting words.

EXAMINE PUNCTUATION & GRAMMAR

• Discover the rules of punctuation &

grammar that the writer employs.

• Can gain benefit form reading a text &

identifying & describing the grammatical

rules used.

• Helpful for students to examine where &

how writers use commas, semicolons,

colons, & exclamation marks & to derive

rules.

EXAMINE PUNCTUATION & GRAMMAR: EXAMPLES

• 1) Give students a passage with all the

punctuation marks omitted.

• 2) Ask students to examine a piece of

writing for any grammatical feature that

they are having difficulty with.

EXAMINE SENTENCE ARRANGEMENT

• Need to examine a text carefully to find

out if the sentences hang together.

• Need to practice in making choices within

a text between sentences that convey the

same meaning as individual sentences, but

are arranged differently.

EXAMINE SENTENCE ARRANGEMENT: EXAMPLES

• Give students a sentence, followed by two sentences – both with the same meaning – that could follow it. The students discuss the alternatives & make a choice, explaining the reason for the choice.

• Give students two sentences with a gap

between them & a choice of sentences to

fill in the gap.

SUMMARIZE

• Provide valuable practice in searching for

meaning & communicating that meaning.

• Express the ideas in their own words.

• Ability of the language learner to

understand concepts, process them, &

restate them in his own words.

SUMMARIZE : EXAMPLES

• 1) In groups, give each group different

reading passage – each group writes a

summary of their passage for another

group. The students within group, discuss

their summaries & choose the best one to

give to another group.

• 2) Students read a short newspaper

article, & asked to express the main idea

since they had little space in the paper

for only a few sentences.

COMPLETE

• Discern the original writer’s purpose,

audience, & personal style & pay attention

to those in the completed version.

• Put themselves in the position of the

writer & ten tone, style, & organisation.

COMPLETE : EXAMPLES

• 1) Give article with first @ last sentence

missing or both. Students write sentences

which might be appropriate to complete

the paragraph.

• 2) Give a passage to read which stops at

words like however, and so, or and then: -

students discuss what might come next.

SPECULATE

• Involves thinking beyond the given text.

• Speculative questions open up

opportunities for both discussion &

writing.

• Giving tasks to encourage students to

speculate about the text itself, about its

content, context, organisation, & the

writer’s choices of words & syntax.

SPECULATE : EXAMPLES

• 1) Students read an article. They make list

of the characters’ reactions. They write a

letter as response to the character(s).

• 2) Students read only the first paragraph of

a reading passage. Teacher gives them a

choice of three sentences that might begin

the second paragraph. Students discuss which

sentence would fit the content, logic,

organisation, & grammar of the passage &

what the paragraph might contain.

REACT

• Bring up the subject matter.

• Get students interested in controversial

issues, connect stories with personal

experiences, & explore the worlds of

interest.

• We can ask students to read their opinions

based on what they have read.

REACT : EXAMPLES

• 1) Students read an article about fire.

Students discuss a fire they have seen,

make a list of things that could start a

fire, make a poster for the school warning

about fire, and write on the first three

objects they would save and state the

reasons.

• 2) React to a piece of writing by actually

doing something – reads instructions of

how to produce diagram, etc.

ALL LANGUAGE SKILLS

TECHNIQUES IN USING ALL LANGUAGE

SKILLS

Brainstorming

Guided Discussion

Interviews

Skits Dictation

Note-taking

Story-telling

BRAINSTORMING

• Lets students to work together.

• Teacher does not have to monitor

grammar @ pronunciation, except when

the speaker cannot be understood.

• After orally brainstorming, students can

write down their ideas.

BRAINSTORMING : EXAMPLES

• 1) Brainstorm session addressing a specific

question, e.g.: “Why did the Razki decide

to become a teacher?”. The students

write down their ideas as quickly as they

can. Compare ideas & develop them into a

list.

• 2) Use brainstorming technique to help

find a topic or direction. E.g.: Journal on

students’ activities during leisure times.

GUIDED DISCUSSION

• Provide guidelines for groups or whole-class

discussion.

• Students’ ideas within the established

guidelines are, however, entirely their own.

• Teacher provides guidelines – advantage of

letting him to help the students

beforehand with the vocabulary & sentence

forms they might need in their discussion.

GUIDED DISCUSSION: EXAMPLES

• 1) Give specific directions that will guide the groups in preparation for writing. E.g. of guidelines: Discuss & write down conversation between Razki & Teo. – Greetings

– Request to play football

– Acceptance with pleasure

– Questions about skills

– An invitation to begin the game

• Make review on the forms of greetings, requests, invitations & questions.

• 2) Classroom group work – controlled writing exercise.

INTERVIEWS

• For students & teacher to get to know

each other.

• Convey genuine information when students

write the record of an interview.

INTERVIEWS : EXAMPLES

• 1) In pairs, students conduct an interview

with each other. They write their answers

in complete sentences. Later, they arrange

their sentences in a paragraph.

• 2) Students write their own questions.

Write a report based on their findings.

SKITS

• Students are assigned with roles.

• Writing comes as outside reports or

summary of what was said & done.

SKITS : EXAMPLES

• 1) In groups, write a dialog between a brother and a sister who plan to celebrate their mother’s birthday. The groups, then carry out a simple skit.

• 2) Students engaged in a skit developed from an event reported in the local paper. Each role needs to write out their outcomes based on their characters.

– E.g.: An accident happened between a car & bicycle: • S1: Policeman – write report on the account of the accident.

• S2: Car driver – Write a letter to insurance company claiming for money for the damage

• S3: Cyclist - Write a letter to insurance company claiming for money for the damage

DICTATION

• Teacher reads a passage through once,

reads slowly, broke into short, meaningful

segments – STUDENTS WRITE IT DOWN

– teacher reads it through once more.

• Give practice in listening & paying full

attention.

• Teacher reinforces the vocabulary &

grammar.

DICTATION: EXAMPLES

• 1) Teacher pretends to be telephoning & giving directions to get from one place to another. Teacher does not give punctuation or capitals. The students write based on what they have listened to and compare their results.

• 2) The teacher asks a student to read out a corrected piece of his own writing for dictation.

• 3) Teacher dictates a poem that he wants the students to learn.

NOTE-TAKING

• Impossible to write down every word we

hear.

• We write only the information needed.

• Teaching aids that can be used : Tape

recorder, radio.

NOTE-TAKING : EXAMPLES

• 1) Read aloud a passage relates to school

subject or event. Students take notes. In

groups, compare their answers.

• 2) Students go out on the street or

watch an event together. They take notes

of what they observe. They write an

account of what they saw from their

notes. Read their accounts aloud.

STORY-TELLING

• Young learners like stories.

• When we hear or read a good story, we

can’t wait to know what will happen next

• The natural curiosity to find out what

happens in a story can be a good use in a

language classroom.

STORY-TELLING : EXAMPLES

• 1) Read aloud a story (dictation can be used). The students continue the story-writing.

• 2) Play a game which a student begins to tell a story and another continue the story. All the students write down what they can remember of the story they have made together.

PRACTICAL WRITING

TECHNIQUES IN USING

PRACTICAL WRITING

Forms

Letters

Lists Daily Notes

Instructions

FORMS

• Useful to be able to fill out a form in

another language.

• Opportunity to transfer information from

one format to another.

• Varying the form – allows for practice in

forming & re-forming concepts in the new

language.

FORMS : EXAMPLES

• 1) Forms & Interviews

– In pairs, they interview each other & then transfer the information they receive onto a form.

• 2) Forms & readings

– Based on a reading passage, students extract the necessary information to fill out a form.

• 3) Survey forms

– In small groups, students discuss & draw up a questionnaire that aims at discovering attitudes other students might have towards controversial issues.

LETTERS • Letters are one of the most widespread forms of written

communication.

• A chance to deal with a variety of forms & functions that are an essential part of language mastery.

• Purposes of writing letters: – To invite

– To explain

– To apologize

– To commiserate

– To congratulate

– To complain

– To inquire

– To order

– To apply

– To acknowledge

– To thank

LETTERS : EXAMPLES

• 1) Letters & forms

– Present a situation to the class – looking for

a job through an agency.

– Show sample of advertisement for a job.

– Write a letter of application for the job.

– In pairs, give each pair an advertisement for a

job.

– One student writes his/her own letter of

application as the other fills out a registration

form.

• 2) Informal letters

– Students are to invite another student to a party.

– Students write informal notes to each other.

– Students are encouraged to make real requests & ask real questions.

• 3) Business letters

– Once students know the form of a business, they can be given communicative writing task that lead them to practice this useful form.

• 4) Pen pals

– Let students to correspond with a class in another country.

LISTS

• People write lists to help them remember

what to do.

• Examples of lists:

– Shopping lists

– Lists of invited people

– Lists of things to do tomorrow

LISTS : EXAMPLES

• 1) Students brainstorm & write down

what they would take for hiking in the

mountains.

• 2) Ask students what they have to buy in

the next day for a camping.

DAILY NOTES

• Many people keep daily notebooks @

journals.

• Students write record of the events of

the day @ ideas about those events.

• Increase their fluency.

DAILY NOTES : EXAMPLES

• 1) Ask students to keep special notebook & write in English. Check periodically to see that the students are doing it. Ask students to choose one of their personal writing to develop into a composition.

• 2) Ask students to write a summary of what happened in the class in their notebooks.

• 3) In 10 minutes, let students write on any topic. Encourage them to read aloud. Begins with an emphasis on writing for communication of ideas.

INSTRUCTIONS

• We write instructions to:

– Tell friends how to find our house

– How to water our plants

– Feed our goldfish

– A recipe for a friend

– How to avoid being homesick

INSTRUCTIONS : EXAMPLES

• 1) Interview each other to find out what

the other person knows how to do. The

other person writes the steps/procedures

then write the instructions in full

sentences.

• 2) Students write instructions for each

other as how to get form the school to

their home.

CONTROLLED WRITING

CONTROLLED WRITING

• Provide pupils practice in writing

error-free sentences @ paragraphs

• Can be almost controlled @

completely controlled writing tasks

• Maximal T(teacher)-input & minimal

S(students)-input

ADVANTAGES OF CONTROLLED WRITING

• First step towards writing

composition

• Encouraging writing among

beginners/pupils with relatively little

knowledge of English & vocabulary

• Help pupils to gain mastery of

sentence patterns

DISADVANTAGE OF CONTROLLED WRITING

• Outdated, dull creates boredom

• How to overcome:

– Use relevant & interesting subject matter

– Appropriate teaching aids:

• Pictures

• Brochures

• Audio

• Video recordings

TECHNIQUES IN USING

CONTROLLED WRITING

Substitution tables

Parallel Writing

Questions & Answers

Sentence Combining

Dictation

Using substitution tables

Ahmad Razki

is

a teacher

watchman Teo Hock Bing

clerk

He goes to work

in a car

by bus

by bicycle

on foot

• At the simplest level, pupils need only replace selected word (e.g nouns and adjectives)

• At the advance level, making one change may necessitate other changes to make the text coherent.

• At more advance level, students study a model and then write on a similar theme using the sentence structure of the model text as a guide.

Parallel Writing

• This writing activity can range from very

controlled to almost free writing.

• Pupils are given notes or a text to read,

and then they are asked to write amswers

to a series of questions.

Question & Answer Technique

• Sentence combining gets the students involved in just what the name implies; sentence combining.

• This can be tweaked by picking certain types of sentences to be combined or having them combine a certain number of sentences.

• Thus even in something seemingly straightforward there are still possibilities for diversity.

• This is often a way of converting the simpler even incomplete forms of speaking into the more complex forms of writing

Sentence Combining

• A useful techniques to provide models of

sentence structures and text organization

that are commonly used in writing.

• Allows pupils to practice spelling and

pronunciation as well.

• A suitable activity for pupils at various

levels so song as the text for dictation is carefully selected.

Dictation

• Factors to consider when selecting texts

for dictation:

1. Length

2. Level of difficulty

3. Types of text

4. The text, if possible, should have a

thematic relationship to something

already read or discussed.

THANK YOU