Notes on writing
A few notes on teaching writing
Close the feedback loop
Students need to act on our feedback. Simply telling them they should avoid doing XYZ won't guarantee they'll successfully avoid doing XYZ. Internalization takes time and requires hands-on practice.
Consider these approaches:
- Have students rewrite specific problematic paragraphs incorporating feedback
- Create targeted exercises based on common errors from their writing
- Use error correction codes that require students to identify and fix issues themselves
- Track improvement in specific areas across multiple pieces of writing
The Writing Feedback application on the current EHStudy platform does address some of the points above. You may want to try it out with your classes.
Use a task-based approach
Not the task-based language teaching approach itself, but lessons centered around a specific task, such as Task 1 or Task 2. A task can serve as the focal point for multiple lessons that address different aspects of the task and the skills involved.
Focusing on a specific task provides students with plenty of opportunities to bridge their knowledge gaps and enhance their skills. It also offers teachers a lot of flexibility in how to approach the task and the details of the lesson's content.
New textbooks
The current textbooks aren't exactly task-based and their main weaknesses lie in the fact that they are too focused on the mechanical technicality of writing instead of how to think and approach different task types. We will address these in the new textbooks. Any suggestions are welcome.
Provide exemplars
It is important to provide students with good models. They should understand what is expected and the standard they should aim for. Analyzing and learning from exemplars is an effective way to achieve this.