Transcript Teaching Students to Write

Practice Process Writing
Carla Mortensen
English Language Fellow 2012-13
Shota Rustaveli State University
Batumi, Georgia
Process Writing:
Here’s what’s different
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Work of Gail Heald-Taylor, University of Winsor, Winsor, Canada, who
wrote…
• "Process Writing is an approach which encourages ESL youngsters
to communicate their own written messages while
simultaneously developing their literacy skills in speaking and
reading rather than delaying involvement in the writing
process…until students have perfected their abilities in handwriting,
reading, phonetics, spelling, grammar, and punctuation.”
• In Process Writing the communication of the message is
paramount and therefore the developing, but inaccurate,
attempts at handwriting, spelling, and grammar are accepted,
knowing that…students will gain control of these sub-skills."
Carla Mortensen IELP 2012
Steps of Process Writing
• Pre-writing
– Free the mind!
• Drafting/Writing
– Throw thoughts on a page
• Revising
– Search for coherence and
completion
• Conferencing
– Get instructor input
• Editing/Proofreading
– Share the pain with peers
• “Publishing”
– See the finished work
Carla Mortensen IELP 2012
Pre-writing
• Pre-writing includes:
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Brainstorming and clustering
Sketching
Free-writing
Concept mapping
Listening to music
Meditating
Poems/lyrics
Videos
• **Class brainstorm**
Carla Mortensen IELP 2012
Drafting/Writing I
…Can be “as bad as the aroma of three-day-old fish”
(Diane Howard)
• Class exercises to create text:
#1 Poem/Video exercise: Tripping the Light
http://www.wherethehellismatt.com/
Students write “an emotional” draft; save for another
day and edit “with the head”
Carla Mortensen IELP 2012
Drafting/Writing II
• #2 Chain Story: “Last night I heard a scream so I…”
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Students in groups of 3-4-5
Lined paper: use every other line
Teacher writes prompt on board
Students respond to prompt by writing one full LINE, not
necessarily sentence
• Pass to left, read, edit, write NEXT sentence
• Group chooses best story, reads aloud
• Class chooses best group story, group gets chocolate
Carla Mortensen IELP 2012
What benefits have I seen?
• Students seem less afraid to write
• Students are interested to read, edit, and
comment on each other’s work
• Students take a greater role in choosing
the topics for their writing
• Students see grammar in context
• Teachers can see less plagiarism and
more originality
Carla Mortensen IELP 2012
What problems might result?
• Can be distracting from a central task, such as a
standardized test
• Can be harder to correct or measure/assess
against specific requirements
• Can create opportunities for possible “goofing
off”
• Can reinforce errors that might be harder to
correct later
Carla Mortensen IELP 2012
So, what to do?
• Use these ideas occasionally, for example at the
beginning of a chapter or topic OR when
students are “wiggly” (before weekend or
vacation)
• Focus process writing around themes presented
in other classes – geography or history – for
integrated skills acquisition
• Allow students see process techniques as
different ways to achieve the end of writing
excellence
Carla Mortensen IELP 2012
References for further reading
• Heald-Taylor, G. (1994). Whole Language Strategies for
ESL Students.
• Jarvis, D. (2002) The process writing method. TESL-EJ,
8 (3). Retrieved from:
http://iteslj.org/Techniques/Jarvis-Writing.html
• nwp.org: The National Writing Project – Improving
Writing and Learning in the Nation’s Schools (see
http://www.nwp.org/cs/public/print/resource_topic/english
_language_learners for specific ESL/ELL topics
Carla Mortensen IELP 2012