2 Writing tasks to help learners write better in an understandable way.

Topic: Techniques for writing tasks,

Skill Focused: Writing,

Grade: Primary and Lower Secondary.

                         Supporting students to tune into the creativity needed for writing through a range of experiences is key to developing imagination and ideas for writing in all forms. Actually, writing is intricately linked to critical thinking. It also has implications for performance across all areas of the language. Writing is how a child shows what he or she knows and what has been learned. When we ask students to write, often we are just testing their skills rather than teaching them how to write or how to improve their writing.

                    Sometimes, stating clear rules and expectations is just not enough. It may not work for all your students. That’s why you should also take a “lighter” path. What does that mean? It means that you can use non-intrusive motivation techniques that will inspire your students instead of scaring them. As a teacher, your role is to help each and every student improve themselves, acquire new skills, and become a better individual by the end of their time spent in school.

                    For students to improve their English writing skills they need to be introduced to strategies that will help them develop their skills. So, here are my two techniques to help learners dig deeper when they write.

1. Writing Through Concept:

                        To put it simply, concept writing is a small look at a big plan. It is a short description of events that helps students visualize a particular scene of the story. For students experiencing difficulty in this area, it is beneficial to break the elements of writing into small, specific steps, teach these steps systematically, and then provide opportunities for these steps to be practiced individually before combining them into a large piece of writing. So this activity will help your learners to connect and memorize the events of a story or the content.

                         So here my students have been given the task to understand the main concept or theme of the story and asked to summarize. So I gave this idea to create interest among them to write in an easy way. 

2. Writing Through Scenes:

                            We know that students draw on their experience of reading when shaping their own writing. When students have explored a wide range of texts across genres, they form an understanding and appreciation of how language functions and how best to use this when writing themselves. To engage students in writing, they have to want to write, see the purpose in doing so and the opportunities it gives for them to have a voice.

                                 Usually, stories have different connected scenes. Some stories are illustrated and narrated through the scenes. So when we teach the story in a way, students are easily connected and able to retell the main events or sequence of the story. Here I taught a story in the way and then asked my students to summarize the story according to the scenes. I have prepared the below worksheet based on the main idea of the story to make them recall the story easily. 

                                    Providing structured writing opportunities allows students to understand how the writing process works, but it is equally important to allow children to use and apply their learning by giving them time and space to write freely for their own purpose and pleasure.