Activities for Developing Students’ Writing Skills

The following are some suggested learning activities which teachers can use at the junior secondary level to develop students’ skills at various stages of the writing process, i.e. pre-writing, drafting, revising and editing.

Pre-writing Stage

At the pre-writing stage, students are mainly involved in generating and planning ideas.

Generating Ideas

Idea generation is a crucial initiating process as it helps students get started, which is one of the most difficult steps in writing. Activities which help promote idea generation include:

 Brainstorming

Students work in small groups to say as much as they can about a topic without worrying about grammar, organisation, mechanics or the quality of ideas.

Through quick exchange, students can explore, clarify, and interpret ideas, as well as gain insights into others’ points of view. Collaborative thinking tools can be introduced to facilitate the brainstorming process. Students can generate ideas collectively with their peers more conveniently with the aid of e-learning tools. For example, they can exchange, on an online class forum, their views and information about a topic they are going to write about before class.

 Discussion

Students discuss ideas to be included in their writing. Working in pairs/groups facilitates the exchange of ideas and points of view.

 Freewriting

Students generate ideas by writing as quickly as possible without stopping for a certain period of time (e.g. ten minutes), concentrating on content rather than language.

 Questioning

Teachers use questions (who? what? where? when? why? how?) to stimulate thinking and develop ideas. Using questions as part of the writing process can stimulate a lot of valuable discussion and genuine communication in class.

Alternatively, students can ask one another questions to generate ideas for the writing topic.

 Role Play

Role play simulates behaviour, language and ideas in a context other than that of the classroom. It also develops perspective and audience awareness, offering students a wealth of different ideas and viewpoints.

 Interview

Students collect information and ideas through questioning others. This can be a

 Reading/Listening

This enables students to learn other people’s ideas, and stimulates them to think of their own new ideas.

 Researching

Students gather and analyse data, information from different sources (e.g. the Internet, newspapers, books) to increase their understanding of the topic or issue they are going to write about. Students can also search the Internet for appropriate visual input, such as photographs, to be inserted into their multimodal texts.

Planning Ideas

Planning involves consideration of the purpose and audience of a piece of writing.

Through this, students recognise the writing context, which has a significant bearing on the content and writing outlines. They need to learn how to evaluate and make use of given information to complete a specific task. Strategies for planning a piece of writing include:

 Identifying Purpose

It is necessary to understand the writer’s purpose of writing, since the purpose determines the organisation, tone and the choice of language. The following are some suggested activities to help students identify the purpose of writing:

 examining sample texts (e.g. letters to the editor, itineraries) and identifying their text type features to consider the writers’ purpose, and taking into consideration text grammar, work out how the choice of language is affected by the context and how it shapes the tone, style and register of a text (for details of text grammar, please see Section 4.2.4 of the English Language Education Key Learning Area Curriculum Guide (Primary 1 – Secondary 6) (2017) (http://www.edb.gov.hk/elecg));

 learning how language items are used to communicate the intended meanings appropriate to the contexts (e.g. using modal verbs in writing instructions);

 responding to a letter to the editor to understand how personal views and opinions are expressed and presented;

 examining how a single event or issue (e.g. a typhoon hitting Hong Kong) has been reported from a variety of angles (e.g. eye-witness accounts, assessments of damage, descriptions of the weather, precautions to be taken);

and

 considering an event or a situation from the points of view of the various people involved (e.g. writing accounts of a bank robbery in the personae of various characters such as the bank manager, the robber, the police and the customers).

 Identifying Audience

Before attempting any piece of writing, it is important to ask the question “Who am I writing for?” Presenting a concept in our culture to someone unfamiliar with it is quite different from presenting it to people from our own culture. A keen sense of the audience can help the writer select appropriate content and express it in an appropriate tone, style and register.

The following are some activities which can be used to develop students’ ability in identifying the audience:

 examining a text and trying to deduce the audience it was written for;

 telling the same story from the perspective of a different character;

 rewriting an argumentative text from the perspective of the opposing viewpoint; and

 rewriting a letter of complaint to a friend explaining the complaint.

 Outlines

A brief and flexible outline making use of a graphic organiser can make students see the basic skeleton or form of what they plan to write, and assess what addition or development of main ideas is needed. It should be stressed that students must not regard outlines as straitjackets, but be ready to reshape their plans as they discover new ideas.

Drafting Stage

When writing the first draft, students should focus on getting the content right and leave matters like grammar, punctuation and spelling until later. Class time should be allowed for students to carry out this process. They should be guided to draft written or multimodal texts appropriate to the context, purpose and audience.

Teachers should prepare students for this particular stage of writing by developing their skills in the following areas:

Beginnings and Endings

Teachers can use the following activities to help students develop effective beginnings and endings appropriate for the type of writing they are working on.

 Examining the beginnings and endings of different text types. Students read and discuss the characteristics of the beginnings and endings of sample texts of a particular text type using the following guiding questions:

 Is the opening interesting? What makes it interesting?

 What form does the opening take? A general statement, a fact, an opinion, a quotation, an anecdote or others?

 Does the opening make you want to read on?

 How is the opening related to the other parts of the text?

 How is the ending related to the opening?

 How is the ending related to the other parts of the text?

Through discussion with peers and the teacher, students recognise the typical characteristics of the beginnings and endings of a particular text type. Should students be working on a draft which comes under the category of this text type, they could apply this knowledge to evaluate the opening and ending of their own drafts.

 Examining examples of effective beginnings of texts and discussing the ploys used to attract the reader’s interest (e.g. an assertive statement to challenge the reader, a rhetorical question, a quotation, an event, a description which creates suspense).

 Matching the beginnings and endings of texts to see the ways in which the endings reflect and relate to the openings.

 Writing a beginning and an ending to suit the body of a given text.

Developing and Structuring Content

Teachers can use the following activities to help students develop and structure a text.

 Students work through integrated tasks focusing particularly on reading and writing. Reading provides students with relevant input (e.g. ideas, vocabulary) which they can use, thus enriching the content of their writing. Students can also build up mental schemas of the structures of various text types, which help them shape their own writings. They also learn about the relationship between language and context, and develop their awareness of how the use of language items affects the coherence and structure of the text, which they can then transfer to their own writing.

 Teachers should also offer students practice in writing full texts. Writing at the text level provides students with an opportunity to develop ideas through sentences and paragraphs within an overall structure. Various aspects of rhetorical shaping such as cohesive devices (e.g. references, conjunctions, substitutions), paragraphing (developing topic sentences with key supporting details), organisational methods (e.g. deduction, induction), and types of writing (e.g. instructions, summaries, narrative, discussion, comparison, classification) can be practised in a meaningful way. Students can also learn to use language items to communicate the intended meanings and produce texts with the appropriate tone, style and register in respect of the context.

 Students should be encouraged not only to read but also to write a broad range of text types, so as to deepen their understanding and experience of the use of different methods of organisation in different types of discourse. The types of texts to be included in a writing programme vary according to the students’ needs, interests and abilities, but teachers should select a range of items from the following areas:

 personal writing (e.g. diaries, journals, blogs);

 social writing (e.g. personal letters, emails, invitations, telephone messages);

 public writing (e.g. form-filling, letters of enquiry, speeches, letters of appreciation, letters of complaint);

 study writing (e.g. making notes from reading/lectures, summaries);

 creative writing (e.g. rhymes, advertisements, stories, drama, poems, jokes, e-posters);

 essay writing (e.g. controversial issues, arguments); and

 institutional writing (e.g. memoranda, business letters, reports).

 Controlled language exercises focusing on one or more aspects of written discourse can be used to enhance students’ ability to structure a piece of writing.

The more common ones aim at developing the skill of using cohesive devices (e.g.

combining sentences, logically sequencing jumbled sentences within a paragraph, rearranging jumbled paragraphs), while others aim at developing understanding of discourse organisation (e.g. transferring information from a text to a tree diagram, reducing a text to an outline). It should, however, be stressed that these exercises must be reinforced by freer writing activities which require students to draw on their language learning experience in order to express themselves creatively and to progress towards learner autonomy.

Creating Multimodal Texts

Creating a multimodal text is a complex process. It requires students to make meaning by strategically combining different modes of communication (e.g. linguistic, audio, visual, gestural, spatial). Though multimodal is not synonymous with digital, the development of multimodal literacy is strongly associated with the advances made in information technology. In creating a multimodal text, students learn to use a range of software (e.g. word processing and presentation software) to incorporate visual and audio features to contribute effectively to the meaning of a written text, for example, incorporating pictures of ingredients and a video that demonstrates the cooking steps to accompany a recipe. Access to easy-to-use digital production tools and resources has significant implications for literacy development and practice, and should be exploited to develop students’ literacy skills and their abilities to express themselves in diverse modes of communication through the use of information technology.

Teachers can support students in creating multimodal texts through:

 asking students to identify multimodal texts (e.g. TV commercials, posters, promotional videos) for a class discussion on their effectiveness in conveying the intended messages;

 asking students to discuss how visual and audio features can be added to a written text to enhance its effectiveness in achieving different communication purposes;

and

 showing students the use of different software to create multimodal texts.

For further illustration of how multimodal texts are promoted in the English classroom, please see Example 20 “Designing Meaningful Homework – Developing Students’

Ability to Produce Multimodal Texts (Secondary 1 – 3)”

(http://www.edb.gov.hk/eleklacgexamples).

Revising Stage

While drafting is concerned with what the writer wants to say, revision or rewriting concentrates on how to say it effectively. Students should be empowered to reflect on their own work and decide how their writing can be improved. Teachers can model and teach the skills of self-evaluation, and guide students to set their own goals and monitor their progress towards the goals. Another way to facilitate students’ self-assessment of their writing is to provide good samples and models of work to help students understand the assessment criteria. Students should be encouraged to evaluate their drafts and make changes at the text level instead of being overly concerned with grammatical and mechanical errors/mistakes. When revising, they should apply the following:

 Am I conveying my ideas clearly to my readers?

 Is my writing appropriate in terms of the context, purpose and audience?

 Are my explanations and examples clear?

 Are my points adequately explained or developed?

 Are my arguments logically and consistently presented?

 Are there any repetitive/irrelevant ideas?

 Have I used a good range of vocabulary appropriately?

 Have I used the appropriate tone, style and register?

 Is the language (e.g. grammar, vocabulary, punctuation) accurate?

 If visual or audio features are used, do they help convey the intended messages more effectively, or are they overused?

In supporting the revising process, teachers should consider applying the following strategies:

Peer Review

 Peer review, also known as peer response, peer feedback or peer editing, is often used in the writing classroom to assist revision. Central to this activity is the notion that students work interactively in pairs or small groups to review each other’s draft by way of questions, suggestions or comments. One key benefit of peer review is that it enhances audience awareness and promotes habits of revision with readers in mind. The interaction between students and peer readers enables both parties to gain insights into each other’s point of view. Further, by responding critically to their peers’ writing, students become aware that they need to do the same with their own work to facilitate peer review.

 Students need to be given clear instructions and directions about the roles they will play and the tasks they are expected to accomplish. They also need to be guided to give quality feedback.

 The worksheet below provides some ideas of the kind of feedback students can be asked to give on their peers’ writing. The questions can be modified and adapted to better suit each classroom situation.

PEER REVIEW WORKSHEET Complete the following statements:

 The best part of this piece of writing is …

 I agreed with you when you said …

 I disagreed with you when you said …

 The suggestions I want to make to improve this paper are …

 Peer review can also be conducted with the use of information technology. The interactive functions of e-learning tools (e.g. online learning management systems, weblogs, discussion forums) facilitate peer review through providing an e-platform where students can give comments and suggest revisions on their peers’

works.

Teacher-Student Conferencing

The teacher conducts a discussion with the students on a one-to-one basis or in small groups. It may take place out of class time when a group of students meet with the teacher to discuss the current draft of a piece of writing with reference to their learning goals and writing performance, leading to a revision plan.

 Conferences provide students with an informal atmosphere where students can actively participate, ask questions freely, learn to negotiate meaning and clarify the teacher’s responses. Students are able to receive more immediate and elaborate feedback than they would through written comments. Also, students may feel better motivated by the personal attention received.

 The obvious drawback of conferences is that they place a great demand on the teacher’s time. One way of addressing this disadvantage is to help students clearly understand the purpose of the conference and have them prepare a list of questions beforehand. This keeps the conference on task and may reduce the time needed for each meeting.

 Mini-conferences can be conducted in class during small group work. The teacher walks around as students work, clarifying queries, asking questions and offering suggestions. Mini-conferencing has several benefits:

 It becomes part of the regular classroom learning as a focused discussion activity.

 The immediate intervention is a natural part of the writing process.

 It addresses students’ immediate needs.

Responding in Writing

This refers to teachers’ comments on the drafts they have collected from students.

 Teachers should offer positive support by praising what is genuinely good in students’ drafts. They should raise specific questions which will enable students to carry out revisions, make suggestions for reorganising ideas or developing specific points in the draft, and provide a small set of concrete suggestions for improving the grammatical and mechanical aspects of the text.

 To make written feedback work, teachers must avoid giving vague and confusing comments which provide little direction for students when they attempt revision.

They must also avoid providing detailed editing comments on the surface form without paying attention to organisational and content issues.

 To enhance the quality of their feedback, teachers can make reference to the LPF for English Language (Writing Skills) (http://www.edb.gov.hk/lpfel_writing), which is a useful tool for identifying students’ strengths and areas for improvement, and understanding what students need to achieve as they progress in the development of writing skills.

Editing Stage

At this stage, students make the final revisions based on feedback from their peers and teacher, and check accuracy to make sure that the text is suitable for presentation to the reader. They also focus on matters such as grammar and mechanics, including spelling, punctuation and handwriting.