Workshop on +
Enhancing Students' Writing Skills
through Promoting Self-directed
Learning (SDL) Strategies
Self-
directed Learning
English Language
Writing Strategy Training
Dr Simon Chan
Faculty of Education
The University of Hong Kong
+ Outline of the Workshop
Brief reflections on current approach(es) to teaching writing, the merits and problems encountered
Discussion on some principles for promoting SDL in writing lessons
Brief introduction to the rationale behind the setup of an SDL writing unit
Examination of the SDL teaching unit:
SDL in pre-writing
SDL in while-writing
SDL in post-writing
Brief Reflection
How do you prepare your students for writing tasks?
What are the major challenges?
What does SDL mean to you?
How is it relevant to teaching writing?
Some Principles for Promoting SDL
in Writing Lessons
+ 1. Goal Setting and Goal Attainment
Goal setting: the process of establishing clear and usable targets, or objectives, for learning (Moeller et al., 2012)
Studies have shown that appropriate goal setting, along with timely and specific feedback, can lead to higher achievement, better performance, a high level of self-efficacy, and self-regulation(Moeller et al., 2012)
“Goal setting can have exceptional importance in stimulating L2 learning motivation, and it is
therefore shocking that so little time and energy are spent in the L2 classroom on goal setting”
(Oxford and Shearin, 1994,p. 129).
+ Goal Setting and Goal Attainment (Cont’d)
SMART formula for desirable learning goals: Specific,
Measurable, Attainable, Relevant, and Time bound (Doran, 1981; Miller & Cunningham, 1981)
A classroom goal-setting intervention should consist of
explicitly teaching and illustrating the connection between effort and achievement (Moeller et al., 2012)
Students should be allowed to participate in setting their own goals (Azevedo, Ragan, Cromley, & Pritchett, 2002; Tubbs,
1986, as cited in Griffee & Templi, 1997)
+ 2. A Functional View of Language in Context (Rose, 2005) (The Genre Egg Approach)
Students to be guided through interacting with the target language at different levels
7
CONTEXT
TEXT PARAGRAPHS
SENTENCE WORD GROUPS
WORD SYLLABLES LETTER PATTERNS
SOUND PATTERNS
patterns within the sentence patterns
within the text
patterns within the word
+ 3. Student-centered, but teacher- guided and monitored
4. Reflective in addition to generative on the part of the learners
5. Assessment for learning (feedback) + Assessment as learning (self- and
peer assessment, monitoring of
learning progress)
+ 6. Flexible Grouping
Whole class Small
Group
+ A Writing Unit Reflecting the SDL Principles
A glimpse of some SDL strategies at pre-,
while- and post-writing stages
+ Writing Task for Planning an SDL Teaching Sequence
(Adopted and developed from 2015 HKDSE English Language, Paper 2, Part A)
A recent article in the Young Post suggested that an 8:00 am start to the school day makes students feel tired and sleepy. Write to the editor of the Young Post expressing your views on the following:
Why students feel tired;
Whether or not a 9:00am start will solve the problem; and
What else/instead can be done to prevent students
falling asleep during lessons
+ SDL in Pre-writing
Involving students in the goal-setting process
Brainstorming/researching for
content (through the EAS approach)
Aims: To develop the students’
metacognitive strategies (e.g.
thinking and referencing skills) to promote learner autonomy and
independence
+ SDL in Pre-writing 1
Goal Setting and Goal Attainment
Task 1: Imagine you’re the English teacher of an S5 class and you’ve asked the class to set some goals before they attempt the above writing task. How would you respond to the following goals as set by your students?
1.
“I aim at getting 70 marks in this composition.”
2.
“I’ll try to write with good grammar.”
3.
“I’ll write more than 200 words.”
4.
“I’ll link my sentences up this time.”
5.
“I’ll tidy up my composition before I submit it.”
SMART
Learning goals:
Specific,
Measurable,
Attainable,
Relevant,
Time bound
+ SDL in Pre-writing: Setting Goals for the Writing Task
Let’s begin by reading the question carefully and underline the important phrases:
A recent article in the Young Post suggested that an 8:00 am start to the school day makes students feel tired and sleepy. Write to the editor of the Young Post expressing your views on the following:
Why students feel tired;
Whether or not a 9:00am start will solve the problem;
and
What else/instead can be done to prevent students
falling asleep during lessons
+ SDL in Pre-writing
Goal Setting and Goal Attainment
A possible approach to providing step-by-step
training in goal setting (from general to specific) Task 2: Let’s help our students set better goals with reference to the HKDSE writing marking scheme!
Step1:
Identify the focuses of each of the three criteria of Content (C), Language (L), and Organisation (O),
which can form the basis for guiding the students to
set their own goals for the particular task. (Two for
each criterion are provided as examples.)
+
Content Language Organisation - Fulfilling questionrequirements - Relevant ideas - …
- Grasp of complex sentence patterns - Accurate grammar - …
- Effective organisation of text
- Logical development of ideas
- ….
- Well developed ideas with supporting details - Creativity and
imagination
- Wide variety of simple and sophisticated
vocabulary
- Correct spelling and punctuation
- Appropriate register, tone, style
- Clear cohesion and cohesive ties
throughout the text - Coherence in overall
structure
- Clearly defined topics
+ SDL in Pre-writing
Goal Setting and Goal Attainment Step 2: Guide the students to:
pick the most relevant focus(es) of the three criteria according to their own strengths
and weaknesses and develop specific pointers for the particular writing task
limit the number of areas chosen to make
their goals attainable
+
Focus of the HKDSE Writing CriteriaSpecific Pointers
- Fulfilling question
requirements (C) - Genre/Text type:_______________________________
- Target reader(s)________________________________
- Main points to cover:
- Wide variety of simple and sophisticated
vocabulary (L)
- Nouns: ________________________________________
- Verbs: _________________________________________
- Adjectives: _____________________________________
- Avoiding ________________________
Letter to the Editor
Editor and newspaper readers
- Why students are tired at school
- Whether it’s a good idea to start school at 9am - Other measures to prevent students from
falling asleep
e.g. Causes of tiredness: tons of
homework, extra-curricular activities e.g. Lexical verbs denoting how
students spend time after school; modal verbs stating strong/weak obligations
e.g. Describing physical and mental states: energetic, exhausted, tired
repetitions, e.g. using synonyms and superordinate terms
+
Focus of the HKDSE Writing CriteriaSpecific Pointers
- Effective organisation
of text (O) - Identifying the typical rhetorical structure of the target genre:
Introduction: ___________________________________
Body: __________________________________________
Conclusion: ____________________________________
- Your turn NOW! Pick a focus under C, L, or O and come up with some specific pointers.
Introducing the topic/the article that the writer responds to and the stance
Main arguments and supporting details Summing up and reiterating stance
+ SDL in Pre-writing
Goal Setting and Goal Attainment
Step 3: Guide the students to identify what
information is needed to address the specific pointers and what can be possible sources of such information. Read and complete the
following table.
+
Focus of the HKDSE Writing CriteriaSpecific Pointers Required Information and Possible Sources
Fulfilling question
requirements (C)
- Understanding the target
genre
- Addressing Point 1: ‘why students are tired at school’
- Addressing
Point 2: ‘starting school at 9am’
- Addressing Point 3:
‘alternative measures’
- The typical features of the target genre, e.g.
_________________________________________
________________________________________
- Possible Source: Letters to the editor in SCMP
- Reflecting on their own personal experience - _________________________________________
_________________________________________
- Brainstorming the pros and cons of starting school one hour later
- _________________________________________
_________________________________________
- Browsing the Internet for tips to stay focused and awake
to whom the letter is addressed, tense(s) to use, the use of the first person perspective
Interviewing their classmates
Comparing and contrasting the relative benefits of starting at 8 and at 9
+
Focus of the HKDSE Writing CriteriaSpecific Pointers Required Information and Possible Sources
Wide variety of simple and sophisticated vocabulary (L)
- Including appropriate nouns, verbs, adjectives etc in the
composition
- Referring to the vocabulary log book
- _________________________________________
_________________________________________
- _________________________________________
_________________________________________
Effective organisation of text (O)
- Identifying the typical
rhetorical
structure of the target genre
- Introduction:
- Referring to authentic letters to the editor for the language/sequence for orienting the readers, stating the topic and stance etc.
- Middle paragraphs:
_________________________________________
_________________________________________
- Concluding paragraph:
_________________________________________
_________________________________________
Jotting down useful words/phrases while reading texts on the topic
Seeking help from the teacher
Deciding on the number of paragraphs, focusing on one main point in each paragraph, writing topic sentences etc., drawing on experience in writing other compositions
- Using signposting phrases like ‘to sum up/conclude’
- Reading others’ concluding paragraphs which present just the required information in the briefest way possible
+ SDL in Pre-writing
Goal Setting and Goal Attainment
Step 4: Guide the students to set a time frame for attaining the goal(s) before the actual
writing process, i.e. time-bound Step 5: Introduce to the students a
monitoring mechanism/tool (e.g. a self-
assessment form) which helps them monitor
their attainment of the specific goals they set
at the post-writing stage
+ Complete the left three columns based on the information in the above tables.
Goal Setting
(To be completed at the pre-writing stage) Goal Attainment
(To be completed at the post-writing stage)
Specific Goal Pointers set for the Writing Task
How I aim to achieve the goal pointers
How much time I plan to spend on achieving the goal pointers
What I have actually done to achieve the goal pointers
How much time I have spent on
achieving the goal pointers
What else I can do to better
achieve the goal pointers
1.
(C/L/O)
2.
(C/L/O)
3.
(C/L/O)
…
Can we develop this table into a self-assessment form which the students use to evaluate their goal
attainment at the post-
writing stage?
+ SDL in Pre-writing 2
Jeremy Harmer’s EAS Approach:
Engage:
Funny video on sleeping in class:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-us4mPj9_C8
Activate:
Graphic organiser on falling asleep experience
Study:
Research on reasons for tiredness and useful tips to avoid that:
YouTube video search by entering keywords: e.g.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u86F23IwYdU
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pTYyy8tHhCk
In Class
Outside
Class
+ SDL in Pre-writing
The EAS Approach:
Engage:
Funny video on sleeping in class:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=- us4mPj9_C8
Watch the video and jot down five words/phrases that you can immediately think of. Share your list with your classmates.
What do you think will happen next?
+ SDL in Pre-writing
The EAS Approach:
Activate:
Graphic organiser on falling asleep experience
Recall one special experience of either you or your classmate(s) falling asleep during class. Construct a graphic organiser to sum up that experience.
You may use the template provided or your own
format. Make sure you include all the details. Do
not write complete sentences though!
+ SDL in Pre-writing
The EAS Approach:
Activate:Graphic organiser on falling asleep experience
+ SDL in Pre-writing
The EAS Approach:
Study:
Research on reasons for tiredness and useful tips to avoid that:
If we want to know more about a topic, we can access the Internet and search for relevant
information with search engines like Google.
Alternatively, we may access YouTube and
learn more about a topic through watching
videos.
+ SDL in Pre-writing
The EAS Approach:
Study:
Now, refer to the set of goals you’ve set under
Content(C) and decide what information you need to collect for accomplishing the writing task.
Internet searches require our skills in identifying keywords related to the topic. Identify some
keywords on your list of goals. Would the five words that you jotted down after watching the
video, the underlined phrases in the question, and those ideas in the graphic organiser help with
your searches too?
+ SDL in Pre-writing
The EAS Approach:
Study:
Do the searches at home and answer the following questions.
Present your answers in your self-designed graphic organiser (i.e.
with pieces of information connected together):
Why do some students feel tired at school?
Is starting school at 8:00am common in other places?
What methods can be used to help students beat sleepiness? Why are they helpful and practical?
YouTube video search by entering keywords: e.g.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u86F23IwYdU
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pTYyy8tHhCk
+ SDL in Pre-writing
Other possible SDL strategies at the pre- writing stage:
Collaborative pre-writing discussions (e.g.
Fernandez Dobao, 2012; Wigglesworth &
Storch, 2009, 2012):
Learners scaffolding each other within their ZPD
Generation of ‘language-related episodes’
(Swain & Lapkin, 2009), where learners ‘talk about the language they are producing,
question their language use, or correct
themselves or others’ (p. 328)
+ SDL in While-writing
Reading to Write
Use of Google Doc
+ SDL in While-writing
Reading to Write:
Reading sample texts of the target genre and identifying the typical rhetorical structure and language patterns
Compiling a graphic organiser mapping the language patterns with their communicative functions and the rhetorical structure of the target genre (i.e. a ‘sentence making table/powerhouse’)
Using the graphic organiser as a checklist to refer to
while the students write the different parts and to self-
assess their work before submitting their composition
(assessment as learning)
Step 1: Let’s first read the letter to the editor below and answer the following questions:
Policies needed for ageing issues
The subject of Hong Kong's ageing population has received a lot of media attention.
Hong Kong will inevitably face even greater challenges as a consequence of more of its citizens living for longer.
With a steady increase in the greying population and therefore a greater dependency, the need to deal with this issue and the problems it will bring should be high on the list of the
government's priorities.
We cannot afford to neglect this ageing trend and officials must come up with effective policies as soon as possible.
Luk Mei-yan, Tai Kok Tsui
Letters to the Editor, May 6, 2013 South China Morning Post
Reading…to write
Which phrase tells us that many people are concerned about Hong Kong’s
ageing population?
Who are the ‘greying population’? Why do they show greater dependency?
Is the writer satisfied with the
government’s current policies to cope
with the ageing population? Why/why
not?
Step2: Let’s work out the rhetorical structure of a letter to the editor
Policies needed for ageing issues
The subject of Hong Kong's ageing population has received a lot of media attention.
Hong Kong will inevitably face even greater
challenges as a consequence of more of its citizens living for longer.
With a steady increase in the greying population and therefore a greater dependency, the need to deal with this issue and the problems it will bring should be high on the list of the government's priorities.
We cannot afford to neglect this ageing trend and officials must come up with effective policies as soon as possible.
Luk Mei-yan, Tai Kok Tsui
Letters to the Editor, May 6, 2013 South China Morning Post
Task developed by Prof. Angel Lin and Dr. Tracy Cheung, with contributions from HKU facilitators ©
2015
38
Introduction
Supporting reason/detail 1
Supporting reason/detail 2
Conclusion
Policies needed for ageing issues
The subject of Hong Kong's ageing population has received a lot of media attention.
Hong Kong will inevitably face even greater
challenges as a consequence of more of its citizens living for longer.
With a steady increase in the greying population and therefore a greater dependency, the need to deal with this issue and the problems it will bring should be high on the list of the government's priorities.
We cannot afford to neglect this ageing trend and officials must come up with effective policies as soon as possible.
Luk Mei-yan, Tai Kok Tsui
Letters to the Editor, May 6, 2013 South China Morning Post
Structure of a Letter to the Editor
Can you highlight some useful language features in the different parts of the text? Mark
them in the table on the task sheet
Title
Text Structure Language Features
Policies needed for ageing issues
Title
The subject of Hong Kong's ageing population has received a lot of media attention.
Introduction
Hong Kong will inevitably face even greater challenges as a consequence of more of its citizens living for
longer.
Supporting Reason 1
With a steady increase in the greying population and therefore a greater dependency, the need to deal with this issue and the problems it will bring should be high on the list of the government's priorities.
Supporting Reason 2
We cannot afford to neglect this
ageing trend and officials must come up with effective policies as soon as possible.
Conclusion
Luk Mei-yan, Tai Kok Tsui Letters to the Editor, May 6, 2013 South China Morning Post
--- ---
Useful sentence starters or lexical phrases for writing letters to the editor
• The recent .... has aroused much interest.
• The recent … has started heated debates on…
• It would be …
• I strongly disagree with the comments made by …
• I am writing to support the view expressed by …
• I would like to comment on…
• I am writing in response to…
• I believe that…
• I think it will be a good idea to…
• I think the government should..
• In my opinion… / I wish to point out that…
• First of all… / First… Second… Third…
• For one thing..
• In addition… / Moreover…
• The reason why… / The reason is that… / Because… / Since…
• If this were the case…
• To conclude…
• I hope…
The letter to the editor can vary greatly on the formality scale:
There can be more formal phrases or less formal phrases used
Introduction
Supporting reason/detail
Conclusion
40
Implications for ‘reading to
write’?
+ SDL in While-writing
Use of Google Doc:
https://docs.google.com/
Creating a ‘community document’ in which the teacher can track individual group member’s contribution to its
development (in collaborative writing tasks)
Allowing the students to revise and comment on their own and each other’s work during the writing process (i.e.
assessment as learning for ideas and language)
Drafts with revisions and comments automatically saved for later access (writing portfolios automatically produced to keep track of the writing progress)
Creating mini-tests through the ‘Forms’ function for checking
the students’ attainment of the goals set during the writing
process
+ SDL in While-writing
Use of Google Doc
Demonstrations on some potentially useful applications:
Creating New Document (and a name for it)
Share: “can edit” for collaborative writing (in real time!),
“can comment” for peer evaluation/assessment as learning
Define (ToolsDefine): to look for dictionary definitions and synonyms, to expand range of vocabulary
Forms (FileNewForms): Highlighting specific goals
against which the students evaluate their work
+
+
+
+ SDL in While-writing
Other possible while-writing SDL Strategies:
Co-construction of written texts (prior to individual construction)(Elola & Oskoz, 2010; Storch, 2005):
Increased linguistic accuracy and complexity
Enhanced content
Focused process writing, i.e. production of multiple drafts with self-/peer evaluation in between
