Teaching Writing - Week 3 - Writing in the Language Classroom

Introduction: Hello and welcome to Week 3 of the course Teaching Writing for the Bachelor's in English Teaching at ULACIT in term IIC 2023. In this class we will talk about two approaches to writing in the language classroom and the roles that teachers play in supporting students' writing development. We will also take time to review your second creation and preview the task for creation number 3.

Today's Goals:

• Compare two ways of conceptualizing writing in the English classroom.
• Discuss teacher roles in writing development.
• Review your second writing activity creation.

Guiding Questions:

• What is the difference between writing-for-learning and writing-for writing?
• What roles do teachers play in the writing process?
• How can you use texts to stimulate your students' writing process?

Task 1: Activity Type Demo - Responding to Text

Nearly every week of this course you will submit a unit writing activity creation in order to build a portfolio of writing activity types. 

• Characteristics: What are the features of a respond to text tasks?
• Example: What activity did you create?
• Strengths: In what ways aren responding to text tasks potentially beneficial?
• Challenges: What potential limitations or challegnes are associated with them?

• Additional Considerations: CLICK HERE

Task 2: Reading Exploration - Writing in the Language Classroom

Let's discuss the following questions regarding the assigned reading for this week, "Writing in the Language Classroom".

• The chapter outlines two basic approaches to writing in the English classroom. What do you understand these terms to refer to?

• Writing-for-Learning
• Writing-for-Writing

• What do you recall about these forms of writing-for-learning categories?

• Reinforcement Writing
• Preparation Writing
• Activity Writing

• Read the quote below and then discuss how three common contexts of English learning present different needs when it comes to writing.

• Quote: “The most effective learning of writing skills is likely to take place when students are writing real messages for real audiences, or at least when they are performing tasks which they are likely to have to do in their out-of-class life. The choice of writing tasks will depend, therefore, on why students are studying English (Harmer, p. 39).”

• ESL, ESP, EFL

• Quote: "The best thing we can do is to concentrate on a repertoire of writing tasks that it is reasonable to assume that most speakers of English may have to take part in at some stage in their English-speaking lives. Most of such writing activities fall on a cline somewhere between real purpose versus invented purpose tasks (Harmer, p. 40).”

• Read the quote below and reflect on some of the tasks and roles that writing teachers have.

• Quote: "When helping students to become better writers, teachers have a number of crucial tasks to perform. This is especially true when students are doing ‘writing-for-writing’ activities, where they may be reluctant to express themselves or have difficulty finding ways and means of expressing themselves to their satisfaction.”

• Teacher's Notes: CLICK HERE

Task 3: Poetry and Artistic Expression

Let's finish today's class by previewing your creation assignment for this week.

• Worksheet: CLICK HERE

References: 

Harmer, J. (2004). How to Teach Writing. Longman.