TECHNIQUES FOR TEACHING WRITING SKILLS

Pictures Readings All language skills Teaching Practical Writing Controlled Writ
ing
Prepared by: Aileen Geoffrey Maziziana Melanie Yohanieca

Pictures
Controlled Writing
Readings
Techniques For Teaching Writing Skills
Teaching Practical Writing
All Language Skills

PICTURES

Why Pictures Can Be as Valuable Resources

A shared experience in the classroom A need for common language forms to use in
the classroom A variety of tasks A focus of interest for students

General Strategies for Using Any Pictures

Whole-class Discussion
Generated by many types of pictures posters, textbook, pictures, magazine pictur
es.
Provide a student audience for student writers
Give half-picture and another half to students in pairs. Students can communicat
e and convey real information to each other.
Different pictures frees you from the necessity of obtaining the class a sets of
them
Promote a real communicative task.

Real communicative tasks with students provide the pictures themselves

Teacher is relieved of the task of finding pictures Students have personal meani
ng for answering questions and writing about it in the classroom
Dont limit classroom work with what pupils can see in the pictures only
Students can make inferences, predictions, suppositions about the world beyond t
he picture so let them IMAGINE what happen before or after of the moment in the
picture shown.

One Picture Many Different Techniques Maps

TECHNIQUES IN USING PICTURES
One Picture A Sequence of Tasks
Diagrams, Tables, Graphs & Charts
Picture Sets

One Picture Many Different Techniques

* This picture is based on a sketch of an American bedroom (you can, of course,
vary the sketch or change the room)

Examples of Different Techniques

Draw the diagram (unlabeled) on the board. Students write down words that could
be used to label the items in the room drawn. Do class discussion to discuss how
to label the diagram. In small groups, students discuss other words & phrases t
hey need in order to describe the room. E.g.: next to, on the left, etc. Teacher
erases the diagram & students write description based on their memory. Students
exchange papers & draw diagram of the room their partner has described.
Description
Description, Comparison & Contrast
Divide class into pairs of students & give a picture to Student 1 of each pair,
who writes a description of it. Students 2 tries to draw a sketch of the room de
scribed. While Student 1 is writing about the picture, Student 2 writes a descri
ption of a room that he knows well. S2 gives S1 the description, S1 tries to dra
w a labelled sketch of the room & furniture. Both students look at the two sketc
hes & its descriptions. They make lists of similarities & differences between th
e two rooms. Together, they write a composition of these similarities & differen
ces.

Paragraph Assembly
Prepare index cards with one sentence on each, which together form a paragraph ab
out the picture. Hand out one index card to each pair or small group of students.
The task for the whole class is to put the sentences on the cards in order so th
at they form a paragraph.
Sentence Combining
Index cards can be used, with the information on the cards separated so that each
card contains a sentence that combines with another to make a new sentence. Each
student finds a partner whose sentence will combine with the one he has. Partner
s consider the options of how to combine the two ideas to make one sentence. With
the new sentences, they students can discuss how to organise those sentences to
make a paragraph.

Paragraph Completion
Prepare a paragraph about the picture & write it on the board but omit the endin
g. Students discuss how to end the paragraph. Then they compare their versions w
ith each others.
Controlled Composition
Students pretend to be an old lady (Maria) aged 60 years-old & is writing to a g
randchild to describe her room in her old family house in Catskill. Students rew
rite the paragraph using the past tense: My bedroom was small...

Guided Composition
Ask students to discus in small groups what they would write in a paragraph begi
nning with: Marias room in her home in Catskill is very colourful. Or... Marias ro
om in her home in Catskill is very drab. They list all the details they would in
clude, imagining the colours, curtains, ornaments, wall & floor coverings, & bed
cover. In groups, students write a paragraph together, including details that d
evelop the idea in the first sentence.
Role-play
In pairs/groups, students imagine that the diagram shows a room at a summer spor
ts camp. They are working for the camps advertising agency & have to prepare a br
ochure to attract young people to the summer sports camp. The brochure started w
ith Every younger who comes to Waterside Camp has an extremely attractive private
room. The students discuss what details should be included and write a paragraph
. They read their own aloud to each other & discuss which one works the best, &
why.

Questions & Answers Beyond the Picture

In groups of 4, give each student in the group a card with a word on it. Tell the
m that they have been invited to go to United States to live with the Johnson fa
mily in their private house in Catskill & they want to know about the room they
will live in. The groups compile questions about the items on their cards. Collect
questions & redistribute to different groups. Each group write a letter to Maria
.
Students look at the plan of room & discuss about what other room in the house mi
ght look like. In groups, produce a plan and describe to a different room in the
house. Together, these make up a description of a whole house.

One Picture A Sequence of Tasks

Examples of Tasks
Task 1: In groups, students discuss the answer to the question: What is happening
in the picture?. They write down words & phrases that they use. The groups compa
re their results. Task 2: In groups, students discuss the answers to such questi
ons:
How old are the two people getting married? Do their parents want them to get ma
rried? What jobs do the two people have? Will the couple have children? When? Ho
w many? Have you ever been to a wedding? Was it like this one?
The groups report the whole class the results of the discussion. Teacher writes
necessary vocabulary words & idioms on the board.

 Task 3: The class reads a paragraph describing Marias traditional reading. The st
udents examine the paragraph & determine which sentence makes the main point. Th
ey list the details the writer includes to show the reader why he can make that
point. Task 4: Students imagine that they are Maria, writing a letter to a frien
d abroad, six months before the wedding, telling her what the wedding will be li
ke.

 Task 5: In groups, students discuss and write a description of the wedding in th

e picture above for a local newspaper. Task 6: The students, after discussion, w
rite to a group of American students to describe a typical traditional wedding i
n their country.

Picture Sets

Examples of Activities
Individually, students write a list of sentences about a picture sequence frame
by frame. The whole class works with the picture sequence, but with the pictures
out of order. In groups, the students discuss which order is correct for the pi
ctures & why. Then, they write a story.

Give a different line diagram to each student in a pair. Each one writes instruc
tions on how to draw the diagram.

Give each student in a pair a table. Students can make comparisons based on the
tables given.

Give students a model of a family tree. Ask students to draw as much as they can
of their family tree.

Students fill out the following chart about who does the jobs in their home. The
n, they exchange charts with a partner & use the information on the new chart to
write a paragraph. Ask the students to begin with a sentence that makes a gener
alisation about the details on the chart.

MAPS
In pairs, given a map. One students write questions based on the map. The other
students write the answers. Both partners roleplay the dialogue they have create
d.

READINGS

Copy
React Examine Cohesive Links
Speculate
TECHNIQUES IN USING READINGS
Examine Punctuation & Grammar
Complete
Examine Sentence Arrangement
Summarize

COPY
Frequently used with elementary-level students. Mastering what might be a new al
phabet, moving the hand on the page from left to right & developing fluency of h
andwriting. Practice with the mechanics of:
Punctuation Spelling Capitalization Paragraph indention

 Problem with copying : Can it be a meaningful technique for writing? In real wor
ld, we use to copy something such as an address, recipe, quotation, etc. We can
ask our students to copy down some information that they will then really use. W
e can ask students to write out the passage for a partner.

COPY: EXAMPLES
Example 1: Based on discussion in groups, each student copies the answers assemb
ling variety of ideas in their notebooks. Example 2: A good piece of writing is
copied as a model can be referred for practicing in dictation or summary writing
. Example 3: Teacher writes new vocabulary words students copy new words.

EXAMINE COHESIVE LINKS

Discover the devices the writer has used to connect one sentence to another to m
ake the text cohesive. Students need to learn about the devices that make a text
cohesive:
Personal pronouns Adjectives Demonstrative pronouns Connecting words

 Problem with connecting words: Students have no familiarity with the connecting
words that are so necessary in a piece of writing. Examples of connecting words:
Add an idea: Also, In addition, Furthermore Show sequence: First, then, next, af
ter that, finally Show result: Consequently, As a result, Therefore, So) Show Co
ntrast but, however, nevertheless, on the other hand)

EXAMINE COHESIVE LINKS : EXAMPLES

1)Students read a passage, circle all pronouns & possessive adjectives. Draw a l
ine to connect the circled words.
2) Ask your students to find a reading passage in their textbook & copy it out b
ut leave blanks for any connecting words Papers with blanks are passed on to oth
er students who fill in the connecting words.

EXAMINE PUNCTUATION & GRAMMAR

Discover the rules of punctuation & grammar that the writer employs. Can gain be
nefit form reading a text & identifying & describing the grammatical rules used.
Helpful for students to examine where & how writers use commas, semicolons, col
ons, & exclamation marks & to derive rules.

EXAMINE PUNCTUATION & GRAMMAR: EXAMPLES

1) Give students a passage with all the punctuation marks omitted. 2) Ask studen
ts to examine a piece of writing for any grammatical feature that they are havin
g difficulty with.

EXAMINE SENTENCE ARRANGEMENT

Need to examine a text carefully to find out if the sentences hang together. Nee
d to practice in making choices within a text between sentences that convey the
same meaning as individual sentences, but are arranged differently.

EXAMINE SENTENCE ARRANGEMENT: EXAMPLES

Give students a sentence, followed by two sentences both with the same meaning t
hat could follow it. The students discuss the alternatives & make a choice, expl
aining the reason for the choice.

 Give students two sentences with a gap between them & a choice of sentences to f
ill in the gap.

SUMMARIZE
Provide valuable practice in searching for meaning & communicating that meaning.
Express the ideas in their own words. Ability of the language learner to unders
tand concepts, process them, & restate them in his own words.

SUMMARIZE : EXAMPLES
1) In groups, give each group different reading passage each group writes a summ
ary of their passage for another group. The students within group, discuss their
summaries & choose the best one to give to another group. 2) Students read a sh
ort newspaper article, & asked to express the main idea since they had little sp
ace in the paper for only a few sentences.

COMPLETE
Discern the original writers purpose, audience, & personal style & pay attention
to those in the completed version. Put themselves in the position of the writer
& ten tone, style, & organisation.

COMPLETE : EXAMPLES
1) Give article with first @ last sentence missing or both. Students write sente
nces which might be appropriate to complete the paragraph. 2) Give a passage to
read which stops at words like however, and so, or and then: students discuss wh
at might come next.

SPECULATE
Involves thinking beyond the given text. Speculative questions open up opportuni
ties for both discussion & writing. Giving tasks to encourage students to specul
ate about the text itself, about its content, context, organisation, & the write
rs choices of words & syntax.

SPECULATE : EXAMPLES
1) Students read an article. They make list of the characters reactions. They wri
te a letter as response to the character(s). 2) Students read only the first par
agraph of a reading passage. Teacher gives them a choice of three sentences that
might begin the second paragraph. Students discuss which sentence would fit the
content, logic, organisation, & grammar of the passage & what the paragraph mig
ht contain.

REACT
Bring up the subject matter. Get students interested in controversial issues, co
nnect stories with personal experiences, & explore the worlds of interest. We ca
n ask students to read their opinions based on what they have read.

REACT : EXAMPLES
1) Students read an article about fire. Students discuss a fire they have seen,
make a list of things that could start a fire, make a poster for the school warn
ing about fire, and write on the first three objects they would save and state t
he reasons. 2) React to a piece of writing by actually doing something reads ins
tructions of how to produce diagram, etc.

ALL LANGUAGE SKILLS

Brainstorming Guided Discussion

Story-telling
Note-taking
TECHNIQUES IN USING ALL LANGUAGE SKILLS
Interviews
Dictation
Skits

BRAINSTORMING
Lets students to work together. Teacher does not have to monitor grammar @ pronu
nciation, except when the speaker cannot be understood. After orally brainstormi
ng, students can write down their ideas.

BRAINSTORMING : EXAMPLES
1) Brainstorm session addressing a specific question, e.g.: Why did the Razki dec
ide to become a teacher?. The students write down their ideas as quickly as they
can. Compare ideas & develop them into a list. 2) Use brainstorming technique to
help find a topic or direction. E.g.: Journal on students activities during leis
ure times.

GUIDED DISCUSSION
Provide guidelines for groups or whole-class discussion. Students ideas within th
e established guidelines are, however, entirely their own. Teacher provides guid
elines advantage of letting him to help the students beforehand with the vocabul
ary & sentence forms they might need in their discussion.

GUIDED DISCUSSION: EXAMPLES

1) Give specific directions that will guide the groups in preparation for writin
g. E.g. of guidelines: Discuss & write down conversation between Razki & Teo.
Greetings Request to play Acceptance with Questions about An invitation to footb
all pleasure skills begin the game
Make review on the forms of greetings, requests, invitations & questions. 2) Cla
ssroom group work controlled writing exercise.

INTERVIEWS
For students & teacher to get to know each other. Convey genuine information whe
n students write the record of an interview.

INTERVIEWS : EXAMPLES
1) In pairs, students conduct an interview with each other. They write their ans
wers in complete sentences. Later, they arrange their sentences in a paragraph.
2) Students write their own questions. Write a report based on their findings.

SKITS
Students are assigned with roles. Writing comes as outside reports or summary of
what was said & done.

SKITS : EXAMPLES
1) In groups, write a dialog between a brother and a sister who plan to celebrat
e their mothers birthday. The groups, then carry out a simple skit. 2) Students e
ngaged in a skit developed from an event reported in the local paper. Each role
needs to write out their outcomes based on their characters.
E.g.: An accident happened between a car & bicycle:
S1: Policeman write report on the account of the accident. S2: Car driver Write
a letter to insurance company claiming for money for the damage S3: Cyclist - Wr
ite a letter to insurance company claiming for money for the damage

DICTATION
Teacher reads a passage through once, reads slowly, broke into short, meaningful
segments STUDENTS WRITE IT DOWN teacher reads it through once more. Give practi
ce in listening & paying full attention. Teacher reinforces the vocabulary & gra
mmar.

DICTATION: EXAMPLES
1) Teacher pretends to be telephoning & giving directions to get from one place
to another. Teacher does not give punctuation or capitals. The students write ba
sed on what they have listened to and compare their results. 2) The teacher asks
a student to read out a corrected piece of his own writing for dictation. 3) Te
acher dictates a poem that he wants the students to learn.

NOTE-TAKING
Impossible to write down every word we hear. We write only the information neede
d. Teaching aids that can be used : Tape recorder, radio.

NOTE-TAKING : EXAMPLES
1) Read aloud a passage relates to school subject or event. Students take notes.
In groups, compare their answers. 2) Students go out on the street or watch an
event together. They take notes of what they observe. They write an account of w
hat they saw from their notes. Read their accounts aloud.

STORY-TELLING
Young learners like stories. When we hear or read a good story, we cant wait to k
now what will happen next The natural curiosity to find out what happens in a st
ory can be a good use in a language classroom.

STORY-TELLING : EXAMPLES
1) Read aloud a story (dictation can be used). The students continue the storywr
iting.
2) Play a game which a student begins to tell a story and another continue the s
tory. All the students write down what they can remember of the story they have
made together.

PRACTICAL WRITING

Forms
Instructions
Letters
TECHNIQUES IN USING PRACTICAL WRITING
Daily Notes Lists

FORMS
Useful to be able to fill out a form in another language. Opportunity to transfe
r information from one format to another. Varying the form allows for practice i
n forming & re-forming concepts in the new language.

FORMS : EXAMPLES
1) Forms & Interviews
In pairs, they interview each other & then transfer the information they receive
onto a form.
2) Forms & readings 3) Survey forms
Based on a reading passage, students extract the necessary information to fill o
ut a form.
In small groups, students discuss & draw up a questionnaire that aims at discove
ring attitudes other students might have towards controversial issues.

LETTERS
Letters are one of the most widespread forms of written communication. A chance
to deal with a variety of forms & functions that are an essential part of langua
ge mastery. Purposes of writing letters:
To To To To To To To To To To To invite explain apologize commiserate c
te complain inquire order apply acknowledge thank

LETTERS : EXAMPLES
1) Letters & forms
Present a situation to the class looking for a job through an agency. Show sampl
e of advertisement for a job.

 Write a letter of application for the job.

 In pairs, give each pair an advertisement for a job. One student writes his/her
own letter of application as the other fills out a registration form.

 2) Informal letters
3) Business letters
Students are to invite another student to a party. Students write informal notes
to each other. Students are encouraged to make real requests & ask real questio
ns. Once students know the form of a business, they can be given communicative w
riting task that lead them to practice this useful form. Let students to corresp
ond with a class in another country.
4) Pen pals

LISTS
People write lists to help them remember what to do. Examples of lists:
Shopping lists Lists of invited people Lists of things to do tomorrow

LISTS : EXAMPLES
1) Students brainstorm & write down what they would take for hiking in the mount
ains.
2) Ask students what they have to buy in the next day for a camping.

DAILY NOTES
Many people keep daily notebooks @ journals. Students write record of the events
of the day @ ideas about those events. Increase their fluency.

DAILY NOTES : EXAMPLES

1) Ask students to keep special notebook & write in English. Check periodically
to see that the students are doing it. Ask students to choose one of their perso
nal writing to develop into a composition. 2) Ask students to write a summary of
what happened in the class in their notebooks. 3) In 10 minutes, let students w
rite on any topic. Encourage them to read aloud. Begins with an emphasis on writ
ing for communication of ideas.

INSTRUCTIONS
We write instructions to:
Tell friends how to find our house How to water our plants Feed our goldfish A r
ecipe for a friend How to avoid being homesick

INSTRUCTIONS : EXAMPLES
1) Interview each other to find out what the other person knows how to do. The o
ther person writes the steps/procedures then write the instructions in full sent
ences. 2) Students write instructions for each other as how to get form the scho
ol to their home.

CONTROLLED WRITING

CONTROLLED WRITING
Provide pupils practice in writing error-free sentences @ paragraphs Can be almo
st controlled @ completely controlled writing tasks Maximal T(teacher)-input & m
inimal S(students)-input

ADVANTAGES OF CONTROLLED WRITING

First step towards writing composition Encouraging writing among beginners/pupil
s with relatively little knowledge of English & vocabulary Help pupils to gain m
astery of sentence patterns

DISADVANTAGE OF CONTROLLED WRITING

Outdated, dull
creates boredom How to overcome:
Use relevant & interesting subject matter Appropriate teaching aids:
Pictures Brochures Audio Video recordings

Substitution tables
Dictation
TECHNIQUES IN USING CONTROLLED WRITING
Parallel Writing
Sentence Combining
Questions & Answers

Using substitution tables

Ahmad Razki Teo Hock Bing is a teacher watchman clerk
in a car He goes to work by bus by bicycle on foot

Parallel Writing
At the simplest level, pupils need only replace selected word (e.g nouns and adj
ectives) At the advance level, making one change may necessitate other changes t
o make the text coherent. At more advance level, students study a model and then
write on a similar theme using the sentence structure of the model text as a gu
ide.

Question & Answer Technique

This writing activity can range from very controlled to almost free writing. Pup
ils are given notes or a text to read, and then they are asked to write amswers
to a series of questions.

Sentence Combining
Sentence combining gets the students involved in just what the name implies; sen
tence combining. This can be tweaked by picking certain types of sentences to be
combined or having them combine a certain number of sentences. Thus even in som
ething seemingly straightforward there are still possibilities for diversity. Th
is is often a way of converting the simpler even incomplete forms of speaking in
to the more complex forms of writing

Dictation
A useful techniques to provide models of sentence structures and text organizati
on that are commonly used in writing. Allows pupils to practice spelling and pro
nunciation as well. A suitable activity for pupils at various levels so song as
the text for dictation is carefully selected.

 Factors to consider when selecting texts for dictation: 1. Length 2. Level of di

fficulty 3. Types of text 4. The text, if possible, should have a thematic relat
ionship to something already read or discussed.

THANK YOU