Getting your students to the point where they are able to write a 150 words on a specific topic may seem like a tall order. For certain, none of us would throw our students in at the deep end and expect them to be able to write on a topic without a number of gradual steps. There are steps that we take to ensure that our students are supported and feel able to put pen to paper and successfully respond to the question. What follows then, are the steps I take to enable my students to write essays that they can be proud of and equally that tick the right boxes for me.
Step 1:
Long before we tackle a piece of writing we work on building vocabulary and chunks of vocabulary using online tools such as Quizlet, Textivate and games in the classroom such as:
- Rip bingo
- Choral Repetition (and delayed repetition)
- Blockbusters
- Noughts & Crosses
- Trapdoor
- I say - you say
- Battleships
- Mind reading
I assess learning as we go with low-stakes quizzing in Quizizz where students can practise a number of times and using Microsoft Forms to assess more formally when I want to record their progress.
Step 2
Throughout the process I am really keen on modelling and making good use of structures that encourage students to combine their sentences. I tend to concentrate on a few good structures and model their use in context. You can read more on that process here. I am also a fan of good old live modelling in class. Here's what this looks like:
- We read through some examples in context and draw out the structures
- I create some sentences following the model.
- We create some as a class using some clues/words to help guide their efforts.
- Individuals have a go and I provide help as necessary.
Step 3
For me, it is important to expose my students to the relevant language that we are studying. In terms of listening tasks, I like to get as much out of a listening exercise as I possibly can. The key vocabulary will already have been covered in step 1, but if there are any 'stinkers' - ie low frequency words - I will provide the meaning for those words so that students do not become overwhelmed and confused. If necessary, I will let my students complete a quizlet set or a LearningApps activity first to help them to become accustomed to any new key terms.
Once we have listened to the task and have a complete transcript I like to go back to my structures and see what we can pull out of the transcript to use in my own writing.
Reading also forms part of this exposure to language and in addition to tasks like the one above my students will complete narrow reading tasks.
Reading tasks include but are not limited to
- spot the difference
- matching sentences
- spot the errors
- delayed copying
- Q&A (including T/F and the dread Not Mentioned)
- long answers in TL or in Eng
Step 4
By now, we're probably sucking diesel (couldn't resist - big Line of Duty fan) and students are champing at the bit, ready to produce some of their own writing. I generally start this slowly, often by going back to a key structure and ask students to use the structure contextually with our current area of focus. I then use tools like Flippity to provide some sort of base on which to build sentences. Here's a few examples:
So. That’s the start of the process. In Part 2 I will walk through the next steps I take.
Does this initial process look similar to the way you build up to writing? Let me know how you do it in the contents box below.
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