21.4.2016: «A WRITING TEACHING CYCLE (O Κύκλος Παραγωγής γραπτού λόγου)» με το Stephen John Taylor

Την Πέμπτη 21 Απριλίου 2016 και ώρα 17.30 – 19.30 (μ.μ.) στo Σχολείο Δεύτερης Ευκαιρίας  του Βόλου, Χείρωνος και Επτά Πλατανίων πραγματοποιήθηκε επιμόρφωση  εκπαιδευτικών ΠΕ 06 α/θμιας και β/θμιας Ν. Μαγνησίας με θέμα:

 «A WRITING TEACHING CYCLE (O Κύκλος Παραγωγής γραπτού λόγου)».

Επιμορφωτής ήταν ο Stephen John Taylor, με 30ετή εμπειρία στην εκπαιδευτική συμβουλευτική και  σύμβουλος εξετάσεων του Cambridge, και η παρουσίαση έγινε στην αγγλική γλώσσα,  και με στόχο να αναδείξει τον κύκλο/διαδικασία παραγωγής γραπτού λόγου και κάποια κοινά κριτήρια αξιολόγησης του γραπτού λόγου των μαθητών στην αγγλική γλώσσα, όπως έχουν θεσπιστεί από το ΚΕΠΑ (Κοινό Ευρωπαϊκό Πλαίσιο Αναφοράς).

 Το σεμινάριο περιελάμβανε ενσωματωμένη πρακτική (ομαδοσυνεργατική) σε πραγματικά (ανώνυμα) γραπτά μαθητών του δημοσίου, επιπέδου Α2+  − Β2+. 

 Α basic outline:

Α WRITING TEACHING CYCLE  can improve learner competency in the very criteria used by international assessment bodies. Mainly aimed at B1 and B2 level, it would involve a presentation of the cycle and a workshop on various elements of it. It could also present some ideas for classroom activities and could be expanded to include lower CEFR levels. It would last for approx. 120 minutes.

1.      SETTING THE TASK

It is generally understood that nowadays schoolchildren communicate in writing through a whole range of interactive platforms mainly learned outside of school. This ‘writing revolution’ is something that teachers can exploit inside the classroom to raise awareness of things such as register and appropriacy, difference in formats and differences between spoken and written language.

We shall look at the Writing Processes a good writer would go through:

Data collection – Selecting – Planning – Drafting – Crafting – Editing –Rewriting - Proof-reading.

I shall demonstrate how such processes can be used in a manageable classroom teaching cycle to help learners improve their skills, in relation to achievement categories such as: content, communicative achievement, organization and language.

Writing tasks should imply a clear text-type: letter, e-mail, review, essay, story, article, etc. and a clear communicative context, e.g. writing to a friend who lives abroad. These dimensions of the task need to be explored with learners to keep them ‘on task’.

When to set the task is also important – When do you typically tell learners what they are going to write? [An honest answer: at the end!].  Now, imagine what difference it would make if you told them:  ‘At the end of this unit - in three weeks’ time – I’m going to ask you to write a review about …’ While reading ... listening …speaking …doing grammar, video and vocabulary work, etc., learners could be collecting and selecting data, and planning for their writing task.

The next stage in the cycle is

2.      EXPOSURE.  If we’re taking time to make learners better writers in relation to a particular text type, it only makes sense that we should take some to expose them to typical features of the text-type, which could be: typical format or organization features, typical functional content or - at a more detailed level - typical use of stylistic features such as rhetorical questions or forms of punctuation. In exposing learners through pre-writing tasks to such features, we would hope to have a positive impact on the processes of selection, planning and drafting.

The next stage should involve a

3.      WRITING CLINIC, where learners have a go at ‘writing’ and collaboratively support each other in mini-writing tasks.  These tasks still need to be contextualized with reference to the overall ‘bigger piece’ of writing that they will subsequently produce, but rather than there being a huge gulf between input in class and producing a whole piece of writing at home, it makes sense for learners to attempt some of the smaller challenges collaboratively in class

4.      COMPOSING (or CRAFTING) -  refers to the process of attempting to produce a full version of the written piece – in most learning contexts this will  involve writing at home [alone] because of class time constraints. There is, however, much that teachers can do to support this process.

The final stage in the cycle is:

5.      FEEDBACK – encompassing processes such as assessment, marking, commenting, correcting, rewriting, and so on.

Materials used would be a ppt presentation and we could indeed look at samples of work as submitted by the teachers/yourself and apply what we have learned!