To my presentation about: Developing and Assessing writing skill In a comptence based curriculum Prepared by: Amal Mohamed

Al-Jahra Educational Zone Ministry Of Education Al-Jahra Educational Zone Omima Bint Khalaf primary School Department of English

Prepared and Presented by H .O . D Miss : Amal Mohammed

School Principal Mrs : Basma Al Enzay E . L . T Supervisor Mrs : Samah Saeed

Rome was not built in a day

Task one :

Why is written language is difficult if compared To spoken language ?

Spoken language : In spoken language one speaks quickly . One respond to different people . The focus is on the message . Faults are ignored or forgiven . One communicates with others for many purposes . One interacts with people . One never lose marks while speaking . No efforts are exerted while one is talking . Definition : An educational process where students become engaged in assimilating the material being taught rather than absorbing it passively. In short it is anything that the students do in a classroom other than merely passive listening : solve problems , answer questions , formulate questions for their own , discuss , explain or brain storming.

In written language : More attention , preparation and perfection are needed . Putting content on paper immediately brings to attention the faults . In writing , the grammatical mistakes stand out . Wrong formation of sentences twists the meaning one wants to convey . Learners lose marks due to poorly written English . Writing in the classroom often lacks the communicative purpose . Writing , by its nature , is a solo activity done silently . Writing takes a lot of time and involves effort . Definition : An educational process where students become engaged in assimilating the material being taught rather than absorbing it passively. In short it is anything that the students do in a classroom other than merely passive listening : solve problems , answer questions , formulate questions for their own , discuss , explain or brain storming.

Task two :

Do reading and listening have any influence on writing ?

Of course they have , here are some tips to improve writing through reading and listening : Read more and more , reading sharpens and improves one's language skills . Reading enriches one's thought content . Reading increases one's active vocabulary . Looking for meanings , spellings , the various usages of words improves one's writing . .

Reading newspapers carefully , as they use good and simple English , to communicate news , ideas and thoughts will improve one's writing . Paying attention to the written expressions will improve one's writing . Watching , carefully , videos on English language grammar and its usage will improve one's writing through improving his grammatical skills ..

What are the remarks we should take into consideration when designing activities to develop our young learners' writing skill ?

Learners need a basic foundation and understanding of the spoken language in order to be able to write in English . Age plays a crucial role in what we teach and how we teach , the characteristics of the learners' age are very important . :

Learners' needs , the language competences emphasized and the cognitive skills developed .

Task Three

Name some activities to develop writing and to make young learners enjoy writing .

1 – Creative writing : - It can be used as an ice breaker or to consolidate vocabulary learnt in previous lessons. The learner has to write many words and forma word using the first letter in each word he wrote : Paint Elephant Not Cry Intelligent Life P + e + n + c + I + l = pencil and so on .

2 – Peer writing : Learners are allowed to work in pairs , each pair will have a list of some sentences in two columns , learners have to match the sentences in the first column with the sentences in the second column , there is no wrong or right answers. After matching , learners can write stories using the verb tense given in sentences matched .

3 – Journal diaries and story telling . 4 – Co-operative writing . 5 – Using word clouds and songs . 6 – Cartoons . 7 – Book projects .

Tips to encourage young learners to write :

Make writing meaningful , young learners can express themselves about topics that are relevant and important to them . Invite your young learners to write freely without worrying about correctness . Ask your young learners to write about their own lives and experiences.

Engage your young learners in short writings because young learners can't remain focused on the message to be communicated for longer time . Encourage your young learners to keep journals or diaries. Journal writing is important because it is not public and is a chance to write in the most free way .

Give your young learners the chance to revise their writings to cover all their thoughts on the topic . Always let your young learners know you're proud of their writings . Last but not least don't forget to write them a note of encouragement.

Assessment and evaluation of writing :

Many procedures used to assess and evaluate writing quality are drawn from cognitive theories of writing . The cognitive approach to writing supposes that text production is a finalized and a complete activity in which several complex cognitive processes are activated .

There are two measures of writing quality : The subjective or the qualitative and its three methods : Holistic Analytic Primary – trait scoring Objective or quantitative which includes : The number of words written Percentage of correctly spelled words Percentage of correct word sequences

Task Four

A portfolio Assessment : Give some advantages and draw backs , if there are , of using the portfolio assessment .

It's reflecting a more sociocultural theory of writing . It collects several writing samples across different writing purposes and genres to gain a broader view of a learner's writing ability . It includes the final product along with the drafts and the revisions allowing the teacher to evaluate progress from start to finish .

It encourages more collaboration with peers rather than being teacher – centered . It is more consistent with the new trends ( the Kuwait National Curriculum )

The only one concern with the Portfolio Assessment is the time and cost to gather and evaluate each learner's writing whether in the classroom or in the large – scale testing .

Thank You