Reading and Writing Through Task-Based Group Work

Useful things to Know Four stages of language acquisition Stage Characteristics Teacher Prompts Preproduction The student Has minimal comprehension Does not verbalize Nods “Yes” and “No” Draws and points Show me... Circle the... Where is...? Who has...? Early Production The student Has limited comprehension Produces one- or two- word responses Participates using key words and familiar phrases Uses present-tense verbs Yes/no questions Either/or questions One- or two-word answers Lists Labels

Stages of Language Acquisition Speech Emergence The student Has good comprehension Can produce simple sentences Makes grammar and pronunciation errors Frequently misunderstands jokes Why...? How...? Explain... Phrase or short- sentence answers Intermediate Fluency The student Has excellent comprehension Makes few grammatical errors What would happen if...? Why do you think...? Advanced Fluency The student has a near- native level of speech. Decide if... Retell... Source: Adapted from Krashen and Terrell (1983).

Consider Classrooms have a range Address each level of learning Consider moment of learning and where you want individual students to be in the future.

Cooperative Learning Cooperative groups and pair groups maximize language production time. Allow students to learn from each. Provide teacher with freedom and flexibility to focus on students with greatest need.

Best Strategy Create Base Groups Pairs and partners work best for many reading and writing activities. Groups of four work well for mini-discussions

Skills Sets Reading activities are receptive skills Writing activities are productive skills

Receptive and Productive Receptive –With receptive lessons move from general to specific information Productive –In productive lessons allow more time for students to speak or work to express through the language

Instructional Strategies For Reading and Writing

Instructional Strategies Combine the areas of required English practice: Speaking, listening, reading, writing Can be designed to focus on specific areas Utilize student strengths by allowing students to work as a group

Skills While reading and writing are important in the classroom the primary focus of language for communication should not be ignored. A silent class is a dead class.

Think Pair Share ALICE was beginning to get very tired of sitting by her sister on the bank, and of having nothing to do: once or twice she had peeped into the book her sister was reading, but it had no pictures or conversations in it, "and what is the use of a book," thought Alice, "without pictures or conversations?" So she was considering in her own mind (as well as she could, for the hot day made her feel very sleepy and stupid) whether the pleasure of making a daisy-chain would be worth the trouble of getting up and picking the daisies, when suddenly a White Rabbit with pink eyes ran close by her.

Think Pair Share Begin with a general question have students read. Ask students to look for something specific, vocabulary words, and answer. Read a final time looking for reading comprehension type questions

Think Pair Share in Writing Start with a general brainstorm Revise the brainstorm into an organizational layout. Continue several times Write a rough draft. Write a final draft.

Reading Dictation Provide one student with a copy of a reading text. One students is a reader or readers take turns. Other students listen and write. Finish with reading exercises moving from general to specific

I Say You Write Teacher begins with larger group questions Students work in pairs. One speaks the other writes. Speaker checks for correctness Teacher continues asking questions in a manner that creates a complete, organized writing piece.

Running Dictation –Divide students into two roles, Runner and Writer –Runners read the text and tell writers –Writers listen and write the text, asking questions about spelling and meaning as appropriate –Runners watch and correct mistakes orally, but do not write

Jobs Running

Chain Stories Have students work in groups. One student writes the first sentence. The sentence is passed to the next student in the group. Students continue to add sentences, each student adding a least three sentences. Final stories are edited and written individually by each student in notebooks.

Reading Map Students read a story. The story may be presented as a reading dictation Students map the events of the story using a webbing or reading map. Students use pictures, etc, to link significant information from the story into a visual presentation.

Writing Prompts Teacher provide a general structure for the writing Students are given visual prompts As a group students work together to create a written piece following the structure of the prompts

For More Information Questions? This presentation is available for download, along with over 30 task based learning pieces from my classroom.