How to make your writing class INTERESTING

Do you recognise yourself as one of these teachers? Tick the box if you agree with the statement. My students hate writing so we do it as little as possible My students write for homework, not in class. Marking written work takes ages!

Some teachers make the mistake of being too serious about writing. They also leave it for homework, not giving students a chance to see and read each other’s writing. For students, writing can be fun if you try!

Here are two separate writing tasks. Can you say which one is better? Writing Task 1 1. The students do some revision exercises on past tense forms. 2. Then they sequence sentences using ‘After that’ and ‘Then’. 3. The teacher gives then a list of words to do with holidays ‘beach’, ‘sightseeing’, etc. which they write in their notebooks. For homework they do this task: Write about what you did in your holidays. Remember to use the past tense.

Writing task 2 1. The teacher begins by asking the students to say one word connected with their holiday- a place or an activity, etc. He writes some of these on the board. 2. In pairs the students tell each other about three interesting things that happened to them over the holiday. 3. The teacher reviews some of the past tenses that the students make errors with in this exercise, as well as the vocabulary. 4. The teacher hands out a short story about his holiday and the class read it together and look at how he makes it interesting, how the story fits together etc. 5. The teacher tells the class they are going to make a ‘Holidays’ poster for the classroom. 6. Each student for homework should write about 150 words about one day of their summer holiday that was special or interesting and put a picture underneath. 7. In the lesson the class in pairs are going to help each other write their paragraphs and try to make them as interesting as possible. The teacher will go round and help too, asking questions and helping with vocabulary.

Writing Task 2 has all the things that make writing interesting and successful. Here are some tips for teaching writing:  Make sure the students are active before they start. The Task 2 teacher lets them chat and get interested in the topic.  Let the students have some choice in the writing. Task 2 students tell their friend three things and then choose one.  Make sure the task is not just a grammar exercise. In Task 1 the teacher seems only interested in the past tense, not the subject.

 Give the students a model of the kind of writing they should do. The Task 2 teacher has written about his own holiday.  Talk about what the model looks like. Teachers sometimes give a model but just say ‘write it like that’. Students need more help than that, as in Task 2.  Let them do illustrations, find pictures on the net, etc. In real life a magazine or children’s book would have pictures!

 Let them help each other. People ask for help when they are writing so let your students ask you and each other.  Give a clear form for the writing. Is it an article, or a paragraph, or a review?  Give them a reason for writing. This is very important. Say that you will display the work, or that they can read each other’s work or show it to another class. If we write something and are pleased with it, then we like to show it to other people.  Make sure that written work is shared in your classes and give lots of praise.

There are THREE basic and valuable steps of writing: Prewriting can be defined as any structural experiences that influence active student participation in thinking, talking, writing, and working on the topic under focus in a writing lesson. Prewriting techniques should be seen and used as alternative ways of stimulating and motivating students to write more and better essays. Steps of Writing  Pre-Writing stage

Such activities or experiences, include the following: Oral Group / Individual Brainstorming. This involves the use of leading questions to get students thinking about a topic or idea that is under focus. The questions could be written on the board and each student asked to think out answers to them. The teacher let students think. Then he can randomly choose students to tell the class their answers, reactions or responses to the questions. The teacher writes the answers on the board. These answers are then copied by each student for subsequent use in his essay.

Debating. This is the act of orally presenting two sides of an argument or topic. It can be used to generate ideas, thoughts, concepts, notions, and opinions about any topic under focus. All the advantages that go with active oral use of language by students make debating worthwhile for stimulating students to write. Oral language use enhances writing ability.

Interviewing. Students are asked to interview someone sitting near them. Each student is given five minutes to ask questions and jot down notes about the other student's background and interests before reversing roles for another five minutes. Then they can be given 15 minutes to organize a rough draft of their notes. Next, they read their drafts to their partners for reactions and suggestions so that misconceptions can be corrected and information can be added or deleted.

Reading. silent reading or extensive reading is a useful tool for generating ideas for writing as well as a means of exposing the students to the vocabulary, idioms, conventions of written language. The teacher and his students should explore as many as they can and use them to enhance students' writing. Reading and writing are two skills that mirror each other, and they ought to be taught in such a way as to complement each other.

Group Discussion. This is a technique most teachers are already familiar with and should use extensively in language classes.It helps them to orgnaise their compositions. This oral presentation also enables the teacher to find out whether the students have the necessary vocabulary and language structures with which to express their ideas in writing. Group discussion of a topic as a prewriting activity is also useful because it provides the weaker students with ideas and materials to write on, as well as help get varied perspectives on the topic at hand.

In this stage, the teacher plays the role of the moderator and the observer. He wanders around the class monitoring their writing and helping them with any difficulties. He can not just keep still and watch them make mistakes. In this stage, the teacher can: collect the papers and correct them himself. ask students to exchange notebooks and correct each others. take a random paper and correct it on the board for students to echo.  While-Writing stage  Post-Writing stage

correction Most students find it very dispiriting if they get a piece of written work back and it’s covered in red ink, unde- rlinings and crossings- out. I think we have to achieve a balance between being accurate and truthful on the one hand and treating students sensitively and sympathetically on the other.

The greatest enemy of a successful teacher is Student boredom REMEMBER

INTERESTING activity to add fun to your class (1) Pass the Paper Objective: To help students generate ideas for their composition in the drafting phase; to practice recently learned grammar structures Steps: Ask your students to find a piece of paper and to write their name on the top right-hand corner. Have them draw a box in the middle of the paper and put the title of the composition in the box. Explain to your students that they are going to pass their paper to the person on their left. Each time they receive a sheet of paper, they should write a question on the paper about the subject of the composition. Then pass it on to their left again. Have students do this until there are at least five questions on the paper. Then have them collect their own sheet.

MR.HOSSAM When students have gotten their paper back, ask them to number the questions in the order in which they would like to answer them. Students then write the composition. After the compositions are written, have students share them with their classmates. Example: The following example is for New Interchange 1, Unit 7: "We Had a Great Time!"