A successfull writing class
Among the sections that TOEFL iBT test takers are scared of, integrated writing is also a challenge for most teachers.
In my personal experience, integrated writing can be taught in certain stages as follows:
1. Note taking
Students will jot down main ideas and major details as they read and listen. The problem here is 'what is to be noted down?'. The signals! I prefer to call them the signals, which indicate what is going to be discussed in the particular sentence. As a teacher, (s)he must teach how to catch the signals so that the learners can regconize them and at the same time regconize the main points.2. Planning
Decide what point to be included in the essay. One common problem here is the students tends to write a summary of the main points from the passage and the lecture. That is a wrong concept. The task here is to synthesize (the exact word used by ETS manual) the ideas: illustrate how the ideas in the passage are related to the ideas in the lecture. In short, you will need to cross out some irrelevant ideas. What to be done is:- Determine the relationship: Compare the notes from the passage and the lecture to see how they are connected: contrast? Addition? comparison?...
- Omit ideas that do not support the relationship Of course some ideas would be not about the relationship, but the learners have to decide themself
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3. Writing
Start writing with a topic sentence and the supporting details from the passage. That would make one paragraph.Start the second paragraph with the relationship, which is followed by the topic sentence and the supports from the lecture.
If you have time, go back to the beginning and add a short paragraph to demonstrate a general idea of your response. However, you dont need to write a conclusion.
One problem may occur is timing. If students have problems with timing, tell them to start with the two topic sentences and the relationship first. In other words, they could write 2 paragraphs at the same time. In that way, the majority of the essay is still quite completed if they run short in time. Also, if you get stuck while writing the first paragraph, jump to the second one.
Another problem is the lack of paraphrasing. The more you paraphase, the better. One simple tip to do is NOT to look at the passage while you write: try to write with what and how you understand the points of the writer and the speaker. If you copy their words, you are not paraphrasing at all.
*** In my first class, I only taught them about note taking and planning. Then I tell them to do a homework in the same way.
*** In my second class, I do the homework again to correct their outline, and let them write their reponse (with my instruction about the format) on a sheet of paper. Then they do peer correction (with instruction) so that they know how to correct their own.
*** The next class should the an ideal chance to teach paraphrasing, so that they can correct their own repetition (and plagiarism ^^)
Bui Chi Thuan said:
*** In my previous classes in the other courses, I just told them to work on note taking and planning, because I thought that they still had problems with those steps. It did not satisfy the students: What is the point of teaching a writing class without any writing at all? Now I balance the levels of planning and writing, which seems to be working brilliantly.