Task 2

Task 2
I have never taught writing to children and in the level I am teaching right now the kids are too young to read or write; thus, I cannot do writing activities. However, I love writing! I believe there is a strong connection between the writer and the reader. Even if you lack a reader, there is a connection from the writer to the text. Therefore, I wanted to talk about writing and the strategies I would apply if my kids knew how to read and write.
I believe that I already have an advantage being such an advocate for writing. I believe in writing and the benefits it brings when you are able to clearly express your ideas through text. Thus, I have the possibility of giving my students the "writing bug".
When designing an activity, I generally would think about the topics they like to talk about and what they have been really excited to share. With kids in particular, I believe that one of the most important things is to make it appealing for them. If you can make it appealing, it is almost certain that they will participate willingly.

As far as strategies go I would:
1. Have them tell a personal story.
2. Do a TPS (think-pair-share) exercise where they first have 5 minutes to think about what they want to talk about, then talk in pairs, and lastly write a story.
3. I believe also giving them a blank page and colors to let them draw whatever they want and then tell a story about their picture would allow freedom.
4. My kids love to talk about the movies they have watched, so may be if I let them choose a movie and have them write what happens and change the ending would be fun.
5. One activity I have actually done with older students is to show them pictures and write a collective story using the pictures.

Hope you guys have a great week!

Comments

  1. Danilo RibeiroApril 29, 2016 at 1:26 PM

    Having an advocate for writing makes the whole difference. I remember when I was teaching very young learners who couldn't read or writing, I took advantage of the storytelling time. Even though they couldn't read the story, my making gestures, changing my tone of voice really sparked their curiosity for reading, because they realized I was reading from "the big book" and they all wanted to understand what was written there. I remember one of the parents coming to me during departure and thanking me because the kid really wanted to read and was begging his mom to teach him thee alphabet. So everything you have pointed out is valid, especially if we are teaching very young learners. I am going to use your suggestion to teach my older students how to write a coherent narrative using props. I am sure they will love it. Thanks for sharing.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Carolina Brenes BurgosApril 29, 2016 at 1:56 PM

    Any time Danilo! Thank you very much for you comments and encouragement! I certainly want to try to encourage my students to read and write!

    ReplyDelete
  3. Juan UribeMay 1, 2016 at 10:23 AM

    I agree 100% with you and Danilo that having oneself the pleasure in writing makes a big difference in how students perceive it. We can only give what we have. One question I would make a teacher whose students do not like writing is how this teacher has enjoyed writing. 

    I can see that you have anchored writing to concrete experiences and I like that very much. Young learners sometimes have a double-fold challenge in having to create and write a story at the same time. Making it concrete allows them to focus all their cognition and affect on what the experience meant to them. 

    Giving a model and sharing some writing strategies helps a lot in showing young learners what kind of outcome we would like to have. 

    Last it is essential to give feedback on both form and content to show them that their writing has affected us, that we are people and not grammar correctors. Sharing it with other audiences makes it even better!!!

    Wish you great writing on your own and with your students, Carolina!

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

TASK 2: Getting ready for storytelling.

TASK 2: Getting ready for storytelling. I have a group of 12 kids ranging from 7 to 8 years old. They are already familiarized with the characters of the book (Tina the tortoise, monkey, own, duck and rabbit). The leading character is Tina the tortoise. This is a pre-teaching activity and I bring realia objects to the classroom like: football, a coat, socks, a cap and a mug. I ask kids where Tina is: where is Tina? ( I act like I'm looking for her..) Oh look! Tina is in her shell! Tina come out and play! ( sound of a negative answer) Help me kids! Repeat: Tina come out and play! ( sound of a negative answer again). Let's try again but louder! Tina, come out and play! Tina answers: No, no! It's cold outside! I say: Tina let's swim! ( I make the gesture) Tina answers: no, no! It' cold outside! I let children have ideas showing the objects inside the box! Let's play football! Children keep trying to convince her (Put on a coat! Put on a cap! Put on your socks!). A...
Read more

Finding the right audience and making writing meaningful are two of the major challenges teachers face when...

Finding the right audience and making writing meaningful are two of the major challenges teachers face when designing writing activities. What affective strategies have you used that achieved these goals? Imagine asking a ten-year old student to write about the impact of the economic collapse in the USA. This student will not have much to say and he/she will feel frustrated. Now imagine asking a 17-year-old student to write about his/her favorite toy. This student will not feel excited to write about this because it is not part of his/her reality anymore. Of course, these are extreme examples, but we do have to take into consideration many aspects such as students's age, background, reality and interests when designing writing activities. Besides relating to students lives and realities writing acitivities should also cover three moments: pre writing, writing and post writing. In the first stage, we should activate students memories, feelings and senses providing them with the ...
Read more

Discussion task #2

Discussion task #2 Finding the right audience and making writing meaningful are two of the major challenges teachers face when designing writing activities. What affective strategies have you used that achieved these goals? 1) I try to personalize writing as much as possible. I usually start talking about myself to get students at ease and more open to share their own feelings and ideas towards the writing topic. Then I adapt the task to allow students to express themselves in a comfortable and confident way. 2) Finding the right audience is definitely a key issue in all writing tasks but it's even more important with young learners as they need to feel their writing is authentic and will be read by real audience. That's why I try to do peer check/correction before I read it myself. Whenever possible, I try to have students write to each other and reply back. As a different version of it, we created at our center (A wise owl) which students write to and get personalized replies...
Read more