| Body | Teaching writing can be approached in a number of ways. This month we will focus on the teaching and learning of writing skills in the language classroom. To kick of the month, and get us back in the curriculum planning mode, this week's Topic of the Week offers five tips for teaching writing in the language classroom. We offer an example of these techniques as part f this week’s Activity of the Week and will explore each tip in more detail as the month progresses.
- Read, read, read! The more learners are given the opportunity to read with intention, the more it will impact their writing. This can be especially helpful to model various genres, identify audience, and target structures specific to a unit or lesson. Integrating reading as part of the writing process can have a profound impact on learners writing.
- Explore genre whenever possible. Giving learners the opportunity to write in at least 5-7 genres is fundamental to building strong writing skills. This can include a focus on more informal writing contexts as well as more formal academic contexts.
- Evaluate all dimensions of a writing project. When creating rubrics, or other metrics, to evaluate the quality of writing outcomes, one should include all target learning objectives. This includes vocabulary and grammar, but should also target rhetorical structure, formatting, quality of content, and appropriateness for the audience.
- Have learners write what people actually write. When creating a writing prompt, it can be very helpful to select a writing format that people use every day. In place of isolated assignments, a focus on real world tasks adds authenticity to the writing task and enables learners to explore a language task they do each day.
- Use a variety of writing processes. In addition to process writing with multiple drafts, a critical step in the teaching of writing, it is important to offer the opportunity to write in less structured contexts as well. This can include journal entries, a blog post, and other less formal genres.
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