| Body | Dr. Edward M. Zarrow, tzarrow@westwood.k12.ma.us
Title: Original Writing Revisited
Format: Individual
Target Audience: This activity is designed to be used in a second / foreign language classroom with minimal facilitation by the second / foreign language teacher.
Purpose: In order for students to move through the ACTFL foreign language proficiency continuum more efficiently, they must be cognizant of their linguistic development and have ownership of their improvement and ability to use more advanced linguistic structures throughout the process. The following activity allows students to work on their creative writing skills – something that they are being asked to do less and less of outside of the foreign language classroom, especially at the high school level. Students will build a story over time, adding newer grammatical structures as they go to the same material. For me, this is an ideal activity to use before and after a vacation, a prolonged break, or an extended unit.
Time: Variable
Materials: Any image of the teacher’s choosing which will prompt students to tell an original story in the target language. The image may be projected and / or provided to students with space to source new vocabulary and write out a story. At a later time, the same image must be provided again with additional space to write.
Directions:
- Present students with an image. Ask them to source all of the familiar vocabulary as a class and keep track of student input. Ask them what they see! Have the students write down as many nouns, adjectives, and verbs that describe the action taking place. At the teacher’s discretion, add / share with students new and unfamiliar vocabulary.
- Give the students 5-10 minutes (although longer is possible for advanced or particularly motivated students) to write an original story using as many of the vocabulary words they have just sourced as they can. Depending upon the level, they may write in the present or past. The teacher should circulate to assist with specific student questions about grammar and especially to see what kinds of common mistakes are being made by the group so that these can be addressed immediately and not become systemic. At the teacher’s discretion, student papers may be collected for review and returned to the students for correction. It is important that the student writing not be evaluated formally at this time. In any case, students should hold onto their writing.
- After a new grammatical / linguistic concept has been introduced to the students, students should be instructed to rewrite their original paragraph; however, they must now use the new concept in their writing – whatever it may be. In my Latin classes, this is a particularly strong exercise when we learn the imperfect tense (students have to change all the verbs from present to imperfect) or relative clauses (students must use relative clauses rather than adjectives to describe nouns). Several positive things happen as a result. First, the writing is theirs, so the material is comprehensible to them, and they continue to catch and correct mistakes, often on their own. Second, students can immediately compare their two writings and take direct ownership of their improvement. And third, students are often buoyed by what they can express, and this moves from their writing into their interpretive reading, interpersonal speaking, etc.
- (Optional) Teachers may again collect student writing for review. The teacher will often know quickly what needs to be retaught and what new linguistic structures have been mastered.
- (Optional) Samples of student writing from the original and later writing exercises may be kept and filed by the teacher in order to provide subsequent evidence of student linguistic improvement.
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