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Strategies
Here are some strategies you can use to help learners become
more familiar with the writing process. You can talk about:
- Why people write
- What they write about
- The different types of writing (formal, informal, personal,
business)
- How to get started
- Discuss possible physical difficulties or issues
- Who you write for / who will read what you write
- Pre-writing activities such as brainstorming, mind-mapping
and even doodling
- What message or story you want to get across
- What information you need to include in the writing
- How long the piece of writing will be
- Getting your main idea across
- Including supporting details, secondary ideas and/or
making inferences
- How to review and edit the writing
- How to deal with the instructor’s review of the writing!
As an instructor, you should not be seeking to correct every single mistake
on the first draft of a piece of writing. Try focusing on one thing at
a time; for example, overall organization, grammar, punctuation or spelling.
Tackling all of these areas at the same time can be overwhelming for both
the instructor and the student!
Possible Activities
- Journal Writing. Have learners keep a regular journal.
Respond to the learner’s writing without correcting spelling
or grammar, but try to incorporate the correct spelling or sentence
structure
in your response.
- Cartoons. Ask students to interpret editorial cartoons
or write about their opinion on a related topic.
- Pictures. Have students label pictures or write captions
for them. This can be incorporated with a scrapbook
activity.
- Letters to the Editor. Have learners write or respond
to letters to the editor.
- Ann Landers. Ask students to write to Ann Landers (or
another advice columnist) or to answer a reader’s letter to
Ann.
- Peer editing. Have learners read their writing out loud
in a group and have the group assist with corrections.
- Write e-mails to learners; have them respond. Encourage
them to e-mail each other.
- Participate in a safe online chat forum, such as AlphaRoute
- Write an autobiography.
- Write a poem or a short story
- Make an advertising poster
- Notes for various occasions, e.g. thank you notes,
note to a sick friend, birthday greetings, wedding
congratulations, etc.
- Notes to a child’s teacher
- Telephone messages
Resources
Harwood, Chris. Handbook for Literacy Tutors. Edmonton:
Grass Roots Press, 2001.
McGarell, H.M. and P. Brillinger. Writing for Results: Academic and Professional
Writing Tasks. Saint-Laurent: Pearson Education ESL. (more suitable for
higher level learners)
Millar, Diane. Making Choices: Teaching Writing in the Workplace. Edmonton:
Grass Roots Press, 2002.
Morgan, Deborah M. Writing Out Loud. Edmonton: Grass Roots Press, 2002.
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Questions for Reflection
- What other writing activities do you (or could you) use?
- What are the components of the writing process?
- How do you show sensitivity when correcting or editing
a student’s work?
- Based on what you know about your learners’ daily lives, makes a list
of times they might use their writing skills (e.g. notes to a teacher, notes
for work). How can you help them develop the writing skills they will need
for these particular writing tasks?
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