It was fabulous to be joined by Katherine Reilly, a coursebook and graded readers writer for young learners. You can see more of her work on her blog and her session today looked at getting our younger learners to develop a love of writing.
Katherine started off by talking about receptive and productive skills and how we can use speaking to encourage learners to write. She then went on to discuss some of the problems of working on writing during lessons: a lack of time, curriculum demands, a fear of learners making mistakes in writing – which are more obvious and lasting than mistakes made when speaking.
She also said that at times, we provide students with a model, but don’t encourage them to think critically around the text, or provide them with the motivation they need to produce their own work.
Katherine suggests using games to motivate our learners and also to focus on helping them develop their writing, rather than expecting them to produce a perfect text from day one.
Here’s a plan she suggests for working with young learners:
- Choose a theme – something that will motivate the students
- What language do you want them to focus on?
- Think about the materials you’ll use (flashcards, presentation)
- Spark their imagination through the theme and the language. Get them to draw pictures.
- Look for opportunities to upgrade their work
She also suggested using pictures from the web or GIFs to engage the students and in the webinar she shared some great examples of an elephant in strange contexts. One of the benefits of using created resources is that learners then need more language and will be more motivated to ask for it. Learners can also feel inspired to find their own images.
She also noted that learners are very perceptive and will see things in images that we might not imagine they will.
Once we have done more simple activities, we can demand more from our learners. For example, Katherine suggested brainstorming vocabulary around the theme. This also allows for more personal choice in the language they’ll use.
She also suggested that we can get learners to proofread their text – even from a young age, they should learn to process and evaluate their work as this sense of responsibility is an important skill for the future.
Some text types she suggested are:
- Descriptions
- Comic strips
- Sentence building with flashcards and wordcards
- Substitution activities
- Postcards
So, why should we work on writing in class?
Katherine highlighted that it enables teachers to diagnose flaws in structure, vocabulary and spelling. She added that it allows for creativity and personalisation in the lesson, giving learners the chance to express themselves. It also provides the opportunity for consolidation of what they have learnt in that lesson.
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