WRITING II
Welcome back, Readers! Did you know that the ability to write well is something that has followed you from your early childhood classes up until now and even in your later years’ of school, in fact, all throughout your life? It’s no wonder then that there’s so much emphasis on it in school! This is all the more reason that you spend a great deal of your formative years learning the appropriate rules of grammar and various types of writing!
Let us then take a look at a suggested series of steps that we could take in class: Step 1: Your teacher shows writing to you
Here, you first learn about writing when the teacher is in the front of the class carrying out all the writing after putting together the ideas of the topic through a chart if it is about, for example, ‘What happened at the market’. Those ideas as words will be formed into sentences later to become the writing that needs to be shown to you. This step can be repeated by your teacher a number of times if there are signs that ideas do not come your way easily when you have to carry out your writing to see it being done before you can do something on your own. Try sitting closer to where the teacher is modelling the writing (similar to how you all sit when your teacher is reading a story in your literature class).
Apart from watching your teacher, it is equally important that your attention is not lost in the activity. This is why this step exposes you to a problem-solving approach as you are thinking aloud and can be even used to learn about a specific element of language
STEP 2: THE TEACHER AND STUDENTS SHARE THE WRITING
The teacher can write the key words then you can also join in to contribute to the picture/story your teacher has thought about. The advantage of this step is that there will be lots of discussion, questions and answers taking place as you will be thinking aloud.
STEP 3: YOUR TEACHER IS YOUR GUIDE
Your teacher comments as you are putting together your writing providing feedback, stopping you to check or even asking you to expand what you have written because it is incomplete. This is an advantage because while the teacher will guide you during the writing in the development of ideas and its organisation: you are now stepping into independent writing, the teacher is able to provide the attention needed whether for the group or just for you and above all, you learn to orally put together sentences before writing them!
STEP 4: INDEPENDENT WRITING
This stage is where you make use of written language as a writing activity from a story to a letter or a journal depending on what the lesson requires. The teacher then is able to assess your work through the criteria of mechanics and structure of writing that is used at that level and evaluate your work. WHY IS IT STILL IMPORTANT TO WRITE WHEN CHILDREN TODAY WILL NEVER HAVE TO BE TAUGHT HOW TO USE A KEYBOARD OR OPERATE A TABLET? Writing is still useful and relevant. We are still practising writing as one of the modes of learning and this will also be needed while using technology! What is more, writing also benefits the brain and the body! According to https://www.oxfordlearning.com , it releases stress because it improves one’s focus and attention in class. In a nutshell, know that every time you are asked to do a writing activity in class, it is actually developing your thought and learning. How? Writing and reading are inter-related therefore you should be encouraged to use writing to respond to literature which you hear or read. Experience in reading and practice in writing will enable you to learn spelling, punctuation, the connection between words and pictures, paragraphs and an entire passage! Writing is an important form of communication and a key part of education so it is never too late to improve your writing.