Writing is probably one of the most
difficult skills to develop during the learning process. Sometimes we
find it difficult to put in written word what we have in our mind. That is one
more of our challenges as language teachers; whether we teach a mother tongue
or a second language, improving students’ writing skills is a complex process
that lasts several years. How can we, as teachers, help students to reach an appropriate
level in writing skill?
To get a superior level in writing it is
necessary to have the guidance of a teacher who knows the different micro and
macro-skills to develop; having a clear idea about that, the teacher could
create activities, materials, and tasks appropriate to achieve the goals of the
course. Those micro and macro skills are well explained in Brown (2004) as well
as the types of writing performance (imitative, intensive, extensive, and
responsive writing) that every language teacher must take into account before
planning their activities and tasks related to writing skill.
Many different tasks can be created
according to the level of the students and the type of writing performance. However,
to know whether the task is the appropriate one for our students we should
assess our students constantly, not only to give them the corresponding
feedback, but also to determine if the methodology used in our classes is the
suitable one.
We must remember that assessing is not
just to assign a grade to the students’ performance, but to enhance their
learning process and our teaching effectiveness. Assessment is useless if it does not lead to make decisions about how to teach better and how to improve students understanding.
I would like to share with you and
interesting video by Dr. Andrew Johnson, who talks about the importance of
authentic assessment in assessing writing and the usage of rubrics for that
purpose.
REFERENCES:
Brown. H. D. (2004). Language Assessment.
Principles and Classroom Practices.
Pearson Longman.
Chapter 9.
I agree with you. You talk about how important is the methodology we use and how we have to check its effectiveness. Rubrics are a good tool we should implement more, because students will have a guideline to make their writings and we could be more objective when assessing. I would like to point out the way you present your contributions.
ReplyDeleteWhat you have said is really important because many times we don´t take into account students' strengths and weakness, it´s in this moment when methodology takes a relevant role in terms of giving them the appropiate input, activities, materials,tasks, etc...
ReplyDeleteGood Reflection Manuel :)
Sometimes we just use writing activities found on the internet without taking a deep look into those activities to find out their effectiveness or how they can really help our students' process... that's why I agree with you when you said that language teachers must take into account different aspects before using writing activities and tasks in the classroom.
ReplyDeleteI think methodology is everything if you know how to use it! Sometimes we have the methodology but we do not have a clear idea of its purpose and usefulnes.
ReplyDelete