Wednesday, October 21, 2009
Early writing
How do I get my first years to write more? And more correctly? They don't have a lot of practice and I'm not sure how to make the transition from listening and understanding to writing. So far, I've had them write stories on their own, using a story I wrote as a pattern. We've also written a story as a class...and they've started doing 5-minute free writes. That's when I noticed that they have almost no writing skills at all. How can I improve this?
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The way to improve the mechanics of their writing is to keep speaking to them every minute you can in the target language, and to do one free write per week. The way NOT to improve their writing is to focus on discrete grammar concepts and fill in the blank stuff. Look, I just inherited a French 4 class who had done all of that stuff for three years. Most write very poorly. So what was gained? I'll tell you what was lost - time that could have been spent on teaching real grammar - i.e. PROPERLY SPOKEN LANGAUGE - via massive amounts of listening. Kids in the visual/grammar analysis combine schools end up with hardly any verbal skills, and they don't write any better than kids trained in narrative methods. Those studies are in the works around the nation right now, I presume. Comments on that please. Input skills first, output skills later. I think this entire topic has something that may be tied to the loss of the AP Literature Exam in French. I know it is tied to that.
ReplyDeleteI don't know if Ben still uses the dictee, but I have found it helpful in German. After we have worked on a few stories, I use the vocabulary to dictate a story to the students. Students set up their papers by marking every third line. They will write on those lines while I read the story. I make students put their pens/pencils down and listen as I read the story through one time. Then I say "OK", and they pick up their pens and pencils. I read the story in phrases, repeating each phrase slowly so that they hear it twice while writing. At the end of that, I say "OK" again and read the entire story through on last time, during which students check to see if they want to change anything. I demand absolute silence during the dictation. (It only takes about one time of saying that the exercise was spoiled because someone talked and we have to start all over - with a different dictation - for students to self enforce.) Once the dictation has occurred, I put the text on the screen, and students copy the correct text on the line beneath the written dictation. Then we may talk about one or two grammar points or talk some more about the story in German. I collect the dictation and score the line that was copied. (ACTFL performance guidelines indicate that Novice learners should be good at copying.) About half way through second year I start letting students simply correct their errors if they have fewer than 1 error per line.
ReplyDeleteAnother thing that I do is have students put their fingers on the text and move along as I read aloud. (Learned this one from Susie Gross) This allows them to consciously see each word as they hear it pronounced. Then we check for understanding and discuss the text. Do lots of reading. The "Input flood to output trickle" principle holds true for writing just as it does for speaking. Flood them with visual language before expecting them to trickle written language in the same way as you flood them with aural language before expecting them to trickle a little oral language.
Since German is much more phonetic than English, spelling problems are minimal once students get a handle on what the vowel sounds are and what combinations represent certain sounds. (German schools don't have spelling bees because they are unnecessary.) I also spell words out loud as I write them on the board, though not always as often as I ought.
Thank you! I've just seen such a difference between what my two groups of kids can do that I want to make sure I don't hurt my kids for next year. It's nice to hear that I'm on the right track...I'll have to try the dictee sometime.
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