Name: Video 5: Summary Video
Uploaded: 2016-05-16T04:52:48.161Z
Duration: 9 min

[MUSIC] >> Hello again and welcome back to Teach English Now. At the beginning of this module, we watched as Shara Zadi struggled to write about her ideal husband. Luckily for Shara Zadi, she was able to retain the services of a magical genie to aid her in the writing process. Unfortunately, for our students, writing is not as easy as rubbing a magical lamp and having a blue genie pop out and claim to be the world's best writing tutor. However, what we did learn from the genie were strategies that we can use to help our students become better writers. >> In the first video, the brilliant genie reminded us that the writing process is divided into three parts, pre-writing, writing and post-writing. During the pre-writing stage, we watched Shara Zadi describe what traits she wanted in her future husband. As teachers, it is essential that we allow our students to have enough time to explore their own thoughts in the pre-writing stage.

If Shara Zadi wasn't allowed to brainstorm during this stage, who knows what kind of traits her husband would have had.

Someone with no teeth, bad breath and hairy toes? Well, that may be attractive to some. I do not or Shara Zadi did not find those traits attractive. >> In the second video, we were reminded that our purpose as writing teachers is to equip students with a set of skills they can use to write successfully in whatever language context they find themselves in. For Shara Zadi, she had her ideas of what she wanted to write about, but she was stuck. She didn't know how to effectively organize her ideas. This is why it is so important for us as language teachers to use the six traits of writing. These six traits provide a road map for our students by breaking down the writing process and allowing them to focus on one concept at a time rather than trying to do everything all at once.

If you remember from the second video, the six traits of writing are ideas, organization, voice, word choice, sentence fluency and conventions. >> As we discussed in previous modules, teachers need to focus on meaning first. We can worry about the conventions later. With that being said, we can apply to six traits to each stage of the writing process. In the pre-writing phase, a writer should focus on their ideas, the organization and their voice. When we say, voice, we mean that writers should have a purpose and an audience in mind when writing. And use language and ideas that, that particular audience would most strongly respond to.

Later in the writing process while keeping ideas, organization and voice in mind, writers should primarily focus on their vocabulary or word choice and their sentence fluency.

Finally, in the post writing stage, a writer's main focus should be the conventions. Making sure he or she has used the correct punctuation, formatting and spelling.

>> Then we discussed how teacher's themselves can act as the genie by helping her own students unlock ideas in their own minds. Often, one of the most frustrating struggles for students is to do the simple job of choosing a topic. This may sound like a simple task, but it's often one of the most difficult. So, we suggested a few pre-writing strategies to help students break the vicious cycle of writer's block before they even realize they have it. >> Our first strategy that was mentioned was good writing is good reading. If students don't have enough knowledge on whatever topic they're supposed to write about, you might want to suggest that they do a bit of reading on that topic to become more informed. This is really a fun and much less daunting way to frame the dreaded word, research.

Honestly though, helping students learn what their resources are, so that they can read, develop their ideas and opinions and then begin writing sets them up for success.

>> A second strategy we mentioned was that good writing is good thinking. Sometimes students do have the word knowledge to write on the specific topic, but they don't know how or where to even begin. As teachers, we need to encourage students to think and perhaps write their thoughts down on paper. We call this brainstorming. Once suggested to help students brainstorm is to asking them to free right, just writing down as much information as they can about a topic. Often topics, subtopics and other details for the writing assignment can spring from these powerful free-writing activities.

>> Finally, we mentioned that good writing is good speaking. Essentially, students work with a partner or a group to talk about their ideas together. This can occur before the brainstorming or free writing activities, or afterwards. Sometimes just talking about your ideas with other people helps to get your creative juices flowing and we've mentioned this before, but it's worth repeating. All of us here at Teach English Now who write scripts and other articles are in the habit of talking about our ideas with each other before we start writing.

Typically, when I get writers block, I tend to talk out my ideas with my creative colleagues Shane and Justin. >> Yep, that's true and I in turn talk out my ideas with you two. Collaboration is effective. So in the third video, we revisited a very frustrated Shara Zadi who had some wonderful ideas, but was struggling to organize her thoughts. Thankfully, the brilliant genie was there to help her once again to take her ideas about her future husband and organize them in a way that made sense. What a great guy that genie was. >> [LAUGH] Yeah, he was great. But thanks to the genies helpful tutoring that clever Shara Zadi not only became a fantastic writer, but she usurped as the, what did the genie call it? The best test, most amazing magnificent writing tutor in the whole world. [LAUGH] What a smart girl. I am so proud of her. [LAUGH] What is that they say, sometimes the best students make the best teachers? Something like that. >> Anyway, the fourth video. Discuss the importance of organizing writing activities and strategies for effectively organizing ideas. The first organization strategy was to outline thoughts. Basically, an outline no matter how it's structured is simply a list of ideas grouped together. The ideas are written in the forms of notes not complete sentences to help the writer remember his or her ideas when they sit down to write the assignment later. >> Another organizational strategy mentioned was using a mind web or a word web. For this strategy, the writer places the main idea in the center of the page and writes related words around it. These words will later become the main subsections or subtopics in the writing assignment. If further details are needed, then related words are written around the subsections. Typically, mind webs don't contain as much detail as outlines. They're merely meant to help writers see how their ideas fit together overall. >> The third organizational strategy discussed was creating block paragraphs. A technique, especially useful for kinesthetic learners. For this activity, students write the topic of each sub section at the top of a piece of paper. Under each subsection, the writer notes as many ideas as he or she can. Each subtopic is on a different page to help keep ideas ordered and easy to move around, if the writer wants to change the order.

>> So whether you or your students need help organizing ideas for writing, outlining, making a mind map and writing block paragraphs are three excellent ideas for organizing. Feel free to use more than one method at the same time for the same activity, whatever helps you get organized. >> Well, that's it for this module. Join us next time as delve in to the glorious, glamorous. >> Don't you mean grammarous?

>> World of grammar. Thanks, Jessica. Thanks so much for watching and see you next time on Teach English Now. Grammar. >> [LAUGH] [MUSIC]

Video 5: Summary Video

Teach English Now! Second Language Reading, Writing, and Grammar

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