Assigned Reading Reflections (Writing-2/Week13-4/6/2009)

This week, reading assignment was about how to develop an effective writing curriculum. Among a great number of information was discussed such as feedback, error correction, types of writing tasks, the role of grammar in teaching writing etc.
In the light of reading assignments, I think students firstly needs to be introduced the fundamentals of writing ability. It is a fact that among four skills writing is the least used one. With speaking writing is considered to be a productive skill. To be able to teach efficiently ESOL teachers firstly need to state on the nature of writing. Bearing in mind that every individual is unique, students need to be introduced with writing by a variety of techniques and materials. There is a cycle in writing. This cycle basically consists of pre-writing, drafting, and revising activities. Students need to be familiar with this cycle before they start to writing activities. Writing is a process and at the end of the process there is a production. To help students to reach that product an ESOL teacher needs to consider a number of techniques in the process. One of them is engaging students to writing task. It might be helpful to let students choose their own topic and ask them to study collaboratively at this stage. In the drafting stage since students already have something written they need feedback and some advices at this stage. I think this stage should be expanded enough because students need time to discuss and organize their thoughts at this stage. Finally, at the revising stage students need comments on their product to improve their ability. It is critically important to provide as much as possible feedback to help student to correct himself and improve his ability at this stage.