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1、Teachers roles in the students writing processInvestigator: Peng TingwuSubmitted on April 24th, 2013In fulfillment of the course “Practical Project Design”AcknowledgementsI am mostly grateful to my supervisor Zhu Hengjia without whose support and patience this project would not even have been comple
2、ted so smoothly. I am grateful to Professor Gu Yueguo for editing us such a good course. No amount of thanks will be adequate for my students without whose willing participation in the project implementation it would have remained on paper. Last but not the least, big thanks to my colleagues and cla
3、ssmates for their time spent on brainstorm as well as their support and help.AbstractThis study presents a detailed report of the project implemented to improve students English writing through teachers interventions. Based on the assumption that teachers just-in-time interventions can help the stud
4、ents with English writing better than traditional ways, a six-week program was adopted. Data were collected through questionnaires, analysis and discussion of which shows that teachers in-time help contributes to students skills and motivations in language learning, especially English writing. Howev
5、er, the program seems to be powerless to a certain number students. Further research is needed for her measures to motivate the learners.Main Headings of the Project Report:1. Introduction P52. Problem analysis P53. Possible solutions P54. Project objective P65. Project hypothesisP76. Project ration
6、aleP77. Research designP88. Project implementationP98.1 writing of recounts P98.2 argumentative writingP138.3 grammar in writingP159. Data analysisP1610. Project evaluationP1811. ConclusionP1912. ReferencesP19IV1. Introduction I have been teaching the students in a junior high school in a small town
7、 that is far away from any big city. As all know, writing is more and more important in students English study. But I have always found that writing is a big problem for my students. Now Ill finish my study in Central Radio and TV University. I hope I can solve the problem that I am having in my wor
8、k through the approaches I have learned from the course “English Language Teaching Methodology”. And I will also apply “process writing” and “cognitive view” to help to improve my students English writing.2. ProblemAbout writing, the biggest problems my students had were that many students always ma
9、de the same mistakes that they had just made the last time and that many students thought English writing was too difficult to be finished all by themselves and that English writing was useless in real life.3. Problem Analysis I had studied the “process writing” method and applied it to my compositi
10、on classes. I set a topic and the students were told to write. I might provide some help of a vocabulary list and sentence patterns. They wrote a first draft and read to class or exchanged their works to find the faults. Then the students were required to re-write with the help of the feedback offer
11、ed by the students and me. After they finished the compositions, I would correct students fault. In this “teaching progress”, teachers were actually fault finders rather than writing teachers. 3.1 Analytic method: What made this happen again and again? The help I gave the students may not be the one
12、 that students really need. I didnt give the students help in time. Or I had realized the differences between the use of the grammar in the compositions and that in grammar exercises. The use of the grammar in natural writing is much more complicated.3.2 questionnaire survey So I asked many students
13、 questions: What is your biggest problem in writing? What kind of help would you like me to give you? When do you want me help you in writing? Are you sure why you are writing?From the survey I have known that the students in different levels need different kinds of help at different times. With the
14、se reasons in mind, I have correspondingly provided some possible solutions which are as follows.a. Help my students with grammar and vocabulary just in time not after they have hand in their compositions.b. Help students in different levels with different content at different times and try to make
15、it “just in time” for most students.c. Help students know the purposes of writing well.3.3 Cause analysis:I always asked myself the questions: What made this happen?I think there are some possible causes as following:a. The students didnt really like English writing. In their opinion, it is boring a
16、nd useless.b. The students didnt read enough for their writing as models.c. The students really didnt know how to write an article.4. Project Objectives My research objective is to enhance my students skills in writing.5. Project HypothesisIt is hypothesized that learners will have made great progre
17、ss in writing with the teachers just-in-time help.6. Project RationaleOne way of viewing writing, called the cognitive view, is to see writing as decision-making (Flower & Hayes, 1981). When we write something, whether it is an email message, a letter, or an essay, we are engaged in making one decis
18、ion after another. We decide what to begin the text with, whether to include or leaved out an idea that comes to mind, whether to begin in a new paragraph or continue the same one, what information to place in the beginning of a sentence and so on. Successful writing is the result of making the righ
19、t decisions most of the time during the act of composing and revising.If wring is a mental activity of skilful decision-making, learning to write is:a. learning to make decisions appropriated for the situation (the purpose of the text, the writers objective, the readers purpose in reading the text,
20、the circumstances in which the writing and reading take place) and, b. learning to recognize where inappropriate decisions have been made, so that they can be put right before the text arrives at the readers desk.When the teacher intervenes in the writing process, the teacher helps students to evalu
21、ate the choices they have made in meaning (ideas) and language (words and grammar). Choices found to be unsuitable can then be changed, using procedures of thinking and decision-making described by the teacher. Over time, the lessons learnt from teacher intervention empower students to make better,
22、more deliberate decisions relating to what to say and how to say it.A piece of writing is successful only when the target reader considers it so, that is the reader thinks the text is “right” for its purpose. The writers decision-making must therefore take into account the readers expectations and t
23、he criteria he or she will use to judge the finished product (and its writer). The readers expectations and criteria are not just the readers personal preferences, but are assumptions and practices of the readers discourse community.7. Project Design 7.1 subjectsMy hypothesis is that learners writin
24、g skills will be improved after some useful activities. For this research, I chose my students from Grade Nine. These students would take part in the high school entrance exam and there are two kinds of compositions in the test- writing of recounts and argumentative writing. And another problem my s
25、tudents always faced is the use of grammar. 7.2 procedure Therefore I designed 5 composition lessons to be tried out in three weeks as following:a. writing of recounts (2);b. argumentative writing( 2);c. grammar in writing(1)7.3 principles to followa. The teacher intervenes in the students writing b
26、y providing assistance that enables the student to improve the text before it is submitted for grading. The intervention occurs when students have written a part of a required text, or have partially completed a planning, writing, or revising task.b. Given the limited time in the typical English cur
27、riculum and finite attention span of students, the teacher has to select one specific feature for each intervention episode. A 45-minute lesson will probably have only one intervention episode, because students must be given some time to work out their own text after the teachers explanation and mod
28、eling. The golden rule here is not to be over ambitious. Trying to rectify too many faults at one go will only lengthen teacher talk time, which invariably causes students attention to wander.c. Students should benefit from some form of interventional assistance at every composition lesson. If each
29、intervention teaches one specific decision-making process or language skill, students will, in the course of a period time, practice conscious a number of composing skills that are more effective than their habitual methods of composing. Some important skills like anticipating reader response, if re
30、peated often enough, may eventually replace egocentric, sentence-focused ways of composing common among students.8. Project ImplementationThis part of study was conducted from March the 4th to April the 12th in 2013.8.1 Weeks 1-2: writing of recounts 8.1.1 Assisting with choice of focus （the central
31、 idea）In the first lesson, I began with the teaching of recount writing. In the type of composition called a recount, students are asked to write about events from their personal vantage point. They relate what they have experienced either through being involved in the event or as an eye witness. On
32、e characteristic of a well written recount is that it is held together by a focus. The focus may be the writers point of view or a certain attitude relating to the incident that is recounted. So the first lesson is conducted as following: Step 1. ExplanationThe teacher told the students that a good
33、recount has a focus. However many of the students compositions didnt have any focuses. To familiarize students with the idea of focus as writers stance, the teacher wrote a topic on the board and asked students to suggest possible stances a writer could take as following:Topic: Describe an incident
34、when you lost something that costs a lot.The students had the following answers:1. The local police were very friendly and helpful and2. I had an extremely bad luck and3. Losing something valuable isnt a bad thing.Step 2 Instructions for group workI told them if they liked they would take any focus.
35、 Then I asked them the following questions: 1. What focus does your recount have? Write a sentence describing your focus. 2. Read your focus statement to your group.3. Group members will listen to each focus statement and ask the writer: What details will you include to make the reader see things yo
36、ur way?I asked one student to model with me for the whole class.One student wrote and said to the class, “I had the worst luck in the world.” Then I added, “What details will you include to make the reader think you had the worst luck in the world.”He answered he lost something that cost a lot, but
37、he couldnt continue. The students worked and I moved around to help the ones who might need my suggestions.Step 3 Joint constructionMany students are likely to have written their recount with either no focus or a vague, information-centered focus. I designed this part to show students how to conceiv
38、e a more specific, reader-centered goal that will give unity to a sequence of recounted events. I asked the following question to help students understand what is lacking in the excerpt.Does this thing show that you were the most unlucky guy in the world? Will your reader think you had the worst luc
39、k?Step 4 Writing/ Re-writing1. After student had written part of the composition, I asked them to examine each sentence and write next to it the focus it seems to convey. If they were not sure, they might write “uncertain”. 2. What do most of the sentences seem to convey? Write your focus statement.
40、3. Delete the sentences that dont fit your focus. Write “re-write” next to sentences that can be improved to reflect your intended focus.Step 5. HomeworkI asked students to write a recount with a suitable focus with the help of the pictures above.8.1.2 Assisting with development of focusIn the secon
41、d lesson, I designed to help students to learn now to develop the focus through judicious choice of descriptive detail and language.Step 1. ExplanationTo help students recognize details that play no role in developing the focus, I wrote some sentences of which were in purpose and of which were purpo
42、seless. Then I asked them to tell which should be deleted. So I wrote the focus sentence and some details on the blackboard as following:The local police were really helpful and friendly.I called the police four timesI waited for more than one hour.They asked me a lot of questions about the accident
43、. Then I asked students to select from the sentences that we dont need and asked them why.Step 2 Instructions for pair workI did the instructions as following:1. Write your focus statement at the top of your draft before handing it to your partner.2. Read your partners draft with an eye on the focus
44、 statement. In pencil, write “Irrelevant?” against details that dont seem to be suitable for the focus.3. Look for information that is relevant but needs to be re-written with more detail to develop the focus. Write RW against such information.4. If you are unsure, talk about it with your partner.5.
45、 Help your partner by suggesting suitable details.Step 3 joint constructionThe goal here is to teach students to re-rewrite parts of a recount such that irrelevant detail is thrown out and relevant, vaguely stated information is exploited to create a desired focus.Step 4. Writing/ RewritingI asked t
46、he students to read each sentence of their composition to check that is a suitable detail.Step 5. I asked students to write a recount using the picture below:The picture is from the last part of Chengdu Senior High School Entrance English Examination.8.2 Weeks 3-4: argumentative writingArgumentative
47、 writing is also a very important kind of composition for high school students to write, especially for those who would attend the senior high school entrance examinations. According to the students writing level, which is that two common weaknesses are in students argumentative essays, I designed two lessons:8.2.1 Lesson One Helping students to state part-whole relationsStep 1. ExplanationI began the less
