Daniela Monserrath Mejía Rubio
Writing might be an interesting way to open somebody´s
mind and unlock a series of skills thought hidden through which huge amounts of
creativity could be shown and a whole new world discovered.
The classroom is the perfect place to encourage those
minds to dare to go beyond.
Make sure the students find the topic appealing (selected
thanks to brainstorming) after being already read and discussed in class
(learning the value of collaboration and fostering confidence); they should
also have a good grasp on the vocabulary surrounding the topic and a little reminder
of the grammar needed.
It is imperative that the students are 100% clear on
what they should write about and the structure of the text, format, length,
etc.
No one would expect to get spotless results the first
time, so, have your students write sentences, then short coherent paragraphs to
start, maybe answer challenging questions and write longer and more detailed
sentences. Note taking and dictation helps in the process as well.
Through this and more exercises and explanation, they
should be able to develop an outline, recognize the introduction, body and
conclusion, include the main idea and supporting sentences, use suitable conjunctions
and connectors to have a nice readable flow.
Once checked, they should have their work back with
the corresponding corrections from the mistakes that they might have had and
words of encouragement in the end!
