Ideas to improve students’ writing skills – Cecilia Lemos Coelho – 18th April 2011

Cecilia started by presenting her audience with a problem she identified with her upper-intermediate students:
-    didn’t score high at Writing in tests despite having very good scores in other parts of the same tests
-    produced rather short pieces of writing (one paragraph in general)
-    the vocab they used didn’t reflect their level of English
-    they were not motivated to write

After pondering for a good deal of time, she came up with 4 strategies which started to produce interesting results:

#1 – Mini writings – over one same topic, she developed 4 or 5 prompts which were given to students one per class, and served as input for students to write one paragraph in class. She collects and gives them their work back with the necessary corrections, if any. After writing the 4 or 5 topics, she shows students that they’ve written an essay! By building their confidence little by little, she empowers them and this motivates them to write more.

#2 – Vocabulary Bank – the concept is that students should learn one word every class. This word is chosen by the teacher and picked from the material being used. The word is written on a Vocab Bank poster, which is hung in the classroom so that students can see the constant increase of words throughout time and at the same time revise them, which is often done by the teacher. It’s agreed students have to be able to use at least 10 of the usually 30 words on the poster by the end of the semester, and they can do so in writing pieces they produce or in conversations during their classes.

#3 – Using feedback to encourage writing – instead of just giving feedback on mistakes, Cecilia writes comments on the content of students’ production. This shows them she actually reads what they write, not simply to grade it, but to understand it.

#4 – Reading Club – Cecilia believes that a good reader is a good writer, so, she developed a scheme in which students have to read one book per semester, and she carries out monthly Book Meetings, which have an agenda of different activities.

By doing the above, Cecilia has seen an improvement in the writing of her students. Good ideas!

Her presentation will be uploaded on Brighton Online.