Abstract R & D Background Purpose & Design Action Plan Findings & Analysis Implications Remarks
> Purpose & Design

I. Topic
Nurturing upper primary students・ confidence to write by using a ：Four-step Approach； to teach writing

II. Purposes of the Project
For students:

  • to help students overcome writing anxiety and build up their confidence
  • to develop students・ ability to write a variety of texts types
  • to help students use the skills to write with appropriate text type features

For teachers:

  • to enrich teachers・ knowledge and skills to plan the writing curriculum and design writing tasks
  • to heighten teachers・ awareness of the need to prepare students to write at secondary level through a focus on the teaching of writing as a process

III. Design of the Project
Nineteen students from high, average and low-proficiency groups were chosen to take part in the action research. Pre-test and post-tests were conducted in order to obtain further information on students・ writing strengths and weaknesses. As observed by the teachers that most students have difficulties writing stories with correct text type features and have limited ideas in their content, story writing was thus chosen to be the focused text type for explicit teaching. In both tests, students had to write a story with a new ending in around 80 words based on given pictures. Their writing was marked with reference to the marking criteria adapted from the TSA. Some writing problems were noted in the pre-test as shown below.

Limited ideas without much elaboration
Small range of word choice and language patterns
Lack of appropriate
paragraphing

The table below (Table 1) summarises the information collected at the pre-test stage regarding the students・ writing.
  Strengths Weaknesses
Content
(e.g. details and description of ideas)
  • A few students tried to give factual account of the story.
  • Most texts were short (fewer than 80 words).
  • Most students solely described the given pictures without much elaboration.
  • No ending was given in most stories.
Language
(e.g. use of vocabulary, sentence patterns and verb forms)
  • Some students used a limited range of vocabulary (e.g. adjectives).
  • A few of them attempted to use dialogues to vary their sentence patterns (e.g. How much is the robot cat? It was ten dollars).
  • Limited range of vocabulary, sentence patterns and verb forms were noted in a lot of writing pieces.
  • Spelling mistakes and wrong use of verb forms were commonly observed.
Organization
(e.g. use of cohesive devices and paragraphing)
  • Some students used a small range of cohesive devices to link sentences (e.g. and, but, so).
  • A few students used paragraphs to show the structure of the story.
  • Most students either underused or overused some common cohesive devices.
  • Many of them wrote the story in a single paragraph.

Table 1 Summary of students・ writing performance in the pre-test


To help students tackle the writing problems illustrated in Table 1, a systematic approach to the teaching of writing was adopted. Details of the approach are shown in the figure below.

 

 

Figure 1 Essence ofi ．Four-step Approach・

In order to ensure that all teachers could develop a common understanding of the issues involved in teaching writing, and the rationale for the measures taken, the group agreed on the following framework:

Strategies used Rationales for using the strategy
At curriculum level
Integrating thematically and linguistically-linked GE textbook units
  • To make the learning objectives coherent
  • To create curriculum space for implementing a systematic approach to writing
Planning the writing curriculum using text types as an entry point
  • To widen students・ exposure to and production of a variety of text types
  • To devise a holistic literacy curriculum that addresses the need to equip students with the knowledge and skills required to produce texts with appropriate text type features
Designing authentic and meaningful writing tasks
  • To motivate students to develop a purpose-driven approach to writing
  • To provide a chance for students to put vocabulary and language patterns learned into practical use on meaningful communicative contexts
Infusing explicit teaching of a procedural approach to writing
  • To heighten teachers・ awareness of the need to explicit teach writing skills explicitly, progressively and strategically
  • To arouse students・ awareness of the various stages involved in the writing process
At teaching level
Helping students recognise text type features and language structures of particular text types
  • To introduce distinctive features of chosen text types
  • To enhance students・ ability to identify and make use of the knowledge to write with the features of chosen text types
Incorporating a variety of pre-writing activities
  • To motivate and develop students・ confidence to handle writing tasks strategically
  • To scaffold students・ learning (e.g. brainstorm and organise words according to given categories, construct grammatical sentences and paragraph correctly to form a coherent and cohesive text)
Using graphic organisers to analyse text type features and construct own writing pieces
  • To help students understand distinctive text type features by providing graphic support
  • To help students organise their ideas to suit particular text types
Infusing writing checklists to revise and edit own writing pieces
  • To encourage and teach students to revise and edit own work before publishing
  • To encourage exchanges and facilitate collaboration among students

 

IV. Assessment Tools

  • Lesson observations
  • Students・ work
  • Teachers・ comments
  • Pre-test and Post-test results

The following lesson plan depicts how the ．Four-step Approach・ was implemented in the writing lessons.