Language Learning Support Section

Abstract

R & D Background

Purpose & Design

Action Plan

Findings & Analysis

Implications

Remarks

> Purpose & Design

Topic of the project
- Effective teaching of writing through improved design of writing tasks

Purposes of the project
- To help students become better writers by establishing a link between what they learn in textbooks and how they apply their learning in the completion of writing tasks
- To make teachers aware that effective design of a writing task involves an integration of language skills instead of just focusing on writing alone
- To empower teachers to do holistic planning of the writing curriculum by identifying the target writing skills to develop and then mapping the writing tasks against them

Special features of the project
- The writing project was divided into two phases: in Phase I, the design of the writing tasks was based on the textbook units, while in Phase II, the design was based on the TSA Practice Papers. The purpose of the former was to heighten teachers’ awareness of the need to align teaching process with expected learning outcomes. For the latter, teachers were expected to develop a better understanding of what writing skills they needed to focus on in their daily teaching (e.g. use of mind map and pictures for brainstorming ideas) because the usual practice was to give students input on the topic immediately before assigning the writing task.
- On average two to three pre-writing scaffolding tasks were designed to help students prepare to write independently. Teachers made use of a wide variety of tasks: matching, listing, sequencing, surveys, etc. The major purposes were to provide opportunities for students to generate ideas for writing and to activate students’ prior knowledge and vocabulary related to the topics chosen. Writing thereby was done as an on-going process rather than something that was saved until the end of the module.
- In addition to scaffolding the process of writing, teachers also started adding both a meaningful context and a purpose to the writing tasks so students could develop a sense of audience. Such information was important as it determined the formality, the tone and the choice of language used.

Design of the project

Below is an overview of the 6 writing tasks designed for this writing project:

	Phase I: Based on the textbook			Phase II: Based on Pearson New TSA practice papers
	Writing Task 1	Writing Task 2	Writing Task 3	Writing Task 4	Writing Task 5	Writing Task 6
Topic	A potluck dish	An email to Uncle John	Rescue of two hikers	An accident	Proper behaviours on public transport	Pocket money
Context	It’s Peter’s birthday next week and his classmates decide to organise a potluck party for him. As Peter’s classmates, work in groups of four to prepare a potluck dish for him. List both the ingredients and the steps you need to follow.	Uncle John sent an email to Cindy asking her to recommend interesting things to do and see in H.K. when he comes to visit H.K. next month. Help Cindy write a reply to him.	Two hikers went missing when they went hiking last week. In the end they were found and rescued by the police. Write a newspaper article about the rescue of the two hikers, Bruce and his father.	Refer to the pictures that show the accident that happened during the Bun Festival on Cheung Chau Island last Friday. Write a story based on the accident to be published in a school magazine.	Gloria saw and experienced some misbehaviours when she travelled on the MTR. Write to the school newsletter to suggest ways on how people should behave on public transport.	Write a speech to be given in the school assembly on how students usually spend their pocket money and give advice on how they should spend their pocket money wisely.
Text-type	Recipe	Email	Newspaper article	Story	School newsletter	Speech
Audience	Peter and his classmates	Uncle John	Readers of the newspaper	Students in a school	Students in a school	Students in a school
Correspond to	Unit 1 “Potluck Fun”	Unit 3 “Interesting Places” and Unit 4 “An E-mail from Uncle John”	Unit 5 “A Scary Hike”	TSA Mock Paper 3	TSA Mock Paper 4	TSA Mock Paper 5
Writing skills to develop	Through the completion of these tasks, students are expected to develop the ability to: gather and share information and ideas by using strategies such as brainstorming, questioning, interviewing and reading plan and organize information, and express own ideas and feelings by: identifying purpose and audience for a writing task deciding the sequence of content use appropriate cohesive devices, e.g. also, at last, because, however, therefore write paragraphs which develop main ideas present main and supporting ideas, and where appropriate with elaboration

Assessment Tools
Analysis of students’ writing
Interviews with teachers involved in the project