Writing
On this page you can download all the writing materials which were disseminated at the PDC in MFL workshops in Summer 2012. To watch video clips students’ responses to using this Principle, click here. You will find other useful writing skills resources sent in to us by teachers here.
The research based principle for developing students’ writing skills is:
Principle 7 Writing should be developed as a skill in its own right not just as a consolidation of other language skills. For this to happen students should frequently write using the language and strategies they already know rather than resources provided by the teacher (e.g. textbooks, writing frames, dictionaries, etc. )
We believe that writing could be used as a means for introducing a new topic, by encouraging students to reflect on the language that they already know and adapting it to its new purpose. The video clips presented at the workshop demonstrate some examples of this principle in action, with students encouraged to write using their own resources, rather than those given to them by a teacher.
The document below formed part of an initial group discussion in the workshop. Two lesson plans are presented, both with the aim of students producing a written piece of work. The structure and outcomes of both lessons are very different. The second lesson plan represents the ideas put forward by the Consortium and is expanded on in more detail at the bottom of the document.
Download the two writing lesson plans
Combined with the use of check lists, peer response forms and teacher feedback, students can be taught to evaluate the quality of their written work and therefore become more self-efficient in assessing and improving what they have produced.
Download writing check lists & response sheets
Here you can download an example of one Year 10 student’s process of developing a piece of writing at the start of a topic. The lesson structure used is the same one presented in the extended lesson plan above in the first download.
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