Written text production
LEARNER’S PROFILE
This task can be done with Primary and High school
graders, whose critical thinking skills are weak and have difficulties when
trying to infer the implicit information in a text. Those who seem like they do
not have foundations or bases.
RATIONALE
Many could be the characteristics of a student who
argues, states an opposing view or defends a thesis, but something that is
tasteless when analyzing this topic, is the lack of fundamentals or bases,
which a student could be at the time of accepting a thesis, argument or
hypotheses as valid. Before validating any opinions or arguments, students must
wonder "why, what’s that, what proves that’s or this is so," or have
a clue of what they perceive as real in a phenomenon in any speech.
The orientation in a speech, giving the
characteristics of a student who is without foundation or basis to validate a
thesis, will be vague. When starting, following and concluding a dialogical
speech, he or she will feel degraded in front of a debater who has solid
foundations on which he or she will try to impose his or her position. Here in
this scenario should be noticed that the lexical semantic aspects, which are to
be dealt during the dialogue; will be disadvantageous by the same communication
situation.
Therefore, if we want students to develop a complex
discourse structure when these situations occur, students should have the same
level of argumentation in any discourse or similar situation.
Students, who need more foundation to argue, need more
vocabulary and to be more literate, where do they obtain this from? One answer
to this question could be “the interface, books, records, files, etc” those who
report they read more write better (KRASHEN, 1984). Analyzing what Stephen
Krashen tries to state, we could also state that reading leads us to writing,
or that reading is a vehicle by which writing is conceived.
In the following task, a practical activity is
prepared to enhance this skill (writing) in students who are at the end of
k-12.
TASK
In this task, a sequence of activities is offered
by which students will need to argue against various speakers and receivers and
include a way to systematize the differences and comparisons of the
argumentation when there is a preparation.
This activity will be very successful in working
with students because it will not only produce a part of the critical thinking
students need in some linguistic contexts, but also make students be aware of
the relevance of the argumentation.
By working with the knowledge of students and using
icts to learn more appropriate
through reading and a relevant vocabulary taken from it, students will produce
better argumentative texts.
STEPS
First, the teacher gives students some specific
webpages which they will use as reference to have a well task done in and out
at the school.
After, many words are written in different categories
taken from specific webpages.
Their denotations are looked up in www.wordreference.com
or other webpages that students consider
appropriate.
All the words are analyzed semantically with the
guide of the teacher.
The words are used in composition syntactically in simple
sentences.
Students have to use the words in composition syntactically
in compound sentences also.
Later, paragraphs are written, by placing the main
idea at the beginning, middle and end.
The different types of paragraphs are also done.
This activity must be guided by the teacher.
Categories of words in syntactic structures are
used, by highlighting the connectors. This exercise is done if paragraphs were
written previously.
Written texts are produced and socialized with
peers.
The argument for upcoming productions must be
presented in class.
Students must finally produce argumentative texts.
Students should read the texts produced in groups
of four students, a representative will be chosen to present the arguments to
their peers, other groups should analyze the arguments and try to validate or
refute.
For these activities, students must use the
webpages that the teacher recommends because these activities are planned.
These activities can be done with primary graders
and students here can work with the webpage: http://learnenglishkids.britishcouncil.org/, where they can enjoy writing in a funny way.
On the other webpage below, https://www.ego4u.com, students can learn how to practice writing brief
essays on the link “cram up”. English on this webpage is very funny and
students get acquainted with it easily.
On this webpage below, http://writefix.com students will learn how to write very good essays and
the body parts of them. This kind of activity must be planned to be taught for
tenth or eleventh graders because its complexity in the way of working
composition and the form that the webpage shows the material and tasks.
Just by clicking on the menu bar and select what the
student wants to start with.
This activity is guided by the teacher.
These activities can also be done to enhance not only English
deskills, in this case “writing”, but also other languages. For example for
Spanish learners and speakers, the following webpage http://www.alquimistasdelapalabra.com is recommended to write or start writing brief texts
with argumentations.
OBJECTIVES
·
To learn how to draft excellent texts.
·
To identify the body of a text.
·
To take advantage of icts for written text production
·
To produce written texts.
ASSESSMENT
For the evaluation of
this task, students have to show a brief draft where they use the steps to
write excellent writings by showing argumentation.
They must also show
that they have skills for using some of the webpages recommended by the teacher.
As an outcome,
students must show a final task also where they show they master or they are
aware of the relevance that the argumentation has in their professional life.
REFERENCES
By Gustavo Alonso Ortega Isaza
