Dr. t. lee
Reflections about Parallel Teaching Writing Instruction
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Introduction
Teaching writing as a process is essential for English Language Learners. While my co-teachers and I did not have access to the Teacher’s Guides for Levels 2-6, it is still interesting to note that my Georgian co-teachers unanimously skipped over the class compositions prior to our co-teaching experience. On the whole, my co-teachers provided minimal direct instruction on the limited writing practice activities provided by the English World Program.
The ability to understand the process and structural features of writing compositions enhances the critical thinking and communication skills in students irrespective of their home languages. It was my aim to provide my students with practice writing narrative and expository compositions as these are the most common forms of scholarly writing. The use of whole class or collaborative writing lessons is particularly useful for the learning modalities and preferences of students in the upper grades.
In addition to the Grade 6 Class Composition: The Pyramids at Giza, Egypt Lesson that is featured in this portfolio, class compositions were taught to grade 3, 4, and 5 students and often marked their first attempts at completing a class composition activity. In the grade 4 and 5 lessons, students explored for the first time how to write proficient paragraphs.
Grade 3 Narrative Class Composition
The Grade 3 narrative class composition lesson gave the students much needed practice with writing complete sentences and analyzing sentence structure for narratives (see Figures 115, 116). This lesson was co-taught in one class session using parallel teaching - both teachers modeled sentence structure on the board; instant feedback was provided to students individually throughout the session.
Figure 115. Grade 3 Student #1 narrative class composition with feedback.
Figure 116. Grade 3 Student #2 narrative class composition with feedback.
Grade 4 Class Compositions
In grade 4, attention was given to teaching students the structural features of a proficient paragraph. The lessons featured in this portfolio were the first class compositions that students completed.
Grade 4 Narrative Class Composition Lesson
In the first class composition lesson, grade 4 students learned about writing a narrative composition by completing a traditional story; the English World text required the students to complete various sentences using pre-selected words and phrases related to story illustrations.
Students verbally completed the sentences and then wrote each sentence as modeled by the teacher on the chalkboard. Because it was not written in paragraph format in their pupil’s books, at the close of the lesson, I demonstrated on the board to the students how this story would look if it were written in paragraph format and discussed how the bulk of what they had written were supporting and elaborating details sentences that would help provide the substance of the paragraph.
The majority of students were very successful at writing the sentences as the teacher modeled on the board (see Figures 117, 118).
Figure 117. Grade 4 Student #1 narrative class composition with feedback.
Figure 118. Grade 4 Student #2 narrative class composition with feedback.
Grade 4 Expository Paragraph Class Composition Lesson
In the second class composition lesson, grade 4 students learned about writing an expository paragraph. It is of supreme importance that teachers model for students the correct formatting of a composition and drafting conventions. This lesson was co-taught in one class session using parallel teaching and I provided teacher modeling for students by using the chalkboard (see Figure 119).
Figure 119. Grade 4 teacher modeling of expository paragraph drafting conventions.
First, students completed the diagram in their pupil’s books and discussed the job of a lifeguard. Next, students drafted the class composition in their notebooks. Then, teachers provided individualized revising feedback to students. Finally, students wrote their final compositions in their English World Pupil’s Books and received additional feedback from the teachers.
Some students benefitted greatly from having a chalkboard model and were attentive to formatting details, however they were sometimes inattentive to spelling in the final composition (see Figure 120); some students struggled with the appropriate formatting for paragraphs during the drafting process but were able to master it and incorporate all revising feedback into their final compositions (see Figure 121).
Figure 120. Grade 4 Student #1 draft and final expository paragraph class composition.
Figure 121. Grade 4 Student #2 draft and final expository paragraph class composition.
Grade 5 Class Compositions
In grade 5 I sought to teach students how to compose and analyze the features of proficient narrative and expository paragraphs.
Grade 5 Narrative Paragraph Class Composition Lesson
The narrative paragraph lesson was the first class composition grade 5 students completed; it was conducted in one class session using parallel teaching. First, students received direct instruction on the formatting conventions of paragraph writing. Many students struggled with indenting their paragraphs but this was quickly remedied by having them analyze several models of indented paragraphs available in their pupil’s books. In this lesson, usage of transitional devices first, next, and finally to demarcate supporting detail sentences in the retelling of a traditional tale was introduced to students. The usage of past tense when analyzing or retelling literary events was also emphasized. Teachers also explicitly noted the location of supporting detail sentences (see Figure 122).
Figure 122. Grade 5 teacher modeling of narrative paragraph drafting conventions.
Because this was the first time students experienced writing a longer composition the task was challenging. The students enjoyed collaborating to form the sentences by using the pictures in their pupil’s books and using past tense for the listed words. This lesson also marked the first time that the students received detailed teacher feedback with the expectation of revising a lengthy composition. Accordingly, some students struggled to make the changes suggested during the revision session in their final compositions (see Figure 123); other students struggled with using the drafting conventions for the first time but did an excellent job of incorporating revision feedback into their final compositions (see Figure 124).
Figure 123. Grade 5 Student #1 draft and final narrative paragraph composition.
Figure 124. Grade 5 Student #2 draft and final narrative paragraph composition.
Grade 5 Expository Paragraph Class Composition Lesson
In the next Grade 5 class composition lesson, students practiced writing an expository paragraph. At the close of the lesson, I focused more strongly on explicitly identifying and analyzing the topic sentence, supporting detail sentences, elaborating detail sentences, and the closing sentence (see Figure 125). This lesson was co-taught in one class session using parallel teaching.
Figure 125. Grade 5 teacher modeling of expository paragraph drafting conventions.
First, students read the information about gulls in their English World texts. Next, we discussed which pieces of information would make good supporting detail sentences and elaborating detail sentences. Then, student drafts were proofread by the teachers and individualized revising feedback was provided. In the first lesson, teachers provided corrected spellings for students’ errors; in the second lesson, students provided the corrected spellings for errors identified by the teachers. The purpose of this evolution was to give students more independence and ownership for revising their work using feedback. Finally, students made revisions and wrote the final compositions in their pupil’s books.
While some students still struggled with correctly formatting a paragraph in terms of structure while drafting, they were able to successfully incorporate revising feedback into their final compositions (see Figure 126); the majority of students retained the paragraphing formatting conventions from the first class composition lesson and made only minor spelling errors in their drafts and final compositions (see Figure 127).
Figure 126. Grade 5 Student #1 draft and final expository paragraph composition.
Figure 127. Grade 5 Student #2 draft and final expository paragraph composition.
Reflections on the Class Composition Lessons
Class compositions are an important component of any language instruction program that should not be overlooked. The implementation of the class composition lessons with my co-teachers reflects my commitment to components 1-7 of my Teaching Philosophy. Students need to be able to communicate their ideas verbally and in writing. The lessons included in this portfolio demonstrate the importance of teaching the composition lessons in a highly structured format and providing concise, detailed teacher feedback to help students improve their writing skills. As teachers become more adept at teaching writing as a process and students become more familiar with the components of effective writing, we should see increased teacher facilitation of peer collaborations during the pre-writing and revising stages and less reliance on teacher modeling of each phase of the writing process. While the class composition lessons contained in this portfolio are an important initial phase developing metacognitive awareness of the writing process stages, writing conventions, and the structural features of paragraphs, teachers must take care to encourage the development of more authentic writing skills instead of relying too heavily on templatized writing activities (DelliCarpini, 2012).
References
DelliCarpini, M. (2012). Success with ELLs. English Journal, 101(5), 97-101.
_ Reflections on Providing Student Feedback during Parallel/Station Teaching