Subject English Language
Language Focus : Writing.
Topic : Newspaper and Publishing
Class : 1 ( Senior High School)
Materials : 1.
Writing material – article from English newspaper (authentic
material )
2. Writing material from the tex book
(commercial material)
Media :
English newspaper
Time :
60 minutes
Type of task :
work in pairs
Objectives :
a.
Building knowledge of writing
b.
To teach the students how to
write well
c.
Inform the students about even
of the day which are considered newsworthy or important.
Class activity
Pre activity ( 10 minutes)
1.
Introduction to the topic “
newspaper “ to activate schemata for newspaper
2.
Have the students discuss
questions about their activity in reading newspaper
Purpose
-
Warming up
-
Activate schemata for
newspaper.
Whilst activity ( 40 minutes)
1.
Distribute the handout about
the meaning of publishing from the textbook
2.
Ask the students to match the
word in column A with their meanings from column B
3.
Ask the students to fill in the
blanks with the suitable words which taken from the textbook
4.
Having the students to read
short news from English newspaper and have them answer the questions
5.
Ask the students to make a
paragraph by their own words according to the answers from all question in no.3
Purpose
-
Focus attention of the students
in writing
-
Get involved the students in
writing process and monitor the
students as they write
-
Students will understand the
parts of newspaper
Post Activity ( 10 minutes)
1.
“ Lets make a headline “, ask the students to make a headline by arranging the jumble
words into a suitable headline.
e.g. : team – diverse – a – make –
ministers –‘s – all – the President
All the President’s ministers make for a
diverse team.
2.
Give homework of news in english
newspaper from the textbook, complete the missing parts of the following news using their own
ideas
Purpose
-
It helps them to understand
that there are many components in writing to keep in mind such as grammar,
consistency, accuracy and style.
-
To check students’
comprehension and remind what they have just done.
Rationale
It’s important teaching
writing
The most important factor in writing exercises is that
students need to be personally involved in order to make the learning experience
of lasting value. Encouraging student participation in this exercise, while at
the same time refining and expanding writing skills, requires a certain
pragmatic approach. The teacher should be clear on what skills he or she trying
to develop. Next, the teacher needs to decide target area. Once the target
skill areas and means of implementation are defined, the teacher can then
proceed to focus on what topic can be expect both enthusiasm and effective
learning.
Writing across the
curriculum not only reinforces essential communication skills, but also
provides a means for students to record explorations and observations related
to the context ( Glencoe, 2000).We cannot teach students to write by looking
only at what they have written. We must also understand how that come into
being, and why it assumed the form it did….We have to do hard thing, examine
the intangible process, rather than the easy thing, evaluate the tangible
product(Hairston, 1982,84)
Writing skill in Senior High School
Writing is the one
of the most critical skill a student develops in high school. It’s also one of
the most frustrating for students to master. By, using a methodical approach,
you can defuse some of that frustrating, while helping students learn that
writing is much process as product (Glencoe, 2000)
Choosing newspaper topic in this writing activity
Creating effective
tests is an essential task for all classroom teachers. A well writing allows
you to accurately and consistently measure students. Tests also alloes teachers
to measure, to some degree how effective their instruction has been. The
newspaper topic in this activity closely linked with their ability to provide
the kind of information we need regarding student performance, by questions are
selected response questions and created response questions. Selected response
questions require students to select from a predetermined list of potential
answers. These questions include multiple choices, true or false, matching, and
fill in the blank questions in order to they can measure higher levels of
thinking, not simply the recalling of facts. Created response questions include
extended answers and essays. These questions measure the students’ ability to
communicate effectively not just their understanding of the content.
Commercial material is important in teaching writing
It’s
important to use commercial material. According to Jerry G. Gebhard (1996)
those who create the materials that emphasize grammatical rules believe that
students can learn English by considering the language used within different
social context. Those who create materials that focuses on developing
communicative competence, that is “the ability to communicate in English
according to the situation, purpose, and roles of the participants.” Materials
that emphasize the development of communicative competence combine topic,
functions (making suggestions, asking for and giving advice, requesting, etc),
grammar, and development of skill
(listening, speaking, reading and writing). The writers of materials
that explore personal feelings and attitudes believe that students gain much by
expressing their feelings and attitudes in the target language. Their aim is to
teach students self- expression, so that the student uses of the language might
reflect their personality. Writers who create the problem posing materials
believe that students learn English by solving everyday problems in English.
Finally,
commercially made textbook are prepared for a wide audience one that is
culturally diverse and geographically dissimiliar; such as qualities which give
teacher made and audience specific materials their authenticity and relevance
are usually removed.
Authentic material is important in
teaching writing
To get beyond
limitations of the text, many EFL/ESL
teachers adapt or create authentic materials and media. Basicly, authentic
materials include anything that is used as a part of communication. Authentic
materials and media “can reinforce for students to direct relation between the
language classroom and the outside world.” In addition, authentic materials and
media offer a way to contextualize language learning (Jerry G. Gebhard,1996).
This offers students a valuable source of language input, as students can be
exposed to more than just the language presented by the teacher and the text.
Classroom management and activity
According to Jerry
G. Gebhard(1996), to manage and promote interactive classrooms, we also need to
know how to arrange a variety of classroom activities. We can select to have
students work in (1) alone, (2) in dyads, (3) in small group, (4) as a whole
class. It means that I choose work in pairs to influence the kind of
interaction in the class and create a classroom atmosphere conducive to
interacting in English in meaningful ways that can make progress in English.
Problems as a writing teacher
Some students use
ineffective writing strategies, and the teacher is faced with showing these
students how to write. Less proficient writers tend to jump right into the
writing task without using prewriting strategies to generate ideas and organize
thoughts. They might take much time to write down their ideas, as well as focus
primarily on surface level aspects of writing with form over meaning. They will
revise primarily at the word and sentence level, using the revision process to
edit grammar, syntax, spelling, and punctuation. Their revisions do not usually
show many additions, deletions, substitutions, or reordering of ideas, and when
revision is done, it occurs primarily on the first draft. Perhaps this is
because there is often confusion associated with revision, and they seem to
lack patience to work through the confusion in the process of clarifying
meaning.
The solving of this
problem is by understanding the writing behaviors, of proficient and
less-proficient writers as a start. How teacher can provide opportunities for
less-proficient writers to improve their writing skills. We need to give
less-proficient writers more of :
a.
time
b.
opportunity to talk, listen ,
read and write
c.
instruction and practice
generating, organizing, and revising ideas
d.
attention to the rhetorical options available to them
e.
emphasize on editing for
linguistic form and style
We also need to
give our full attention to them, to show them how to plan a piece of writing
through prewriting activities, how to draft and revise, and to read their
writing as an editor. We can also create interesting and real writing
challenges for them, ones that include a real audience. One main reason
less-proficient writers lack audience awareness could be because of the nature
of the writing activities they are given. Students often recognize a writing
activity as a simply a “mundane school sponsored writing assignment”.Some
students simply do not respond differently to a real audience, such as pen-pal,
a secret journal reader, or newsletter readers.
Appendixes
Gebhard, Jerry
Greer.1996.Teaching English as a Foreign Language or Second Language: a self development and methodology
guide.Ann Arbor,Mich: University of Michigan Press.
Grace,
Audia.2005.Look Ahead Book 1.An English Course for Senior High School Students
Year X. Jakarta. Erlangga
http://esl.about.com/teachingtechnique/a/a_twrite.htm