Stephen van Vlack
Sookmyung Women`s University
Graduate School of TESOL
Teaching Writing
Syllabus - Spring 2007
Week 1; March 5
♦ Introductions to the course, to the materials, assignments, and everything else.
♦ Discuss the winter reading project .
♦ Go over writing questionnaire and the short text. A whole class discussion on what we think writing is and some differences between Korean and English views on writing and the writing process.
♦ Speaking -vs- writing
Homework: Get all materials. Start the journals.
Read Chapter 1 (pp. 1-29) in Scott (1996).
Writing Assignment 1 - Write a short paragraph of self introduction.
Finish Winter Reading Project
Week 2; March 12
♦ Scott (1996) Chapter 1: Writing Competence
Here we take a quick look at the idea of writing competence and some of the different areas that affect it and are affected by it.
♦ The pragmatics of writing.
Using the discussion of writing -vs- speaking in the text as a springboard, talk about some of the fundamental rules and principles of English language writing.
♦ Descriptive writing
♦ General paragraph structure
Supplemental reading: Weigle, S. (2002) Assessing Writing. Cambridge: CUP. Chapter 2, The nature of the writing ability, pp. 14-38.
Homework: Read chapter 2 (pp. 30-64) in Scott (1996).
Read Krapels (1990).
Writing Assignment 2 - Write a descriptive paragraph on desert islands.
Week 3; March 19
♦ Scott (1996) Chapter 2:The Foreign Language Writing Process
In this excellent little chapter we compare and contrast three different processes for writing in order to get a feel for how each of them works and how we might best use them to get our students to write more effectively.
♦ Krapels (1990)
Using this article as a follow up to the issues discussed in the previous week, we review the similarities and differences in L1 and L2 composition and how they might affect each other.
♦ Basic sentences.
Go over how the ordering of sentential elements affects meaning and what some basic English sentences look like.
♦ Problem paragraphs
Homework: Read chapter 3 (pp. 65-98) in Scott (1996)
Read Friedlander (1990)
Writing Assignment 3 - In pairs, write a letter of complaint from an outline.
Week 4; March 26
♦ Scott (1996) Chapter 3: Writing and Computers
In this tremendously outdated chapter we take a quick and extremely basic look at how computers can aid in the teaching of writing in three different environmental situations.
♦ Freidlander (1990)
In this seminal article we will go over the idea of first language interference and how this affects the writing process. How much Korean can and should ewe use and more importantly how can we use it to best effect? The discussion of the article should lead us into the topic of just what things we might want to have the students do in English and what they can do in Korean.
♦ Avoiding wordiness
Homework: Read chapter 4 (pp. 99-139) in Scott (1996).
Writing Assignment 4 - Write a movie/book/game review.
Week 5; April 2
♦ Scott (1996) Chapter 4:Correcting and Evaluating Foreign Language Writing
In this chapter we get an overview of some of the different ways in which writing can be assessed and evaluated both in and out of the class.
♦ MATE Writing Test
Following on Scott`s lead we will take a quick look at the MATE writing test to get a feel for our homegrown writing assessment tool.
♦ Choosing a topic.
Go over some of the techniques employed in finding topics and then how we narrow these to find one topic for our writing. Practice using a picture or series of pictures.
♦ Topic sentences
Supplemental reading: Weigle, S. (2002) Assessing Writing. Cambridge: CUP. Chapter 5, Designing writing assessment tasks, pp. 77-107.
Homework: Read chapter 5 (pp. 140-170) in Scott (1996).
Read Kroll (1990)
Writing Assignment 5 - Write a narrative paragraph from Internet materials.
Week 6; April 9
♦ Scott (1996) Chapter 5: Teaching Foreign Language Writing
In this chapter we take a quick look at some of the different approaches that can be taken to teach writing in a variety of different circumstances.
♦ Kroll (1990)
In this article we review how much time is actually necessary for writing to develop and how we can best use class time in relation to the teaching of writing.
♦ Links and transitions
♦ Do rewrite of homework essay (explanatory paragraph) and fix it up.
Go over revision techniques.
Supplemental reading: Fahnestock, J and M. Secor. (2000) Teaching argument: A theory of types. In Corbett, Myers and Tate (Eds.) The writing teacher`s sourcebook (4th Edition). New York: Oxford, pp. 222-230.
Homework: Read Chapter 1 (pp. 3-11) in Raimes (1983).
Writing Assignment 6 - Choose one piece of writing to revise.
Week 7; April 16
♦ Raimes (1983) Chapter 1: Teaching Writing in ESL Classes.
Go over some of the main differences between speaking and writing. Review some of the major approaches to writing in the classroom by trying to design variant activities from the school texts.
♦ Sticking to the point.
Go over some of the problems people have in sticking to the point and give some suggestions for how coherence and relevance can be achieved.
♦ Outlining
♦ Comparison/contrast paragraphs
Supplemental reading: Reid, J. (1993) Teaching ESL Writing. Englewood Cliffs: Prentice Hall Regents. Chapter 2, Overview of ESL composition, pp. 21-48.
Homework: Read Chapter 2 (pp. 12-26) In Raimes (1983)
Writing Assignment 7 - Write a comparison/contrast paragraph.
Week 8; April 23
♦ Midterm Exam Due
♦ Raimes (1983) Chapter 2: Techniques in Planning the Class: Seven Basic Questions.
Go over each of the seven questions in the text and discuss the practical applications of each one. How can we deal with these things in the reality of the Korean classroom.
♦ The Essay Writing Process
Supplemental reading: Reid, J. (1993) Teaching ESL Writing. Englewood Cliffs: Prentice Hall Regents. Chapter 4, Curriculum and syllabus design, pp. 73-106.
Homework: Read chapter 3 (pp. 27-49) in Raimes (1983).
Week 9; April 30
♦ Raimes (1983) Chapter 3: Techniques in Using Pictures.
Go over the good points of using pictures, some of the ways we can use them, and some of the more useful techniques. The word pictures is a blanket term used to describe many different types of visual aids, such as maps, cartoons, and photos.
♦ Supporting your ideas.
Talk about some methods for finding ideas which will support your topic sentence.
♦ Start work on the essay. (Picking a topic, collecting ideas)
Supplemental reading: Caccamise, D. (1987) Idea generation in writing. In A. Matsuhashi (Ed.) Writing in real time. Norwood, NJ.: Ablex. pp. 224-253.
Homework: Read chapter 4 (pp. 50-67) in Raimes (1983).
Read Eisterhold (1990)
Essay writing - Complete steps 1 and 2.
Week 10; May 7
♦ Raimes (1983) Chapter 4: Techniques in Using Readings.
Review some of the strategies frequently implemented in using reading to help writing. Decide which of them might be the best for our students and classroom situations.
♦ Eisterhold (1990)
Review how reading effects writing and how this relationship is posited to be different in the first and second language. Endeavor to find some practical applications for this by looking at available teaching materials
♦ Choosing good examples.
Go over how writers come up with examples to support their main idea. Then talk about how we can limit those ides and pick out just the good ones. Discuss how the author-audience relationship works to help us limit our scope.
♦ Come up with good thesis statement.
Supplemental reading: Evans, J. (2001) Using nursery rhymes, jingles, songs and poems as a way into writing. In J. Evans (Ed.) The writing classroom. London: David Fulton Publishers, pp. 8-18.
Homework: Read Chapter 5 (pp. 68-82) in Raimes (1983).
Essay writing - Complete steps 3 and 4.
Week 11; May 14
♦ Raimes (1983) Chapter 5: Techniques in Using All Language Skills.
Talk about the benefit of using all four skills simultaneously. Also deal with more practical concerns like, how can we do this with the materials we have and do I really have the time?
♦ Ordering.
Go over how to determine the order of elements in writing. Talk about the four main types of order, why we need to order, and how ordering is a helpful tool for all students not just for writing.
Supplemental reading: Harris K. and S. Graham. (1996) Making the writing process work: Strategies for composition and self-regulation. Cambridge, MA.: Brookline Books. Chapter 4, A family of writing strategies, pp. 64-130.
Homework Read Chapter 6 (pp. 83-94) in Raimes (1983).
Do take-home assignment on controlled writing.
Essay writing - Complete steps 5, 6, 7 and 8.
Week 12; May 21
♦ Raimes (1983) Chapter 6: Techniques in Using Practical Writing.
Go over some of the more practical, specifically focused, writing jobs. Talk about how these should be set up, especially in relation to the texts the students are using and the level of their students.
♦ Making an outline.
Talk about how to do this and go over some of the reason why this is so important. Also talk about how outlining can be linked to study skills, especially reading.
♦ Organizing writing
Homework: Read chapter 7 (pp. 95-114) in Raimes (1983).
Essay writing - Complete step 9.
Week 13; May 28
♦ Raimes (1983) Chapter 7: Techniques in Using Controlled Writing.
Go over some of the concepts of controlled writing. Talk about the different types of controlled writing exercises and how they can be formulated. Do several examples and discuss their strong points.
♦ Linking sentences.
Talk about some of the ways to link sentences. Discuss what words and expressions are good to use; what types of sentences we need to use to do this
Supplemental reading: Tompkins, G. (2000) Teaching writing: Balancing process and product. Upper Saddle River: Merrill. Chapter 1, Teaching children to write, pp. 3-36.
Homework:Read Chapter 8 (pp. 115-138) in Raimes (1983)
Essay writing - Complete step 10.
Week 14; June 4
♦ Raimes (1983) Chapter 8: Techniques in Teaching Organization.
Review some of the specific ways in which English writing is organized. Talk about some of the best ways of trying to get this across to students of English using meaningful means.
♦ Writing a first draft.
Discuss and practice writing a first draft of an essay. Talk about the things that the writer needs to concentrate on in the first draft.
♦ Revising.
Talk about the process of revising the first draft. Go over some of the different levels of revising and how and why we want to do each one. Give some sort of dichotomy of importance to certain tasks in the revising process.
Homework: Read chapter 9 (pp. 139-155) in Raimes (1983).
Read Leki article.
Essay writing - Complete steps 11 and 12.
Week 15; June 11
♦ Raimes (1983) Chapter 9: Techniques in Responding to Students` Writing.
Talk about some of the main issues surrounding how a teacher can deal with and grade student writing, even simple sentences.
♦ Leki. (1990)
Go more in depth about the role the teacher plays in working with student writing. Talk about some of the major issues a teacher must consider when grading and marking student writing.
♦ Introductions and conclusions
Supplemental reading: Pearson Casanave, C. (2004). Controversies in second language writing. Ann Arbor: The University of Michigan Press. Chapter 4, Assessment, pp. 112-154.
Homework: No reading
Essay writing - Complete steps 13 and 14.
• Final Exam: The final exam will be a take home exam. Please do not forget to do it and hand it in no later than June 20.