WRITING

Writing as a skill that allows people to communicate through distance and time. History and all we know nowadays is possible because of writing and of course, because of a writer. Personally, I enjoy writing, more in Spanish but with this exercise (blog) I started feeling at ease with English too. I try to remember that the more I write, the more I learn and improve my skills and that´s the reason for doing this reflection with each module.
Writing must be a tool in order to identify what our students know about any topic you are teaching. But we have to be careful. To spend all classes doing writing exercises or copying from the board is not enough and doesn´t mean you are a good teacher. What is really important is to promote writing with a purpose and use games in which students are producing and having fun at the same time.
Finally, what happens with the mistakes? To make mistakes is part of the process - I need to be aware of this idea – We should let students produce a text and depending on the objective of the activity, you can correct them or not. I think is the way you do it that helps the student not to feel frustrated and as teacher we are not smiling and friendly all the time.
Some examples to introduce in our lesson planning:
§ Running dictation: in pairs, one student goes and reads a text that is pasted on the wall and dictates what he/she finds to the other student
§ Ping pong writing: write a word and the next person have to write another one with the last letter of the one you wrote
§ Journals: start with a question so students can write and express what they think and feel
§ Questions on the wall: write some questions and let students write their answers
§ Create a story with some words
§ Write, read and rewrite

Since this class at the university, I created a place in my classroom to paste students production because I know it is important for them to show and celebrate their process.