How to Enhance Writing Skills in The Classroom as a Teacher

The essay will be written on “How would you teach and enhance writing skills in the classroom as an Intermediate Phase teacher?” Firstly, I will provide brief definitions of writing and writing skills. Secondly, the importance of writing skills for students and how to improve them. Thirdly, elaborating on the Types of Writing Styles and Strategies students can use to develop their writing in the classroom. Furthermore, discussing the writing approach used in the English Home Language CAPS document and the stages and activities teachers can use in the classroom. Lastly, an overview of writing skills and how these strategies and techniques will help students in their future.

“Writing is a powerful instrument of communication that lets one construct ideas and thoughts through practice across a variety of contexts”. Through writing, students are guided through different writing frames to assist their writing skills and gradually help them develop these skills to be masters of a written language that can be communicated on different platforms DBE.

Sharna states, that writing skills are the ability to write meaningful words, sentences, paragraphs, and stories that people will be able to understand and relate to. Through writing, you are not only learning about writing but how the English language of writing is structured and techniques used to assist in the writing process. It is also a perfect way to express your thoughts and ideas on a topic that is well organized and written to develop not only writing but reading skills as well.

Writing improves students’ communication skills by allowing them to communicate and understand what they are writing and saying, which makes sense not only to themselves but also to others. Writing improves students’ confidence as it lets them write and speak about their work in front of an audience and gives them an opportunity to read their work. Secondly, it sharpens their creativity and imaginations, allowing students to learn and think out of the box on ways to express their writing styles they enjoy. Furthermore, writing expands students’ knowledge and reading capabilities, as a student you write and then you read and vice versa which helps students memorize the contents that can be used in future literature.

How to Improve Writing Skills for Students?

1. Encourage Reading, through different texts and genres which gives students an opportunity to explore a wide range of vocabulary from reading and picking up new words that can be used to write sentences they may structure in their written work.
2. Work with Graphic Organizers, this is a good way for students to brainstorm and put their ideas together on paper and allows them to reflect and use their organizers to plan and organize their work each time. Graphic organizers have stages and headings that help students during the writing process to structure their work in a logical and orderly manner for a reader to understand the writing process.
3. Spell and Grammar checks, have students double-check their grammar using the dictionary and sounding out words they think they have misspelled to rectify the word by writing what they hear and how it is spelled correctly. Students can use activities such as copying words from different texts to practice their writing skills, such as poems or songs and have other students double-check their spelling compared to the original copy.

Types of Writing Styles and How They Can Enhance Writing

The variety of writing styles that students use in the class, allows them to explore their writing capabilities in different texts. The purpose of using writing styles is to be creative and encourage students to use different writing techniques and frames that will be useful in learning to write. It teaches students to have structural sentences and paragraphs that serve the required purpose of the style of writing needed for a specific topic. It also enhances their writing skills by looking at the different ways writing styles are structured and laid out for different topics and themes. Greenawald has noted, that these five writing styles help students improve their writing skills and how they can be developed in the classroom.

1. Narrative Writing, is like storytelling and includes elements that are in the story which starts with a beginning, middle, and end. This type of writing style allows students to use their imaginations and life experiences that relate to their tastes and age, which motivates them more to write and learn. The teacher can ask students to write narrative essays on fiction and no-fiction stories and provide students with narrative graphic organizers to guide their writing essays.
2. Descriptive Writing, is all about the details in writing and allowing the reader to experience the mood or sensations the writer was going through while writing the story. This writing style helps students write and learn more about their parts of speech and how to use them in descriptive essays. Students learn to write and think of verbs and adjectives that provide visual and action content in writing which they can use inside and outside the classroom. The teacher can ask students to write a descriptive essay on travel destinations they would like to visit one day and to describe how it looks.
3. Persuasive Writing, is the ability to write and persuade someone that their idea or point is valid by listing all the pros and cons that come with a topic and deciding which one suits them best. This writing style allows students to write their views on a topic they feel strongly about and enhances their writing and reading ability as it is based on facts and research the writer has done to convince the reader. The teacher can ask students to use their persuasive writing in orals or debates based on a topic such as “Why should we eat three meals a day?” or “Why is the newspaper better than a magazine?” Another activity they can do is getting into pairs and writing points on topics they feel people will agree with them on or not.
4. Expository Writing, is used to inform or explain a topic in simple terms and answer common questions that every reader might have on their mind to fully understand the concept or idea. This style of writing helps students to write quick summaries of a topic to get the message across and to follow the simple guidelines of not writing more than is required for a story or passage. The teacher will ask students to write about their daily route of travel to school and how do they prepare their lunch for school daily.
5. Creative Writing, allows students to explore different themes, genres, or concepts that might come into their heads. Students write on topics or ideas they enjoy and feel comfortable with which improves their writing skills. Their writing creativity gives them the freedom to write what they want without restrictions unless the teacher plans a creative essay. This builds confidence in students writing and encourages them to write beyond the classroom. Teachers can ask students to write about types of monsters or a jungle cruise or a poem or even brainstorm different topics students would like to write on.

According to the DBE, the Process Approach to writing allows students to produce well-organized and structured content in stages to develop their writing skills through collaboration with peers and their teacher. This method of writing is used mostly in all South African classrooms to help develop students writing as this process requires time to be perfected through different stages and feedback to be made final. The Process approach to writing is where the teacher acts as a facilitator and provides consistent feedback to students during different stages of their writing process. This approach improves their writing by modeling different writing pieces through the stages. It allows students in stages to evaluate and reflect on their writing before handing in the final product of their work, which enables them to be better writers and to focus on points that need improvement in their writing Zakime, 2018.

Stages of Process Writing in the Classroom

Zakime notes, that these 4 stages of Process Writing will enable students to develop their writing skills.

• Pre–Writing – In this stage, students are planning and brainstorming different types of ideas and points of view they can come up with for a story. Students will be using mind maps and graphic organizers to plan out the main ideas of their work. This stage is about informing students that the main idea is to think of a topic and investigate, and not to focus necessarily on writing but to plan and prepare before drafting their work.
• Drafting-Writing – The drafting stage includes students’ rough work written down from their ideas used in the pre-writing stage. The drafting stage includes the main headings of the essays such as the introduction, body, and conclusion depending on the type of writing style you will be given. In this case, it will be a narrative essay. Students will use their writing frame (mind map, organizers with different headings to guide students writing process). These headings in their drafts will include all their ideas and thoughts which has been written down, with more structural context to give the draft meaning to flow as a story. Grammar and spelling are not a concern in this stage but students’ ability to write and put their idea on paper is important.
• Revising – In this stage students share their work with classmates or the teacher to receive feedback and to make changes that need to be done. This stage allows students to re-read and see if the sentences and structure of their writing make sense to the audience they intend to reach and to themselves. It allows the teacher to ask students questions about their essays and how they think they can change certain words or sentences to make sense when reading aloud. It is also a good way to read and hear your writing to pick up mistakes that you thought sounded correct but weren’t from others around you in class. This stage is more focused on the drafts and the process of writing and the time they have to structure their work according to their standards.
• Editing-Proof Reading – This stage allows students to write and rewrite until they are satisfied with their written work. Students’ spelling, grammar, and punctuation need to be correct and structured in a logical flow for the reader to understand what has been written. The teacher and students will help out by sharing their thoughts and feedback on the written work and if anything should be changed in their writing. This stage is dedicated to students’ ability to evaluate their work and reflect on what they have written and ensure their sentence structures and paragraphs, and wording is correct for the reader to comprehend.
• Publishing-Presenting – This is the final piece of the written work that has been drafted, redrafted, and received multiple editing and feedback from classmates and the teacher. It will be assessed by the teacher using a standard rubric that will be followed to evaluate the students writing skills.

In conclusion, writing is a skill that is important for all students around the world. We develop this skill through stages in our lives and at school where we gain the knowledge and practice to enhance ourselves and be better writers. The stages of writing are important because we go through different phases from early childhood to high school which resembles what we have learned and experienced through social learning. An example as toddlers we learn to use a crayon and scribble lines, as preschoolers we write letters that are spaced apart and have meaning. In middle school and high school, we start structuring words and sentences in order, using proper grammar and punctuation that has been taught and learned from our social surroundings. An example of Vygotsky’s scaffolding method where we are guided by our teachers and peers until we feel comfortable working independently without guidance from others.