Writing

Writing is meant to be a fun and enjoyable activity in which students can exercise their imagination and let their creative juices flow. However, students sometimes dread writing as they find it challenging due to these reasons:

They lack ideas.
They do not know how to organize their writing.
They are unable to produce a piece of writing which is of the required length.

In our school, we have various approaches to help students overcome these challenges.

Primary 1 and 2

For the Primary 1 and 2 levels, the writing process is carried out as Guided Writing or Modified Language Experience Approach (MLEA).

In Guided Writing, the teacher and students brainstorm for ideas in the classroom. The teacher proceeds to model the guided class writing using the students’ language. Subsequently, the students engage in writing together before they progress to writing independently.
In MLEA 1, students think about a shared experience, which can be a class activity or a school event. The teacher asks questions to elicit responses during the class discussion and using the students’ responses, the teacher models the writing process for students to observe how the writing is created. Students will read aloud the class writing and thereafter, proceed to edit it.

From the class writing in MLEA 1, students progress to doing group writing in MLEA 2, where they write as a group on a similar theme. Group members are encouraged to contribute ideas and as a group, the students edit and revise their group writing.

Finally, having gone through the class and group writings in MLEA 1 and 2, students are better equipped to embark on their individual writing in MLEA 3, where they will be tasked to write on a related theme.

Primary 3 to 6

For Primary 3 to 6 students, we have a Writing Package which provides a structure that guides them through the writing process for continuous writing.

Firstly, to address the issue of a lack of ideas, students are taught to do “Free Writing”, in which they brainstorm and write freely the ideas that come to mind as they study the pictures and theme. After “Free Writing”, students select the idea(s) which they want to develop based on what they deem to be most interesting and which they feel most confident of developing.
Next, to aid students in organizing their writing, they are trained to complete a “Narrative Framework” using the 5 Ws (who, what, when, where, why) and 1 H (how) questions. Through the use of the framework, students learn to organize their writing in terms of sequencing, paragraphing and linking the ideas together.

Following that, to help them to produce a piece of writing of sufficient length, students are coached to use the “Transition-Action-Detail” template, where they conceptualize the story in 4-5 simple sentences in the ‘Action’ column before elaborating on the actions in the ‘Detail’ column and inserting adverbs of time or time clauses in the ‘Transition’ column. With reference to the TAD, students will then proceed to write their actual piece.

Through the use of these approaches, we hope to reduce students’ resistance to writing and help them develop their confidence and rediscover the joy in writing.