Practice of Writing Skills in the Classroom
6.5 Teaching Directed/Guided Writing
Guided writing is useful for helping students to build confidence in their writing ability. It is done through the use of clues, information, or guidelines. Guided writing tasks may be done in a number of ways and the following table illustrates the extent to which guided writing practice is done in the classroom.
Table 6.12 Guided Writing Practice
SL Verifiable
indicators Tools Used Levels Responses Descriptive
Statistics DOM 1 2 3 4 5 Mean SD
a Framing 1 sentences with items or clues
Teachers' questionnaire (Item 37)
SSC, N=16 0 2 3 3 8 4.06 1.124 O Level,
N=16 3 2 4 5 2 3.06 1.34 b Framing
sentences from substitution table
Teachers' questionnaire (Item 39)
SSC, N=16 0 3 11 0 2 3.06 .854 O Level, .56
N=16 2 6 6 2 0 2.50 .894 c Writing
narrative based on a sequence of pictures
Teachers' questionnaire (Item 40)
SSC, N=16 1 4 7 4 0 2.88 .885 O Level, .82
N=16 10 0 1 5 0 2.06 1.436
Source: Field Survey, 2010 (Scaling: 1= Not at all; 2= Rarely; 3= Sometimes; 4= Very Often; 5= Always; SD=
Standard Deviation, DOM=Difference of Mean between SSC and O Levels)
The table reflects that the SSC classrooms are more guided-writing-oriented than O level classrooms. The mean score against the indicator 'framing sentences with items or clues' is very high at the SSC level schools (4.06), while the score is only high (3.06) at the O level. The second indicator in the table to verify guided writing practice offers similar results. The mean score of the SSC level is 3.06, while the score is 2.50 at the O level. The statistics reflect that framing correct sentences from substitution table is hardly done in the O level classrooms though the practice is quite high in the SSC classrooms.
The third indicator, that measures ‘practice of writing based on sequence of pictures’, does not claim much attention from either of the groups. The mean score at the SSC level is 2.88 while the score is 2.06 at the O level.
However, the table above cannot solely reflect the standard of 'Guided Writing Practice'. A close look at the indicators set in the table above reveals that these types of tasks are usually designed for comparatively young language learners. The SSC classrooms are still very busy with these minor and initial guided writing practices. It is quite surprising that despite having scope for standard guided writing practice—item 13 of SSC English first paper syllabus/question paper asks students to write a paragraph from given hints or by answering questions, item 14 of the same paper asks students to write a letter on a given situation, item number 10 of 2nd paper asks students to prepare a personal report on a given situation, items 12, 13 and 14 of 2nd paper are also concerned with guided writing practice—the teachers and students of SSC are busy with those initial
guided writing practice. It has been discovered during the interview with teachers that both students and teachers are reluctant to practising anything in the classroom that demands language production. Subsequently their attention is drawn to items, which can offer at best sentence level grammar, not the discourse at all. Moreover, the tradition of having familiar topics in the public examination inspires both teachers and students to be tricky, and dissuade them from writing practice in the classroom. The picture of O level is quite opposite as the entire emphasis of directed writing is focused on language practice;
the students practise report writing, debate speech, application, letter, dialogue writing, article writing etc.
The teachers are expected to give ideas about the importance of situation, purpose and audience while teaching directed/guided writing in the classroom. Nevertheless, the teachers of O level appear to be more concerned here:
Table 6.13
Giving Ideas about the Importance of Situation, Purpose and Audience while Teaching Directed Writing
Indicator Tools Used Levels Responses Descriptive
Statistics DOM
1 2 3 4 5 Mean SD
–. 63 stress on
situation, purpose and audience
Students' Questionnaire (item 37)
SSC, N=120 21 32 21 30 16 2.90 1.325 O Level,
N=120 8 12 34 41 25 3.53 1.13
Teachers' Questionnaire (item 38)
SSC, N=16 0 0 7 7 2 3.69 .704
–. 44 O Levels,
N=16 0 1 5 1 9 4.13 1.88
Observation Checklist (item 39)
SSC, N=16 12 4 0 0 0 1.25 .447
–2.56 O Levels,
N=16 0 1 3 10 2 3.81 .75
Source: Field Survey (Scaling: 1= Not at all; 2= Rarely; 3= Sometimes; 4= Very Often; 5= Always; SD= Standard Deviation, DOM=Difference of Mean between SSC and O Levels)
Being aware of situation and audience is vital to making someone's writing look original and attractive. The tone varies according to the difference of subject matter and genre. The language which is used in report writing is not desirable in informal letter writing. Data in the table above reflect that the teachers of the SSC level hardly bother about it as the mean score is low in all three tools. Moreover, the high SD is suggestive of huge discrepancies among teachers of the two levels in this area. The situation at the O level appears to be better, but the SD is also high over there which indicates that the teachers are divided, with some emphasising these aspects, while others do not. The
following figure shows how the students are made aware of situation, purpose and audience at the two levels:
Figure 6.1
Figure: Techniques of Teaching Awareness of Purpose, Situation and Audience
0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8
SSC O levels
Number of Respondents
Teaching students awareness of purpose, situation and audience
Asking studen ts to ima gine themselves in tha t situation Sh owing them some mod els
Not fo llo win g any specific techniq ue others
Most of the teachers of O level ask students to imagine themselves in the situation while teaching awareness of purpose, situation and audience. The practice is quite popular among SSC level teachers as well, but they prefer model presentation more in teaching these aspects which is evident in the figure above. However, the practice of displaying models is not up to expectation at the SSC level as evidenced by the table below. It offers a contradictory scenario.
Table 6.14 Model Presentation
Variable Tools Used Levels Responses Descriptive
Statistics DOM
1 2 3 4 5 Mean SD
–. 17 Model
Presentation
Students' Questionnaire (item 36)
SSC, N=120 23 37 30 19 11 2.65 1.221 O Level,
N=120 23 30 31 18 18 2.82 1.322 Teachers'
questionnaire (item 36)
SSC, N=16 0 0 8 3 5 3.81 .911
–. 44 O Level, N=16 0 0 3 6 7 4.25 .775
Source: Field Survey, 2010 (Scaling: 1= Not at all; 2= Rarely; 3= Sometimes; 4= Very Often; 5= Always; SD=
Standard Deviation, DOM=Difference of Mean between SSC and O Levels)
It has been observed that there are some models of CV, essay and letter in the books of SSC level. However, the teachers of SSC level hardly introduce any written item beyond the text. The reply of the students reveals that the tendency to present model is low among the teachers of both the levels. Though the mean and SD are very high in the reply of teachers, the reply of students’ invalidate the claim of teachers.