Dr. Catherine F. Woo Memorial School P.M. E07 English story writing Facilitator Ms. KWOK Wing-ki, Judy Senior School Development Officer Speakers Ms. YUEN.

Dr. Catherine F. Woo Memorial School P.M.Dr. Catherine F. Woo Memorial School P.M.

E07 English story writing

Facilitator Ms. KWOK Wing-ki, Judy Senior School Development Officer

Speakers Ms. YUEN Sai Ping Ms. HO Wing Sze

Dr. Catherine F. Woo Memorial School (P.M.)

Story Writing TSA 2006 (P.3)

Story Writing TSA 2006 (P.6)

P.3 P.6

Content 5.4% 9.4%

Language 7.7% 9.7%

Ending 31.1% No data

Percentage of students who scored “0” in story writing (2006 TSA)

Dr. Catherine F. Woo Memorial School P.M.Dr. Catherine F. Woo Memorial School P.M.

Problems encountered:

-Writing as stand-alone practice

-Lack of ideas and experiences

-Lack of expression/language items

-Lack of vocabulary to express ideas

Input

(Textbook/

Readers)

Output

(Writing tasks)

School based Curriculum Planning

- Story telling in class to enrich students’ learning

- Teach students explicitly what to expect from a story (characters, setting, problems and solutions)

- Make story writing as an integral outcome of some modules

- Design “appropriate” writing tasks with familiar context, a chance for students to recycle previous knowledge and newly learnt knowledge from the textbook

- Teach story writing in class (3-4 lessons), teachers as facilitators

Rationale behind curriculum planning

Story Telling in Class

• Choose story of similar context and suitable for story telling (not too many difficult words)

• Vocabulary enrichment: for high ability class

• Interesting story to stimulate students’ imaginative ideas

Similar context as the module in the textbook

Context that encourages the use of the newly learnt vocabulary and sentence pattern

Practice target language

Reflections on curriculum planning:

• Expression of ideas should be more important than language practice

• Flexible use of the textbook

• Less able class may need more than 4 lessons at the beginning

P.3 example (High ability)Teaching procedures

1. Story telling

2. Introduce the writing task

3. Brainstorm ideas

4. Mind Map (whole class & individual)

5. Write in class (with teacher support)

6. Students share their work in class

Dr. Catherine F. Woo Memorial School P.M.Dr. Catherine F. Woo Memorial School P.M.

Graded Worksheets

1. Brainstorm ideas

2. Shared Write (writing model) 3. Shared Read

4. Individual Writing

P.4 Story WritingTeaching procedures

This morning John woke up late. He did not have breakfast. He did not wash his face and brush his teeth. He was in a rush. He put his toothbrush and toothpaste in the school bag and ran to school.

John arrived at school. He was in the toilet. He brushed his teeth with a toothbrush and toothpaste. There were a lot of bubbles in his mouth. He wanted to clean his mouth. He turned on the tap. There was no water!

(Class Model)

This morning, John woke up late. He did not brush his teeth. He did not ate breakfast. But he did put on his uniform quickly. He ran to bus station wait the bus. The bus was came. John went to bus. He came to school. One tooth brush and toothpaste in the school bag.

He in the school toilet. He took the tooth brush and toothpaste. He brushed his teeth. There were a lot of bubbles in his mouth. He wanted to clean his mouth. He turned on the tap. Oh no, there was no water.

He put the cup ran to the gril toilet. he put the uater in his cup. He ran to the boy toilet. He wash his mouth. So, he can quickly ran to his classroom.

( P.4 student)

Student Work

Cater for different abilities

a. Teaching strategy

b. Vocabulary

c. Graded worksheets

Evaluation of our teaching on story writing:

- Observation

- Students work

- Internal tests/examinations

- Territory-wide System Assessment (TSA)

Conclusion

Curriculum planning

• flexible use of the textbook and

more story reading/telling in class

Integrated Approach

• writing a natural extension of reading (design appropriate writing tasks)

• writing as a means to recycle prior knowledge and newly learnt knowledge

Thank you!