(This modules were prepared for teacher training programme organised at Regional Institute of Education, NCERT, Bhopal (Madhya Pradesh - coordinated by Dr. Shruti Misra. It is published in the training module also)
How to Cite?
APA Style:
Barad, D. (2016, Feb.). Teaching Writing Skills and
Creative Writing through ICT. Training Package on Integrating ICT in ELT at
Secondary Level, 48-67. (S. Tripathi, Compiler) Bhopal, MP, India: RIE -
NCERT. Retrieved from
http://dilipbarad.blogspot.in/2016/02/teaching-writing-skills-and-creative_7.html
MLA Style:
Barad, Dilip. "Teaching Writing Skills and
Creative Writing through ICT." Training Package on Integrating ICT in
ELT at Secondary Level. Comp. Shruti Tripathi. Bhopal: RIE - NCERT, Feb.
2016. 48-67. <http://dilipbarad.blogspot.in/2016/02/teaching-writing-skills-and-creative_7.html>.
Teaching Writing
Skills and
Creative Writing
through ICT
1.
Writing Skills
Introduction:
Writing
Skills - one of the important skills for effective communication is of utmost
importance among the four basic skills (i.e. Listening, Speaking, Reading and
Writing). This Skill helps students in appropriately expressing their views,
emotions, feelings, thoughts and ideas. Our curriculum designers and pedagogist
have always given significant space to writing Skills in teaching and learning
process. In this module we will explore possibilities of teaching writing Skills
through integration of Information and Communication Technology in traditional
(face-2-face) teaching-learning environment.
Objectives
The objectives of teaching writing Skills do not change when we think of integrating ICT. There isn't just a difference of ‘typing’ rather than ‘hand-writing’, though, rest of the Skills remain similar. The big difference is that the learners constructively acquire ICT Skills when teachers device activities, tasks, projects based on ICT / Web 2.0 tools. The integration of ICT impacts positively on the performance of students They constructively
acquire following Skills when teachers make integrative use of ICT / Web 2.0
tools in the classroom:
·
Students acquire habit of self-learning
·
They become confident learners
·
Their outcome becomes effective as their
efficiency in performance increases
·
They become innovative and divergent
thinkers
·
They learn new Skills: analytical and
evaluation
·
They become responsible learners as ICT
encourages independent and active learning
·
It helps in reducing social inequality
among students as they learn with other in order to complete given activity /
task / project
·
It has significant impression on the
teaching performance of the teachers
·
It will bridge the gap between the
classroom and the outside world
·
It will engage students for more hours
with learning
·
It will extend classroom interaction
beyond closed walls of classroom / school
·
It will help overcome time and space
barrier between the learner and the learning.
·
It will help to cater the needs of both
the slow as well as the fast learners in the mixed ability class.
·
They acquire the necessary skills in
digital citizenship
Apart from these
benefits, various researches have proved that the integration of ICT makes
learner feel more successful and stimulated. It increases self-confidence and
self-esteem. There are the soft skills which, if once ignited, the teacher’s
job is half done. Ignition of these softer aspects of learner-personality makes
a huge difference in the performance of the students as valuable citizen of
society.
Writing Skills as it is taught in traditional classroom
environment
Writing Skills is
taught in traditional classroom:
·
With the help of
printed text book
·
. . .Writing activities are prescribed at the
end of chapter/s
·
. . . Writing
activities like answer in one line or a few lines (text based comprehension
questions)
·
. . . Paragraph
writing
·
. . .Essay
writing
·
. . . Letter
writing
·
. . . Imagine
and write etc
No
doubt, these activities and tasks are very useful. We are not going to
challenge its utility in enhancing writing skills. We are not going to replace
them with new sets of tasks and activities. The teachers shall use same
activities which are given in the texts books but with a difference. The
difference is – the integration if ICT /
Web 2.0 tools. The traditional activities and tasks will take care of
basics of writing skills; the new integration will help us enhance the
traditional learning practices. In the process, the new integrations will
create new learning environment. The newly envisioned environment will connect
the class with the outside world. The outside world is making immense use of
technology in their day-to-day life. The everyday social interaction requires
new sets of skills. Out integration aims to bridge the so that our students
learn, not only the necessary writing skills but also the new gadgets, new
tools with which people communicate in digital era.
How to integrate ICT to teach Writing Skills
In
this module we shall have a look at some innovative ways to integrate ICT / Web
2.0 tools in devising activities to enhance writing Skills. We shall divide our
discussion in two sections: 1) Let us know the ICT tools; 2) how to use these
tools for writing skills
We
know that Information and Communication Technology (ICT) is an umbrella term.
This technology engulfs basic technologies of mobile phones, satellite
television to high end technologies used by space scientists and militia for
national securities. Our purpose is to concentrate only on basic, popular and
easy to use technologies under ICT. Similarly, there are innumerable Web 2.0
tools available. Everyday some new tools are coming in the market. The race to cope
up with all the web tools or the latest is never ending rat race. So, we shall
concentrate on some web 2.0 tools which are successfully used in Indian
classroom environments. Let us have a cursory look at some of such Web 2.0
tools and know about them in brief:
Email
is the electronic mail service which gives us space to type our message and can
be send across internet and other computer networks. Now-a-days, it is the most
popular tool for communication. It developed along with development in I & C
Technologies. Today, it is available in most of the hand held mobile devices
which makes it one of the web tools which is easy to find in classroom
environments.
From where to get it?
Popular free email service
providers are
Wordle
is a toy for generating “word clouds” from text that you provide. The clouds
give greater prominence to words that appear more frequently in the source
text. You can tweak your clouds with different fonts, layouts, and color
schemes. The images you create with Wordle are yours to use however you like.
You can print them out, or save them to your own desktop to use as you wish.
These word clouds are useful to summarize large documents and it helps in
teaching writing skills to the students. It is web based service which requires
java script installed on browser. The mobile phone browsers do not support it
and hence generation of word cloud cannot happen on mobile phones. For
generation of word cloud one must use laptop / Desktop, later on learning
activities can be carried out on any other devices in the classroom.
From where to get it?
Blog is also known as
Weblog. It is a sort of dairy on the website. People use it for various
purposes. It is a
frequently updated personal journal chronicling links at a Web site, intended
for public viewing. It is used for journal purpose writing, sharing photos,
audio-visual material.
From where to get it
Some of the famous free blog service
providers are:
www.blogger.com (it is Google service so works with Gmail email id and
password)
eGroups, initially,
were just email list management websites. Now, they have developed into online
discussion forums. It provides common platform for sharing common interests.
They are also known as SIG – Special Interest Groups. eGroups offers at least two kinds of discussion group; in both cases
users can participate in threaded conversations, either through a web interface
or by e-mail.
From
where to get it?
Podcast
is the digital medium over which audio along with other forms of media can be
shared. The podcast service provider platforms are web based as well as
available in form of mobile applications. It is one of the digital platforms
which can be used for dictation activities to enhance writing skills. For
editing sound / voice, audacity sound editing software can be used.
From where to get it?
WhatsApp Inc. is an early stage technology startup founded in
the heart of Silicon Valley. What does the name mean you ask? Well, WhatsApp is a pun on What's Up. This is a multiplatform mobile phone
messaging service that uses your phone's internet connection to chat with and
call other WhatsApp users. As it is available across various operating systems
on mobile phone and supports pictures, audio and videos, it provides better
opportunities in academic environment to enhance writing skills.
From where to get it?
Download and install from mobile app downloader. For
example ‘Play’ in Android based smart phones.
SMS is text-only messaging services. It helps in
sharing text messages without internet connectivity. All mobile phones by
default provides this service.
From where to get it?
It is default service is all mobile phones.
For effective writing
skills, the sub-skills like vocabulary, word choice, grammar, sentence
structure, organization of thought, and expression of ideas shall be enhanced.
Any activities / tasks / projects aimed at improving writing skills shall
include evaluation of these sub-skills in their rubrics. Let us see how various
activities can be prepared using ICT tools. We shall see that these activities
are in support of face to face classroom teaching with the help of prescribed
text book. So the activities thought out shall be in continuation of writing
activities in the text book. Blending ICT tools with face to face traditional
teaching is for extended learning. It is for engaging students with learning.
Thus, the use of tools shall have dual objectives:
a)
The text book activities shall be
incorporated in the activities prepared with ICT tools
b)
The teacher shall go beyond the text
book and prepare activities which forces learners to explore additional
resources
The former will help
slow learners, the later, the fast and smart learners. Thus, one of the objectives
to cater the need of mixed ability among the students in the class can be
satisfied.
·
Suppose, there
is a lesson on letter writing or a task on email writing. The teacher shall
draft an email and send ‘real’ email to all the students. In this email, s/he
shall ask students to complete whatever task is given and students shall
mandatorily post their answers in reply email to the teacher.
o For example, write an email to your parents to
inform how the celebration of Independence Day was organized in your school.
Send this email to your parents, if they have email id and to your teacher on
teacher@myschool.com
·
Secondly, the
activity for extended learning. There is lesson on festivals of India. Teacher
drafts an email for students asking them to share about the last festival they
have celebrated with their family members. The students shall reply via email.
If students are attaching photographs, it should be encouraged so they learn to
express through various media.
·
Wordle helps to
create word picture from small essay, short story or poem. It is fun to read
the word cloud and write a paragraph on it.
o For example, this wordle is created from the poem The Vagabond by R.L. Stevenson. The
students can be asked to minutely observe this picture and write a paragraph.
All the words shall be used at least once in the paragraph.
·
In the above
activity, we have prepared word cloud from the poem in the text book. The
teacher can create similar pictures from any other topic from current affairs,
news paper and magazines and the task can be given to the students.
·
Blog is one of
the best tools for writing skills. All the lessons which require writing tasks
can be converted into blog tasks.
o For example, at the end of the chapter on any story,
there may be task on paragraph writing. The teacher can take a snap of photo
from the text book or google photo similar to the story and post it on his
blog. The students are given task to read the image and with the help of
classroom discussion on the story, write a paragraph in 100 words in the
‘comment’ section below teacher’s blog. Click her for example: http://dilipbarad.blogspot.in/2013/09/story-writing-skill-english-language.html
·
Secondly, to go
beyond the curriculum, the teacher will blog post a task on essay writing,
paragraph writing, notice writing and report writing. The blog link can be
shared via email or eGroup or WhatsApp message with students. The students
shall respond to the task in ‘comment’ section.
·
The integration
of ICT is incomplete without eGroup of the students. If ever teacher thinks of
integrating ICT in the classroom, s/he should first of all see to it that all
the students shall have their email id. Then all email ids of the students
shall be enlisted with the eGroup. Teacher can use either Google or Yahoo
groups for various online discussions. The advantage of eGroup over email is
that eGroup gives better facilities for archived emails and for threaded
conversations.
·
Firstly, for the
text based activity on eGroup, the teacher shall draft an email for the writing
activities given in the text. In this email, the teacher asks students to complete
the task and send reply mail to the teacher. It should be strictly instructed
that the students shall NOT CHANGE SUBJECT LINE. This is necessary to keep all
the conversations threaded together. The benefit of activities using eGroup
over simple email id is that, all students are able to view activities done by
other students. This remains invisible to other students in case of email based
activities. When the activities carried out of students are open to entire
class, it gives several benefits. Firstly, the other students learn from their
classmates. This is one of the most successful modes of learning. Secondly, the
transparency in assessment can be achieved as things remain open to entire
class. Thirdly, students develop digital citizenship skills. It is very
important to teach students to digitally communicate in public spaces in an
appropriate way.
·
Secondly, for
the activities other than in text book, eGroups can be used. Teacher can
initiate online discussions. An email asking for opinion building on the topic
from current affairs which may or may not be distantly connected with topics in
text can be initiated by teacher. The students shall reply the email of the
teacher without changing subject line (so all mails are threaded together and
can be accessed from the archives in future).
·
Dictation
activity is useful for both listening skills as well as writing skills. The
teacher can use podcast service to share his/her dictation with students. In
turn, students shall listen the voice and write or type and send it back to the
teacher for evaluation. If some sharable platforms are used, all students can
view activities of other students and also help in peer evaluation.
·
Preparing
activities on this sort is very easy. Recording facilities are provided in all
mobile phones. Even PC / Laptops have recording facilities. If it is not
possible to avail these facilities, teacher can download free to use sound
editing software like Audacity. Apart from recording dictation, it can help in
doing simple editing as well.
·
The recorded
audio clip is to be uploaded on podcast service provider websites. From which
students can listen it, type the dictation, and share it with teacher and other
students.
·
WhatsApp can be
linking platform for all the activities carried out using ICT tools. Blog
links, emails, group interactions, word clouds – everything can be shared over
WhatsApp. It has been proved that more users use internet over mobile phones
rather than PC or laptops, it is advisable to use mobile platform for
integration of ICT in classrooms. The State Governments are coming up with
classrooms where wifi connected tablets and hand held devices are given and ICT
enabled classroom are becoming reality. Thus, teachers exploring possibilities
of such platforms will make them future-ready.
·
Activities in
the text books can be done on WhatsApp also. The teacher shall either prepare a
Group or Broadcast on WhatsApp and share the activity. S/he can take photo on
his/her mobile phone from the text book and ask students to do the task during
off hours (out of classroom or after regular teaching).
·
Apart from text
related activities, teacher can share word-cloud of news paper write-up or any
other authentic material and various activities can be thought out. The purpose
shall be to ask students to view small video, a picture and write something on
it. Quite an interesting amount and quality of language can be generated in
this activity.
·
Dictation is
very useful for developing writing skills. The teacher can record brief
dictation in WhatsApp and share voice thread in the group. The students shall
listen and type in reply to teacher’s posting.
·
Students shall
learn writing skills along with various other skills like reading other media,
using mobile digital gadgets for academic purpose.
·
SMS is very good
for writing activity if there are no smart phones or internet connectivity. The
teacher can use SMS for only-text based activities.
o For example, first sms, related to one of the
lessons in the text is sent to first group of students in the classroom. That
group shall ‘read’ the message, ‘redraft in their language’ and send it to
another group. This continues till the last group receives and sends the
message back to the teacher. The teacher shall write the message he sent and
what he has received on black board or display on screen via projector. This
gives an opportunity to discuss the natural language generated in informal
environment.
·
Similarly other
tasks related to text book or other than text book can be prepared. The more
the teacher is innovative and expert in the use of technology, the better
activities and tasks can be prepared.
Writing
Activity
|
ICT
/ Web 2.0 Tool to be Integrated in Activity
|
Paragraph
Writing
|
Blog,
Email, eGroup, WhatsApp, SMS, WordCloud
|
Essay
Writing
|
Blog,
Email eGroup, WhatsApp, WordCloud
|
Letter
Writing / Email Writing
|
Email,
eGroup
|
Report
Writing
|
Email,
eGroup, Blog, WordCloud
|
Note
Taking
|
WhatsApp,
eGroup
|
Dictation
Activity
|
Podcast,
Sound recording /editing software, Blog, WhatsApp
|
Normally,
in traditional classroom, the teacher is the sole assessor. Not only s/he is
the only one to pass on judgment of the performance, s/he is also the one with
the most randomized assessment system. Most of the time appropriate and uniform
rubric to assess writing activities is not prepared by the teacher. Such
rubric, if it is prepared, shall be available to students, and students shall
play active role in peer assessment and self-assessment. As and when teacher
thinks of integrating ICT / Web 2.0 tools, s/he shall make provision for
internet based online rubric for assessment by teacher, peer and self. For this
there are two easy to use tools: 1) Google Form for online rubric, 2) Flubaroo
for generating auto grade, if need be to ascertain right and wrong answers.
Generally, in the rubric for assessment of writing activities, there shall be
no right or wrong answers. Only if it is comprehension type quiz, there is need
of Flubaroo in the assessment rubric.
The
rubric should see that the language generated in all these activities will be
informal and natural. As technology is to promote unstructured and informal
methods of learning, the language generated may be quite easy going, natural,
full of errors, typos and spelling errors. There should be space and freedom to
use similar language in all these writing activities. Here is one sample of
online rubric for assessment of writing activities: http://dilipbarad.blogspot.in/2015/10/rubric-for-evaluation-of-written.html
Grading Rubric
for Written Activities
Elements
|
1-5
|
6-10
|
11-15
|
16-20
|
Content and
|
- Content is
|
- Content shows
|
- Content shows
|
- Content shows
|
Development.
|
incomplete and
|
low level of
|
some level of
|
high level of
|
|
inaccurate.
|
comprehension
|
comprehension
|
comprehension
|
|
- Major points are
|
and accuracy.
|
and accuracy.
|
and accuracy.
|
|
stated.
|
- Points are not
|
-Some points are
|
- Major points are
|
|
-Shows no
|
clearly stated and
|
stated clearly and
|
stated clearly and
|
|
originality and
|
supported.
|
well-supported.
|
are well supported.
|
|
creativity
|
- Shows little
|
-Shows some
|
- Shows originality
|
|
|
originality and
|
originality and
|
and creativity.
|
|
|
creativity.
|
creativity
|
|
Structure
and
|
- Structure of the
|
- Structure of the
|
- Structure of the
|
- Structure of the
|
Organization
|
Write-up is fairly
|
Write-up is not clear
|
Write-up is fairly
|
Write-up is clear and
|
|
clear and easy to
|
and difficult to
|
clear and easy to
|
easy to follow.
|
|
follow.
|
follow.
|
follow.
|
- Demonstrate
|
|
- May have
|
- May have minor
|
- Demonstrate
|
cohesion and
|
|
inappropriate
|
digression from
|
some
cohesion and
|
coherence
|
|
transitions that
|
the thesis.
|
coherence
|
throughout the
|
|
disrupt the
|
|
throughout the
|
Write-up.
|
|
progression of
|
|
Write-up.
|
|
|
ideas.
|
|
|
|
Grammar and
|
- Write-up contains
|
- Write-up contains
|
- Write-up contains
|
- Rules of
|
Punctuation
|
numerous
|
few grammatical,
|
minimal errors in
|
grammar, usage,
|
|
grammatical,
|
punctuation and
|
grammar,
|
and punctuation
|
|
punctuation, and
|
spelling errors.
|
punctuation and
|
are followed;
|
|
spelling errors.
|
- Language lacks
|
spelling.
|
spelling is correct.
|
|
- Language uses
|
clarity or includes
|
-Contains minor
|
- Language is clear
|
|
jargon or
|
the use of some
|
violations in
|
and precise;
|
|
conversational
|
jargon or
|
writing, but do not
|
sentences display
|
|
tone.
|
conversational
|
distract the
|
consistently
|
|
|
tone.
|
meaning; well-
|
strong, varied
|
|
|
|
structured
|
structure.
|
|
|
|
sentences, varied
|
|
|
|
|
structure.
|
|
The online rubric for
the assessment of writing activities can be prepared on Google Forms. Even the
online tests for comprehension type activities can be prepared on Google Forms.
The
benefit of using Google Form for online exam will be that a particular script
named Flubaroo will help teachers in auto generation of grades. The same script
will help in sending grades with correct answer to all the students via email.
This will save teacher time and burden form reading each and every items one by
one. The saved time can be used for innovative activities. Interactive quiz can
be prepared on Hotpotatoes as well. It can be downloaded from hotpot.uvic.ca.
Creative
writing is one of the toughest things to teach. One can teach tough match
problem or science concept but to teach write simple poem or story is hard nut
to crack. The curriculum designers always put stress on teaching creative
writing as it is very well understood that this is very important skill to be
developed among the students. If the students have learnt the process of
thinking creatively, it will help them in what so ever things they do in
future, let alone writing poetry or stories.
The objectives of teaching writing Skills do not change when we think of integrating ICT. There isn't just a difference of ‘typing’ rather than ‘hand-writing’, though, rest of the Skills remain similar. The big difference is that the learners constructively acquire ICT Skills when teachers device activities, tasks, projects based on ICT / Web 2.0 tools. The integration of ICT impacts positively on the performance of students They
constructively acquire following Skills when teachers make integrative use of
ICT / Web 2.0 tools in the classroom:
·
Students acquire habit of self-learning
·
They become confident learners
·
Their outcome becomes effective as their
efficiency in performance increases
·
They become innovative and divergent
thinkers
·
They learn new Skills: analytical and
evaluation
·
They become responsible learners as ICT
encourages independent and active learning
·
It helps in reducing social inequality
among students as they learn with other in order to complete given activity /
task / project
·
It has significant impression on the
teaching performance of the teachers
·
It will bridge the gap between the
classroom and the outside world
·
It will engage students for more hours
with learning
·
It will extend classroom interaction
beyond closed walls of classroom / school
·
It will help overcome time and space
barrier between the learner and the learning.
·
It will help to cater the needs of both
the slow as well as the fast learners in the mixed ability class.
·
They acquire the necessary skills in
digital citizenship
Apart from these benefits, various researches have
proved that the integration of ICT makes learner feel more successful and
stimulated. It increases self-confidence and self-esteem. There are the soft
skills which, if once ignited, the teacher’s job is half done. Ignition of
these softer aspects of learner-personality makes a huge difference in the
performance of the students as valuable citizen of society.
In
the traditional classroom, the students are given points of the story and are
asked to develop a story joining the point. At times, the beginning lines of
the poem are shared and students are asked to go on adding rhyming / non
rhyming lines. Sometimes, teachers prefer to use metaphorical language in
letters or essays or paragraph writings. The topics like expansion of an idea
requires creative use of language and students in traditional classroom write
on piece of Write-up what the teacher has dictated or is found in books. It is
very rare to see that creative writing emerges in the class as a part of
activity. It rarely happens that the process of teaching generates creative
writing in the classroom. It may be happening in the class of very innovative
teachers but as it is time consuming and is quite unstructured & informal;
our traditional pedagogy may not leave any space for it. Thus, we identify some
scope and space for integration of technology in teaching creative writing.
In
this module we shall have a look at some innovative ways to integrate ICT / Web
2.0 tools in devising activities to enhance writing Skills. We shall divide our
discussion in two sections: 1) Let us know the ICT tools; 2) how to use these
tools for creative writing.
We
know that Information and Communication Technology (ICT) is an umbrella term.
This technology engulfs basic technologies of mobile phones, satellite television
to high end technologies used by space scientists and militia for national
securities. Our purpose is to concentrate only on basic, popular and easy to
use technologies under ICT. Similarly, there are innumerable Web 2.0 tools
available. Everyday some new tools are coming in the market. The race to cope
up with all the web tools or the latest is never ending rat race. So, we shall
concentrate on some web 2.0 tools which are successfully used in Indian
classroom environments. Let us have a cursory look at some of such Web 2.0
tools and know about them in brief:
Email
is the electronic mail service which gives us space to type our message and can
be send across internet and other computer networks. Now-a-days, it is the most
popular tool for communication. It developed along with development in I &
C Technologies. Today, it is available in most of the hand held mobile devices
which makes it one of the web tools which is easy to find in classroom
environments.
From where to get it?
Popular free email service
providers are
