Types of Classroom Writing Performance

types of text, students can gain important insight both about how they should write and about subject matter that may become the topic of their writing. 5 Provide as much authentic writing as possible. Whether writing is real writing or for display, it can still be authentic in that the purposes for writing are clear to the students, the audience is specified overtly, and there is at least some intent to convey meaning. Sharing writing with other students in the class is one way to add authenticity. Publishing a class newsletter, writing letters to people outside of class, writing a script for a skit or dramatic presentation, writing a resume, writing advertisements-all these can be seen as authentic writing. 6 Frame your techniques in terms of pre writing, drafting and revising stages. In teaching writing, the teacher should use the writing process that can be put on pre-writing, draft writing, and revising. The pre- writing stage that encourages the generation of ideas can happen in numerous ways such as reading a passage, brainstorming, discussing a topic or question and free writing. In addition, guided tasks are necessary to help students plan what they want to write. In drafting and revising, students must be reminded that what they write in drafting is not a finished product that is considered unchangeable, but it is flexible. Moreover they are really suggested to involve in collaborative writing. They work in pairs or groups to share ideas that contribute to the success of the final product. The way of giving responses also has to be planned, whether the teacher has full autonomy or it also includes peer responses. Therefore, as a productive skill, writing must be taught in a comprehensive way. Langan 2008: 13 suggests that writing should be considered as a skill so that it can be learned like other skills such as driving and swimming. It means that a lot of practice will make a better writing. In other words, writing is something that can be learned. Thus, to be a good writer, the students must do a lot of practice.

d. Assesing Students’ Writing

Teachers who recognize the importance of writing as a learning tool understand that writing will help the students to connect their thoughts and communicate with others. Regarding to that point, the researcher realizes that the most important part to know the students’ writing ability is from their writing products. It can be assumed that if the students have a good writing ability, their writings also will be good and vice versa. So, the teacher has to be able to assess students’ writing in an appropriate way. However, to assess students’ writing product is not a simple thing to do. Urquhart McIver 2005:26 argue that the most time- intensive part of teaching writing is assessment. Miller Urquhart McIver, 2005: 27