Feedback should not involve “correcting” students’ writing. In order to promote independent writers, teachers can provide summary comments that
instruct students to look for problems and correct them on their own. 4 Clarify for yourself, and for your students, how their writing will be evaluated
Students often feel that the evaluation of their writing is completely subjective. One way to combat that feeling is to first develop a statement about
what is valued in students writing. Teachers can then develop a rubric, a kind of scoring grid that elaborates elements of writing that are to be evaluated. The
rubric should outline the weight of grammar and mechanics in relationship to content and ideas, as well as other features of writing that is important.
c. Types of Writing Activities
Writing is both a process and a product. In process writing, there are activities such as brainstorming, drafting, writing, feedback, revising, and editing
in a cyclical fashion. The activities encourage the idea that learning to write is more than creating a final product; it is the learning of a series skills leading to
that product. The process writing seems complicated and difficult to achieve by beginner students. However, for the beginner or intermediate students, the process
can be practiced in pairs or in groups rather than individually. Therefore, Davies 2000, p. 97 provided three examples of simple writing tasks that will be easily
conducted by Junior High School students. They are parallel compositions, parallel letters, and pictures compositions. The writer will explain the activities
according to Davies’ theory. PLAGIAT MERUPAKAN TINDAKAN TIDAK TERPUJI
1 Parallel compositions With the whole class, teachers can discuss a topic, such as animals’
characteristics, and habits to elicit sentences in the Simple Present. After creating and showing some sentences, the teachers may ask students to use the sentences
as patterns, and get students to work in pairs and write a parallel composition about some other animals.
2 Parallel letters Get the learners to read a letter, consisting mostly of personal information,
from someone looking for a pen pal. Then tell them to write a reply with their own personal information, following the format of the original letter. Another
letter could ask for information about things to see and do in their city, or for information about a specific hotel, etc.
3 Picture compositions Get the learners to tell a simple story illustrated by a sequence of pictures.
Ask volunteers to repeat the whole story from memory. Then get the students to write the story in pairs or groups.
3. Task-Based Learning
There have been many researches to define and explain task-based learning. Willis 1996 stated that in task-based learning, students compose what
they want to say, express what they think or feel. He showed that “tasks remove the teacher domination and learners get chances to open and close conversations,
