6 Evaluating
In evaluating student writing, the teacher needs to decide the scoring system. In order to be effective, the criteria for evaluation should be made known to students
in advance. Students may also be encouraged to evaluate their own and each other’s texts once they have been properly taught how to do it.
7 Post-writing
Post-writing constitutes any classroom activity that the teacher and students can do with the completed pieces of writing. This includes publishing, sharing,
reading aloud, transforming texts for stage performances, or merely displaying texts on notice-boards.
2.2.1.4 Teaching Writing
Many students think that writing is the most difficult skill to master. The difficulty is not only in generating and organizing ideas, but also in translating the idea into
readable text. In writing, they also need to consider the grammar, spelling, punctuation, word choice, and so on.
Almost all human beings grow up speaking their first language and sometimes their second or third as a matter of course, writing has to be learned and
taught. Harmer 2004:3 states that “spoken language, for a child, is acquired naturally as a result of being exposed to it, whereas the ability to write has to be
consciously learned.” Hyland 2002:78 adds: “Fundamentally, writing is learned, rather than taught, and the teacher’s
best methods are flexibility and support. This means responding to the specific instructional context, particularly the age, first language and
experience of the students, their writing purposes, and their target writing communities, and providing extensive encouragement in the form of
meaningful contexts, peer involvement, prior texts, useful feedback and guidance in the writing process.”
Harmer 2004:11 sugg ests that teachers need to concentrate on their students’
process of writing, and there are a number of strategies we need to consider: 1
The way we get students to plan. Before getting students to write we can encourage them to think about what they
are going to write. 2
The way we encourage them to draft, reflect, and revise. One way of encouraging drafting, reflection, and revision is to have students
involved in collaborative writing. A pair or group of students working together on a piece of writing can r
espond to each other’s ideas, making suggestions for changes, and so contributing to the success of the finished product.
3 The way we respond to our students’ writing.
It is not just teachers who can respond to students’ writing. It is often useful to have students look at work done by their peers and respond in their own way. Such
peer response may provide a welcome alternative to the teacher’s feedback, as well as offering a fresh perspective on the writing.
4 The process trap
Teachers should consider the time allotment in teaching. One of the problems of process writing is that it takes time. Over-planning can take up too much time and,
sometimes, restrict spontaneity and creativity.
Richards and Renandya 2010: 306 also suggests ten steps in planning a writing class. The first is ascertaining goals and institutional constraints. Secondly,
teachers have to decide on theoretical principles. After that, teachers have to plan content and weighing the elements. The fifth is drawing up a syllabus. The next are
selecting materials, preparing activities and roles, choosing types and methods of feedback, evaluating the course, and the last is reflecting the teaching experience.
2.2.1.5 Scoring Writing
