PREVIOUSLY: In Unit 12.3, we discussed
about the various ways of teaching the sub topic “Writing argumentative
compositions/essays” in Form
Three.
IN
THIS UNIT 12.4 (Part One & Two), we will cover the sub topic “Writing
narrative compositions/essays (of not less than 250 words)” in Form Four.
TOPIC’S INFORMATION
Main Topic: WRITING USING APPROPRIATE LANGUAGE CONTENT AND STYLE.
Sub Topic: Writing narrative compositions/essays (of
not less than 250 words)
Periods per sub topic: 8.
Class: Form Four.
DESCRIPTION OF THE SUB TOPIC
This sub topic is the
continuation and revision of the Part One of sub topic "Writing
Narrative Compositions/essays (of not less than 200 words)" of Form
Three. Click this blue link to see the whole topic. This topic has the same
materials and teaching modality. However, the only difference is in the number
of words per composition or essay. For instructions on how to count words in an essay see How to Count Words in a Composition.
Every person has his/her past
to tell. And in telling his/her past, he/she recalls the events that happened
in the past. Thus, the students like other people, have to tell how past events
happened and how they reacted to these events if they were among of the people
involved in the particular events.
Part 1: Writing an account of events that happened in the past.
SPECIFIC OBJECTIVE OF THE LESSON
In this Part One, the student
should be able to write an account of events that happened in the past. The
student should be able to tell or narrate a tale, a story, or event that
happened in the past. These events are most commonly real; the events that
really happen in our societies.
- TEACHER’S PREPARATION STAGE
This stage is about
the preparation of the teacher before undertaking the lessons of the particular
sub topic. These are all activities, procedures, materials, teaching aids, and
games prepared by the teacher for teaching a sub topic:
- Putting heads together: Introducing
the topic/lesson properly. Organising how students will be able to get to
know what is the topic/lesson about. It is where teacher makes sure that
students are going to be in his/her train. It includes brainstorming and
familiarisation of the topic/lesson with the students.
This makes students
stay together with the teacher. It is at this stage students can understand
what is going to be discussed in the particular topic.
- Preparation of Materials. A teacher has
to decide on the teaching/learning materials he/she is going to use.
In this sub
topic/lesson, a teacher will have to prepare a variety of texts especially
those on account of various past events. The teacher will also have to have the
teaching materials like dictionaries, encyclopaedias, internet, and newspapers.
The stories about what happened may be found on the internet sites, and
newspapers.
- Target
Practice. Show them/Guide them to the practice of the functions of the sub
topic. A teacher has to show or guide students to the target practice of
the grammatical functions of the sub topic.
In this sub topic/lesson, teacher will guide
students to practice how to write events by using past tense and by using the
forms or various narrative styles.
- Context-Based Practice. A teacher
leads students to the discussion on how the target grammatical functions
practised earlier can be applied or integrated into the contexts and
situations. The students are guided by the teacher to apply the learnt
skills in relevant contexts and situations like school and library. In the
library, students can find various stories or texts about what happened in
the past.
- Vocabulary Building Practice. At this
time, teacher discusses with the students on the vocabularies and phrases
to apply in the already mentioned contexts and situations. In this sub
topic/lesson the most commonly applied vocabularies are: Revise, edit, organise, brainstorm,
feedback, draft, compare, contrast, worst forms of child labour and other
related vocabularies.
- TEACHING AND LEARNING PROCEDURES,
ACTIVITIES AND GAMES
Guide the students to the full
lesson procedures, activities and games for better understanding of the sub topic
by following these activities:
Activity
One:
Teacher leads a discussion with the students on various topics and asks
students to select one topic from the range of topics a teacher will have
mentioned or shared with the students. These should be most common issues of
the society drugs trafficking, early pregnancies, early marriages, afforestation,
family conflicts and the plight of children working in the mines.
After selecting a topic, a
teacher now introduces students to the writing processes. Most of these writing
processes have been covered on this blog. The link "Writing
Narrative Compositions/essays (of not less than 200 words)" has all
the writing processes required for writing about past events.
Activity
Two:
In this activity, students and teacher together, they brainstorm, list down and
organise ideas in an essay format. In this activity, students are grouped in
pairs, and the teacher walks around to check and assist them as they list down
ideas and outline an essay.
Activity
Three: After successful planning and organising an essay, teacher asks
students to write the first draft in their pairs. As they write their first
draft, a teacher walks around to check what they do and assist them in case
they are confused with the work.
When they have written their
first draft and for the purpose of bringing the meaningful writing tasks, students
in pairs exchange their works and revise and edit their work focusing on the
content of the topic.
The teacher moves around again
from group to group or from pair to pair encouraging interaction among the
students as they work on checking the relevant of the content of the works of
their fellow students. If the teacher wishes, he/she may give them the
checklist of what they should look for as they revise the content of the works.
In another section of this
activity, students are asked by the teacher to return the works to their fellow
students, and then they start to work together in their respective pairs or groups
to correct spelling errors, punctuation, capitalisation, and other mechanical
errors.
For more on this sub topic see
topic "Writing
Narrative Compositions/essays (of not less than 200 words)"
REFLECTION
Our life is made successful
with writing. We can't say other language skills are not important. No, but
they are perfected by writing just as writing is perfected by other language
skills.
Ask students how they get past
events at home or at school. Actually, some students will say they get them
from their parents or grandparents or others. At school, they will say they get
them from teachers, friends and from the History subject. This is how past
events are experienced in the real life.
ASSESSMENT
A teacher should design an
evaluation for students by using appropriate assessment tools like oral
questions or assignments so that to see if the students are able to write an
account of events that happened in the past.
Ask students to narrate what
happened in the past focusing on the day they started Standard One in Primary
School, or generally, narrate what interesting event happened during their
whole Primary School years. Other areas where events may happen are birthdays,
weddings, graduations, rallies, public holidays, religious holidays, and
demonstrations.
SUMMARY/CONCLUSION
Writing is a productive skill.
After learning all four language skills during teaching and learning processes,
finally the students will have to sit down and write the final exams. This
highlights that writing is the necessary skill if a student really wants to
excel in the final examinations. A teacher should emphasize this skill just
he/she emphasize other language skills.
NOTE: These stages
explained above are not necessarily covered in a single lesson of single or
double period. Remember that this is the guide for teaching the whole sub topic
which has periods ranging from 6 to 20. So, the teacher's task is to divide
these stages according to the total number of periods for a particular sub
topic.
Resources
https://www.kibin.com/essay-writing-blog/how-to-write-a-narrative-essay/
Tags
'O' LEVEL ENGLISH (OLE)
Elements of Literature
Form Four
How to Teach
Make Your Literary Skills Applicable
Writing Tips