Checklist for Microteaching Lesson Plan
Check off each aspect the lesson planning completes.
Aspect	Me	Peer 1	Peer 2
Can the objectives really be achieved in the time allocated?
Is the stage of writing correctly addressed?
Have I planned to make best use of my resources?
TOTAL

Chapter 5Lesson Summary

People write for a variety reasons. Some of your learners will need to draft texts for academic or business purposes. Others will write in English strictly for personal reasons (for example, to e-mail a friend, write notes to a child's teacher, or complete application forms). Whatever your learners' needs, you should develop activities that mirror what your students need to do outside of the classroom so that they are able to transfer the skills they learn to the real world. The objective (or purpose) for writing should be expressed early in the lesson.

Writing is perhaps the most challenging part of learning a new language. In his article How to be an Effective EFL Writing Teacher, David Martin describes several ways to make writing more "likable" for our students:

Teach students to turn off their personal subconscious editor through freewriting. Teach students that writing is more a mode of learning than a skill (a skill, he says, promotes the feeling of possible success or failure). Give the students enough support and direction so they can accomplish the task. Establish a goal by establishing the purpose and the audience. Have regular writing conferences where students do most of the talking.

In my view, writing can be a fun and enjoyable process for both the instructor and students if it is approached positively and if feedback is constructive and supportive. It is also essential to plan lessons that will enable students to be successful and to write on their own outside of the classroom.

Source: http://eltmedia.thomsonlearning.com

Chapter 4

Feedback and Revision

Students need feedback on their writing. Traditionally, feedback came exclusively from the instructor and was a series of codes to identify grammatical errors. Students would learn the codes and make the necessary changes.

In ESL/EFL, this type of feedback can be almost unmanageable at the lower levels because there are so many errors. Some instructors mark papers in green instead of red so the corrections won't be as intimidating. Nevertheless, if the marks are more abundant than the student writing, it doesn't matter what color the corrections are.

Giving feedback

In the process approach, instructors provide more feedback on the organization of ideas and the ideas themselves, especially in the early stages. Certainly this is an improvement because students first focus on ideas and meaning. However, sometimes the global errors (those that impede understanding because they have a major role in a sentence) are so extensive that the paper is incomprehensible.

I suggest that instructors limit their feedback to global errors, along with grammar points that students have just learned or should know. Of course, there should be a balance between error correction and discussing and helping students to organize ideas effectively.

Delivering feedback to a student on writing issues can be very time consuming for the instructor. Scheduling regular teacher-student conferences is always the most productive way to help students. They can then ask questions and the instructor can better tell when students understand. In his article How to be an Effective ESL Writing Teacher, Martin stresses that the instructor should avoid dominating the conversation but allow students to talk and express themselves.

Peer editing

 

In both the product and process approaches, students can also review and edit each other's work. This allows students to take the role of the instructor. It also provides a different audience for the student writer. At first, peer editing like this is difficult because students are not willing or don't feel qualified to find problems with their classmates' work.

A good remedy for this is to supply students with an editing checklist. Peer editors can then follow the checklist so that they are not overwhelmed with the task. These checklists can refer to mechanical problems or relate to the message of the writing text itself. These same lists can be used for self-correction as well.

In reality, the writing process is cyclical and students can return to revise and edit over and over. There is no rule that states that there can only be one draft and one final product. Campbell (1998) makes a distinction between "revising" and "editing." She describes "editing" as proofreading or correcting errors in spelling, punctuation, grammar and other similar areas. She describes "revising" as adding and deleting paragraphs, changing organizations and adapting text. Both of these are important and should be balanced in instruction.

Source: http://eltmedia.thomsonlearning.com