Three-Tiered Writing
At a Glance
Discipline
- Languages
Instructional Level
- College & CEGEP
Course
- Français langue seconde
Tasks in Workflow
Social Plane(s)
- Individual
Type of Tasks
- Analyzing
- Revising & improving
- Writing
Technical Details
Useful Technologies
- Computer lab
Class size
- Small (20-49)
Time
- Multiple class periods (2-3 classes)
Instructional Purpose
- Application & knowledge building
Overview
The aim of this activity is for students to master grammatical tenses which will help them gain a greater sense of control and confidence over their written work. Over the course of several classes, students will be given a series of prompts (the beginning of the first sentence) and asked to continue the sentence and write a tex. They will repeat this three times changing the verb tenses for each. Students will be given both online tools and written guidelines so they can learn to identify and correct their mistakes. This activity uses both reflective writing and toolkit strategies and takes place during class time.
Instructional Objectives
Students will be able to:
- Apply grammatical theory from class to manipulate verbs and subjects of a text into several different tenses
- Identify and fix their own mistakes using online and written tools so they become autonomous in their writing
Workflow & Materials
Activity Workflow
Contributor's Notes
Benefits
Challenges
Tips
Benefits
- This activity involves the students being able to transfer between grammatical tenses showing that they have a lot of control over their writing
- Students manipulate their text and are able to transfer the core of the text focusing on changing the language without worrying about the content
- It gets students to diversify their writing by asking them to include and identify 20 different verbs, 10 different adjectives, and 10 adverbs.
Challenges
- Corrections of the text are very time consuming
- Students do not always go in the right direction with their writing and correction and this needs to be identified at an early stage by the teacher
- So that the students do not anticipate the grammar change it is important to be changing the subject each time you do the activity
- Not all students act autonomously and correct and work on their text at home which is necessary to improve during the next writing session.
Tips
- Be very explicit with what the students are supposed to be doing at each stage
- By correcting the first text with a green pen instead of the read pen encourages them to realize that if they put in the work they are able to produce a higher level of text, building up a confidence that is often lacking in this level of french class. This helps students build a better relationship with the language
- It is important to plan in advance and to be organized to implement future steps as this is an activity that takes place over several weeks
Applied Strategies
Published: 14/08/2019
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