Week # 1

Planning Planning Formative writing test

Introducing the term Brainstorming
Create a weekly plan for low-achievers
Data
Collection
Collecting writing samples of the focus group.
Taking pictures of in-class participation to the new term brainstorming
Analysis Identify the strengths and weaknesses of the focus-group from their writing
samples.
Strengths: the focus group are all good with spelling, vocabulary knowledge, and
sentence formation.
Weaknesses: The focus group have bad handwriting, and lack of writing
mechanics such as capitalization, punctuation, word space.
Writing up During my first week in teaching practice, I had two objectives in mind: the first one was
to learn about the students (4
th
graders) current level of writing and the 2
nd
objective was
to introduce the term brainstorming. At the beginning I reviewed the students placement
test, focusing on their test results in the writing section. The findings were rather
predictable as most students scored full marks in writing very short sentences consisting
of merely subject, verb and an object, whereas a nine year old student should be able to do
more than that, for example adding adjectives. Another issue was on their writing test is
the very rare use of writing mechanics (capitalization and punctuation). Although most
students didnt start with capital letters nor ended with a full-stops, they still got full
marks, which made me doubt the validity of that placement test. Therefore I decided to
create my own formative writing assessment to diagnose and analyze the real issues of the
learners writing.
Furthermore, to fulfill my second objective, 2 lessons were given about brainstorming as a
pre-writing task. My MST thought its a challenging skill for their age, nonetheless, the
sessions were rather interesting. After explaining the term and providing some guided
practice, I was able to observe my focus group engaging in generating notions about a
specific topic that was chosen for them, which proved that this skill wasnt beyond their
cognitive levels. Subject 1 & 4 were able to bring relevant ideas with detailed description
while using art-materials. On the other hand, subject 2 failed in all the above mentioned
criteria except in few times where she provided relevant ideas. As for subject 3, she
showed cooperative learning skills with others, but she didnt demonstrate any
brainstorming skills, yet.
Week # 2
Planning Planning another brainstorming activity to familiarize the students with it.
Plan a specified lesson on Punctuation and writing mechanics.
Introduce the 3G writing strategy.
Data
Collection
Refer to students notebooks to measure their progress.
Refer to teachers notes about students understanding and use of writing
mechanics.
Analysis After giving two lessons on writing mechanics, the focus group started to
capitalize the first letters of their sentences, still there is no sign of punctuation
marks, word space, or clear handwriting.
Writing up I found that my focus group need a lot of work regarding handwriting techniques
as the majority struggles with it. They seem to grasp and apply capitalization
easily but (full-stops and commas) are not found yet in their writing. The 3G
writing strategy emphasized good handwriting, good punctuation and good
capitalization, which I believe drew their awareness to those three problematic
areas. For next week, I will be designing task-based writing lessons that
emphasize the 3G strategy.
Week # 3
Planning Continue working on the 3G strategy
Focus on grammatical structures (there is/there are/ Have to/ has to)
Design worksheets for students to practice grammar
Data
Collection
Review their progress from their notebooks
Teachers notes
Pictures
Analysis The students use of accurate grammar wasnt found in their formative writing
test, but after the two grammar lessons, they start to include the grammatical
terms in their speech and their writings.
Writing up I believe the focus group needs to be challenged when it comes to grammar as
they seem to have an easy grip toward them. They started to use the correct
form of the subject-verb agreement immediately once it was explained to them.
As for their Handwriting issues, they still need work. Next week, Ill give the whole
class a handwriting workshop to teach them the basis of good handwriting skills.
Week # 4
Planning Involve the students in a handwriting workshop.
Start their writing project
Provide written feedback.
Data
Collection
Pictures the students engaging in writing about their preferable side of the
country to live in.
Samples of their writing
Use a checklist to see their use of punctuation, capitalization, good handwriting,
and accurate grammar.
Analysis After giving a handwriting workshop, there was a clear growth in the learners
(capitalization, spacing, and even punctuation). Their writing was more clear.
Writing up I firmly believe the handwriting workshop served the students writing as it
became more comprehensible to both them and me. As for challenging them
with grammar, I introduced the negative form of (there is/are) which wasnt part
of their curriculum. They responded well to the grammatical structure and I was
able to see them use it both orally and in their writings as well. I think for the
following weeks I will not introduce another writing techniques as I believe they
need to fathom and process all the new skills they learned. I will be reviewing
(brainstorming, and the 3G strategy, and the subject-verb agreement structure)
next weeks.
Week # 5
Planning Revise all previously learnt techniques
Give handwriting tasks.
Data
Collection
Teacher notes
Pictures
Analysis The majority of the students are using accurate grammar, good handwriting and
writing mechanics.
Writing up This week has been all about revision all the previously learnt techniques. The students
have been solving grammar worksheets that emphasize subject verb-agreement. I noticed
how well they responded to that activity, except two students who needed extra attention.
However, since 18 out of 20 students were observed using accurate grammar in their
writing, I believe my work on this area has been successful. What is more, the students
revised their writing mechanics during this week and I could see their efforts in their
workbooks, notebooks, and worksheets. The majority is using capitalization, punctuations,
and good handwriting. Surely they need more work on these areas but 50% of the class are
in a good place right now. As for my last week in TP, I plan on conducting a free writing
task where students can use their imaginations and the same time apply what they have
been learning.
Week # 6
Planning Give a free-writing lesson
Data
Collection
Students samples
Analysis Good use of writing mechanics
Less writing time
Students are able to generate thoughts
Students are connecting their own ideas
Writing up In my last week of training, I barely saw my whole class together. Due to the national day
preparations, the students were either out preparing for their national day dance or
practicing their national day musical number. I had only two days with them, and I used
them for the free-writing task. A picture of a dark forest was displayed to the students
followed by a brief brainstorming task. The students wrote down all words related to that
picture (e.g. trees, dark, scary, witch, no light, lost, dangerous animals etc). After that,
they were asked to write a story about themselves being lost in this forest. The rules were
that each student should write herself as the main character, the events must take place in
that forest, and they are free to write the story lines and endings as they like as long as its
about them. Having the brainstorming session before the actual writing task seemed to
affect the writing time. I believe the participants used to spend longer time when a writing
prompt is presented, today however, their thoughts were organized and labeled in
advance, which helped them spent less time in the while writing stage. Another
observation is the level of creativity when participants compose their own stories. The
quality of their writing indicated that they are ready to start composing paragraphs for
next semester as I could see signs of them connecting thoughts and elaborating to their
ideas in their short stories.


Week # 7
Planning Introduce the first 2 components of sentence development (who & what)
Data
collection
Pictures of students work
Analysis Students succeeded in identifying the first 2 components of sentence expansion
(who & what)
They also managed to add adjectives while describing the subject and verb.
Writing-up I began this week by introducing a format for sentence expansion. It was explained to
students that a short sentence could be stretched by including a subject (answering the
who) and a verb (answering the what). This format was called The Sentence Chain to
help students visualize the components of their sentences. An adj. chart was created as
well by the students to expose them to the needed linguistic support.
Although the learners found it easy to identify the (who and what) in their sentences, they
struggled in adding adjectives in their writing. However, after exposing them to a number
of tasks to provide an opportunity for practice, the students managed to include (size,
color, material & shape adjectives).
I believe the students still need more practice with the sentence components, but my
MCTs advise was to start introduce the third component (the where). Although I believe
it is soon to do so, I will peruse with her advice next week and see what happens.









Week # 8
Planning Introduce the third component of sentence (where)
Revise previous components (who & what)
Data
collection
Samples of students writing
Analysis Once again students managed to form sentences while answering the first 2
components. They however, struggled with adding adjectives to those parts (who
and what)
Introducing the (where) was too early. While the high-achievers managed to
include it in their writing almost immediately, the majority didnt perform the
same way.
More time should be spent on identifying the first 2 components
More practices are needed to familiarize students with adding adjectives.
Writing- up This week the students dealt with the 3 parts of sentences expansion (who, what, where).
They have been going about a series of tasks to practice sentence expansion with a
subject, verb, and a location. It was interesting to both me and students to see how their
writings develop and progress. The students were very happy to see the length of their
sentences, while I was happy with the quality of work they put up in their writings.
This week showed me in action the linguistic potentials of a fourth grader when
challenged. Given the right amount of exposure to the language, with the appropriate
tasks, 9 years old Emarite EFLs can develop writing. While am very aware that this is a
big claim, I have to look at all the common factors this group has with the rest of the
Emarite nation:
-Same age Same number of English classes in public schools Same gender Same
course book almost same cognitive levels

Week # 9
Planning Emphasizing the where in sentence expansion
Implement the writers secret technique for feedback
Data
collection
Samples of writing
Analysis For this week, students have been practicing the 3 writing components.
Teacher-feedback was given to them through writers secret which is a
technique of adding a comment on the students notebook for development.
Students were using the comments to improve their sentences immediately.

Writing-up Dedicating this week mainly for revision was a good idea. Students needed the time to
practice their descriptive sentences through various tasks in order to retain the Sentence
Chain strategy. Although introducing three elements (who, what , where) was
challenging at first, the focus group are producing correct sentences with the required
amount of details. I believe this strategy was very effective for them to see how their
sentences grow and develop from short to more detailed ones, which is precisely the focus
of this research. I noticed how much language support the participants need while
composing their sentences. I displayed an adjective chart on my class hoping to provide
some exposure, which turned out to everybodys source for spelling adjectives while
writing. Through my literature review, I read about the power of providing adequate input
as part of the TBLT approach. Now that I have implemented that in my classroom, I can
see for myself how valuable this aspect is. Starting next week, Ill be using more displays,
reading models, and flashcards and see how it impacts the participants writing.
As for introducing teacher feedback, students needed the proper guidance on how and
where their sentences could be improved. Therefore, the writers secret technique was
implemented this week as a method for giving private feedback to students. When
marking the learners writings, areas for development appeared. So, a note was written to
for the students to read and make the needed adjustments without having the point it out
loud. There was a significant value for this strategy as students felt less threatened and
embarrassed since the comments were received in private. Having implemented teacher
written feedback, and judging the way students dealt with it, I believe there is potentials in
introducing peer-feedback, however, not just yet. Students need to get familiarized with
the teacher-written feedback first before moving to more autonomous level of feedback.