In 2009-2010 Annick Chen at Lincoln High School was asked by her administrative team, along with every teacher in the building, to make writing the focal point for that year. Ever dutiful, but knowing full well how people acquire languages, Annick boosted the amount of writing her students did significantly. Their writing scores went down at the end of the year.
Loss of writing achievement with a big focus on writing all year. Hmmmm! What was going on? It’s just Krashen. We learn languages by focusing on the meaning, not the form of the language. So by reading more our students will make gains in writing in the same way that by listening more their gains in the other skills will increase proportionate to the amount of reading they do.
I have a fair amount of students this year who have been placed in grade 6, 7, and 8 classes but who are nearly fluent in auditory and spoken French, having lived in Switzerland or some other French-speaking country since 2nd grade or so. But they don’t want to drop the class because their friends are in there. What to do?
Here is my plan and I would like the group’s feedback on this if possible. They get on one of the outside desks and read a chapter in a book that is very easy for them to read. Reading way down is an important part of this to give them the success they want in writing. Then they summarize the chapter on one page, then a week later on two pages and so on (more and more pages of free writing) while in class. (No homework on this, they just read and write in class.) They just enjoy the story out of one, not two ears.
What about assessment? This is where I would like some ideas from the group. My current plan is to highlight areas of concern on their summary writing of the book they are reading and have them look back at the book to compare the book’s writing with their own.
Should I hand them a grammar book along with the chapter in the book they just read? I would never ask them to do this but their parents have expressed to me that they want their child to learn French grammar. This would be my sly response. But no, I wouldn’t be doing any differentiated instruction in grammar. That would be a waste of time. But at least it looks kind of aligned with the visionary instructional practices of the 1950’s, so I get to keep my job.
Ideas? Suggestions?