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Writing
The word ‘writing’ does not usually stimulate positive feeling in many pupils especially for those who are a reluctant writer. Reluctant writers, according to Mather and Lachowicz (1992) tend to avoid writing task as they often face difficulty in expressing their thoughts due to lack of adequate vocabulary knowledge (Sledd, 1993) and low self-confidence (Carignan-Belleville, 1989).
So, is there some way, then, to make writing tasks less intimidating and more enjoyable? Is it plausible to even use the words fun and writing in the same sentence?
Here is one of the activities that might be the answer for the questions above. It is called Labeling Activity. Labeling activity can be used to teach pupils to...
1) Labeling Activity
This activity is designed to help pupils remember the targeted vocabulary and phrases. First, teachers have to provide word or phrase cards focusing on Subjects (S), Verbs (V) and Objects (O).
Table below shows some examples of the words and phrases that can be put on the cards.
| Subjects |
Verbs |
Objects |
| The boys |
play |
football. |
| An old man |
is waiting |
for the bus. |
| A mother and her daughter |
were preparing |
dinner last night. |
| Diagram 1: Example of words and phrases that can be given to the pupils. |
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| Image 1: Word and phrase cards used to label the picture. |
Then, the teacher pastes a picture on the board and gets the pupils to label the picture using the word or phrase cards given to them earlier.
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| Image 2: Labeling activity |
After that, promote collaborative learning by asking pupils to construct sentences based on the word and phrases pasted on the picture in pairs or in a group.
Or you can use an interactive website called Wordwall.net to carry out this activity during the Covid-19 pandemic. Here is an example of Labeling Activity made with Wordwall website.
References:
- Mather, N., & Lachowicz, B. (1992) Shared writing: An instructional approach for reluctant writers. Teaching Exceptional Children, 25, (1), 26-30.
- Sledd, R. (1993). The dark and bloody mystery: Building basic writer’s confidence. ERIC Document Reproduction Service.
- Carignan-Belleville, L. (1989). Jason’s Story: Motivating the reluctant student to write. English Journal, (3), 57-60.
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