Remedial Strategy

Remedial Strategy (Writing Process)

This week's sessions were a bit different from the usual sessions. In fact, our colleagues from the Secondary Program majoring in English presented. The presentation was based on a Remedial Strategy that can be used to help students with their writing. To our surprise, the strategy was none other than 'The Writing Process'.

''Our students have trouble making their B.E.D.S,'' stated one colleague at the start of  the presentation.

Amused, we learnt that the acronym B.E.D.S stands for:

Brainstorming

Expressing

Developing

Sequencing 

Therefore, it was acknowledged that students had problems brainstorming, expressing, developing and sequencing their thoughts and ideas. The Writing Process was the strategy to employ to rectify this problem.

What is the Writing Process?

Chances are, you have experienced a moment of writer's block. You may have been sitting in class, writing your notes, and given the writing assignment. You freeze. Your mind goes blank, and you have that thought: 'I have no idea what to write about!' You stare at the blank screen or paper and watch the time go by. You write a word, erase, and start again. It seems like you will never be able to start.

All writers, even the most professional and published, have experienced this moment of panic. Writing can be a bit intimidating, until you know how to approach the topic and start your work. The writing process helps us focus, plan, and write our papers (The Writing Process: Definition & Steps Video, 2015).

Parts of The Writing Process

The Writing Process is divided into five(5) parts or stages. They are:

Pre-writing - This is the preparation for writing. Students plan what they are going to write and brainstorm ideas. A graphic organizer can be used to assist students with mapping out their thoughts and ideas(Warrican, 2012) .

Drafting - Students use outlines to come up with coherent pieces. Our students will arrange their points in a readable way(Warrican, 2012) .

Revising - The stage of refinement. Here, students focus on the message of the piece written (Warrican, 2012).

Editing - In this stage, teachers help students fine-tune the mechanical features of their writing and ensure it is free of errors of spelling, grammar and punctuation. Teachers can use mini-lessons to highlight and pinpoint general errors made by students, in order to create independent readers and writers (Warrican, 2012).

Publishing - Students produce a finished copy of their work and given the opportunity to share their work, for example, with classmates (Warrican, 2012).

Figure 1. The Writing Process

What stood out to us in the presentation was the incorporation of a checklist at the end of stage of the Writing Process.



We then thought of creating a checklist for the Revising Stage. In this stage, students are in the middle of writing their pieces. Therefore, in our opinion the piece is neither closer to beginning nor close to ending; so, if any mistakes occur, this will be the best opportunity for students to start over from stage one in the writing process just to ensure their message gets across to the audience (Warrican, 2012). 

Below is an example of our own Revising Checklist:

Figure 2. Revising Checklist created by The Writing Room

Please note that this is one variation of the checklist, but, you can change it to suit your grade level and students' ability. We really hope it helps.

Until next Sunday... Goodbye !

References

The Writing Process: Definition & Steps Video. (2015, April 28). Retrieved October 13, 2019, from Study.com: https://study.com/academy/lesson/the-writing-process-definition-steps.html

Warrican, S. J. (2012). The Complete Caribbean Teacher Literacy. Pheonix: Pearson Education. Retrieved October 13, 2019