Practice

Materials and equipment

Writing paper for each tutor

STEP-BY-STEP PROCESS

  1. Inform tutors that you are all (i.e., coordinator as well as tutors) going to write for five minutes using the following guidelines:
    • Start writing and never stop until the time is up.
    • Write whatever comes into your mind, even if you write “I have nothing to write” over and over again.
    • Ignore all spelling errors.
    • Don’t cross anything out or reread what you have written, just continue writing.
  2. When the time is up, read what you wrote. Ask for volunteers who would like to share their writing.
  3. Ask tutors how they felt about the writing activity. Why would they use this with their learner as a writing strategy?
  4. Share with tutors how free writing can take away the fear of writing:
    • It removes the need to focus on grammar and spelling.
    • It helps a writer to start putting their thoughts on paper.
  5. Invite tutors to share what they experienced while writing.

Tutoring tip

You could provide tutors with creative writing suggestions and have them brainstorm other possibilities. For example, Marjorie Frank states in If You’re Trying to Teach Kids How to Write, You’ve Gotta Have this Book! that playing or singing music of “differing styles, moods, rhythms, types, backgrounds and time periods” can inspire people to write. Visual art, family photographs and body movement can stimulate writing, as can a grocery bag of familiar or unfamiliar foods. Taking a walking tour guided by the learner in his neighbourhood could also be a source of ideas.

Activity D

Journals

Why choose this activity?

Journal writing can be a way to exchange ideas and to model writing for your learner. Even beginner writers can keep a journal.

Discussion

STEP-BY-STEP PROCESS

  1. Ask who keeps a journal or has kept a journal at some time.
  2. Discuss how often they write in their journals and what types of things they include.
  3. Ask tutors how they could help their learners keep a journal and what the benefits would be. Some thoughts might include the following:
    • They can write in their journals every day.
    • They could use a scribbler or other notebook; the journal doesn’t have to be anything fancy.
    • Encourage learners not to worry about errors.
    • Respond to the journal content and not to the format.
    • The tutor could write a sample entry as a model.
    • Writing a journal would help a learner find out what she has to say.
  4. Ask tutors if they would use this strategy with their learner. Why or why not?

Facilitation tip

You could have tutors keep a journal (a few sentences per session) as an evaluation for the training series. On the last day, ask tutors to review their journals and add any comments about the series as a whole, what they learned, and so on. Then ask them to hand the journals in to you. They can do this anonymously.