玩转英语写作课堂，让写作不再枯燥

——大英语中心教研展示课系列报道（三） 

In the third demo class workshop, two distinctive English writing classes focusing on persuasion and prediction were delivered by Jamilla and Echo. They showed us that writing classes could be very productive with students’ high participation.

大英语中心第三场教研展示课迎来了教授小学七级的Jamilla老师和初中中级的Echo老师。同样是写作课，一位将重点放在“说服力”，教授学生文章结构和写作要素，学会陈述观点、发表倡议；一位将重点放在“推测力”，引导学生展开想象，预测故事结局。让我们跟随两位老师的教学笔记和备课组长的课评，看看学生们是如何跟着老师一起玩转英语写作课堂的吧。

Jamilla, Level 7 ESL Teacher

“Often times, writing can be the least exciting class for students. I decided to use this class as a way for students to review what they’ve learnt in class and through research, as our Big Question of the text is ‘Why Should We Take Care of the Earth’. An activity that allowed students to agree or disagree in the beginning set the tone for the rest of the class. Students had to state their opinion and give a reason why they thought that way. This was the main element of persuasive writing that I wanted to highlight with my class.

对学生而言，写作课可能是最让人提不起兴趣的。因此我设计了一节主题为‘我们为什么要保护地球’的写作课，通过回顾写作知识点、观看联合国演讲视频、小组合作和展示等流程，来调动学生的写作兴趣，提高课堂参与度。课堂由游戏导入——学生出示红绿卡片来表达‘同意’或‘不同意’的观点并阐述原因，而这正是在说服性写作中需要重点掌握的。

I chose to have students work in groups because this was a better way for students to practice their speaking and interpersonal skills (working with others). This was another way for students to learn, not just improve their writing skills. Each student had a task in the planning process, so each student contributed to the final writing piece for their team. At the end, student presentations were a way for students to share their work. By doing this, I thought they would get practice of giving their opinions and trying to persuade others in a respectful manner. Sharing the finished work is also a part of the writing process, and I wanted students to be confident in doing this.

小组合作的方式能让学生在提升写作技巧的同时，锻炼英语口语和交际能力。每个学生通过完成各自的任务，为小组写作出谋划策，最后各组分别陈述，交换意见。通过这样的方式，学生学会了如何礼貌地发表观点，说服他人。分享小组作业也是写作过程的一个部分，我希望学生们通过分享和展示，提高自信心。”

Emily Qi, Level 7 Teaching Group Leader

“Speaking of writing class, dull and boring may be the first few words to our mind. But Jamilla’s writing class was full of fun and engagement.

通常我们会觉得写作课是枯燥乏味的，但是在Jamilla的写作课上，孩子们写得很开心。

First, students were guided to express their opinions and persuade others through a quick ‘Agree or Disagree’ game. Then, the UN flag made today’s class into a UN Environment Assembly, and each group representing a different country (created by students) posed environmental issues, thus enabling students to make connections with the society and involve in the class. After students had deep thinking and research on the issues, they planned, outlined, drafted and edited together in groups for a whole writing. During the writing process, students thought imaginatively and critically. Teachers on the site were impressed by students’ logical and enriched writing, which teachers’ guidance contributed a lot.

首先，Jamilla用一个简单的游戏导入，让学生对一些社会现象表示‘同意’或‘不同意’，并试图去说服他人。其次，她将整节课设计成联合国环境保护大会，让每个组根据自己创造的‘国家’提出环境问题，这个设计让学生和社会相联系，同时也提高了他们的参与度。当学生充分探讨了问题后，每个人都能写出自己作文的草稿，并通过小组合作最终成文。在整个写作过程中，每个人都发挥了想象，表达了见解。在场的老师对孩子们的作品感到惊叹：在短短的15分钟内，他们能写出有一定逻辑性且内容充实的篇章，可见前期老师的引导有多么重要。

In the presentation part, each group elicited their environmental problems and put forward a proposal to protect the environment. They exchanged their opinions and offered feedback, which not only improved their writing skills, but also developed their expressing ability.

在最后的展示环节，每组学生在教室的四角介绍自己‘国家’的环境问题，并呼吁大家保护环境；然后其他成员相互学习，并按照写作和演讲的要求进行评分。展示环节的设计不仅要求学生能够写出文章，更要求他们同时学会表达。”

Echo Liu, Intermediate Level English Teacher

“Many middle school students have problems in reading and writing. For them, reading is boring without any fun and writing is difficult because they are not sure how to write correctly. However, students were quite interested and engaged in this class. They found that they could have fun in reading pictures and writing with their imagination.

很多中学生在阅读和写作方面都存在问题。对于他们而言，阅读枯燥无味，写作毫无头绪。但是今天，学生始终带着兴趣投入到课堂学习中。他们发现，阅读图片如此有趣，写作也充满了想象。

The topic The Selkie Child is one of the stories in Oxford Reading Tree. The story is based on the legend of the Selkies (changing from seal to human form by shedding their skin). I chose the beginning of the story to design this lesson. Students were shown the legend of the Selkies at the beginning. They were very interested in a different culture. After observing three pictures from the story, students knew that John and Kate longed for a child and John found a baby girl on the shore with a seal skin nearby.

这节课的故事The Selkie Child选自《牛津阅读树》，根据海豹人传说改编而成。我节选了故事的开头来开展阅读写作课。海豹人的传说对学生是新鲜和陌生的，因此引发了他们浓烈的好奇心，大家很快进入到故事中，并通过观察三张图片，对故事开头有了初步了解。

What will happen next? What will John do? If he is a good man, he will... If he is a bad man, he will... If you were John, what would you do? Students could think critically and use Reading Power (questioning, making predictions and inferring) to deepen their thoughts. In the discussing part, students brought up many amazing ideas about the ending of the story.

再通过抛出一系列问题，如‘接下来会发生什么？’，‘如果John是一个好人，他会怎么做？’，‘如果John有私心，他又会怎么做？’，‘如果你是John,你会如何处理？’等，让学生们结合‘阅读力’中的‘提问力’和‘推断力’，对问题进行批判性思考和预测，并在小组讨论中各抒己见。

When students were assigned to make up the story in groups based on the beginning given, their minds were full of imagination and various versions of the story were produced. They enjoyed writing a story in this way. In the end of the lesson, their faces were not covered with confusion any more but smile with satisfaction. In Maple Leaf, students can enjoy reading and writing.

在最后的小组写作环节中，学生根据已经给出的故事开头，推测故事结尾，并将故事情节补充完整；他们的故事充满了想象，每个小组都写出了自己的版本。下课时，大家的脸上不再有传统写作课上的迷茫与懵懂，而是布满了微笑和豁然。”

Summer Zhang, Intermediate Level Teaching Group Leader

“Echo’s class was well-designed and academic; the whole teaching went smoothly and transitions were flexible. There were also some other shining aspects in her teaching. First, she made full use of the graphic organizer to check students’ understanding and guide students to exchange their ideas; most of the tasks were accomplished by students with amazing presentations, so the class was student-centered. Besides, Echo is good at logically questioning; she skillfully used Reading Power to help students to question, connect and infer, which greatly developed students to think critically. Therefore, the class was question-oriented. Finally, she got rid of the traditional writing teaching method, and set a good example of a new way of teaching. We can use it to teach listening, speaking, writing and reading. That’s to say, it is multifunctional.

Echo的展示课思路清晰，过渡自然、灵活，且学术性强。本节课的三大亮点为：以学生为主体, 通过不断发问引领思考，以及课堂形式便于借鉴。首先，她充分利用了graphic organizer 来检测学生的理解并引导学生进行思想交流，整个教学过程以学生的展示贯穿始终，体现了以‘学生为主，老师为辅’。其次，Echo擅长对学生逻辑思维能力的培养；她巧妙地运用‘阅读力’中的技巧，让学生在预测的过程中进行提问、联想和推测，很大程度上培养了学生的批判性思维。最后，她摒弃了传统的写作教学模式，设计出新颖的具有多功能性的课型模式，让其他老师可以加以借鉴于听说读写的教学中。”

Teachers and directors made comments on the writing demo classes. Authors express their thoughts to the readers in-between the lines; besides writing skills, students can improve their thinking ability meanwhile by acquiring the writing ability.

展示课后，观摩的老师和主任们对课堂进行了点评，肯定了两位老师在活动设计、学生指导、教学模式、“阅读力”培养等方面的亮点，同时也提出了其他见解。“写作是带读者去看自己想要呈现的东西，是将网状的思想，通过树状的句法，组织为线状展开的文字。”培养好的写作能力所收获的不单单是写作技巧，而是在提高写作能力的同时，也提高了思考的能力。