SỞ GIÁO DỤC VÀ ĐÀO TẠO THANH HÓA

TRƯỜNG THPT HẬU LỘC I

SÁNG KIẾN KINH NGHIỆM

THE EXPERIENCES OF TEACHING ENGLISH WRITING
SKILL TO THE GRADE 10TH STUDENTS OF HAU LOC I
HIGH SCHOOL THROUGH WRITING LESSONS

Người thực hiện: Lường Thị Duyên
Chức vụ
: Giáo viên
SKKN thuộc lĩnh vực môn: Tiếng Anh

THANH HOÁ NĂM 2017
0


TABLE OF CONTENTS
PART I: INTRODUCTION........................................................................................2
PART II. CONTENTS................................................................................................3
1.

Pre- writing stage..............................................................................................3

2.

While – writing stage......................................................................................10

3.

a process — a series of steps — such as brainstorming for ideas, organising and
sequencing them, revising and editing the draft and so on. Nevertheless, how to
teach and learn writing effectively often poses great problems to both teachers
and students. For the teachers of English at high school, writing is considered a
difficult skill to teach.Some of them even ignore teaching writing skills and
focus only on grammar excercises for the exams.Therefore, the teachers who are
currently teaching English, they always think what they should do to make
students’ motivation in writing lessons.
Thanks to the innovation of ways in teaching English,together my own
teaching experience, in the scope of the theme I would like to present : " The
2


experiences of teaching English writing skill to the grade 10 th students of
Hau Loc I High School through writing lessons”. Hopefully, these experiences
could encourage students to write better, develop their writing skills and make
students’ motivation in writing lessons. Moreover, the theme would be shared
with any colleagues who had the same problem or anyone who is interested in
this theme.

PART II. CONTENTS
In the current education curriculum, teaching writing is mainly to
coordinate with other skills to enrich the forms of practice, review students’
knowledge as well as help students get acquainted initially writing style,
structure of writing and using writing activities to communicate some specific
purpose.
Moreover, with the aim of improving students’ abilities in writing. On
English 10 textbook, there are a range of types to practice writing with narrative,
writing letters, giving directions , writing about a story ,describing statistics from
a chart or a table, writing a report or a biography,….. Students will have to

The following examples that I have carried out in this stage:
 Example 1: Writing lesson of Unit 4
 Topic: Writing a letter of complaint
-Teacher gives two pictures showing two different faces ( one is happy and
another is angry)
-Teacher asks students : 1. How do they feel ?
2. Are they happy or angry ?
-Then teacher can ask students : “ What kind of letter do you write if you feel
angry about something or unhappy with something? A letter of complaint or a
thank- you letter”?
-Teacher introduces : Today we are going to learn how to write a complaint letter
4


-Teacher encourages students to guess the definition and format of a letter of
complaint,then teacher gives:
+Complaint is a kind of formal letter used when you are not happy with a
service, a contract, a course,…
+A letter of complaint usually includes three main parts:

 Opening: giving reasons and purposes
 Body: showing and explaining the problems logically
 Conclusion: suggesting resolutions
-Teacher asks students to work in groups, gives each group one handout and
asks students to read the letter carefully and get the information to fill in the
blanks ( In the handout there is a sample letter of complaint and asks students to
notice the tenses and the words, phrases as well as main parts in this letter )
1.
2.
3.

- Give the evidence you dislike most ( What I hate most your …….is……./
Finally,……….).
- Request action ( To resolve the problem, I require you to ……)
Closing
Sign off : Yours faithfully
* Teacher notices students that complaint is a kind of formal letter students
should use connectors such as: first of all, firstly, secondly, furthermore, to make
the matter worse, finally,…and present simple tense.
- Teacher asks students to open the book, read the advertisement of “ English
For Today Centre”, then teacher gives a hint to students by questions and asks
students to work in pairs to discuss:
What were advertised
-Native teachers ONLY
-No more than 20 students per class
-Free books and cassettles tapes
-All air conditioned rooms
-5.30 – 8.30 pm

What happened to you
-Only one / few native teachers
- About 40 students in class
- Pay for them ( 50.000 or 60.000
dong)
-There is only one ceiling fan/ The
classroom was very hot
-Start late and finish early
Sometimes I waited for half an
hour because the room was not
ready or the teacher arrived late.


* Closing ( I’ll be waiting for you at …../ see you then….)
* Signature
-Teacher notices students that tenses are used: Future simple tense and Future
continuous tense
-Students will use this model and write a confirmation letter easily.
 Example 3: Writing lesson of Unit 7
 Topic: Writing about the advantages and disadvantages of the mass
media.
After the exciting warm up activity: answering 3 questions:
1.What are some kinds of mass media?
2.Which one is the most popular?
7


3.What are the advantages and disadvantages of television?
- Teacher leads in the lesson and asks students to skim the model text, identify
the advantages and disadvantages of T.V and underline some new words and
new structures which are used in the model text.
-Teacher checks and gives tructures and new words :
+ help / encourage S.O to do sth: help us to learn, encourage us to buy.
+ make S.O / sth + adjective: make things memorable, make us aware of, make
us passive / violent.
+ 'memorable (adj) : easy to remember
+ en'joyable (adj) : pleasant
+ popu'larity (n) : the noun of " popular"
+ be a'ware of (v) : realize
+ brain (n) : part of the body inside the head
+ 'violent (adj) : fighting, killing, etc.
+ inter'fere with (v) : get in the way of something
-Teacher asks students to talk about the advantages and disadvantages of TV. Use

broaden

knowledge

Disadvantages
- It is rather boring because

and we can't see anything.
or - The programmes are not
and very vivid, there are no

understanding

games and films, etc.

- Listen to music, dramas, etc.
-Share opinions/experiences
- It is not harmful to people's
eyes.
-Get information on many fields: -Newspaper
Reading

culture,art,business,…

may

not

be


information and entertainment .

-Make people passive and

-Relax by watching films or influence on the way people
football matches, listening to think or people’life.
music on-line or chatting to
friends or relatives.

-It

can

be

dangerous

because you can be exposed
to harmful websites

Students might be successful in writing this kind of exercise because there were
a large number of these expressions and students can choose any kind of mass
media and write the text.
9


2. While – writing stage
This stage is for developing writing skill, students can write individually, but
teacher should encourage collaborative writing ( work in pairs or in a small
group to write the first draft).While students are writing, teacher goes round the


1. Education Aims
- Students can write a letter of acceptance or refusal.
2. Knowledge
a. General knowledge:
- A letter of acceptance or refusal.
b. Language:
- Language used to write an informal letter.
- Expressions: "Yes, I'd like/love to."," I'm afraid I can't come because...?",
etc.
3. Skills
- Reading: read the expressions in task 1 to fill the blanks of the incomplete
letters.
- Speaking: work in pairs to rearrange the sentences to make a letter of
acceptance.
- Writing: write a letter of acceptance or refusal.
II. Anticipated problems
- Students may find it difficult to get ideas as well as to choose suitable
expressions to write a letter of their own.
III. Teaching Aids
- board, textbook, chalk,handouts.
IV. Procedures
Teacher's activities
1.Warm up:( 5 mins)
Competition game-Network

Students' activities
- Listen to the teacher.

- Prepare a handout with a network of -Groupwork

Task 1

2. Refusing: I'm afraid I can't come

- Introduce the topic of the lesson: because (or I’d love to, but …………)
Write a letter of acceptance or 3. Accepting: I'd be delighted to ( or I’d
refusal.

love to…)

- Introduce some new words:
+ a'cceptance (n): the noun of - Listen to the teacher.
"accept"
+re'fusal (n) : the noun of " refuse"
+ dec'line (v) : refuse sth offered
( politely)
- Ask sts to listen and repeat and then
copy down these words into their
notebooks.

-Whole class

- Ask sts to read the expressions in the
table, then work in pairs to complete
three reply letters by using the
expressions in the table. For each
12


blank they can have more than


for - Thanks for your

invitation
-Starting

invitation
the - I’d like to come

acceptance

politely

with delight
-Closing

other two?
- How about

+ Why did the writer of letter two

meeting at

refuse the invitation?
-Remind sts that:

-Signature

gate at 8.30?



invitation

ways of refusing the invitation to say

-Starting the refusal

that they can’t join their friends. Sts

politely with regret

your note
- I’d love to

should remember to give out the

come.But

reason for refusal as well.

I’m afraid

-Ask sts to use the letters in the task

I can’t

as models.

because my


writes a letter of acceptance Nam's

Mike

invitation.
- Ask sts to work in pairs to rearrange
the sentences into a letter.
- Call on some pairs to read the letter

-Work in pairs
- Present their ideas:
1.d

2. e

3. c

4. a

5. f

6. b

out loud and ask other pairs to listen - Listen to the teacher and copy down.
and give feedback.
- Comment and give the correct order. - Read the requirement.
- Listen to the teacher.
3. While you write:( 12 mins)
Aims: Sts practise writing a letter of - Do the writing task.
acceptance or refusal.


weekend. Thank you for inviting me to join

Aims: to get feedback and check sts' you but I'm afraid I can't come.
work.

My English friend, Maria, is coming to

-Ask sts to exchange their writing

Vietnam next weekend and I have promised

with another student for peer

to cook her some of our traditional dishes

correction

on Saturday morning. After that, I'm going

-Goes around and collects mistakes

to take her to some famous places in Hai

and errors.

Duong.

-Collects some writings for quick
feedback.

effectively in the lesson. Moreover, I have stimulated my students’ interests in
creative writing and develop their writing skills.
 Real numbers:
Academic year: 2015- 2016:
Grade Total

Excellent

Good

Number %

Numbe

Average

Under average

students
%

r

Numbe

%

r

Numbe


9.7

9

21.9

24

58.7

4

9.7

Academic year: 2016- 2017:
Grade Total

Excellent

Good

Number %

Numbe

Average

Under average



r
34.8 18

42.1

r
3

34.1 19

46.5

2

16


During the teaching process in Hau Loc I high school, I have made many
efforts to study, explore, share experiences from colleagues, drawn from the
experiences of my own teaching. I have got the experiences of teaching English
writing skill in high shool. However, this theme still has some limitations, it is
given out as a contribution to the knowledge of all teachers and students of
English in their teaching and learning.
I hope that this theme would be of some value to both teachers and students
in their language teaching and learning process.
I would like to thank.
The confirmation of the principle

Thanh Hoa, May 25th 2017