After reading the two transcripts for both Harper’s and Madison’s written narratives, some things that were noted. The two stories were in line with the given topic, a bonsai tree. The two students were able to come up with narratives concerning their adventures with the bonsai tree. However, both Harper’s and Madison’s written narratives had some mistakes. Their narratives showed that they had areas of need in their writing. Looking at Harper’s work, it was clear that he has a lot of spelling mistakes. For example, he writes “fownd” instead of “found”. Harper does not know how to tell the whole story as some of the events were missing in his narrative, for instance, the first sentence of the first paragraph is incomplete. There is no flow of events in Harper’s written narrative. Also, Harper does not know where to use capital and small letters in a sentence. For example, there is a sentence he starts with a small letter instead of a capital letter. Harper failed to put commas where necessary, and the structure of his sentences was grammatically incorrect. Also, Harper’s narrative even lacked a title which is an important part of a narrative.
Differentiated instruction strategy is the best for Harper. This teaching strategy enables the teacher to interact and deal with each student depending on their learning needs. Harper has several learning needs including spelling, grammar and narration flow. It is vital to note that not all students learn at the same pace (Orlich, 2012). Harper is quite of a slow learner and thus needs a lot of attention from his educator. This teaching strategy can be designed in several ways to fit the students’ learning needs. Using this strategy, the teacher will be able to come up with learning stations where students do the same task but at different levels and styles that have been made specifically for them.
For Harper to improve his writing, he needs to attend lessons aligned with the teaching strategy mentioned above. Before the lesson, the educator should inform the students to come with personal dictionaries. The act would enable the students to confirm the spelling of different words before writing them personally. During the lesson, the teacher would give each student several words to check in the dictionary and write the meaning. After that, each student would be instructed to recite all of the words, spell them and give their meanings. Also, the students would be told to write a paragraph about a certain topic. The educator would go around the class checking each student’s work and correcting their mistakes. In case the student does not know how to structure his or her sentences, the teacher would give the student more examples and more work to practice on. The teacher would give more attention to the learners who are weaker at writing compared to others.
Once a student is done with a certain exercise given, he or she should be allowed to continue to the next. Not all students can learn at the same pace. That is why it is important for the teacher to be keen on their class performance. The educator needs to distribute his or her attention depending on the learning needs of each student. By doing so, the teacher would be able to help each learner to improve their writing. Also, students can be given a chance to tell a story in class. In this way, they would learn to be creative, and their spoken English would improve gradually. Once their spoken English is good, it would become easy for them to write it down. The teacher can make use of ICT during the lesson to help students sequence words more easily. Clicker and Textease are some of the ICT devices that can improve a learner’s writing skills. Students can also use interactive dictionaries to help them improve their vocabularies.
Madison’s written narrative had several mistakes too. To start off, Madison’s work had several spelling mistakes. For instance, she wrote “allaway” instead of “alleyway”. Some of the similes used like “as sunny as a sunshine” did not make any sense. Also, the structuring of some of her sentences was grammatically incorrect. Corporative learning is the best teaching strategy for Madison. In corporative learning, Madison would be given a chance to work alongside her classmates and listen to their different opinions concerning a specific topic (Srichanyachon, 2012). Madison’s mistakes are minor and she would easily realize them and learn from her friends. The learning of a student is more effective when they learn in groups rather than alone. If Madison and her group mates wrote their narratives and gave it to each other to read and check for mistakes, she would notice where she went wrong and make the necessary corrections.
For Madison to become a better writer, her educator should plan for a lesson that is in accordance to the teaching strategy mentioned above. The teacher would put the students in groups and give them tasks to perform together. The tasks can include reading and writing together. The teacher can give the students a task to write about a certain topics. After that, he would tell the students to exchange their books and let their friends go through their work and correct them. By doing so, the students would improve their communication skills and they would be keener. Once they are able to do this, it will be very easy for them to write grammatically correct sentences. Also, they would correct on their spelling mistakes.
The teacher can also tell the students to give each other spelling quizzes. The group members would write the words down and then they would check in the dictionaries to confirm the correct spellings (Benko, 2012). By doing this, students get to learn how to spell different words correctly. Also, the teacher should make the students recite the spellings in groups. It would make the learners to memorize different English words that they can later use in their writing. Interactive whiteboard technology can be put in place to record students’ responses. Digital cameras can also be put in place to help students to reflect and comment on how language is used.
SECTION B
Differentiated instruction and corporative learning teaching strategies allow students to improve both in their spoken and written English. Through recitation, the students get to memorize the spellings of different words which they later incorporate in their writing. In differentiated instruction, the educator is the one who goes through the learner’s work and correct them. Learning here is done individually (Biber, 2011). The teacher teaches each student according to their learning levels. On the other hand, in corporative learning, students teach each other in groups. The students perform different tasks together and correct each other’s mistakes. By learning in groups, students understand better and learn from each other.
In corporative learning, learners depend on each other to develop their writing. The teacher only coordinates the activities to ensure that the students are doing the right thing. In this teaching strategy, learning is student-oriented. The teacher’s work is minimized and the students are forced to think critically and creatively together. However, in differentiated solution there are a lot of teacher-student interactions. The teacher checks on the progress of each student and is able to correct them at a personal level. By doing this, the teacher can know each student’s learning needs and attend to them. Here, a teacher can keep track of each student’s progress and dedicate more time to the once who are very weak. A teacher gives exercises but analyses the assignment differently depending on the student. Also, the educator does not expect the students to be on the same learning level.
One of the main benefits of corporative learning is that learning is done more efficiently. While in groups, students learn from each other and understand their different points of view concerning a certain topic (Schmeck, 2013). By learning from each other, students learn how to communicate with one another. Also, their creativity and critical thinking skills improve. Learning using this strategy is quite fast. The students teach each other and the teacher has less work thus can move faster knowing that all students have understood. One of the limitations for this method is lack of coordination from the group members. Some students may fail to do their work as they expect the other group members to do all the work for them.
One of the advantages of differentiated solution is that each student’s learning needs are taken care of. The educator takes time to ensure that each student has understood the topic under study. Learning is done at a personal level and laziness is not allowed. The teacher prevents laziness by ensuring that each student completes his or her assignment. Also, the teacher takes time to go through the students’ work and make the necessary corrections where needed. However, this method is time consuming. In case a good number of students are slow learners, the teacher would spend a lot of time explaining concepts and ensuring that all of them understand. Another limitation is that it may get boring explaining the same concept over and over again.
References
Orlich, D. C., Harder, R. J., Callahan, R. C., Trevisan, M. S., " Brown, A. H. (2012). Teaching strategies: A guide to effective instruction. Cengage Learning.
Schmeck, R. R. (Ed.). (2013). Learning strategies and learning styles. Springer Science " Business Media.
Biber, D., Nekrasova, T., " Horn, B. (2011). The Effectiveness of Feedback for L1‐English and L2‐Writing Development: A Meta‐Analysis. ETS Research Report Series, 2011(1).
Srichanyachon, N. (2012). Teacher written feedback for L2 learners’ writing development. Silpakorn University Journal of Social Sciences, Humanities, and Arts, 12(1), 7-17.
Benko, S. L. (2012). Scaffolding: An ongoing process to support adolescent writing development. Journal of Adolescent " Adult Literacy, 56(4), 291-300.
