Pedagogic studies and practices of essay writing for primary school:taking the example of the senior grade of one primary school in Taichung county

• Main Author: 吳丹寧
• Other Authors: 陳惠邦
• Format: Others
• Language: zh-TW
• Published: 2005
• Online Access: http://ndltd.ncl.edu.tw/handle/61593699685513477153

碩士 === 國立新竹教育大學 === 人資處語文教學碩士班 === 94 === Abstract This research started after I participated in the development of essay writing course at the elementary school where I work. I found out how little I knew about the teaching of essay writing. On top of that, the new requirement of designing integrated courses from the 1st grade to the 3rd year of junior high school made my job more difficult. I hope this research will help identify the difficulties, outline the basic skills of essay writing, and create a working syllabus after cooperating with my fellow teachers and knowledgeable scholars in related fields. In order to record all the problems we may encounter in practices, I taught and observed in class. I wrote down what I saw in a journal and I discussed with my colleagues and many experts of education. I collected writings of the 5th graders I taught and recorded their responses and developments. Through understanding, practicing and reflecting, I instructed the students to work on four units: topic analysis, skills of persuasion, discussion of current events, and appreciation of picture books, as preparation for essay writing. The conclusions we found: 1. Teachers need to know what essays mean and how to teach essay writing before they can actively instruct their students. 2. It will be useless just to follow the guidelines stated in textbooks. Students can’t learn essay writing from textbooks. 3. The top priority for 5th graders is to develop their own opinions, or they will simply copy other people’s ideas. Through topic analysis, the 5th graders will have a higher level of reasoning. 4. Students need to have good descriptive writing skills before they start to tackle essay writing. 5. Discussing current events helps students develop critical thinking. The students are more sensitive to current events. Through effective discussions, they can find main ideas for their essays more easily. Playing games helps them improve their descriptive, argumentative and outlining skills. The key to essay writing is the writing of it. 6. Students can benefit from teachers’ instruction only after the teachers start to improve their pedagogic understanding. Teachers should learn together. They should get rid of ineffective teaching methods and practices. 7. As instructors, we should learn from our failures and be creative. It’s the only way to become better teachers. Keywords: essay, 5th and 6th graders, pedagogy of writing