Teaching Productive Skills to the Students: a secondary Level Scenario

2.7.11 The Elements of a Successful Writing Lesson 
 
To make the learning as easy as possible and to make learners successful, 
confident and willing to write the teacher should provide the students with: 
a. 
Information: It means that students have to be given clear and logical instruction 
what the teacher wants them to do and to be clear about the topic details. 
b. 
Language: If students need any specific language they should be given it 
before the activity so they will not be stuck. 
c. 
Ideas: Teachers need to be able to suggest ideas to help students when they do 
not know how to start or continue. “One of the skills of a good writing teacher is to be 
able to throw out suggestions without crowding out the individual students with too 
much oppressive detail.” (Harmer, 2004, 63). 

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A teacher should try to include written tasks in all his lessons, whether he is 
teaching grammar, vocabulary or communication skills. It's a good idea to practice all 
the four skills in a lesson. Once in a while, more focus to the written skills can be given 
i.e. whole lesson can become a preparation for a written activity. The actual writing part 
can be so time-consuming that sometimes he may want to leave it for homework. 
Written tasks performed in class can be made more interactive by getting students to 
write in pairs. Get one person to write with a pen and the other to help their partner 
correct mistakes and provide him or her with ideas. 
2.7.12 The Roles of Teacher in Writing 
 
Kimble and Garmezy in Brown (2000:7) state that learning is a permanent 
process of the change in behavioral tendency and a result of reinforced practice. We 
can infer that teaching is not just a simple transferring knowledge activity since it is 
aimed at the behavioral change. Therefore, teachers have to make sure that their 
students learn something beneficial that permanently will contribute to their future. 
Teachers are expected to realize the importance of their 
roles toward students‟ 
development in learning, particularly in writing. Teachers are required to have various 
strategies and great interest when they are teaching writing to the students. Moreover, 
the success of students in learning writing is also determined by the teacher‟s 
performance in helping them learn writing. It means that in the process of teaching 
writing, the teacher has to help the students to understand and learn how to write 
effectively, give clear explanations and instructions and guide the students in each step 
of the writing process. 
In relation to teacher‟s roles in the process of writing, Harmer (2004:41) also 
proposed some tasks that the teachers must perform before, during, and after the 
process of writing. They are demonstrating, motivating and provoking, supporting, 
responding and evaluating. 

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