Course Description 

The course seeks to capacitate Grades 7 - 12 language teachers, tutors, learning support teachers, and college instructors with additional teaching skills and strategies to specifically address the writing needs of adolescent learners at the senior high school, post-secondary or first-year tertiary level, who pose to have learning difficulties in academic writing which are best addressed while immersed in writing.

At the end of the course, the participant should be able to:

a) discuss adolescent learner skills and needs in terms of the writing process

b) select and implement teaching strategies for academic writing

c) co-formulate instructional plans for academic writing suited to adolescent learners

and their common difficulties

A. Course Content Outline

I. The Nature of the Writing Process

A. Academic Writing vs Creative Writing

B. General Skill Areas and Targets for the Adolescent Learners, their Academic Writing

Needs, and Common Difficulties

C. Writing Structures/ Formats aligned with Command Terms

II. Diagnosing and Addressing Common Writing Problems

A. Word Level - Vocabulary, Word Usage, Spelling

B. Sentence Level - Grammar, Sentence Structure & Precision

C. Paragraph Level - Logic and Coherence

D. Achieving Conciseness and Brevity

III. Strategies for Language Learning Support

A. Areas of Support for the Adolescent Writer

B. Basic Strategies for Learning Support in Academic Writing