1 Using discussion to support student writing

Students are expected to write answers to comprehension questions about a lesson or passage in English, as in the following example.

Class VIII students study a passage called ‘The Summit Within’ from NCERT’s textbook Honeydew, which is about someone who climbs to the top of Mount Everest. After reading the text, they are expected to answer the questions below:

Answer the following questions:

• i.What are the three qualities that played a major role in the author’s climb?
• ii.Why is adventure, which is risky, also pleasurable?
• iii.What was it about Mount Everest that the author found irresistible?
• iv.One does not do it (climb a high peak) for fame alone. What does one do it for, really?
• v.‘He becomes conscious in a special manner of his own smallness in this large universe.’ This awareness defines an emotion mentioned in the first paragraph. What is this emotion?
• vi.What were the ‘symbols of reverence’ left by members of the team on Everest?
• vii.What, according to the writer, did his experience as an ‘Everester’ teach him?

Pause for thought Have you taught this lesson? If so, how have you helped your students to answer these questions? If you have not taught the lesson, how would you help students to answer the questions in their own words? Some teachers ask students to copy the answers from the blackboard. But when students do this, it is difficult to know if they have understood the question or the lesson. Just because students can copy sentences or paragraphs, it doesn’t mean that they understand what they are writing. Also, when copying, students are not practising English much. It may help their spelling, but they are not thinking about how the language works. If students write their own sentences and text, they have to think about the grammar – the tenses and structures – and vocabulary. They focus on the meaning of what they want to communicate, and this helps them become able to use the language independently.

One way you can help students to write their own responses to questions such as these is by allowing them to discuss the questions. When you give your students time to discuss the questions in pairs or groups before they write answers, they have to communicate what they understand to each other, learning from each other. Having time to talk and think and by discussing things with classmates can help your students make the first steps in writing sentences independently.

Video: Talk for learning