In this class session, we began by reviewing the contents of our previous class. I believe that this is  a good way of beginning our class because it helps me as a current student teacher to demonstrate my knowledge and understanding of what was taught. By so doing, I feel more and more confident that I have understood the lesson and can apply skills learnt in the classroom.

We focused on the first stage of the writing process: Prewriting. Prewriting can be defined as a thinking and planning writing activity which helps the writer think about a topic. Basically, this first stage involves the following:

• Choosing a topic
• Brainstorming ideas (words/phrases) 
• Organizing ideas in a graphic organizer
• Identify an audience
• Define the purpose/reason for writing

I liked this lesson. It was very interesting to me. The part which I liked best was that an effective characteristic of teachers of writing is that they must demonstrate to students that they are writers by engaging in the writing process. The teachers must use their pieces to model writing to the students. A graphic organizer should be used according to the topic/genre. It will help students to jot down their ideas using words or phrases, which they intend to use in the second stage. The students are now confident to begin this process after having noted the demonstration by the teacher. 

I also learnt that the teacher can use mini lessons to provide explicit writing instruction to the students in order for them to learn a particular skill. A mini lesson is taught depending on the students' weakness in writing.

My question was: How does a teacher go about conducting a mini lesson? 

I was given the components steps of a mini lesson which is as follows (in brief):

1. Introduction/Connection: Connect the lesson to a real life situation. Inform student of the purpose of the lesson.

2. Teaching Point/Content: What skill does the teacher want students to learn?/ What do effective writers do?

3. Teaching Component/Demonstration: Teacher models to students and uses think alouds and examples.

4. Active Engagement: Students apply skills in groups, pairs, then on their own.

5. Closure: Teacher reviews skill learnt in the lesson, then states objective of the following lesson.

With  these in mind, I hope that my lecturer will conduct a mini lesson so that I can model the necessary skill that I want students to learn. I suggest that my lecturer use a topic of interest so that I can see the different components of the mini lesson in action.

Quote: "Writing is thinking on paper."