WRITING SKILLS GRADES 1-12

I have been teaching English all my working life. Most successful has been in Papua New Guinea where most modern students have no idea of how to write polished and rhythmic sentences. 

Many have no skill in lifting themselves out of baby English that they learned in elementary school. They write short sentences and repeat words.

My name is John. I live in  village. It is a small village. It is a village near the river. The river is the Sepik River. I live with my mother and father. My father works in Wewak. My mother lives in the village. I have two brothers and two sisters. My brothers and sisters go to school. The school is in the village. I go to school too.

Many PNG teachers are my dear friends. But many have no idea of how to teach polished English. They think that if they teach about nouns, verbs, adjectives, adverbs, pronouns, tense and clauses, the students will magically put it all together.  Most will not succeed.

I have a reputation of lifting students to distinction and credit standard at every school where I was employed. In the last year, I have met two past students from Bumayong and Busu High Schools. 

One is a lecturer in English at Balob Teachers' College and the other teaches English to Grades 9-12 in a Port Moresby school. Both remember the skills they had learned in my classes.

I teach students to put patterns together in polished complex sentences and carry on with dozens of exercises until they have mastered the skills over one or two years. I teach listing that the students use in all writing.

I saw Peter. I saw Paul. I saw Mary.

I saw Peter, Paul and Mary.

I opened the door. I went inside. I put a letter on the table.

I opened the door, went inside and put a letter on the table.

Opening the door, I went inside and put a letter on the table.

Papua New Guinea suffers from unemployment. 
It suffers from family violence.
It suffers from corruption in Government.
It suffers from tribal wars.

Papua New Guinea suffers from unemployment, family violence, 
corruption in Government and tribal wars.

These skills are the basis of teaching polished English. Students move from Rhythm Phonics to rhythmic polished English as they proceed through to Grade 12.

Unfortunately the squiggle, squiggle sound out the word phonics ends in lower primary school. Students go on with baby writing.

When students finish writing a paragraph for me, they have to circle every word repeated and write the paragraph again. They are learning a key writing skill that many will never forget.