1. A Framework of Procedures

Reading, writing, speaking and listening are all interrelated, so it is advisable to use them as integrated areas. Within this "Values Education and Creative Writing Program", texts will be treated as a motivating factor which will trigger, long discussions, reflections, exchange of thoughts and ideas within a group and/or between groups of students.

Reading Texts

Before reading motivating texts, give a purpose of reading to your students. One way to accomplish that is by posing guiding interpretation questions. These questions will form the basis of a discussion that may follow, which, in its turn, will provide material for writing and producing texts.

In this session I will use texts based on the social values "Money" and "Human Relationships". Through these texts I will present the following writing techniques:

1. Argumentation
2. Free Writing
3. Showing vs Telling (Zoom in and Zoom out)

A. Money

PRE-READING INTERPRETATION QUESTIONS

• What values do the words of the following two songs express?
• What do they tell us about the songwriter?

AFTER-READING ACTIVITIES

• SURVEY: Conduct a survey in your class of people who feel happy with Chuck Berry’s song for their own lives, and those who don’t.
• DEBATE: Discuss within your group and classify arguments against and arguments for the statement: "You will be happy in this world if getting money is one of your main values"

Take a long sheet of paper and stick on it, in two columns, cards with the arguments of the opposite sides. Then give evidence to back –up each argument. At the end provide a final evaluation. This is the framework of an "Argumentation".

• SHARED-WRITING: Now, write as a team an essay with the same title

Exploring Argumentation

The ability to write argumentative texts is best developed and practiced in partner and in small group discussions. Points to remember are:

• Give students many opportunities to express themselves orally and to share opinions about the topic
• Stress the need to present the facts without distortion
• Stress the need to gather evidence to support an argument. It is not enough to list the assertions without evidence or data to support them.
• Stress the need to have a definite point of view on an issue before attempting to write a persuasive text.
• Different points of View: After reading a story ask children to retell it from a different point of view, e.g. wolf, grandmother.
• Examining Persuasive Tactics: Ask children to collect advertisements and group them in to categories (food ads, car ads etc). Students take one category per group and decide how advertisements persuade people to buy products. Suggest they look for information that is stated and that which is implied. Have them write their own advertisements.
• Direct Model: Use overhead projector to display the basic elements of argumentation by using an article of the local newspaper e.g.

Title: "Dogs should not be aloud in the municipal park"

Paragraph 1(Thesis)

Paragraph 2 (Argument and Evidence for)

Paragraph 3 (Argument and Evidence against)

Paragraph 4 (Counter Argument and Evidence)

Paragraph5 (Summary and Conclusions)

PRE-READING FOCUS ACTIVITIES:

• Listen carefully to the story. You can either write or draw your thoughts and feelings about the characters while you listen (later on you can create a cartoon-story). (Free Writing 10 min)
• What values do you think each character expresses?

[Use "dilemma situation" stories as the following to motivate argumentation on subjects related to human relationships].

Once there was a girl named Abigail who was in love with a boy named Gregory. Gregory had an unfortunate accident and broke his glasses. Abigail, being a true friend, volunteered to take them to be repaired. But the repair shop was across the river, and during a flash flood the bridge was washed away. Poor Gregory could see nothing without his glasses, so Abigail was desperate to get across the river to the repair shop.

While she was standing forlornly on the bank of the river, clutching the broken glasses in her hands, a boy named Sinbad glided by in a rowboat. She asked Sinbad if he would take her across. He agreed to on the condition that while she was having the glasses repaired, she would go to a nearby store and steal a transistor radio that he had been wanting. Abigail refused to do this and went to see a friend named Ivan who had a boat.

When Abigail told Ivan her problem, he said he was too busy to help her out and didn’t want to be involved. Abigail, feeling that she had no other choice, returned to Sinbad and told him she would agree to his plan.

When Abigail returned the repaired glasses to Gregory, she told him what she had had to do. Gregory was so mad at what she had done he told her that he never wanted to see her again.

At this point write down about:

• How do you think Abigail felt? Why?
• Can you predict her reactions?
• What would you have done if you were in her place?

 AFTER – READING ACTIVITIES

• Put a title in the story.
• Circle the words that express the feelings of each character. Use the feeling as a starting point of an essay (e.g. Abigail was desperate to get across the river). Then zoom in and try to express every tiny detail, in order to put more emphasis on the feelings (e.g. She started screaming and crying. Finally, she fell on her knees and muttered to herself….). Or, zoom out to give the big picture, the surroundings (e.g. She was alone in the forest. The earth felt soft under her knees and the leaves scattered around gave a funny impression...)
• Rank these characters from "best" to "worst": Abigail, Gregory, Sinbad, Ivan, Slug. Give reasons for your decisions.
• Focus on one of the characters and write the story from your own point of view.
• Discuss within each group and write an essay about:

"…being a true friend."