Study On Mini Writing Courses

For centuries, Chinese researchers have been committed to the construction ofthe systematic writing courses, but it has been difficult to do so. Speaking ofsystematic, we have to face the following two questions: whether there exists arigorous system in writing course? whether learning to write needs a rigoroussystem?From the historical experience and writing rules, to achieve the objectives ofwriting courses by building the system of writing courses may be a difficult andmuddy road leading to nowhere. And construction of the appropriate writing coursesmay require a major turning point in the course orientation: a shift of attention fromsystematic writing knowledge to the learning needs of students writing. Mini writingcourses based on the learning needs of students’ writing can replace traditionalwriting courses based on the systematic writing knowledge, which could be a majortransformation of writing course paradigm.Under this assumption, the paper carries out studies on mini writing course inHigh School from two aspects-"justification" and "construction". The thesis isdivided into two parts.The first part is "exploring the rationale"(1-3).Among them, the first chapter proposes the basic problems and ideas of theresearch. The second chapter is the literature review. Based on the related theory,the third chapter determines the direction of research breakthroughs and exploresthe value and significance of mini writing courses from a theoretic point of view.The third chapter mainly explains the basic features of mini writing courses:centered on the learner of writing and taking the development of students’ writingskills by using writing knowledge as the fundamental purpose. Mini writing coursesfocus on learning situation of writing, which refers to the specific learning needs inthe learning process of a particular content by learners. Therefore, the writingcourses based on the learning situation definitely focus on specific issues, meet thespecific needs and thus are characteristic of "miniaturization". Two elements related to the learning situation of writing and miniaturization are "situational learning" and"effective learning support" in the learning process of writing. Students’ learningsituation is both a logical starting point for mini writing course design and thefundamental purpose of mini writing course design, because the basic writing rulesnecessitate the micro learning style adopted by learners and the miniaturization ofwriting courses as well. On the basis of contemporary curriculum theory, learningtheory and the theory of mini course, this chapter puts forward the following fourpaths of mini-writing course design: first, to establish the course objectives based onthe learning situation; second, to select and develop the course content based ongoals and learning situation; third, to design learning to write activities based on thecourse content; fourth, to set the appropriate scaffolding of learning to write basedon learning to write activities.The second part is the "framework"(Chapter4-8).Each chapter of this part studies detecting and analyzing learning situation ofwriting, identifying writing objectives and contents of mini writing course andconstructing common forms of mini writing courses etc.The fourth chapter focuses on the analysis of the learning situation and theestablishment of writing course objectives. The learning situation is not only the coreof the mini writing course but also the starting point for the mini writing coursedesign. When we design mini writing courses, students’ real learning situation mustbe selected, classified and focused on. Accurate and effective analysis of students’learning situation is the premise of the establishment of basic learning objectives inmini writing course. The basic framework for analysis of learning situation of writingshould be determined from two perspectives: the content of writing and the processof writing, so that the learning situation could be detected and analyzed accuratelyand then the specific learning objectives can be established clearly. The objectivesof mini writing courses is to meet the students’ specific needs in the process oflearning to write and to help students solve some specific problems they meet duringthe writing. The appropriate learning objectives should be established based on thelearning situation in different levels, with various means and by ways such as suspension, highlighting and fixed.The fifth chapter studies how to develop the core content of mini writing course.This chapter concludes two ways of creating the mini writing course. The first is fromthe Target–Content dimension. Specific and effective course content is developedbased on the appropriate objectives of writing courses and with various strategiessuch as the decomposition, reveals, refining, selection, development. The second isfrom the Learning situation-Content of dimension. The course content is developedbased on the learners’ learning situation and target knowledge learners study. Theappropriate mini writing course content can be created by combining and integratingthe two dimensions. The intersection point of the system of mini writing courseobjectives and system of learning situation of writing is the embryo of most essentialand effective writing course content.The sixth Chapter discusses the basic ways of designing writing learningactivities in mini writing course. Learning to write can be achieved through writinglearning activities. In order to ensure the smooth progress of learning to write,writing learning activities must be micro-processed. The micro processing modewhich follows the learning rules of writing is a "simplified" writing activity."Simplified" consists of two stages: summary and refining. These two stagesconstitute two ways of the miniaturized content of writing course activities. The firstway is to design the most simple version of the activity program of learning to write.The second way is to design the gradually refined learning program of learning towrite which tends to be the real task.The seventh chapter studies the principles, paths, timings and ways of settingscaffolding of learning to write after the features, functions and types of scaffoldingof learning to write are established. Scaffolding of learning to write is to providetemporary learning support for learners, which can be broadly divided into threetypes: receiving scaffolding, conversion scaffolding and evaluation scaffolding. Thesethree types play various roles in different stages of learning to write. The followingrules should be obeyed when scaffolding of learning to write is set: to followminiaturization, complementary, personalized principle; to take the path of “differentiation” and “simplification”; to consider the characteristics of the learningsituation and the time node; to select the appropriate setting mode.Scaffolding of learning to writing is the auxiliary writing course content, whichcan be broadly divided into three types: receiving scaffolding, conversion scaffoldingand evaluation scaffolding. The premise of the scaffolding is to meet the particularneeds of learners and to solve special difficulties learners meet in the process oflearning to write. Mini writing course turns evaluation, one of the elements of thiscourse, into one scaffolding of learning to write and makes evaluation an effectivesupport for promoting students’ learning to writing smoothly.There are two ways to design scaffolding of micro-learning. One of them isdifferentiation. By means of differentiation, some elements are dealt with as the coreof writing course while other elements are handled as scaffolding of learning. Theother is simplification. The difficulty of some content which cannot be cut into piecesdecreases by reducing its complexity. In addition, three timings and two ways ofsetting scaffolding of micro-learning are put forward.The eighth chapter sums up the four elements of mini writing course and fourbasic forms, through the analysis of examples and related action research. A typicalmini writing course usually consists of four elements: an objective, a knowledgecontent, an activity, a scaffolding of learning. Different combinations among theseelements and combinations among several mini courses constitute the basic form ofa variety of mini writing courses, which generally have the most basic form of thefollowing four: San-point, chain, radiant, network type.We have done action research in mini writing courses in five high schools fromShanghai, Zhejiang Province and Jiangsu Province. Action research shows that miniwriting course is a highly-targeted and operational, which helps to promote students’learning to write.