1/3/2024 0 Comments Coherence vs cohesionThe concepts are taught one at a time, practised, and then the student's product is produced sometimes it is peer assessed, (as learning), sometimes assessed formatively, (for learning) by the teacher, and periodically assessed summatively. The following series of writing lessons are simple, explicit, easy for teachers to activate & easy for students to apply. Since then, as a teacher I have developed some lessons to demystify and clarify the process of writing unified and cohesive texts which are also coherent. One teacher, one, gave me the keys to clarity, to the enlightened way. And, different teachers used different terms to describe qualities of writing but often did not distinguish different types for different purposes, such as analytic versus opinion formats and styles. As a Student, up until grade 12, it was frustrating trying to learn the writing process, mostly because it was never shown to me explicitly. I have been there as both a student and as a teacher. This can set the stage for their own metacognitive analysis of their own and others' writing. Once they can do it, they will begin to perceive similar aspects in their reading. One teacher using a clear, methodical approach can clarify the writing process and give students communication strategies that can be the foundation for most of their future writing - and reading. It often seems daunting - even overwhelming. But it doesn't have to be. It might seem straight forward planning and writing to the teacher, but for the student trying to sort out and clarify the new and numerous terms, as well as apply their growing knowledge of vocabulary, syntax and discourse conventions, it is a struggle to try to put all of this together to write something that merely expresses their ideas. But it gets worse for them when different teachers use different terms and diagrams and teach using differing praxis and procedures. In teaching these concepts to students, teachers often use graphic organizers: flow charts, spider maps, idea trees, concept webs, Venn diagrams and more. Worse, while struggling to identify what these new concepts of unity, coherence and cohesion mean, and then how to apply them, they are often given new terms and objectives such as making their writing concise, or persuasive or to make it flow. Students are often urged to have a main focus or some main ideas, to provide supporting "details" and a hook, a powerful final point, a summary and a conclusion. Students often become turbulent pools of anxiety trying to make their writing coherent and cohesive, mostly because no one explicitly teaches what they are.
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