The PENS strategy allows students to take control of
the writing process by gathering vital components to construct their sentences.
This is a common skill a writer uses to record experiences, but of course not
all students have the experiences necessary to write on, which is where the
teacher’s assistance is necessary. A teacher can aid the writing process by
presenting a visual aid which can be a video or picture relevant to the
intended topic they will be covering in class as a writing prompt. A student can
analyze each part of a sentence including linking words that join two independent
sentences. This is a vital routine practice for struggling students.
The “P” in PENS stands for pick a structure which
would be the combination of a subject, verb and object that makes up the
sentence. The selected ratio would deeply impact a student’s writing as it
helps to form the relationship among the parts within the sentence.
The “E” stands for explore the words that fit the
formula. At this stage the writer brainstorms about the words related to the
subject they have chosen to write on. This will allow the writer to gather
enough relevant aspects of the subject that they can use to build their
sentences. These words include the subjects and verbs.
The “N” is for note the words which is the choosing
and writing down of the words after brainstorming. At this stage the writer is selecting
the best words that will contribute to their writing. These words will then be
used in the combination of the sentence structure they see fit.
The “S” stands for search and check. At this stage the
writer is determining the correctness of the sentence by making sure the
appropriate components are present such as the subject, verb and object.
PENS is but one catalyst for meaningful learning where
students can build on pre-existing knowledge.
By Prakash Seeberran
You have captured the essence of what exactly the PENS strategy entails. In truly trying to figure out and understand how the PENS strategy is utilized, I have thought about a few different ways to implement it in a Language Arts lesson. Imagine teaching the topic adjectives and wanting the students to elaborate more and practice with various sentence structures. PENS is considered the perfect way to do so. This is a visual summarization of how this may be executed in a classroom setting. Showing learners a picture of a short clipart video will give them ideas about what they'd like to write and build on their background knowledge. In the pick stage depending on the grade level, the teacher will determine what the formula is whether Subject + Verb, One Subject + Two Verbs, etc. During the Explore stage, they’ll discover a variety of words used to describe the scene by observing the picture. Once they’ve identified the words we move on to the Note stage where we attempt to create sentences using some of these words and write them as well. Lastly, In the Search and Check stage students would ensure that their sentences have the main key components which include subjects, verbs and adjectives. I can see this strategy also being used to teach verbs, nouns, and prepositions. Do you believe it may be used to bring across concepts and enhance writing in other subject areas? If yes in what way?
ReplyDeleteThe PENS Strategy can be applied to a math concept such as long division in grade five. In this case the teacher will allow for critical thinking to take place as the element of base knowledge exists in terms of to perform long division students must know their multiplication tables to do division. In this case the first step of picking a subject has already been completed: long division. At this point they would already have the experience of division and multiplication. The teacher can now aid the process by having the students observe the operation written on the board. The teacher may further assist by providing easy numbers such as even numbers or numbers divisible by five to be operated on. The students can now begin to brainstorm the operations they see taking place in the problem such as multiplication, subtraction and of course division this would be the explore stage. The students can now record the words they will use to write sentences based on their understanding after brainstorming. At this stage of noting the words, the students are simultaneously writing the operations they’ve observed taking place in the order they are being done in the problem. The last stage is to verify that what they have observed has taken place by attempting to solve the problem on the board. At this point the students would have used each step of the PENS strategy to analyze a problem on the board in their own words as notes. In conclusion, the PENS strategy can be used with proper guidance and precise instructions given by the teacher for it to be applied to other subject areas.
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DeleteThere are numerous ways to integrate the PENS strategy into various subject areas. I am impressed that you found a method that we can apply in Mathematics. I plan to incorporate this strategy into my classroom because I believe it will help with providing personalized instruction.
This strategy is very useful when teaching sentence structure. It breaks them down into manageable pieces to manipulate. The goal is to spark interest in a writing prompt with a picture or video to prompt creativity. The rest of the process involves brainstorming to select the best words to strengthen the writing, then checking to detect any grammatical errors.
ReplyDeleteIndeed this should be incorporated into Language Arts lessons. After brainstorming the best words including joining words can be listed and categorized to supplement the fundamentals of language arts. These categories can be verbs, subject, nouns etc.
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