Thoughts of a dying teacher.

Here are some thoughts I just included in my written task for one of my didactics classes at Uni. I don't know, but somehow those issues never leave me and I end up wrecking my head again and again about how to solve them or even what to think of them. Maybe someone would like to share their ideas on this one with me ^^ ...

We then came up with some activities which follow these rules of task-based design. I have tried some of these with my students and again, I found them successful with students of average or higher language levels. All of my slow-learning students, even those aged sixteen upwards, had a fairly difficult time coming up with ideas about the content of their writing even with those task-based instances of practice. I could not help but notice that some of these difficulties were due to the lack of practice the students experience in their school routine. To me, this is a big issue, as I can relate to the thoughts behind the teachers’ decision not to include extensive writing practice. In almost every case, working with lower-level students requires a great amount of patience as well as help and guidance. This guidance, however, is often needed at a level which cannot be provided in normal school teaching, as there the teacher does not have the chance to focus on each individual. Nevertheless, if the students do not receive the help they need, they are prone to be unsuccessful to a point that makes the practice irrelevant in itself and also in the long-run (as no mere further explanation could resolve their problems). Hence, it seems perfectly understandable to me that teachers in such schools omit the concept of essay writing from their teaching.

Personally, I am usually at a loss with those students for a very long time until - when I've almost given up - they start writing "like Gods" ^^ straight out of the blue.
Consequently, I haven't yet been able to identify any action or kind of support which aids their learning (maybe it is their own miraculous development that gets them started and none of my help at all - what the heck do I know?). Or is it the mere amount of practice?

P.S.: If you don't get the reference in the title, check here. (The video is kind of strange, but it's the best version of the song in album quality I could find.)