Development and Validation of Lesson Plan Using REACT as an Instructional Strategy in Writing Argumentative Essays

This study draws from the needs in teaching and learning argumentative writing and asserts the practicable application of sociocultural theory to second language acquisition – SCT L2 (Lantolf, 2000) in teaching writing argumentative essays. Specifically, this research work used the REACT procedure (Crawford, 2001), an exemplification of SCT L2, in developing an instructional strategy for teaching argumentative essay writing of Grade 12 – Humanities and Social Sciences (HUMSS) classes of Southville 5-A Integrated National High School. Specific objectives were targeted such as: (1) identifying Grade 12 students' needs in writing argumentative essays; (2) developing a lesson plan using REACT in teaching writing argumentative essays; and (3) validating the REACT lesson. A descriptive-exploratory research design was chosen for the purpose of this study. Sixty (60) argumentative essays underwent data analysis protocols, such as descriptive statistics and Conceptual analysis by Busch, et al. (1994-2012), to concretely determine the learner needs in writing argumentative essays.

After the data analysis, the final average rating of sixty (60) argumentative essays was 75.2% in which it was evident that student essays garnered 'fairly satisfactory' to 'did not meet expectations' remarks. The identified learner needs in writing argumentative essays paved the way to the development of the REACT lesson plan for teaching argumentative writing. Guided by the framework of language teaching by McDonough, Shaw, and Masuhara (2013), REACT lesson plan was created incorporating the student writing needs, argumentative writing concepts and principles, and the REACT procedure.

It was formatted through the Daily Lesson Plan/Log format of the Department of Education (DepEd) as stipulated in DepEd Order 42, Series of 2016 - Policy Guidelines on Daily Lesson Preparation for the K to 12 Basic Education Program. REACT lesson plan was then evaluated and garnered an overall rating of '4' with a descriptive evaluation of 'accomplished.' Specific comments and suggested revisions were also given to enhance the content and structure of the lesson. With the comprehensive detail of instruction provided for each REACT lesson plan part, the researcher hopes that the lesson implementation will become explicit and clear as well.