The extensive writing. Teaching writing in high school

Following the distinction between intensive and extensive reading, we introduce the extensive written tasks to promote the following learning objectives: 1) bringing writing closer to the learner's personal life; 2) practicing the epistemic and communicative language functions; 3) giving the learner full responsibility for the creative act; 4) facilitating the development of cognitive processes, and 5) developing habits of written production in a variety of situations. As a consequence, extensive writing assignments produce longer texts, last longer, are self- directed by the learner- author, treat interdisciplinary topics and are not in the textbook. These tasks markedly differ from the more frequent written exercises in the classroom, which are teacher- led, contain shorter texts, work on executive parameters of extensive tasks, such as the length of the text, the use of several working sessions for text production, the practice of composition processes and the use of peer review, in pairs or teams.