Page 190 - Teaching English as a Foreign Language for Dummies 2009

Chapter 11: Write or Wrong? Teaching Writing Lessons
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✓ Class Profile: 12 teenage students from Taiwan, Spain, Brazil and Turkey. 60 minute lesson
✓ Level: Upper-Intermediate
✓ Materials: Two copies of the school rules, tape, a prize, poster-size
paper, dictionaries and extra marker pens.
✓ Problems: Several pupils have illegible handwriting, mostly due to laziness. Most feel that writing is too passive and prefer to do lively activities.
✓ Lesson aims: To undertake a collaborative writing activity which requires attention to handwriting and general accuracy. To have fun writing.
Get a copy of the school rules. Make sure they are written in words the stu- dents can understand or rewrite them to match your pupils’ level. Take the opportunity to embed some key vocabulary or grammar that you want stu- dents to notice.
Use normal A4 sized paper so that they cannot read what the document con- tains unless they are very close up. Prepare two identical copies and stick them to the wall in the classroom.
Then, follow these steps for a successful lesson:
1. Pre-reading task (5 minutes): Ask the students to brainstorm ideas about what they love/hate about their school back home individually in their notebooks.
Put the pupils in pairs of mixed nationalities to compare ideas.
Use their answers to spark a short class discussion. Find out how many mention rules as something they hate.
2. Writing activity 1-Dictation (30 minutes): Divide the class into two teams of equal size. Arrange the room so that there is a clear space for them to dash to the wall and then back to prepared desks.
Have the two teams come up with team names and appoint a captain for each to keep order. Give each team a blank sheet of paper.
Explain that, one at a time, a member of each team will run to their copy of the rules, memorise a section without making any notes. They must then dash back to their team’s blank sheet and write down the section they memorised.
Do the title or the first line yourself as an example. Check that everyone understands the process and set a time limit for completing the dictation.