Andrew Watson Andrew Watson

Elementary writing skills demo
A1-Elementary level

Description

A demonstration lesson on writing subskills to provide awareness raising of layout and use of linkers to make the piece more coherent and cohesive. This will be followed with practice and extensive writing.

Materials

Abc Useful language

Main Aims

  • To provide product writing practice of a internet post in the context of online pen friends

Subsidiary Aims

  • To provide clarification and practice of conjunctions (and, but, because) in the context of describing oneself
  • To provide review of expressions for love/hate/like in the context of describing oneself

Procedure

Warmer/Lead-in (5-7 minutes) • To set lesson context and engage students

Show my profile on Findmeafriend.com. Ask them: what is Findmeafriend? (Answer: a website dedicated to helping people make friends). Ask them to read the text in 1 min. What does Andrew want you to do? (Answer; write to him and make friends.) Ask one or two follow up Qs: what does Andrew love? What does he hate? What does he like? Ask Ss to imagine that they are going to put their profile on Findmeafriend. Tell them they are going to brainstorm individually (lluvia de ideas) things they like, love and hate. Show slides #3 onward. Share link and ask Ss to find their slides. Thumbs up when they have. Give Ss about 90 secs - 2 mins to write some ideas.

Exposure (8-10 minutes) • To provide a model of production expected in coming tasks through reading

1. Gist Show Corina's text on G-Forms. Show Ss how to answer the gist task. Tell them they have 1 min to read and and chose the answer to the question 'Why does Corina want you to write to her?' Ask Ss to press submit and check /display answers OC. She has a food product to sell. She wants to go walking with you. She wants to practice English and write to people in other countries (answer) 2. Awareness of layout Display Jamboard. Tell Ss they should read the text again and this time in groups of 2 or 3 label the parts of the text. Do a quick demo before sharing the link in chat. Ask Ss to confirm they have found their labelled slides by giving a quick thumbs. Allow 2 -3 minutes before using one of the slides to check answers. Answers: 1. contact information (D) 2. things you do in your free time/at the weekends (B) 3. personal information (name, age, job), reason for writing (A) 4. things you do well / like / love / hate (C)

Useful Language (3-5 minutes) • To highlight and clarify useful language for coming productive tasks

Show relevant Jamboard slides. Explain Ss should work in pairs and complete the gaps with the missing words on the sticky notes. Ask Ss to refer to the glossary in the box as they do the activity. Set timer for 2 mins. Check answers using slides. But - (contrast) used to connect two opposite ideas, e.g., I love ice-cream, but he loves apples. Because - used to give reasons, e.g., She doesn’t go to school because she’s sick. And - (addition) used when statements are similar, e.g., He’s 10 and she’s 12. Answers: Actually, my cat thinks I'm a hero because I saved her from the street. I'm a talkative person and I believe communication is the most important thing in a relationship. I post lots of photos on Instagram but I'd really love to share the holiday with someone.

Productive Task(s) (17-19 minutes) • To provide an opportunity to practice target productive skills

Show writing task rubric on G-Slides. Highlight they should write about the same amount as Corina did (3-4 short paras). Concept check: why you are writing? To convince people to write to you. So you can practice English with them. Remind Ss they should use their ideas (love/hate/like) from the earlier brainstorm. They should use some of the conjunctions (but/because/and). Share link to Slides. Tell Ss to find their name-labelled slides. Give Ss 12-15 mins to write their text.

Feedback and Error Correction (6-8 minutes) • To provide feedback on students' production and use of language

Highlight the location of the checklist on the slides. Assign each student a partner. Tell them they should read their partner's email, and put yes / no if they have fulfilled the criteria listed in the checklist. Checklist 1. personal information (name, age, job) 2. reason for writing 3. things you do in your free time/at the weekends 4. things you do well / like / love / hate 5. contact details Give 1-2 mins to Ss to read their partner's email. Put them in BORs to give oral FB based on their checklist. If there's time (or for homework) encourage Ss to complete gaps their partners identified in the writing. Monitor and look for samples for DEC. Give DEC based on vocabulary and use of conjunctions.

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