Some visual help to accompany a more thorough explanation.
writing an article de cristina.cabal
Some visual help to accompany a more thorough explanation.
writing an article de cristina.cabal
Let’s talk about writing today! If you’re searching for a writing activity that is engaging, effective, promotes collaborative work, and takes only about 20 minutes to complete, then look no further! I have a simple yet effective activity that can help you achieve all these goals.
As an educator, I am always looking for new ways to help my students improve their writing skills. That’s why I’m excited to share an activity that I’ve created which has proven to be both effective and engaging for students. In this case, it’s been used in a C1 level class, but it can easily be used with any level. In this blog post, I’ll be explaining the details of this activity and providing examples of how it has helped my students write more advanced texts. If you’re looking for a fun and creative way to help your students improve their writing, then keep reading!
This activity consists of two parts, with the first part being designed specifically for C1 students, or possibly strong B2 students. If you teach lower levels, you’ll need to create your own slides for Part 1 of the activity, but you can still use Part 2 and 3 in this post.
Part 1: The theory
I have created this brief presentation to target some specific points to help them write more advanced sentences. We have focused on 5 key points, including reduced relative sentences, order of the adjectives and using a noun as a compound adjective.
In the last slide, you will find the Noun Roulette Randomizer. Yay!
Improving writing de cristina.cabal
Part 2: The Noun Roulette Randomizer
Time to recycle spare photocopies! Cut them into strips of paper large enough to write a long sentence on.
Part 3: Voting
Glaring, serious, minor, common, grammatical, spelling, typing errors. Who doesn’t make them?
I must admit that I don’t dedicate as much time in class to honing my students’ writing skills as I should. Even if it is only for 30 or 35 minutes, assigning my pupils a writing assignment in class tends to disrupt the lesson’s flow. So, my students probably don’t write enough, but this is about to change. Well, in fact, I have already taken steps to make it happen.
But more important than making them write is the instructions I should be giving them to help them get better at this skill, and that includes many things, from using the newly acquired vocabulary and structures in a sort of guided writing to making them reflect on their errors. And it is this last part, making students aware of their errors, that has prompted me to write this post.
The truth is that it is not the first time I have tried some strategies to make my students reflect on their written errors (you can read all about it here) but after reading a brilliant post by Gianfranco Conti and inspired by his own error awareness chart, I have decided to try something similar and see how it works.
Below, you can see the chart I have designed. I am sharing with you two links.
Error Awareness Chart by cristina.cabal
So, what’s the idea?
For example, they should tick the box Subject-Verb Agreement if one of their errors is People makes difficult decisions
And the box if they write something like: He went at home
This same procedure is repeated every time you hand back a marked written assignment. This strategy does not guarantee immediate success. That would be wishful thinking. Success at writing is something students must work on. And hard.
This is not the first time I’ve shared a lesson on using Would Rather to express a preference, but this lesson is also an excuse to share some of the tricks (also called activities 😊) I keep up my sleeve to engage my students and make them enjoy learning; because they/ we deserve to have fancy, engaging, dynamic lessons even if what needs to be explained is as dull as ditch water.
I strongly support the use of visuals in the class to create stimulating lessons. I know creating your own content takes time. But it pays off. Trust me on this one!
FIRST SESSION
I have introduced Would Rather presenting students with some slides and some visual prompts and asking them to provide the questions based on the images.
Some help might be needed, at least, for the first two slides. Encourage students to describe their preferences in pairs, even if it’s a guided assignment.
Target grammar:
Would Rather Introduction de cristina.cabal
SECOND SESSION
The two activities that follow are meant to be done the following day in order to revise and reinforce this content.
(NOTE FOR TECH ENTHUSIASTS) This beautiful activity has been created with @Genial.ly. First I created the video, published it on YouTube, and then embedded it on Genial.ly. Then, I used the Template to create the Flipcards.
FLIPCARDS GAME. Rewriting with Would Rather. Using Dry-Erase Boards
1. Pair learners and give each pair a dry-erase board and a whiteboard marker.
2. Show the first sentence and ask students to rewrite it using Would Rather
3. Depending on the length or difficulty of the sentence, set a different time limit.
4. Once the pair have their sentence, ask them to write it on the board, big enough for you to see from a distance.
5. When the time is up, ask the pairs to hold it up and quickly go through all the sentences, awarding 1 point to the pair who has the correct grammar.
6. The winner is the pair that get the most points.
Note: Be strict with spelling mistakes or any other tiny mistakes. Students love it when you are strict and don’t give away points easily.
Follow-up: Revise all the sentences again, but this time orally.
SPEAKING: BOARD GAME
This board game has all the ingredients of a good game:
And here’s the board. As you can see,
Hope you have enjoyed this lesson plan. My students have! 🙂
Ready for a fun, challenging collaborative activity? Here we go!
If you are thinking translation activities are boring, as I might have in the past, I am here to show you how wrong you are 🙂 . They can be fun and engaging, but most importantly, they help put the focus on structures or vocabulary students are struggling with. I can almost guarantee learning success as long as you go over the translated sentences once the activity is finished. That’s key for fixing the target language.
This activity, which is really an adaptation of the game Sentence Betting, is easily one of my favourites when giving my students a writing activity. For 5 reasons:
Level: Any level
PREPARATION
MATERIALS
Time: about 20 minutes
THE ACTIVITY
The idea is to give students some writing practice, focusing on specific grammar or vocabulary in the form of sentences to translate. I like to give them a mix of easier sentences and more challenging ones. They will work collaboratively in groups and once they have translated the sentence within their groups, they will have to bet a sum of money depending on how confident they feel about their translation. They can win or lose this money. All teams will start with €1000,(choose the currency)
HOW TO PLAY
Note: Be strict with spelling mistakes or any other tiny mistakes. Students love it when you are strict and don’t give away the points easily.
Follow-up
Revision is a crucial phase in the process of fixing content. Once the activity is finished, do some oral retrieval practice. Read the sentences aloud, one by one, and have students orally translate them.
Want to reinforce? Repeat the activity the next day. I mean, the follow-up activity 🙂