module 11 tefl notes

Unit 2: Choosing Writing Material

As with any lesson you teach, it's vital that you make the lesson relevant to your learners and make it fun. Always try to think about whether you would enjoy the activity and always try to give your learners a good reason for doing it, based on the lesson objective. Let's focus on some of the different types of writing that you could try. When you teach writing, you will have to decide on whether the work will be informal or formal and the degree of difficulty you will set during the lesson, depending on the level of the learners. The most important difference between formal and informal pieces of writing is the style of language used. Please see the suggested reading at the end of the sections for further guidance. Facebook Status: Get your learners to write an update in English for their status. Twitter: Create a school twitter account and post tweets. This is a very good one for adding a piece of informal writing to a group project. You could suggest ways to re-cycle plastic at school and tweet your ideas as well as completing a poster and presentation. Blog: Write a blog for a group project. Wikispaces: Create and add writing to your Wikispaces account so that your students can view it. In addition, this is a very useful resource for you if/when you change jobs. You can show your students' work to your new learners. Advertising slogans: Students are asked to write their own slogans. You can vary the difficulty of this activity by using a gap fill of existing slogans or make it a freer activity for higher level students by asking them to create their own. Just give them a product and get them to brainstorm the vocabulary. Application forms: This is a useful activity for students who are applying for summer schools abroad or for university. CVs: This is an important activity for students thinking about applying for work experience or summer jobs, or adult learners looking to apply for a job abroad. Biographies: In this activity, learners write a biography of a famous person. This is a great activity to set for homework or for a research activity in the classroom. Movie and book reviews: This is always an excellent option as you can build on a reading activity you have already taught. If you can watch a movie in the classroom, that's even better. Essay with an opinion: This is good activity for intermediate and above students as you can control the level of difficulty by looking at challenging arguments on current affairs. Describe a graph or chart: This is a good lesson to use for intermediate and above students. You will have to teach the correct structure in the presentation part of the lesson. Emails: Writing emails will give them a chance to practise formal and informal writing. Letters: Writing letters will also give them the chance to practise formal and informal styles of writing. Projects: Project based tasks are an excellent way of improving writing skills. All writing styles and degrees of difficulty can be included in project work. Reports: Reports are a formal way of writing and appropriate structure must be taught to guide your students. Stories: Stories are an excellent way to teach writing skills. One of the best ways of creating free writing skills is to give your students a sentence and have them complete the story. For example, horror stories are always a good way to get your students writing creatively. Start by giving them the sentence: 'The last thing I remember before .

Writing Activities

Gap Fill Activities: Choose a paragraph from a magazine or from the Internet and take some of the words out, particularly adjectives and adverbs. Ask your students to add their own descriptive words. This is a good writing activity for beginner levels. Project Work: Create a group project which includes informal, formal, guided and free writing to be presented as a PowerPoint presentation to the class, or displayed as a poster around the school or in the classroom, or put onto a Wikispaces or blog site. Use an image or photograph: Find a photo or an image, display it on an overhead projector or pin it to the board, and ask the students to write a sentence about it. For example, find an image related to sport and teach, 'a man is climbing up a mountain.' You can also vary the verb phrase by getting the students to write down what happened before (past) and what will happen after this photo (future). This is good piece of guided writing for intermediate level and above. Peer to peer marking and correction: Give your students a topic and ask them to write a paragraph in whichever tense you choose. Once they have written a paragraph, get them to swap papers with their partner and ask them to correct each other's work. Once they have been corrected, ask the students to return the piece of work and they all re-write their piece of work with their corrections. This is a great opportunity for you to work with weaker students. Speed Date! Like speed dating, get your students to sit opposite each other. Time your students for 1 minute and ask them to write down and tell each other as many adjectives and adverbs as possible. Adjective/Adverb game: Each student writes his or her name vertically. If you are teaching in Asia and many of your students are using nicknames, get them to write their full name down vertically. Then ask them to write an adjective/adverb for each of the corresponding letters. Follow this up with peer to peer assessment, using pairs or groups, to check whether the words are truly adjectives or adverbs. You can extend this activity by asking the students to construct sentences using their adverbs/ adjectives. Comparatives and superlatives: A very good way to teach these is to use advertising from a magazine. Ask your students to bring a magazine to the lesson. Ask them to find some advertising. You can spend the lesson discussing some of the adverts and they can also create their own slogans for some of the products they see. This is a super activity for Intermediate and above. Student quizzes: A good activity is to get students to write their own quiz questions in groups and then for each of the groups to ask the other groups the questions. If: You can use 'if' with more advanced classes, giving students the chance to express themselves, e.g. If I were rich ..., If I were President/Prime Minister ...

more english notes

Here is a short example to illustrate these points. The topic sentence is the first sentence; we've put it in italics just to point it out. The last sentence is the concluding sentence, again in italics to point it out. The sentences in between (not in italics) are the supporting proof/evidence of the main idea set out in the topic sentence. My first day in the English class in Chiang Mai was disastrous. When the teacher started asking the other students to introduce themselves, I couldn't understand a word anyone was saying. My name wasn't on her list and she soon realised I was in the wrong classroom. By the time I got to room 11, perspiring heavily, I was ten minutes late. Everyone glared at me when the teacher said 'You're late'. Just my luck, he put me right beside a radiator. I perspired even more. He told me to take out my pen and notebook. I opened my bag - no pen or notebook. I'd picked up my brother's bag instead. Inside it there were only old, smelly football socks and a football shirt. The teacher wasn't happy. It went from bad to worse. He opened a window beside me and a big bee flew in and tried to sting me. I yelled out, of course. This didn't go down well either with the teacher or the students. My first day was so bad that I can't imagine ever having a worse day in class. You should try to teach structure in the presentation stage and include some linking words and conjunctions, emphasising they need to keep an eye on sentences which are too long. It's critical that you get beginner levels up to speed on the basics before you tackle any type of extended writing exercise. It's also vital that you check how good intermediate and above students are at writing before you introduce anything substantial. Often, you can use the Test-Teach-Test approach or some sort of baseline writing test to assess where your students are with their writing. Alternatively, talk to some of your co-teachers and find out your students' strengths and weaknesses. If you are happy and feeling confident that your learners are ready for something a little more challenging, you are ready to teach a writing lesson. The first part of teaching a writing lesson is choosing the right structure. You must make sure it's the right level, it's fun and it's relevant to your learners. Often, trying a piece of informal writing using a Facebook or twitter style of structure is a very good way to introduce a writing activity. Other types of structure include advertising slogans, application forms, CVs, biographies, movie and book reviews, essays with an opinion, describing a graph or chart, emails, letters, projects, reports, and stories. The degree of formality is entirely up to you but it's crucial that your learners understand the difference between a formal and informal piece of work. For example, show them that the language that they might use in a formal piece of work like a business email, e.g. 'Dear Sir' and 'Yours sincerely' is much different from 'Hi' and 'Take it easy' which are typically found in an informal email. In the previous section, we outlined the structure of a writing lesson. After you introduce yourself and clearly set out your lesson objectives, it's time to present your lesson. In this part, you will try to bring the topic to life with discussion and images and by introducing new words and structures. You will find yourself giving more guidance and help to lower levels than higher levels. Following your discussion, you will then get your students planning, writing and finally reviewing their written work, individually or in pairs. The planning stage is extremely important because it gives students a chance to create a structure, instead of rushing in and writing the first thing that comes to mind. It will also give you a chance to monitor and help your learners. Once they have written a plan, it's time for them to write. It's best to set a time limit for them and then give your learners a chance to stop writing and review their work, checking for mistakes and making sure they have created the correct structure. Within the teaching writing structure, there are varying degrees of formality, informality and difficulty depending on the level of your learners. Here are some of the approaches you could take. Beginner and Copying: At the beginner level, it's vital to teach how sentences are constructed and how adjectives and adverbs transform pieces of writing. At this level, you can get your students to simply copy from a book or text. However, don't use this activity for the whole lesson as your students will become bored. It's crucial to give your learners at the beginner level a chance to transform sentences and make them their own. Pre-intermediate and Controlled Writing: Once you are happy with your students' ability to construct basic sentences and add descriptive words, it's time to push them a little more, with a controlled writing activity where they can simply add phrases to your written piece. A great way to achieve this is to let your students gap fill parts of speech to make their own paragraphs. Intermediate and above using Guided, Process and Free Writing: At Intermediate level and above, your students will be ready for guided, process and free writing. It will be up to you to decide which degree of difficulty you will aim for, as you get to know the ability range of your students. You can reduce the amount of guidance and structure you give in the presentation stage depending on your feelings about the group and their motivations. Why not try guided one week followed by a free writing exercise the following week? Alternatively, introduce a project which includes formal and informal writing with guided and free writing elements. A group project is a fantastic way to get your students writing. Choose a theme where posters can be displayed around the school and other students can read them. Global warming, inequality or technology in the classroom are all excellent ways to get your students writing. You could also put the learners' work onto your Wikispaces site.

Young Learners Learning to Write in English

How Young Learners Learn to Write in English: How do younger learners master this complex skill? When your learners start to write in English, which is a second language for them, their progress will depend on several factors, such as Their age Their interest in writing generally Their reading and writing skills in their first language Their previous exposure to English script Their experiences of copying and of 'free' writing Their motor skills proficiency It will come as no surprise to hear that the more encouragement a learner gets from her home and the school, the more positive the learner will be towards writing. Remember this generalisation: Young learners who like to read also like to write. Remember this too: The pace of it all will likely be much slower than in a native English primary class. Don't proceed too fast! Let's have a look at a typical learning-to-write sequence. Depending on your teaching circumstances, you could come in at different stages of this process. General Process: Just like the other skills, there's no definitive process. Beware of anyone who says there is. Nevertheless, here is a list of typical stages that learners will go through. The order of the early stages may differ a bit due to the individual learner's previous experiences and their native language teacher's approach. Typically, it goes a bit like this: 1. At home, learners start with scribbles on paper and some 'pretend writing' (emergent writing) 2. In much the same way as reading, and to different degrees, they start to see writing around them in their home and their world and start to form an idea that writing can be used for lots of purposes and can have all kinds of meanings. They start to notice that it is used a lot for communicating things, e.g. passing messages (a note left by one parent for the other) and for remembering thing (shopping lists). They start to notice that these marks on paper are read by others. They start to notice that these marks on the paper can stand for letters and numbers 3. At home and early school, they start to trace/copy letters. Now at school, lots of copying and handwriting practice is essential, as is any help with their motor skills, e.g. holding the pencil correctly. These early attempts at handwriting should never be 'corrected' as the child may become anxious. With help and encouragement, he will eventually get there. There are a lot of demands on the learner at this time: Finger control Letter formation The letters, sounds and shapes of words The meaning of words So, it's important to give them lots of practice and lots of time. 4. They are taught how to connect letters so that they can write words. They begin to put these whole words into their drawings to label things and people, e.g. mum, cat and they start to make characters speak on paper, e.g. hello, yes 5. Reading and writing are often taught in parallel from now on. 6. They start to lean on some early phonics knowledge gained from speaking and reading. Sounding out words and predicting how they will be spelled reinforces the learners' understanding of the connection between letters and sounds. 7. At this stage, they are usually unaware of spelling but, gradually, they start to gain an awareness of it. 8. They are taught to write words in order so that they can make meaningful messages. 9. Depending on age and level, some basic punctuation is introduced and they start to use these in simple, short sentences, e.g. capital letters, periods (full stops). 10. They start to gain an awareness of text structures and practise writing these, e.g. short messages, short story endings, invitations to birthday parties. 11. They start to gain an awareness of genres. 12. They learn a range of sub-skills, e.g. drafting, checking, editing. 13. They grasp the idea that much writing is for an audience. 14. They progress towards creative and independent writing. Encouraging Young Learners with the Mechanical Basics You can encourage your younger learners' early attempts at writing by: Demonstrating how you use writing and how enthusiastic you are about writing (e.g. to make a shopping list, to write words for them on the board, to write to your family) Ensuring you are a role model for writing, by intentionally letting the learners see you writing lists, cards, labels and reminder notes for yourself. Labelling everything you can. You could write them both in English and in their native language. Be adventurous and stick the odd label on the back of your hand or on your shoe. When they notice these, tell them why. They'll definitely remember these. Letting them see you drawing and writing with all types of writing in all kind of places: on the board, on charts, on paper on the floor when you're setting up an activity, and in the soil in the playground when you take them outside Getting them to write their names or their initials every day on whatever work they are doing and explaining why. Showing real interest in their attempts with marks and scribbles. Helping them with motor skills, hand-eye coordination,spatial awareness. Encouraging them to try and write their names independently as often as possible. Motivating them to combine drawings and writing. Inviting them to tell you what their writing says and making relevant, supportive responses. Encouraging them to use a range of tools e.g. fat and thin pens, crayons, chalk, paintbrushes, fingers, sticks. Creating shared writing activities, e.g. a birthday card to the head teacher that everyone signs, an invitation to parents to come to the classroom for a special event etc. And, particularly: Aim for an early win. As with all language skills, achieving an early win with your learners is paramount. Even if it means stepping out of the set syllabus a little bit, move things around to give them an early win. For example, the following letter group is often covered at the same time, based on the pattern of the letter a: a d g q c Clearly, and assuming it's appropriate for each learner's home background, you could aim to get them to write the letters a and d as soon as possible: d a d so that they have a reasonably quick achievement to show their parents. The parents will be proud and the learners will be motivated further in their learning. Or it could be some other short word

Unit 3: Teaching Writing

In the previous section, we showed you how to structure a writing lesson. Let's now look at the most essential elements that should go into a writing lesson and then discuss some activities to create varied and fun lessons. The level of your learners will affect how you approach teaching a writing lesson. If your students are beginners, you will have to teach basic sentence structure and punctuation. You will have to build on your grammar lessons and make writing lessons simple, by getting them to practise building descriptive sentences using adjectives, adverbs and conjunctions. This can be taught in the presentation part of the lesson and then students can practise simple planning and writing. A very worthwhile activity at this juncture is to work in pairs and try to describe an image. Once your students can write sentences effectively, you can move on to teaching paragraphs and you can help them build the correct structure. You will have to explain that each paragraph should contain one idea, thought or impression. Each of the sentences in the paragraph works together to create the idea, thought or impression. A good paragraph has: a topic sentence stating the main point, the main subject of the paragraph. It gives an overview of, and lead-in to, the sentences that follow. The topic sentence is usually the first sentence of the paragraph. supporting sentences with details and specific examples as evidence/proof of your point in the topic sentence. These help to develop the main idea set out in the topic sentence. logical and coherent thoughts that are developed in order from one sentence to the next a concluding sentence that sums up the point of the paragraph. It often re-states or summarises the main idea of the topic sentence. A good topic sentence: informs the reader of the main point/subject that will be discussed in the paragraph states the writer's point of view or attitude attracts the reader to continue reading is clear, coherent, straightforward and not too long

Unit 1: Lesson Structure

Introduction and Warmer: Like any other lesson, you will introduce yourself and write the lesson objectives on the board. You will then try a warmer activity to get your students in the mood and focussed. Presentation: At this stage of the lesson, you will give students a pre-writing task which will involve a discussion on ideas that can be used for your chosen topic. A very good way to generate ideas is to use an image which is connected to your chosen topic. For example, you could show them a peaceful lakeside scene which connects into the topic of outdoor activities. Another way to stimulate ideas is to read your learners a story which relates to your topic. Get creative! Instead of having a discussion and generating ideas, you could focus on the structure of the piece of written work. In other words, you could explain that you will be writing a letter, an email, a report or a story. You could then introduce the various types of structure required. In the writing activity section, there are some ideas for teaching the different types of structure. Practice Stage: The Plan: In the first practice part of a writing lesson, your will teach your learners how to plan a piece of writing. In this planning section, you will teach your students to think about the following: Lesson aim: why they are writing this piece of work Content: what's going to go in it Structure: how they will structure their paragraphs (introduction and conclusion) Writing: During this stage, the learners will get on with writing, while you can monitor and help as required. Reviewing: This is when your students get a chance to check their work. They will need to check whether they have answered the question and have done so using the correct structure. You should also get them to check their spelling. Summary and Reflection: This is where you have a summary, reflect on the lesson and ask 'What went well?' Cooler: End the lesson with a fun cooler activity.

Top Tips

The presentation stage of a writing lesson should be used to generate ideas or present the structure of the activity. The practice stage of a writing lesson should include: planning, writing and checking. It's imperative to teach the equal importance of these three parts in a written piece of work. Choosing the right writing material to suit the needs of your learners will be crucial to the success of the lesson. As the ability and confidence of your learners grow, you can move closer towards a free writing exercise. Allow your students to work in pairs. Reward all your students with positive feedback, praise and development strategies. Create a warm and friendly environment for your students to work in.