module tefl notes

Unit 9: Writing Activities for Younger Learners

1. Key points to reflect on Remember: It's true that young children are learning to write and need the mechanical practice of copying and joining letters together. But, just as with adults, the same old routine of mechanical practice will lead to boredom eventually. Even at their early stage, there needs to be more in it for them. So, always consider variety and purpose. Ask yourself: Am I adding enough variety to make this interesting and fun, and motivational? Can I make the exercise more enjoyable by, for example, adding in silly words, e.g. the green horse ate the blue tomato. Can I construct the activity so that other purposes can be served, e.g. spelling, vocabulary, grammar and punctuation purposes, if the learners are ready for some of this? For example, after they have been copying singular words, you may start to introduce some plural words. Here you can demonstrate that the s sound at the end of cats means that there are more than one cat and this is often what we do to show this. You write examples on the board and help them to read these. This could lead to a game where you read out a list of words and they have to put their hands up quickly when they hear a word ending in s, which generally means there are more than one of the item.And they have to repeat the word. Now they have started a journey to understanding plurals. Of course, you wouldn't use the word 'plural' at this stage. Importantly, this is an example of integrating all the language skills - listening, speaking, reading and writing, and a touch of grammar. This is what teaching young learners is all about. 2. Needs Analysis Remember this: There's no point in doing the same activities with everyone if some of your learners are still struggling with a learning issue which will affect their performance in the activity. They'll just continue to struggle. You may have a set syllabus to follow. This may or may not be linked to a coursebook. If you are an inexperienced teacher, there'll be some comfort in having a route to follow. Unfortunately, life in the classroom is not as simple as that. Everything doesn't always fit nicely into place. Your learners are individuals and have their own individual needs. Sometimes the progress not achieved in one need will hamper the whole progress in later needs. If you are inexperienced, don't be disheartened by this. There are always solutions. The key to ensuring that it's time to move on to the next learning challenge is to draw up a needs analysis table from Day 1.This is a simple aide-memoire of what each individual learner has or hasn't achieved. Remember this: It's impossible to remember everything about your learners' progress, particularly if you have, say, a class of 30 learners. It's just the same for experienced teachers. All this takes is a bit of planning ahead to make up a template and the discipline to tick boxes regularly to map whether or not each individual has achieved to the required level. It's as simple as that. Example: Writing Skills Achievement Checklist Here'sa checklist you could use for young learners. It's not a definitive list. It's just to show you a simple method of tracking you learners' individual writing needs. You may need to adapt this depending on the level you will be teaching or if you want to add further elements. This will help you track their progress throughout the year. Writing elements Always Sometimes Never Can recognise writing in books and in the environment Enjoys playing and doodling with writing tools Shows adequate muscle control when using thin crayons, pencils or markers Shows adequate muscle control when using thick pencils, markers or crayons Draws and makes marks, letters or number shapes on drawings Makes marks and says this is writing - 'reads' the writing to another person Makes marks and gives them specific meanings and purposes, e.g. a list of soccer teams Mentions words, sentences, stories she wants to write Copies letters and words Uses invented spellings Uses correct, standard spellings in the main Can write name accurately Collaborates with others in writing Independently attempts writing to convey meaning Writes for different purposes Note that this doesn't mean that you will definitely not move forward to the next area in the syllabus if everyone hasn't met the 'Always' requirement. What it does mean is that you'll be able to easily identify those who are still struggling with a specific element. Let's say 25 are ready to move forward but 5 are still struggling a bit with some element. When you move forward to the next syllabus step, you will still need to find time to address the issues of those 5 who still have an outstanding need. This is not as challenging as it sounds. With good planning and unnoticed by the other 25, you'll put the group of 5 together and carry out further work with them. Meanwhile the other 25 will be doing some other activity, e.g. recycling some other language element. In addition, you can give some additional homework to the group of 5, again unnoticed by the other 25. 3. Activities 1. Tracing and copying To begin with, your young learners will need varying degrees of help with the mechanics of handwriting. Start with tracing and copying. Use a range of activities to add variety and fun. Use your imagination! You could give out a list of common words and allow them to copy: Words that they choose from the list Only words they can eat or smell or drink, from the words on the list Only words for animals from a list that contains other categories Only words that have a letter s which generally means there will be more than one of them (withoutmentioning the word 'plural') Only words which include a specific letter, e.g. the letter e Only words which they have heard in the story you have been reading to them More proficient learners could try and write other new words which are similar to a few words on your list; for example, if you have car on your list, they could attempt to write bus. 2. Finger writing Concurrently, you could introduce them to finger writing. This involves 'writing' on a different surface, often away from their chair, e.g. on the classroom wall. They can copy and 'write' in the air and be encouraged to do this in the play areas outside. 3. Word level writing Then you can progress to word level writing, using a variety of games and activities, for example: a. Creating word snakes.This is good fun and can be challenging. It may be best to do this in groups so there are more suggestions coming out. A word snake is a chain of words where the following word starts with the last letter of the previous word. Example: Word snake-animals Giraffe - elephant - tiger - rat-turtle At first, you could give them lists of words to work with to get to the solution. Later, you could leave some linking word out or give no suggestions at all. In the end they need to write the words in order. You could give them an illustration of a 'bendy' snake and they have to write the words on the snake and around its bends. b. Working out words where the letters have been mixed up and writing the correct word out in full c. Working out words where the letters run backwards and writing the correct word out in full d. Again, choosing only words that have a letter s at the end which generally means there will be more than one of them (without mentioning the word 'plural') e. Solving simple 3, 4 or 5 word crossword puzzles (with pictures). Once they have the hang of this, they will be keen to develop their own crosswords for their classmates to solve. f. Working out the two words which make up the one word you have given them, e.g. foot/ball, school/boy (without mentioning the term 'compound words'). Several two-word words could be mixed up. They need to decipher what they are and then write them down. 4. Using the coursebook Normally (but not guaranteed in some schools), you will be using a coursebook which will be accompanied by an activity book. The activity book will include written vocabulary and grammatical exercises at word and basic sentence level. These activities will provide further written practice, e.g. gap-fill exercises or matching pictures with words or short sentences. 5. Guided writing Guided writing usually offers a frame or model they can follow for specific genres of writing. They can personalise bits of the model with their own thoughts and words. Examples of guided writing for younger children include cards, posters, invitations, short letters and short stories, which they can compose individually or in groups. It's essential to introduce them to a range of genres like these so that they can begin to see that we write differently depending upon what we are writing for and to whom we are writing. Guided writing activities are generally very motivating because the young learners enjoy writing longer pieces of text by substituting their personal messages into the frame. And the finished pieces can be pinned up in the classroom and/or taken home, which adds to their sense of achievement. 6. Spelling activities You can speak a word and they have to write it down. Or they can work in pairs and give each other a word to spell. It is important that you do not over-correct invented spellings. Your learners are experimenting here.It's a developmental process during which learners acquire ideas about spelling as they hear, speak, read and write. Through time, most learners' spelling will progress positively. Instead of over- correcting invented spellings, praise the learners for making themselves understood in writing. 7. Adding a bit of competition Get the learners to write as many words as they can in their notebooks in, say, five minutes, e.g. names of people they know, objects labelled in the room etc. At the end of five minutes, the learners exchange notebooks with their partner and they count how many words they were each able to write. Inspect the notebooks and keep track of these totals. You could even inspire them to do even better by telling them that next week's list for the competition will be , say, words starting and ending with the same letter. You'll be surprised how many will start to look for words in preparation for the competition day. Perhaps, at the end of term, there could be a group prize for the winning group or a small prize like an ice cream for everyone for all their effort. Learners really enjoy this activity. There are a couple of important points here: 1. Your inspection and log will give you an indication on how the learners are progressing with their writing, both in quality and quantity. 2. Some educationalists would remove competition of any kind from the classroom. It seems, though, that they have never asked the young learners what they like. They like a bit of competition. So long as you make it fun and make it a group competition, it will always go down well.

Unit 1: Key Points

As a teacher, your job is to ensure that the writing tasks you set your learners are appropriate in terms of level and content, and that the learners have adequate time to prepare. If you manage this successfully, your learners should enjoy their written work, and provide you with some satisfyingly well-written pieces of work. Those learners that have a very different script in their first language, such as learners from Arabic countries, will need particular help in this area. Many people associate writing with writing compositions. In fact, we write for many different reasons, in different ways. One of your key tasks as a teacher will be to ensure that your learners understand the difference between formal and informal writing styles and can use both appropriately. When the guidelines given to them control in detail what the learners write, it is called controlled writing. When the learners have less support and more opportunities to choose their own words, it is called guided writing or guided composition. We always write for a purpose, so ensure there is a real purpose in what they are asked to write. To help learners adopt an appropriate tone, ensure they have a very clear idea of the audience they are writing for. Remember! In many educational cultures, young learners' needs centre on learning the language, rather than using known language in a creative way. Your learners are likely to need English skills for very practical reasons and language institutions and parents will want the course to train them to these ends. For these learners, accuracy, fluency and the use of an appropriate register are far more important than imaginative pieces of writing. Some of your learners may be unclear about what constitutes a sentence and paragraph and may need practice in writing well-structured sentences. They may ask for guidance about how many words they can write in one sentence. It is quite likely that many of your learners will be unsure about paragraphing. Help your learners to understand that a paragraph is a unit of meaning that addresses one particular issue. It is not a unit of length. Punctuation may be a problem for many learners - capital letters, full stops, and other structures. Spelling can be challenging - encourage each learner to have a spelling book, point out words that are often spelt incorrectly, give occasional tests and provide them with some basic spelling rules. Remember - writing is one of the four language skills, and wherever possible the skills should be integrated in a way that helps them to reinforce each other. Writing is the best way for the learners to reinforce language that has been practised in other ways. The act of writing what they have already been listening to and saying and reading helps to fix new patterns into learners' heads. Writing is not a process that can be rushed. It takes time and thought, and the appropriate preparation; the type of preparation will depend on the task but should involve reading or oral work or listening and discussion before the writing takes place.

Unit 4: Types of Writing

Different Types of Writing There are so many reasons why we write. They may wish to write a formal piece such as:a poem, a story, a letter to a newspaper, a newspaper article etc. Or they may need to write an informal piece:a letter to a friend or relatives, letters to relatives, notes, reminders, shopping lists, emails etc. We write for many different reasons, in different ways. One of your tasks as a teacher will be to ensure that your learners understand the difference between formal and informal writing styles and can use both appropriately, through time. The following kinds of writing depend on the proficiency level of the learners and/or class: Imitative writing: Appropriate for low levels, imitative writing is when learners simply 'imitate' written forms by writing alphabet letters, words, and short sentences. Dictation can also be included in this stage. In dictation, you read a short text, and then re-read it, breaking the text down into small chunks that learners will write as heard. Self-writing: Self-writing has only the learner as her own audience. Note-taking and journal entries are examples of self-writing. Display writing: The learner is literally showing, or putting on display, his writing for others. Short answer responses, short texts, and reports are examples of display writing. Authentic writing: Authentic writing has a specific audience in mind and encompasses a wide range of texts, from the academic, such as opinion pieces, to the personal, such as diaries, letters, post cards, notes. Creative writing: This is worth mentioning again. While creative writing is an important part of any English course for a first language learner at school in an English-speaking country, it is far less important for learners learning a second language. This is not to say that such work should never be a part of an English language course, but merely that in the great majority of courses the learners' needs centre on learning the language rather than using known language in a creative way.

Unit 11: Some Writing Activities And Exercises

Here is a list of some tried and tested classroom activities and exercises for practising and enhancing writing: Copying Grouping: Learners are given three headings, say classroom, my kitchen, a fruit shop,and a separate list of words, containing, say, teacher, fridge, tap, banana etc. . . . They need to write the right words under the right heading. You could also expand this to have a heading with a question mark, where they write silly words from the list that cannot be fitted under the other three headings, e.g. a blue elephant,a square football etc. Substitution tables: When the learners use substitution tables, they take one item from each box to create and write a new sentence. With a correctly prepared substitution table, as long as the learners select one item from each box, they will always write a grammatically correct sentence. The old poor tall man woman is carrying buying a black brown blue coat. hat. walking stick. Matching tables: This requires the learners to think very carefully before they match items and then write a sentence. The result will be incorrect in terms of grammar or meaning unless the learners select very carefully. This is not just copying. It requires thinking about meaning and accuracy. The boy girl children visits visit her his their elderly young children grandparents friend every day. week. month. Gap filling: Gap filling exercises involve the learners completing sentences using appropriate words, often filling the gaps with the correct vocabulary or tense. Examples: In this exercise, the learners will use the verb base to form the correct tense. a) Thomas ...... swimming in the clear, blue sea every morning.(enjoy) b) Maria ...... in the shop today.(work) Tables and charts: Tables and charts can be used very effectively in writing exercises. The work can be designed around the learners themselves in order to provide a more personal task. For example, learners are asked to survey/ interview 5 other learners and list information in a table with the headings: name, sisters, brothers, hobby, and pets.The learners can then produce sentences about the other five orally and then write them. Reordering words/sentences and re-writing them correctly: Younger learners could be given a sentence where a word is in the wrong place and they need to re-write the sentence to so that it makes sense. For example, I like to the guitar play. Older learners, when they are ready, could attempt the re-ordering of sentences. For example: They decided to walk up the hill. The old, rusted gate creaked as they walked up the path. Suddenly, they heard a noise coming from inside. The haunted house sat on a hill. Sentence completion: The learners may be provided with alternatives to choose from or they may be required to decide how to complete the sentences for themselves. For example: I wonder if: •they arrived tomorrow •they will arrive tomorrow •they have arrived tomorrow Transformations: This involves the learners in altering an existing passage according to specific instructions, e.g. changing it from positive to negative or present to past etc. Dictation: Ensure learners are already familiar with the text, perhaps from previous reading. If you use a recording, ensure it is clear. Don't be afraid to try recordings where the speaker has an accent, so long as the words spoken are clear. Accents are a key part of the real world. Short essays based on pictures: For younger learners, you'd be best to use an explicit, uncomplicated picture, e.g. a cat chasing a mouse. For older learners, though, there could be several pictures from which the learners deduce what has happened. For example: Picture 1: Schoolboy misses bus to school Picture 2: Arrives late-school clock shows the time Picture 3: Teacher appears to be giving him a row Picture 4: Back home, parent holds up newspaper with the title page saying: Buses late today. Picture 5: Boy takes picture into school and shows it to the teacher Picture 6: Teacher looks apologetic Dialogues: Learners could be given half of the dialogue and can use their own words to complete the conversation: A: What's your favourite food? B: A: I don't like them. I like pears. B. A. I've never liked apples because they're sometimes sour. B. Letters: Informal mostly for younger learners; older learners may be ready for a slightly more formal letter. Where possible, ask the head of department if you can pop these in the school's mail basket, with the school providing the stamps, so you don't have to pay the postage. Or ask if it's possible to take the class to the post office, if it's not too far. If this all works out, get them to write a suitable letter to their parents. They will be really happy and inspired when the parents thank them for their wonderful written letter. Writing predictions: For young learners, predicting what might happen next in a story will usually be done orally. With older learners, this could be done in writing. At various times in a story, you could stop and ask them to write their prediction of what happens next. You could also use a suitable video for predicting, stopping it at relevant parts and asking them to write their prediction as to what happens next. Projects: These are suitable for older learners. In groups, they could perhaps collate and write down information from short interviews and surveys in the school; for example, they could interview some teachers about what they like doing in their spare time. You would then guide them on how to collate and group the information under headings, showing what the most and least popular likes are. To make this even more interesting, you could ask your learners to try and predict and write down what the top 3 likes might be before they carry out the survey. The person whose prediction is closest could be given a small prize. Or, in groups, they could design a holiday leaflet/mini-brochure.

Unit 8: Strategies

Key Strategies for Developing Your Learners' Writing Skills Research would seem to suggestthat many learners do not employ many strategies when writing in L2. The reasons are not clear. Anyhow, here are some strategies that some learners do use. These will be useful for you so that you can introduce them to those learners who have few or no strategies to improve their writing. Rewriting spelling patterns to embed the word structure in their mind Copying pieces of text Writing numerous sentences with the structures newly studied Practice by translating a piece in their L1 into English (and sometimes using a translator tool to check it) Note-taking to increase their practice in writing, whilst other learners may just sit and listen Seeking amusing punctuation examples, where the punctuation changes the meaning, so that they can grasp the differences that punctuation can make Writing word connections and phrases down for later use Consulting textbooks and dictionaries Summarising a larger piece of text Highlighting little chunks of language that they can later use in writing In addition to making learners aware of these and other strategies, what can you do to drive them on to perform better in their writing? You could: Let learners know that you value good writing. This will inspire them. Regularly assign brief writing pieces in your classes and for homework - not just filling in the blanks. Draw up some short writing guidelines. Learners welcome handouts that give them specific instructions. Remind learners that you were exactly the same when you were learning to write in a foreign language - but you stuck at it. Share your own struggles in grappling with difficult topics. Give learners opportunities to talk about their writing. Take five or ten minutes of class time for learners to read their writing to each other in small groups or pairs. It's important for learners to hear what their peers have written. Emphasise to learners that good writing skills are important, both to their satisfactory completion of the unit and in their future life. Read aloud quality writing done by a former learner, and encourage learners to listen to its flow. Encourage learners to pay close attention to the grammar and punctuation they see in textbooks and other books and articles. Provide learners with a list of poorly structured sentences from assignments of prior years. Ask the learners to improve the sentences, and then discuss the improvements as a class.

Unit 7: Macro and Micro Skills

Macro and Micro Skills a Learner Must Develop to Be Effective There are many kinds of skills a learner will need to develop to produce effective writing. Some skills are at the macro level, such as writing activities that focus on content and organisation. Such activities will have learners expressing themselves using their own words and ideas in less-controlled contexts. Examples of activities that focus on such macro-skills would be: ordering paragraphs or sentences coherently; determining main idea or topic sentences; and creating cohesion using transition words. Writing skills at the micro level are related to promoting accuracy, or using the correct written form. Such micro skills, some of which we've already alluded to in our discussion of the writing process, include: learning how to spell and punctuate correctly; employing standard layouts and formats; selecting vocabulary appropriate for the kind of writing; employing correct grammar and structure; and using transitions and other cohesive devices to link sentences and paragraphs correctly. At the micro level, learners practise specific written forms at the level of word or sentence; these exercises are more controlled and focus on accuracy. Some examples of such micro-level writing activities would be: Substitution exercises Sentence completion expressing meaning whilst using different grammatical forms Sentence extensions Spelling or punctuation exercises Information-gap exercises Reordering exercises Writing is also about having a message and communicating it successfully to other people. To do this, learners need to have developed macro skills sufficient to form ideas, to organise them well, and to express them in a style suitable to the reader.

Unit 2: Punctuation

Punctuation may be a problem for many learners. We have already noted that many learners may be unfamiliar with the use of capital letters and full stops. In addition, they may need practice in other areas. For example: The use of capital letters for people's names, places names, titles and so on Direct speech"I am very hungry," said George. Question marks"Where is my bicycle?"asked Emma. Short formsisn't it can't we shan't we it's Possessive formsCaroline's pen the teachers' desks its Colons and semicolons Commas Commas may seem simple, but learners frequently have problems knowing how to use them. Monitor the work of your learners and try to ensure that you cover any areas where they have weaknesses. Provide them with custom-built practice exercises that address the problems that they have. Show them how punctuation contributes to meaning: Example: Most of the time, travellers worry about their luggage. Now delete the comma after the fourth word to totally change the meaning of this sentence: Most of the time travellers worry about their luggage.

Unit 6: Writing Approaches and Processes

There are two general approaches to writing: free writing, which is not necessarily edited or worked on further, and a more extended process approach. Below is a general description of both approaches: Free writing: Learners write for a period of time in class on a topic of interest. This writing can take many forms, including quick writes, which are time-limited, done individually, and not always shared. From these pieces, themes may emerge that can act as springboards for more extensive writing that is discussed, revised, edited, and shared. Controlled writing:Controlled writing involves the learner in producing writing through a defined process. Writing can be taught as a process entailing several stages and requiring the development of a variety of learner skills to produce a final product, be it a simple sentence, a group of sentences, an announcement, directions, or short essay. More than likely, you will be teaching writing as a process. Let's look at the typical writing process. The writing process The writing process has three key stages: 1. Pre-writing: This is the stage when the learner generates his or her ideas. These ideas can be generated via a variety of ways, such as: reflecting; brainstorming; listing or making a timeline; clustering, which is where one word stimulates free association; discussion or reading; and automatic, or free, writing. 2. Draft: This is the stage where the learner composes a first draft, concentrating on getting ideas down on paper without worrying about spelling or grammar, shaping her text into a reasonably coherent form ready for self-critique or review by others. Learners can then read their drafts to each other in pairs or small groups. They encourage each other with constructive comments and questions as they seek better understanding of what each other is trying to write. They might discuss the purpose of the writing, what the writer learned or hopes others will learn, and what the reader likes best or has trouble with. 3. Revision: This is the stage at which all feedback is complete and considered and another version is generated. Revisions continue until ideas seem clear. Then, editing can begin as the focus moves to spelling, grammar, punctuation, transition words (first, next), and signal words (for example, another reason is...) to ensure cohesion of ideas. Learners should be encouraged to edit what they know or have studied. A checklist can help them focus on specific points. They should use each other and you as resources, in addition to their dictionary and grammar references. Then they have their final piece of writing. Depending on the amount of class time available for writing, the demands of the curriculum, the needs of the learners, and the comfort level of the learners and you, variations in the process might occur. For example, pre-writing activities such as brainstorming can be done orally or in writing, individually or as a whole class. Learners might prepare their first draft in class or as homework, depending on how much time they have outside class. Rather than having learners work in groups to respond to drafts, you might hold conferences with individual learners to discuss their writing and ask questions to clarify ideas. As issues arise, you might spend class time working on specific points, such as how to develop an effective topic sentence, with the entire class. Writing is not a process that can be rushed. It takes time and thought, and the appropriate preparation; the type of preparation will depend on the task. Don't overestimate what can be achieved in a set time frame.

Unit 3: Spelling

This is a bit of a challenge, even for native speakers, but it will be helpful to provide your learners with some basic guidelines that will help them. Encourage the learners to keep a personal notebook of their own spelling errors, arranged alphabetically. This is very important. Point out words that the learners should learn, as they come across them in the language course. Give the class occasional spelling tests. Provide the learners with some basic spelling patterns: i comes before e except after c (ceiling, receive) When the vowel is short, the consonant is doubled(hop/hopping, pin/pinning, ) When the vowel is long, the consonant is single(hope/hoping, pine/pining) Focus the learners' attention on -ible and -able patterns because these produce common errors. (edible, horrible, flexible, destructible; advisable, readable, available, excitable) Point out words that are commonly incorrectly spelt. Point out commonly confused words, e.g. off/of, hanged/hung, advise/advice, their/there/they're, desert/dessert, affect/effect, accept/except, weather/whether, gorilla/guerrilla Don't forget that there are some differences between British and American spelling and some learners from Asia may have learned the American versions:colour/color, humour/humor

Unit 5: Writing for a Purpose

When we write, we always have an idea of the audience that we are writing for. It might be a grandmother, a bank manager, our book club, the local Greenpeace group, the plumber and so on. Even if we are writing a letter to a national newspaper in angry response to an article, we will still have an idea in our minds of the person (the editor; the writer of the article) or the people (other readers of this newspaper) that we are addressing. Similarly, it is helpful for young learners if they too have a clear idea of the audience that they are writing for. This helps them to adopt an appropriate tone. On occasions, you can make the writing directly personalised so that the learners write about themselves, or perhaps write about how they would respond in an imaginary situation.

Unit 10: Writing Activities for Older Learners

With older learners, it will be more of the above plus introductions to more complex activity. The more complex the task, the more preparation will be required. Remember this: When older learners are involved in more complex activity, they may want to use their native language for a spell to, say, clarify some points with the rest of the group when planning some group project. This is absolutely fine. 1. Continue to give them practice in word and sentence level writing 2. Start to place more emphasis on writing as a medium for communicating messages and ideas As a result they will need help with: Using specific structural patterns to form sentences Organising descriptions Planning layout, e.g. a letter or poster. 3. Introduce, in simple terms, the ideas of context and audience Contextrefers to the occasion, or situation, that informs the reader about why a document was written and how it was written. Helping them to grasp a sense of audience can be achieved if you ensure they have the support they need, e.g. model texts and relevant vocabulary. For example, you could tell them that you want them to write a quiz or riddle for younger learners. This would be a good start for getting over the idea of audience. 4. Start to introduce different text types and their purpose For example, introduce descriptions, menus, instructions, poems, etc. The more able learners can be introduced to more of these whilst the less able are focusing on one or two of the most important types. 5. They can be introduced to short and simple re-tellings of a story This could advance to writing a different ending which they can share with the whole class. Again, they would need to have lots of support such as models to follow and relevant vocabulary. 6. Encourage collaboration which will be essential for them in all their future studies and later life In their groups, for example, they could do a group written project. To achieve this they will need to discuss how they will approach this, who is doing what, plan and revise their work etc. 7. It's time to have a sturdier approach to spelling This is particularly for those who are still in the inventive spelling stage that younger learners go through. Give this more importance. Spelling can be difficult for L2 learners. Some native learners find this to be an eternal challenge. Employ the practical tips we outlined above for younger learners. 8. Encourage freer writing Some of your older learners may now be ready for some freer writing, which is not necessarily edited or worked on further. Freer writing activities include: Filling in captions in speech bubbles, usually in groups Writing instructions, e.g. how to get from home to school, so that others can follow the instructions easily Shopping lists, perhaps to emphasise skills in grouping the shopping items Letters, perhaps to a TV company telling them what programme they like watching best-and why Recipes, perhaps practising the order of the items to be added if they want the mix to be right or the yeast to react. They can then make the cake. Constructing their own puzzles, crosswords or word searches for an appropriate audience Developing a simple travel sheet, inviting travellers to come and stay in their town/area-and the reasons why Keeping a simple diary Writing their own stories Filling in forms Producing a class newspaper, each pair or group contributing a part to the whole The introduction of various written genres will enhance the learners' awareness and appreciation of different audiences and they will hopefully begin to understand the reasons for writing differently in different genres to a different audience. 9. Older learners should also be encouraged to use writing for record keeping They can write lists of new words, short phrases and common dialogues in their notebooks as a record of what has been learned. They can also be encouraged to keep a simple personal diary or journal to reflect on and evaluate their progress in learning. If need be, these entries could be in their first language to begin with. 10. If your situation allows it, encourage word processing work With permission of the parents and the school leaders, you could set up email accounts for the whole class and encourage communication within the group. You could even set up your own website where they can go to get your tips on some project they are working on. 11. Introduce more homework Although it's easy to pick exercises from the class activity book, try to be a bit more adventurous if the workbook lacks fun. Introduce your own worksheets with pictures and puzzlesand add in silly descriptions such as the blue dog chased the yellow cat to get them smiling. Ensure you always allocate time to check over the homework with the class. Also, seek ways to encourage parents to provide help and support with the homework. Summary Many of these activities are probably best done in pairs. Learners can help and scaffold each other during the process of, for example, writing a story or letter. There may be a few learners who are particularly gifted in writing and can produce a written story or letter on their own but research shows that work done in pairs on texts such as stories or letters results in a better end product than work done individually. In addition, working in pairs helps to sustain interest and motivation. Remember this: all of these activities must be set in a meaningful context.