ESL Writing Lessons: Final Exam Review

by eslwriter on June 7, 2013

FINAL EXAM REVIEW

Part 1: What did we do?

In our class, we have practiced six main kinds of writing:

  1. Clear, organized paragraphs
  2. A main idea with a thesis sentence and supporting sentences
  3. Summaries
  4. Descriptions of a place with details that talk about the senses
  5. Paragraphs that compare and contrast two things
  6. Email structure [click to continue…]

ESL English Writing Lessons: Week 14

by eslwriter on June 6, 2013

It’s the last week of the semester. Let’s wrap up a few lessons and details.

Writing Review

Last week, the students complete a rewriting exercise. The task was to take a first draft, which did not have enough details, and add extra information. That writing task is here. Here is a summary f my comments:

  1. Many students forgot to write paragraphs – please indent and add spacing.
  2. Most students simple copied words from the help box but did not try to add new information, or correct the grammar mistakes – please remember, writing is thinking.
  3. Almost everybody forget to add [click to continue…]

ESL English Writing Lessons: Week 13 (part 2)

by eslwriter on May 30, 2013

In this lesson my ESL students will learn a few specific English writing skills.

REWRITE A PASSAGE

In this exercise, my ESL students will read a short story. The story does not have enough information. It is incomplete. This is typical of many student writers. The basic material is there but it needs more examples and details to be a really good  piece of writing.

Here is what we will do.

  1. Read the short story.
  2. Read the prewriting notes. [click to continue…]

ESL English Writing Lessons: Week 13

by eslwriter on May 27, 2013

This week my ESL writing students have a quiz. Here is the assignment.

ESL Writing Quiz

  • Think about one place.
  • Describe that place in detail with words and phrases that use some or all of the five senses (sight, smell, sound, taste, touch).
  • Give the reader a mental picture of the [click to continue…]

ESL English Writing Lessons: Week 12 (part 2)

by eslwriter on May 23, 2013

Here is another lesson to help ESL students learn English writing. This lesson continues from the last.

COMPARE AND CONTRAST PARAGRAPHS

Compare means you talk about things that are similar. Contrast means find the differences.

In this writing assignment, you will write a compare and contrast message. There are two ways to compare things in paragraphs.

  1. block method
  2. point by point

In the block method, you write about things that are the same and use [click to continue…]

English Writing Lessons: Week 12

by eslwriter on May 19, 2013

Last week, our ESL writing class focused on summary writing. We also did an exercise where the students had to combine two different summaries into one story.

COMPARISON WRITING

The purpose of this exercise was to find a common theme between the two video stories. It was an exercise to describe how two things are the same. In the class I never used the word COMPARE. I wanted you to figure that out for yourself. Most of you did that very well.

Most students found at least one common theme, which might be related to freedom, death, challenge. One person thought the theme was reaching, another [click to continue…]

English Writing Lessons: Week 11

by eslwriter on May 13, 2013

This week my ESL students will continue to practice writing summaries. Last week, the students listened to a Steve Jobs video and then wrote a summary. They also wrote a summary about a short story about snow.

ESL Writing Lesson

Here is the writing assignment.

  1. Watch this video.
  2. Write a one paragraph summary about the story. [click to continue…]

English Writing Lessons: Week 10

by eslwriter on May 6, 2013

Last week, my students wrote a paragraph. The purpose of that writing assignment was to read a proverb and express an opinion (agree or disagree) based on some personal experience.

Most students did a great job. Here are a [click to continue…]