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…]
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.
- Watch this video.
- Write a one paragraph summary about the story. [click to continue…]
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…]
by eslwriter on April 29, 2013
FRIDAY’S WRITING CLASS
Let’s take a minute to summarize some of the main writing tasks we have finished so far in our class. We have reviewed and practiced:
- sentences with THAT/WHICH and appositives (see below);
- one paragraph writing style (thesis sentence, three different kinds of supporting sentences and conclusion);
- many editing exercises;
- run on and choppy sentences;
- the difference between SO and BECAUSE;
- the difference between LIKE and LOOK LIKE;
- some summary writing (we need more practice here);
- some basic grammar items like apostrophes and articles; [click to continue…]
by eslwriter on April 19, 2013
ESL WRITING LESSONS
Here is a review worksheet to help my ESL students learn and improve their English writing. The worksheet has exercises to practice error correction and editing, choppy sentences and run on sentences. It also has writing prompts for paragraph [click to continue…]
by eslwriter on April 15, 2013
Here is a review of the answers for quiz number 1. My ESL students should review this material carefully if they want to do well on the mid term exam, which is coming next week.
Part 1 Fix the Mistakes
Last weekend, we WENT camping in the mountains. ON Saturday, I WENT hiking and my husband and MY two sons WENT fishing. They love to fish at the lake. They stayed there FOR three hours [click to continue…]
by eslwriter on April 8, 2013
This is week six of the university semester. On Friday we will have our first quiz. Two weeks later, we will have the mid term exam.
REVIEW OF STUDENT WRITING
Here are a few comments on the student writing. The writing was good. It is getting better.
I thought the stories about the foolish man were generally good. That was a hard writing exercise because you had to make a story with the information that was collected from questions and answers.
Here are some general comments.
1. Please, remember to [click to continue…]
by eslwriter on March 29, 2013
This week the ESL students will continue to practice paragraph writing. This week we will change our focus a little and start writing summary paragraphs.
A Thought
Many things are happening here on the Korean peninsula. Not much good news, actually. The troubles between the two Koreas reminds me of a line from a famous book.
It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness, it was the epoch of belief, it was the epoch of incredulity, it was the season of Light, it was the season of Darkness, it was the spring of hope, it was the winter of despair.
Charles Dickens, A Tale of Two Cities
ESL SUMMARY WRITING
A summary is a paragraph that includes the main ideas of another person’s speaking or writing. Usually, you don’t write about your ideas. You want to retell what the writer said but use different words. Writing a summary is a very good skill to have, especially for school and work. Bu [click to continue…]
