eslwriter

Rob Whyte is a university teacher, teacher trainer and writer.

Politics Week 6

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Politics Week 6, Instructional Plan

This week we agreed to make a small change to the class plan. Instead of reading and discussing Chapter 5 from the textbook (Nations and Nationalism), I suggested we spend some time on a specific writing task. This will help the students organize their thoughts in a more logical order.

Let’s quickly check the answers for the Critical Thinking test.

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Learn English Writing, 6

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Learn English Writing, 6

  1. Review the material we have completed so far.
  2. Complete the exercise on hedging ideas.
  3. Complete a timed repeated writing exercise.
  4. Complete the data analysis of Korean food facts – what’s the problem, what’s the question, find the evidence, create rules, make conclusions;
  5. Complete the video summary Room 8 – character, plot, setting and message;
  6. Complete the other writing assignments (if not finished yet): 1) murder mystery 1, 2) murder mystery 2, 3) a story of past events and different times;
  7. Complete worksheets: paraphrase with synonyms; proofreading 1, proofreading 2.

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#5 Teaching Writing – Hedges

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Teaching Writing – Hedges

Main Idea

This ESL lesson teaches English hedging techniques. Hedging is an important writing skill because it shows ESL students how to express sophisticated ideas and avoid broad claims that, sometimes, can appear clunky. Learning English hedging techniques and vocabulary improves the student’s ability to express reasonable arguments, sound more persuasive and communicate with greater precision.

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#6 Teach English Writing – Inquiry Approach to Thinking and Writing

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Teach English Writing – Inquiry Approach to Thinking and Writing

Main Idea

This English lesson helps ESL students learn specific critical thinking and logical writing skills. The lesson objective asks students to begin with a question, look for relevant evidence, make inferences and draw conclusions.

It’s an inquiry approach to learning and writing because students start with a question and then present evidence and conclusions. This approach is unlike the traditional five paragraph essay format which requires students to begin with a thesis (i.e. the conclusion) before the supporting evidence has been presented.

This lesson produces two benefits for ESL students: 1) it helps them communicate more logically, and 2) it develops thinking and writing skills that are far more meaningful in terms of the way problems are presented and solved in everyday life, both academically and professionally.

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