Writing Class

Rob Whyte ESL writing activities, lessons and composition worksheets that increase vocabulary and teach English students how to write sentences and paragraphs.

Writing Class Week 9

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The exam is over so now it’s for the students to continue learning how to write English text.

Podcasts for ESL Students

This week, I will introduce a couple of podcasts which can help my ESL students learn English.

The Memory Palace is a story telling podcast. The stories are well written so they podcasts can help student appreciate the art of story telling, the beauty of descriptive text and the art of completing a story with tidy conclusion. Great for short trips on the bus or subway, the stories are usually about 5 minutes long.

Wiretap is a 25 minute podcast from Canada. It’s a humor program with stories that are sometimes insightful and moving. Sometimes it’s just weird. The official website has one or two new stories per week. This website has links to many more episodes.

ESL Writing Activity#1: So and Because

Look at these sentences.

  1. We needed some fruit so I went to the supermarket.
  2. She studied all night because she had an English exam the next day.

Now look at these sentences. What is the difference?

  1. I went to the supermarket because we need some fruit
  2. She had an English exam the next day so she studied all night..

Write sentences with SO and BECAUSE for each of these prompts. Be creative.

  1. I had to get up early.
  2. I’m thirsty.
  3. She wants to speak German.
  4. My family needed a vacation.
  5. They’re going to visit me tomorrow.
  6. We went for a walk.
  7. My student won one billion won in the lottery.
  8. He bought a Smartphone.

ESL Writing Activity#2: While and During

Part A: While is used when writing about two actions happening at the same time.

While is used with a subject and verb.

  1. While I was playing with my cat, my brother was doing his homework.
  2. While we were playing poker, the CD was playing.
  3. My father doesn’t like the TV on while we are eating dinner.

Part B: During tells us when an action is (was) happening.

During is used with a noun/pronoun.

  1. My students are really busy during the week.
  2. He was sleeping during the party.
  3. The electricity went out during the storm.

Part C: Write 5 sentences each with while and during.

ESL Writing Activity #3: Write a Story with Progression

Progression is a writing skill. It uses words and sentences to move a story from the beginning to an ending. There are many ways to show progress. You can show the movement of time or the change of places. When you can with a style that shows progress, your writing will be clearer and more interesting.

Part A

  1. Listen to the story called Missed Connection.
  2. Here is the script for the story.
  3. Here is a story about Missed Connection.

Let’s analyze the story by:

  • making summary
  • describing some of the ways the writer used words and sentences to show progress

Part B: Extension

Now write your own story which demonstrates progression.

ESL Writing Activity #4: Video Summary Writing

In this writing exercise, you are going to write a long summary. Here is the process.

  1. Watch the video.
  2. Work with a partner and discuss the comprehension questions.
  3. Write your summary.

Questions

  1. Where did they meet?
  2. What did he notice about the girl?
  3. What happens when the guy wants to talk about the problem?
  4. Why did she leave him?
  5. When she leaves, what 3 things does the man do?
  6. Where do they meet again?
  7. What happens when they meet?
  8. Who is to blame for the breakup?
  9. Why does the title Focus mean?
  10. Why does the video director put some things out of focus?
  11. In the end, the narrator says, “You question your focus.” What does that mean?

Focus from Ari Kruger on Vimeo.

Writing Class 2014: Week 7

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Textbook Answers

Here are the answers for Unit 4 of the textbook.

This Week

This week we will review the English writing skills that the ESL students have learned so far in the semester. This review will prepare the students for the mid term exam, which is next week.

Writing Skills 

We learned the Six Writing Traits to make your writing more interesting.

  1. IDEA: message, the content.
  2. ORGANISATION: structure. There is a beginning and an end.
  3. VOICE: We sense there is a person writing to us, not a robot. There is feeling, humor, personality.
  4. WORD CHOICE: descriptive vocabulary. Great words paint a picture.
  5. SENTENCE FLUENCY: Long an short sentences have impact.
  6. CONVENTIONS: spelling, punctuation, capitalization, grammar and paragraphing.

We practiced writing with these traits by:

  1. summarizing a story about a boy (Howl) and describing your own ideas
  2. using articles A and THE correctly with the dog and sausage story (pictures)
  3. writing with voice and adding details with the rafting story
  4. writing clearer sentences by removing unnecessary words (e.g. Helen is a smart and intelligent woman.)
  5. learning new vocabulary and practicing simple sentence writing with the textbook (units 1, 2, 3 and 4)
  6. careful writing by rewriting the spider and hyena story
  7. write sentences with parallel structure to create nice style
  8. use good paragraph organisation in the story that compares and contrasts two things
  9. making stories more interesting with better descriptions (i.e. a man at a party)
  10. improving sentence fluency by seeing and fixing choppy and run on sentences
  11. practicing writing about specific actions with a variety of verbs (Tiny Story video)
  12. practicing writing interesting descriptive stories with the video Room 8

Mid Term Exam

For the mid term exam you can expect:

  1. a summary writing question, like you see below.
  2. some paragraph editing exercises, similar to those below
  3. vocabulary comprehension question from the textbook, chapters 1 to 4
  4. a few questions to check your technical sentence skills – parallel structure, edit wordy sentences, fix choppy and run on sentences
  5. one short story that you have already written – a) dog and sausage or b) man in the party
  6. a new one paragraph answer to a question that you have not seen before

Download this worksheet to read a few sample questions for the exam.

New Writing Exercises

1. Write a Summary

Read the passage. Write a summary – 3 to 5 sentences – and describe the main ideas of the story.

Snow

A layer of fresh white snow can brighten a winter day. But snow is more than just beautiful. It is helpful, too. Snow benefits plants, animals, and people in many ways.

Snow helps plants that stay in the ground all winter. It does not kill plants. Snow acts as a shield. Snow keeps air beneath it. This air below the snow is warmer than the air above it. The warm air protects plants. Cold winter winds and ice storms cannot reach the plants. Plants stay alive through the worst winter weather.

Snow helps animals, too. Some animals sleep below ground. They spend the whole winter there. A blanket of snow keeps the nests warm. Other animals do not sleep below ground. They make a home in the snow itself. They make nests there. Compared with the cold air above, snow nests are cozy.

Snow also benefits people. It helps many people earn a living. Some cities are popular winter sport tourist destinations. Many visitors go there to ski. People who live and work in these places need snow. Without snow, they would have no business.

Snow is useful even when it melts. Melting snow runs into wells. It flows into rivers and streams. These supply water to towns and cities. Farms benefit from melting snow as well. Some areas are dry in summer because they get little rain. Nearly all their water comes from melted snow. The water is stored in lakes and ponds. It is used during the growing season to water fields and orchards. Without this water supply, there could be no crops. In this way, the summer harvest depends on winter snow.

2. Edit Paragraphs

Find the errors and rewrite the paragraphs.

Edit 1

January 21, 1976 was an historic day. On that day, two supersonic Concorde aircraft made there first flights. One took of from London and the other from paris. Later that year, the first Concorde flew to New York. The flight from London to New York took about three ours. Other planes took twice the time to make that flight! The fleet of Concorde’s was retierd in 2003. Over the years, the planes had carryed more then 2.5 million passengers.

Editing 2

Do you know wear the longest rode on Earth can be found. The Pan-American Highway begins in alaska. It passes through Canada the United States and Mexico. Than it continues down the west coast of South America all the way to Chile. Altogether, the highway passes through 12 countrys. It passes through jungles and mountains the road is about 16,000 miles long. At this time, only one 54-miles stretch of the road remains to be completed.

Editing 3

Are you familiar with the work of Marie Curie. Born in Warsaw Poland, on November 7, 1867, Curie was a Chemist and physicist. She and her husband, Pierre won the Nobel Prize in 1903 for there discovery of the element radium. In 1911, Marie becomes the first person to win the nobel Prize twice she won the second award for her study of radioactivity. Marie died in 1934 from cancer cause by her long contact with radiation.

 

 

Writing Class 2014: Week 6

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Last week the ESL students attempted many kinds of writing. After checking the students’ writing, I know they are learning and improving their writing skills. Let’s continue to learn how to write well in English.

Textbook Chapter 3

Here is the answer sheet for the questions in chapter 3 of the textbook.

Writing Exercises

Last week, the lesson plan had many writing activities but we were unable to finish many of them. Let’s try again this week.

Quick Writing Activity #1: Eight Line Biography Poem

Instructions: Read the sample poem (part A). Look at the structure of the poem (part B). Create your own poem following the same pattern.

Part A: Sample

Kate…..
tall, energetic, happy, intelligent
mother of Danny
who loves music, books and fresh air
who is afraid of President Bush, spiders and heights
who wants to see Latin America, the end of war and summer
resident of Seoul
…..Thompson.

Part B: Structure

Line 1: first name/nickname of the person
Line 2: 4 adjectives which describe the person
Line 3: important relationship to the person
Line 4: 3 things s/he loves
Line 5: 3 things that scare her/him
Line 6: 3 things s/he wants to see
Line 7: resident of…place/time/concept
Line 8: last name

Review

Here are some activities that will help you prepare for the quiz next week and the mid term exam.

ESL Writing Activity #2

Choose two things which might not normally be compared. Find three ways to describe how they are similar. Write a full paragraph with a topic sentence, proof and a conclusion.

Here is an example by a middle school student, about school and jail.

School and jail are similar in many ways. First of all, I have to wear a uniform in both places. I hate wearing the same clothes as other people. Also, both places make us wear what they want. Just as if we were a doll. Second of all, I have to spend a lot of time there. At school, students have to stay from 8am to 4pm for 3 years (just counting middle school). Similarly, in jail people have to stay as long as the judge said. Finally, there is only one way to be free from school and jail. To get free from school you should graduate. To get free from jail you should wait for the day the judge said you can be free. These are the similarities between school and jail. Still, the most important thing is that I hate both places.

ESL Writing Activity #3

Editing 1

January 21, 1976 was an historic day. On that day, two supersonic Concorde aircraft made there first flights. One took of from London and the other from paris. Later that year, the first Concorde flew to New York. The flight from London to New York took about three ours. Other planes took twice the time to make that flight! The fleet of Concorde’s was retierd in 2003. Over the years, the planes had carryed more then 2.5 million passengers.

Editing 2

Do you know wear the longest rode on Earth can be found. The Pan-American Highway begins in alaska. It passes through Canada the United States and Mexico. Than it continues down the west coast of South America all the way to Chile. Altogether, the highway passes through 12 countrys. It passes through jungles and mountains the road is about 16,000 miles long. At this time, only one 54-miles stretch of the road remains to be completed.

Editing 3

Are you familiar with the work of Marie Curie. Born in Warsaw Poland, on November 7, 1867, Curie was a Chemist and physicist. She and her husband, Pierre won the Nobel Prize in 1903 for there discovery of the element radium. In 1911, Marie becomes the first person to win the nobel Prize twice she won the second award for her study of radioactivity. Marie died in 1934 from cancer cause by her long contact with radiation.

ESL Writing Activity #4

Read the passage. Write a summary – 3 to 5 sentences – and describe the main ideas of the story.

Snow

A layer of fresh white snow can brighten a winter day. But snow is more than just beautiful. It is helpful, too. Snow benefits plants, animals, and people in many ways.

Snow helps plants that stay in the ground all winter. It does not kill plants. Snow acts as a shield. Snow keeps air beneath it. This air below the snow is warmer than the air above it. The warm air protects plants. Cold winter winds and ice storms cannot reach the plants. Plants stay alive through the worst winter weather.

Snow helps animals, too. Some animals sleep below ground. They spend the whole winter there. A blanket of snow keeps the nests warm. Other animals do not sleep below ground. They make a home in the snow itself. They make nests there. Compared with the cold air above, snow nests are cozy.

Snow also benefits people. It helps many people earn a living. Some cities are popular winter sport tourist destinations. Many visitors go there to ski. People who live and work in these places need snow. Without snow, they would have no business.

Snow is useful even when it melts. Melting snow runs into wells. It flows into rivers and streams. These supply water to towns and cities. Farms benefit from melting snow as well. Some areas are dry in summer because they get little rain. Nearly all their water comes from melted snow. The water is stored in lakes and ponds. It is used during the growing season to water fields and orchards. Without this water supply, there could be no crops. In this way, the summer harvest depends on winter snow.

Writing Class 2014: Week 5

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Last Week English Writing Review

Last week the ESL students started several writing exercises:

  • reviewed and fixed run on sentences and choppy sentences
  • finished adding details to the story about a man in a party
  • completed writing paragraph with 6 sentences with all different words – no repeated words
  • started rewriting old stories
  • started describing the concepts in the Tiny Story video

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