ESL Writing Class

It’s week 2 of the semester for the intermediate writing class.

Work Plan – Week 2

Here is the plan for this week.

1. Quick review of the syllabus for new students.
2. Before and After writing assignment – write a story about a place.
3. Parts of Speech Review.
4. Timed Repeated Writing.
5. Cubing as a pre-writing strategy for a story.
6. Discuss book report lesson requirements.
7. Watch a video and write a summary.

Writing Activities

1. Before and After

Most students want to improve their writing skills. That’s the overall aim of this class. This short writing activity provides students with evidence of their improvement (or lack of improvement) at the semester. The activity is called Before and After.

• Begin the learning process by reading a story about a place.

How does the writer use verbs to activate our senses? To evoke a sense of the place? It is a good example of an old writing rule: show me, don’t tell me.

Now it’s your turn to write a short story.

1. Choose a place which has many different senses.
2. Brainstorm a list of verbs, nouns and adjectives.
3. Start writing one paragraph.
4. Read, edit and rewrite.
5. Submit.

I will keep your stories. At the end of the semester, you will repeat the same exercise. Then we can compare the first and last stories and look for any

2. Parts of Speech Review

This short reading and thinking activity provides students with a chance to quickly review the eight parts of speech.

3. Timed Repeated Writing

A short simple activity, timed repeated writing helps students improve writing fluency.

4. Descriptive Writing: Cubing

• Introduction to cubing as a pre-writing strategy.
• Review framework and sample.
• Write a story based on a picture prompt.

5. Write a Summary

Watch a video and write a 1 to 2 page summary of the story and message. Get the ESL summary writing activity here.