learn English writing

Simple & Effective ESL Writing Activity: Teach List Poems

November 20, 2025November 19, 2014 by eslwriter

If you want an ESL creative writing activity that builds confidence, encourages original ideas, and works in almost any classroom setting, then you should teach list poems. This simple poetry format gives students room to experiment while still offering structure. It’s a perfect balance for an ESL writing lesson. Even better, it naturally supports creative ESL prompts, ESL writing practice, and flexible levels of scaffolding for high-beginner to advanced learners.

This article walks you through why list poems work so well, how to teach the activity step by step, and optional extensions for learners who need more challenge or repetition.

ESL Writing Lesson: Prompts, Problems and Paragraphs

July 13, 2014October 25, 2012 by eslwriter

This ESL lesson helps students learn English writing with four different composition tasks.

Editing

Here is a short editing exercise which helps focus on the basic elements of writing: spelling, grammar and punctuation. Click here for the editing exercise worksheet: ESL editing worksheet.

Guided Writing Exercise

This guided writing exercise helps ESL students focus on subject

Learn English Writing: From Paragraphs to Short Essays

July 13, 2014October 15, 2012 by eslwriter

So far, the ESL students have completed many paragraph writing assignments. The learning objectives were to look at a table of data, find the most important ideas and write a well structured paragraph.

That means, a paragraph with a good topic sentence, supporting ideas and an conclusion.

FIVE PARAGRAPH ESSAY

The English composition students looked at different sets of food consumption data for Korea and other countries: fruit, vegetables, meat and other foods like grains. Those data tables are here: ESL writing lesson raw data.

Now it is time to put to the whole thing together. The assignment today is to write a five paragraph essay. Here is the writing plan.

ESL Writing: Comparatives, Most and Almost

July 13, 2014October 11, 2012 by eslwriter

Here is the truth about writing for English students. Learning how to write English well takes time. A lot of time.

Why?

Writing is a skill. It is not a bunch of facts. Unlike math, social studies or other school subjects, writing can’t be memorized. It is like learning how to play the piano or basketball. It often takes years of regular practice to see