teach English writing exercises

Student Writing Samples

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Here are some examples of ESL student writing as they learn to write English poems, particularly Japanese haiku.

 

Rain is falling down, still

Trees are suppressing and waiting

Under he trees, you are

 

Cherry blossoms bloom

A girl standing with a smile

Waiting for someone

 

the son of sun

hot today, hot tomorrow

maybe we died

 

the sound of silence

nobody can hear, but can feel

it’s in the darkness

 

children don’t know me

and they shouldn’t know know me wholly

I am the failure

 

 

Facts About Reading

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Some facts about reading and learning.

  • If a child reads as much as one million words per year, they will be in top 2% of all children on standardized reading tests. If a child reads as little as 8000 words per year, they will be in bottom 2% of all children on standardized reading tests. Therefore, if you read 3,000 words every day you will be in the top 2%. If you read 20 words every day, you will be in the bottom 2%.
  • The average person retains only 5% of what is read once, after thirty days.
  • Reading aloud and talking often to a young child promotes brain development.
  • 35% of adults in the UK don’t read for pleasure.
  • Research suggests that regular reading is associated with a 35% reduction in the risk of dementia.
  • One out of every eight letters you read is the letter ‘e’.

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Writing Class Week 11

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ESL Writing Lesson 1: Appositives

Appositives? Huh? Sounds hard, but it isn’t.

An appositive is a noun that describes another noun.

Appositives can be a single word or many words (a phrase). An appositive looks like a relative clause but there are no words like ‘which, who or that’ at the beginning of the clause.

Here are three examples; the appositives are in red.

The appositive can go at the front of the sentence. Like this:

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Writing Class Week 10

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It’s a short week of English classes, thanks to the long holiday weekend. Here are a few extensive writing activities to help ESL students improve their English composition skills.

ESL writing activity 1

Write one haiku.

Japanese poetry. Typically (but not always) 17 syllables written in three lines. Divided into 5-7-5.

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