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
This week, please complete:
- your rewrites of the party story
- the Tiny Story description
- unit 3 from the textbook (answers will be posted on the website later this week)
- please note that next week there will be a quiz (week 6) and the mid term exam is coming soon (week 8)
Quiz Review
What will be on the quiz next week? Here are some suggested study areas.
- vocabulary from Units 1 to 3 in the textbook
- fix run on and choppy sentences
- fix wordy sentences
- write sentences with parallel structure
- edit errors in a paragraph
- write one short story that shows features of the Six Writing Traits (this will be on a topic which you already did: a) rafting story, b) dog and sausage or c) man in the party)
Optional New Writing Activity #1: Eight Line Biography Poem
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 – 2 or 4 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.