Teaching English as a Foreign Language

Chapter 11: Write or Wrong? Teaching Writing Lessons 169

✓ Class Profile: 12 teenage students from Taiwan, Spain, Brazil and Turkey.

60 minute lesson

✓ Level: Upper-Intermediate

✓ Materials: Two copies of the school rules, tape, a prize, poster-size

paper, dictionaries and extra marker pens.

✓ Problems: Several pupils have illegible handwriting, mostly due to

laziness. Most feel that writing is too passive and prefer to do lively

activities.

✓ Lesson aims: To undertake a collaborative writing activity which

requires attention to handwriting and general accuracy. To have fun

writing.

Get a copy of the school rules. Make sure they are written in words the stu-

dents can understand or rewrite them to match your pupils’ level. Take the

opportunity to embed some key vocabulary or grammar that you want stu-

dents to notice.

Use normal A4 sized paper so that they cannot read what the document con-

tains unless they are very close up. Prepare two identical copies and stick

them to the wall in the classroom.

Then, follow these steps for a successful lesson:

1. Pre-reading task (5 minutes): Ask the students to brainstorm ideas
   about what they love/hate about their school back home individually in
   their notebooks.

Put the pupils in pairs of mixed nationalities to compare ideas.

Use their answers to spark a short class discussion. Find out how many
mention rules as something they hate.

2. Writing activity 1-Dictation (30 minutes): Divide the class into two
   teams of equal size. Arrange the room so that there is a clear space for
   them to dash to the wall and then back to prepared desks.

Have the two teams come up with team names and appoint a captain for
each to keep order. Give each team a blank sheet of paper.

Explain that, one at a time, a member of each team will run to their copy
of the rules, memorise a section without making any notes. They must
then dash back to their team’s blank sheet and write down the section
they memorised.

Do the title or the first line yourself as an example. Check that everyone
understands the process and set a time limit for completing the dictation.