Level 2 Writing Task 1 :DESCRIBE A PERSON

AIM
This task requires students to write a paragraph about a person they know.

ACTIVITIES
There are 4 activities and the rubric for this task (activity 4 is optional). Each has a teacher version with an answer key. Each activity is self-explanatory, so please check the instruction on each activity.

teacher notes.pdf
rubric.pdf
L2 W task1 activity1.pdf
L2 W task1 activity2.pdf
L2 W task1.activity3.pdf
L2 W task1 activity4.pdf

SAMPLE PARAGRAPHS
There are two sample paragraphs included in the activities: broad and focused. The broad type is aimed at lower level 2 students and the focused type is for more proficient students. For an advanced group, both types could be used. Please use whichever sample you think will match your class.

If you plan to generate your own materials to augment Totally True 1, you may find these documents useful. They relate to units 1 - 9.

Texts: The main reading passage from each unit. (Word .doc)

Vocabulary: Vocabulary list (Text .txt)

If you do create any materials, it would be great if you could upload them to OEKS, or give a copy to someone in the Level 1 coordination team.

This is an activity that I use with my students to give them practice drawing inferences. It’s a great way, even for lower level students, to get students applying English that they have been studying in short simple structured sentences. The students also seem to have fun with the activity.

Culture Card Instructions

Culture Card Worksheet

Culture Card Resource Questions

Sample Culture Cards

Partly to alleviate the burden on teachers who dislike having to do a lot of photocopying and partly to organize student resources for the writing course, the level 3 team has decided to gather a set of writing materials to distribute to students as a booklet at the beginning of the Spring ‘07 term. There is a consensus that students should not be asked to pay for the booklet, as it will be made up of material that was previously distributed as class handouts.

Ideally, this booklet will consist of any activities, examples, guidelines, instructions, or evaluation criteria which course teachers deem necessary for their students. The project is currently focused on the Spring term.

Because we want to keep copying costs to a minimum and respect the fact that teachers on the course do have a great deal of flexibility in terms of how they teach it, we would like the selection process to be limited to only those materials which teachers consider highly useful (this, of course, implies no obligation to use the materials in class). We are soliciting materials and feedback from all teachers so that this will be a collaborative effort.

I am attaching a brief table of contents page which has been approved by the level team. You can assist us by making any comments on this document or sending contributions in the form of activities, model paragraphs, writing tips, etc. Please also let us know if you would like to nominate for inclusion in the booklet any materials in the existing level 3 binder.

If you are interested in helping out, please email me directly, respond to this announcement, or write comments in the project binder located on the Level 3 materials shelf in PFC.

While there is no official deadline for contributing, we plan to complete the project by early March.

L3 writing booklet TOC

This is a supplementary activity for the reading in Unit 8: “It’s not so bad to be middle-aged.” It is intended to help students process some target words in the unit deeply by finding substitutes for selected words in the article.

Passage Unit 8 Vocab&Reading activity.doc

This activity deals with common dream symbolism and gives an interpretation of their meaning. Symbols include being chased, flying, being naked, falling and loose teeth. I used this as a cooperative learning jigsaw activity, starting with the student handout, then putting them into groups with copies of a symbol page. Students would work together and try to break the information down into the main themes, then share the themes with members of the other symbol groups. The handouts themselves are pretty challenging. Expect this activity to take almost a whole class.

Level 2 Listening and Speaking Let’s Talk Unit 9B Activity

This is something I put together to help students read and write newspaper headlines for Passages Unit 7 Reading (p.65 “Nutty News”). But it can be used as a prep or review of Lesson B (Waht’s in the News). The headlines are taken from real rewspapers.

Understanding Newspaper headlines.doc

As the Level 2 writing teachers will know, there are more weeks than there are units in the Totally True 3 coursebook. Therefore, for some weeks, there is the opportunity to use some of your own materials. I’ve attached some materials that I put together for a non-coursebook week. The materials essentially revolve around a gap-fill reading exercise. I adapted the text from something from a textbook. The materials are a work in progress, so any feedback or upgrading would be welcome!

Reading Exercise: Sarah Chang Violinist
Reading Exercise: Sarah Chang Violinist - Teachers’ Notes

Level 3 Vocabulary and Reading Quizzes
There are three quizzes to be completed.

Please inform your students in advance when the quizzes will be given to them and that the vocabulary list as well as some self-study materials are available on elpweb.

The answer keys are available for teachers.

Level 3 � ReadingQuiz_Unit7.doc

Level 3 ReadingQuiz_Unit8.doc

Level 3 ReadingQuiz_Unit11.doc

ANSWER KEY
Level 3 VR quizzes Answer Key (Autumn).doc

Here’s the Passages vocab list useful for the vocabulary and reading quizzes as well as small group discussions (and group presentation!)

Passages Vocabulary List (Autumn).doc

I saw Richard H’s transcriptions of the Totally True Units and thought I’d do the same for the dictations in the back of the book. I’ve noticed that even these shorter versions are quite challenging, and I have a number of low level students. I have included three types of gap-fill focusing on key vocabulary, unstressed words, and identifying errors. If you make any other materials with these pass them over ;)

So far I have only done units 10~13

TT1 Dictations

Cheers,

Damon

This task requires students to write a 4 paragraph ‘recount’ or narrative of a summer (or recent) holiday.

There are a number of materials to support this task. Activities #2 and #6 are from textbooks and can be found in the supplementary binders. You can download the rest by clicking here: My Summer Holiday

The activities are:

1. Teacher Notes
2. Speaking and Listening Activity (CD with the audio is on the level 2 shelf) from Topic Talk 2nd edition, David Martin, EFL Press, Topic 12 VACATION. pp. 23~24)
3. Grammar Focus (Past tense Verb Forms + Sentence Writing). You can find copies of these pages in the supplementary binders
4. Model Essay + Info Gap Activity
5. Mind Map for outlining essay
6. Reading, Vocab, Grammar and Writing Activities
There are 2 units of work on Describing Past Events from the books Composition Practice, Book 1 and Book 2, Linda Lonon Blanton, Thomson Heinle Press.

The easier unit is from Book 1, Unit 10, pp, 85~92.
The higher level unit is Book 2, Unit 7, pp, 77~90.

You can find copies of these pages in the supplementary binders

7. Rubrics
There are 2 rubrics supplied (a simple version and a detailed version). Choose the one you like, or use your own!

This task is a 4-paragraph paper on the future. Students should be encouraged to write about the kind of future that they would like to have, however they could write about the future of Japan, the world, or of mankind in general. As this is the final writing project of the year, this paper should be of a higher quality than preceding efforts.

Language Skills

• Conjunctions (and, but, so)
• Time order words (first, next, after that, etc.)
• Future tense (will, going to, etc.)
• Organization (parts of a paper, thesis statement, topic sentences, etc.)

Contents

• Communicative activity
• Time line• Mind map
• And, but and so activity sheets (4)
• Time order words activity sheet
• Future tense activity sheet
• How to organize your paper
• Sample first draft
• Sample final draft

Level 2 Writing Task 3 Folder

Here is a Word document containing the text of the main readings in chapters 10 ~ 18. It may help in the generation of other supplementary materials.

Totally True 1. Autumn. Text

Here is a zip file archive of the crossword puzzles for ch 10 ~ 18. The puzzles are in PDF format.

Totally True 1. Autumn. Crossword puzzles

On the elpweb Resources site (foundation/level 1/reading) you can find:

Crossword puzzles
For example…

Cloze quizzes
For example…

‘Learn more‘ More information about the people in the reading passages.
For example…

The second writing assignment for Level 2 this autumn semester is four paragraph essay. In this essay, students will compare and contrast high school and university, choosing one as more important to them. In the model, I compare two similar items of my own: living in California, or living in Tokyo.

This post is temporary and is just here to let anyone who is interested have a look at what I am working on so far. Suggestions are always welcome.

Draft Resources- Online below
Student and Teacher notes
True/False Survey and Mingle Activity
Example essay
Grammar worksheets (tenses, conjunctions)

Planned Resources- Available in September
Example introduction worksheet (identification of introductory material and thesis)
PowerPoint or animation to explain the simplified structure of a comparison contrast essay
Peer editing and/or self-correction checklist
Correction model for common errors and correction marks
Mind Map and/or Outline worksheet
Rubric

Instructor Notes
Student Notes
Broken Sentences Worksheet
School attitudes survey
Worksheet Answers: Used toWorksheet: Used to
Worksheet: Pros and Cons
Sample Essay

Here is the first semester final test with answers.
• There is no need to print out the tests, they will be printed for you.
• Apart from the spelling questions which are each worth half a point, each question is worth one point.
• To help prevent any cheating, there are two versions of the test available; Version A and Version B.
• To allow the tests to be re-used, the completed tests should be taken in and not returned to the students.

Extra Details
1) The test requires students to know enough of the words to put them into a cloze. There are also a lot of questions tapping a purely receptive understanding, and a few spelling items.
2) The cloze sections are summaries of the stories in the units. So, the students who regularly come to class will be at an advantage.
3) Some students will finish much quicker than others. To keep the fast finishers occupied, there is a riddle at the end. The answer is on the answer sheets.
4) There are two versions of the tests to provide an obstacle to any nefarious test taking strategies. The tests cover the same material, but the questions are in a different order.
5) The test can be given any time that suits the instructor. However, it’s inadvisable to leave it to the last class.

Let me know if you have any questions or find any problems!

Level 2 Final Test VERSION A with answers.pdf
Level 2 Final Test VERSION B with answers.pdf
answer sheet.pdf
Teacher notes and conversion scale.pdf

As part of most writing courses, there are a number of technical writing terms that students need to be aware of. However, few of the first year students are familiar with these words at the start of the year. To help them review these words, I’ve been using a few vocabulary related warm-up activities. The crossword is self-explanatory, but there are teacher’s notes for the pelmonism activity. I’ve focused on the vocabulary, topic sentence, transitions, details, draft, mind map, paragraph, sentence, and indent, but you can easily adapt the materials to anything you want.
Writing Vocabulary Crossword.doc
Vocabulary Pelmonisms.doc
Teacher Notes - Pelmonisms.doc

This is a writing rubric that Peter McDonald and I have been working on, and using with our Level 2 classes. It focuses on 3 main areas, content (whether the essay uses clear topics, and has contains ideas that are well supported and developed), presentation (spelling, indenting, sufficiently long and with enough paragraphs, etc.), and grammar/vocabulary (clarity, accuracy, and complexity). It is pretty broadly-based, so we’ve been able to use the same rubric with all of the level 2 first semester essays.
Level 2 Writing - Alternative Rating Rubric.doc

Here are some handouts I made to help Level 3 students who are finding the textbook passages difficult to understand.

Unit 2: Home Schooling
1) Students read the first and the last sentence of each paragraph to get the main idea of each paragraph and get a big picture of the whole passage.
Home Schooling.doc

2) Comprehension questions for each paragraph
Home Schooling Qs.doc

Unit 3: Get yourself Lost
3) Students read only the first and last paragraph to get the main idea of the passage before reading the entire text.
Get yourself lost.doc

Ballet Lessons Important for Sumo Wrestlers

That pretty much says it all. Please continue on for an entertaining upper level reading exercise.

Download the text of the article and photo.