This PowerPoint file offers a simple way for students to check their answers on the Purdue Online Writing Lab (OWL) Quotation Marks Exercise in the Level 3 Binder.

Quotation Marks Exercise Answer Sheet

The lunch forum that was held on November 13 was a writing swap shop. Here are the activities and materials presented at the swap shop. For more information about these, please see the teachers listed below.

Peter Bellars
Deborah Bollinger
Damon Brewster
Alison von Dietze
Dan Jackson
Paul Joyce
Chihiro Tajima

writing swap shop folder 1

writing swap shop folder 2

These are two handouts I’ve used in my class. One is a model outline based on the sample essay on death penalty and the other is for students to fill out.

Sample Outline

Essay Outline form

This is a handout that I made for my class explaining how to write a reference for online resources and Japanese resources (I am allowing my students to use one or two resources in Japanese in addition to English resources). This is in the MLA style. Please feel free to modify and let me know if you spot any errors.

Reference Writing

This is an adaptation of the essay on death penalty has been in the resource binder. I added more citations and listed the works cited. Although I used the MLA style for the list, I simply used serial numbers following the order of appearance in the text. If you want to follow the MLA style more closely, you might want to change them to cited page numbers.

One thing I was not able to demonstrate is the use of quotation.

sample-essay.doc

For all you Level 3 writing teachers, here is a series of handouts that can be used to teach the persuasive essay. Hard copies can also be located in the Level 3 binder in the office.

The file labeled persuasive intro contains:

1. An opinion-exchange task on some controversial topics
2. An info-gap task based on essay ideas that students generate
3. Usage notes on modal verbs followed by some thesis sentence completion exercises
4. Model outlines for the essay
5. An activity designed to raise awareness of the Toulmin structure (let me know what you think–this is in the pilot stage)

The quoting-and-paraphrasing.doc file has some comprehension-based activities intended to introduce those concepts (it might not hurt to ask any liberal arts students if they learned about these writing conventions in the LA seminar as a way of activating background knowledge). There is also an example of a reference list in MLA style. The Level 3 shelf has a very concise MLA style guide–not much help, I know. If anyone has ideas on how to make teaching first-years to write a reference list less painful, please share them!

Finally, there is a one-page peer checklist to be used when students turn in their first drafts. When I do this in my other writing class, I get students to pair up, read their whole paper aloud to their partner (as a proofreading activity), then ask them to swap papers, read silently and fill out the checklist for their partner. You might want to review the terminology used in this one well in advance–so that you can teach it in class or change it to suit your own approach.

P.S. All of the links on the Level 3 writing resources page over at elpweb.com are still functional. Here are a few that are worth checking out:

http://owl.english.purdue.edu/
http://citationmachine-east.net/
http://www.eslbee.com/

Past Tense. Chain writing a story: Replacement ‘Ensemble’ activity.

This is a substitute for the Ensemble activity ~ which has poor picture prompts in the text book. This activity may be quite demanding!

Students write the first half of a short story, based on a picture prompt. They then pass their story to other students, who finish the story.

Brief Teacher’s Notes are included, but the rubrics on the worksheet itself should be clear enough.

Download file: Unit 12. Our own story. PDF

Here’s a quick activity to get students thinking about how to combine short sentences or clauses using ‘and’, ‘but’ and ‘because’ for their first paragraph.

It can either be used as a worksheet or you could make it more active by cutting up the sentences and distributing one half to some students and the other half to others. They should then look for their respective half and make a full sentence using one of the words above.

I have also added a note to the worksheet to dissuade them from using ‘and’ or ‘but’ at the beginning of a sentence.

Sentence combining worksheet

Cut up sentences

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.

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 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

High school and university after almost one year at Obirin

Prompt:
Which is more important to you, high school or university? Choose one and explain why using examples. The word important is intentionally open to interpretation–encourage students to come up with their own criteria such as better, more fun, interesting, friendships, experiences, useful, valuable, and so on. A group mind map or list of important things at school might be a good start.

Task:
This task is a 4 paragraph comparison essay. Advanced classes or students may write a 5 paragraph essay. If your students had difficulty producing a 4 paragraph essay last semester, they may need more support in the form of a template or guide to follow. There is a suggested outline/brief writing worksheet.

One very specific way to write a comparison essay is outlined in these materials. The introduction begins with a statement opposite to the opinion of the writer and ends with a simple thesis statement. Each body paragraph groups together one area in which high school and university differ. The conclusion is a simple restatement. This may seem rigid and simple, but a single structure is less confusing for students.

All of these materials are on Shared Files and in the fancy new blue binders on the materials shelves in PFC and Machida. Or, get the materials for your self here. These are ready to use pdf files for easy printing:
Instructor Notes
Student Notes
Pros and Cons Worksheets
High School Profile Worksheet
School Attitude Survey
Broken Sentences
Sentence Editing
Used to… Worksheet
Sample Essay 1
Sample Essay 2
Checklist
Rubric

Or, download a .zip archive for Level 2 Writing Task 2 - All Files. And, I do mean all files. There are Word, Pages, pdf, and even some Keynote or PowerPoint versions of everything here.

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

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

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

Having just gone through the first drafts of the paragraphs of my level three writing classes, I have noticed that many of the students, rather than connecting two clauses into one sentence, are putting in a full stop and then starting a new sentence with ‘and, so, but etc’.

I used this activity to gently remind them how to connect clauses:

Directions

Before class cut up the sentence halves.

Sentence Halves

1. Distribute random halves to students, making sure you have the correct number of sentences for the number of students in the class. If you have an odd number, a pair of students could act as one.

2. The students stand up and try to find the classmate with the other half of their sentence.

3. When they have found their other half they should sit down together and re-write the sentence using ‘and, but, so, because.’

4. When finished they should check with you and then attempt to re-write the other sentences on the sheet in a similar fashion.

Sentence Sheet

5. When all students have finished, go through the sentences together. This could also be an opportunity to elicit alternatives such as ‘although, however etc’

Notes

The sentences are a bit dull as they are so feel free to re-write them up with a bit of humour or something.

Students in groups of 4 or 5 can set up Journal Shares whereby they take turns in reading their journal entries. Listeners make notes of key points and questions to ask in a discussion time at the end. Allow for a good 40 minutes. The slips of paper are just examples for them of how to set up a note taking page. I use the same process for writing assignment shares also.
Journal Share Process Level 1 Writing