I’ve used these two PowerPoint slideshows in my Communicative Writing extension class. They seemed to work quite well to outline some approaches to opinion essays.

If you fancy trying them out, I’d be interested to hear what you think. They may give extra ideas/activities for the 2nd writing task in the Level3 Writing Course.

There are no ‘how to notes’ with the slideshows, but I think they are quite easy to follow – I allowed a lot of discussion and pair-work for students to talk about the points raised as the slideshows played.

Damon

Slideshow 1 – 4 paragraph: basic opinion essay (Money for space exploration: good or bad?) zip file
Slideshow 2 – 4/5 paragraph: more detailed opinion essay (Do we need to learn a language?) zip file

Enclosed the attached .zip archive are two slideshows and instructor notes for instructional materials to teach Future Conditionals and Hypothetical Conditionals (Present). These structures should be useful for students when writing the problem/solution essay.

The instructor notes are in PDF format but the slideshows are in editable .ppt and .key formats as well as PDF. The Keynotes presentations are more attractive, but Mac only.

Identical files are also on Shared Files and hard copies in the appropriate binder on the B course shelf.

Task 3 Grammar support hypotheticals and conditionals

You can download a folder of the supplementary materials for the first writing task in Level 3 below. There are two zip files: one contains PDF files, the other contains Word (.doc) files. The Word files can be edited, but may have format problems as the original files format was pages (Macintosh).

Level 3: Task 1 Materials zip (pdfs)

Level 3: Task 1 Materials zip (docs)

A Quicktime movie with worksheet and activity explanation.

The movie talks about my Summer Vacation and has about 10 photos with a narrative. There is a worksheet for listening comprehension and a script for the teacher to expand upon. Please feel free to use the movie and alter or adapt the activity. There may be hitches with the Quicktime movie file depending on the platform you use. Please check it before you use it in class. If the sound file and slides do not synch. turn the volume off and read the narrative provided instead (you can use the arrow keys to click through the pictures on the Quicktime file).

The whole activity should take between 30~70 minutes depending on how you decide to expand it.

Summer vacation / Past tense activity

This is a sheet with Classroom English that I often use in class. Attached with this is a set of audio files that students can download and listen to if they want to practice them.
Classroom English audio files:classroom-english
Classroom English handout: Classroom English Handout

In his presentation on May 13, 2008 entitled, “A Discourse Approach to Teaching Reading/Writing,” Peter McDonald considered whether modern theoretical approaches to linguistic description can be effectively applied to the teaching of reading/writing at all levels.

This zip file contains Peter’s PowerPoint presentation and handout.

Download A Discourse Approach to Teaching Reading/Writing Folder

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!