Teaching English Toolbox

Writing

DallE: a cat learning to write surreal

Writing belongs on the first day of English lessons! Don't wait just because you are not expected to "test" it in the early grades - you ARE expected to teach and assess it!!! And don't forget that writing is more than just spelling, though spelling games are a great way to start lessons! 

Learning to write in English will NOT take away from learning German as work by Rymarczyk and others will attest (see below)). And writing is a skill that is an important support for other skills as you can read in "Young Learner Writing Performance in Swiss Elementary Schools – Which Teacher Variables Matter?."

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Friendship book

In this example, the writing here was used when English was taught in the second grade (now it is in the third). The learners put together a little book to send to a practicum teacher to introduce themselves before the student teacher came to their class. The kids had to write and re-write several times.

About me! Courtesy of Alison Buechel

Classroom exchanges

Epals exchange draft, A. Buechel

And even beginners are capable of having exchanges! This letter exchange was organized through Epals and many children write their pen pals through secondary school.

Creating Memory Cards

Should beginning classes (nine year olds) be asked to write and spell correctly? 

Yes, but...

Learners should be asked to copy correctly but they should not be "penalized" for their spelling but rather given opportunities to re-write. In this example, learners complete the cards and then play memory in a way that can lead to communicative language such as "It's your turn" or "That's a match"! However, the focus here is on writing single words and the language is not so functional. How might you have the learners focus on writing "It tastes" or "This fruit is" instead of "sweet" or "red" so the focus should be more on the language structures that transfer to different contexts? 

©PHZH (L.Buechel)

Jumbled Sentences

In this example, third graders had to unscramble the sentences in order to write about someone's day. After this, they had to write about their own day and write two truths and a lie. Discuss the purpose of this, if and how you would correct it, and different ways you can use the "two truths and a lie" activity.

Sentence Scramble. © PHZH (L. Buechel)
  • Word Hippo
  • Cambridge Write and Improve is really useful
  • This Austrian teacher has been using ChatGPT with her learners whereby they get feedback on their writing: https://epep.at/ - generally, they write their text by hand. They type it in to Chat GPT. They ask Chat GPT to correct their text and with the reasons for the corrections (correct my text. Why?). Here is an output you get but notice in this instance the spelling was not mentioned. Certainly!
    Here are the corrections I made to your original text:
    Original text: "I likes apples. They is good. Me find them delishus."
    Corrected text: "I like apples. They are good. I find them delicious."
    1. "likes" was changed to "like" to use the correct verb form for the subject "I."
    2. "is" was changed to "are" to match the plural subject "They."
    3. "Me" was changed to "I" for proper grammar and to maintain consistency with the subject.
    The corrected text now follows standard English grammar rules and sounds more natural. If you have any more sentences or questions you'd like me to assist with, feel free to ask!
  • Why should learners learn to write in English?
  • Describe how writing should develop according to the CEFR aims for the levels you will be teaching.
  • Why should you set your aims at a higher level than what the learners are actually at?
  • What is different about learning to write in English than in your mother tongue or the local language? What do you as a teacher have to do differently?
  • What are meaningful writing strategies? How do you help different learners with the same writing task?
  • What is the writing process? How might it differ in EFL than in the local language?
  • Describe a few spelling activities.
  • What writing games can you describe? Which subskills / constructs do they focus on?
  • Describe some contexts for communicative writing.
  • Name some creative writing activities that would work in ELT in your context.
  • What is the role of copying? Describe intelligent copying activities.
  • How can you test writing skills? What constructs / subskills can you test when you test writing? Should you test writing?
  • What writing activities make sense in the first year of English language teaching? In the sixth grade?
  • Sketch out a writing rubric for an invitation or a letter. What different rubric types might you use? What criteria might be on it?
  • How might you correct learner writing differently for at least 3 different learners (e.g. they all write a short story but you correct different learners differently - what does this mean practically?)?