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‘Real world’ writing activities
‘We don’t just ‘read’ and ‘write’: we always read and write something for a particular purpose, in a particular way, in a particular time and place.’ David Barton Outside the classroom, any writing...
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Using a genre approach for writing
As we saw in the last post, all ‘real life’ writing is embedded in a social situation: we write for a specific purpose and audience. We can, of course, also do this in the classroom, but often we are...
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Process writing: mixing it up
As the name suggests, process writing is an approach to writing which focuses on the process rather than the end product. The argument goes that, just as writers in the ‘real’ world go through a...
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Collaborative writing activities
Collaborative writing Some teachers tend to avoid writing in class, perhaps feeling that as it is something which learners do individually and in silence, it is better done for homework. However, when...
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Just write: short, inspiring activities to get students writing
In recent blog posts I have looked at some different aspects of writing in class. Common to all of them has been the point that good preparation is key to producing a successful piece of writing....
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Responding to students’ writing
Photo Credit: cabbit via Compfight cc I have called this post responding to writing, rather than error correction on writing, as I believe that there is a lot more to responding to written work than...
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Taking a genre approach towards IELTS writing (Part 1)
Photo Credit: AlaskaTeacher via Compfight cc In a previous post, I looked at how a genre approach could help students who need to produce a specific type of writing. IELTS is a perfect example of this,...
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Taking a genre approach towards IELTS writing part 2: Organising Task 2
Photo Credit: Paco CT via Compfight cc In a previous post I took a look at some ideas for using a genre approach to help students with IELTS writing, Task 1. In this post, I’d like to look at some...
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Brainshark presentation of my IATEFL13 talk: Of course! Using a coursebook...
Recently there has been a focus on dealing with ‘emergent language’, rather than following a syllabus. But does this mean that coursebooks are irrelevant? Surely coursebooks are ultimately a...
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Real Beauty? Free downloadable lesson
A free downloadable lesson based around the recent Dove advertisement, showing the huge difference between women’s views of their looks and how other see them. The lesson starts by focusing on...
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Gratitude: a free downloadable lesson
http://thanksgiving.holidayscentral.com/entertaining/thanksgiving-gratitude-tree#.UuZBaRDFKUl A free downloadable lesson, based around an authentic video. Research shows that feeling grateful for what...
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Motivating students, staying motivated as a teacher and other things
Thin on the ground? As you may have noticed, my posts have been a little thin on the ground lately. I’m planning to remedy this when the project I’m working on slows down enough for me to catch my...
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You’ve got to have a dream: a free downloadable lesson
Photo Credit: Arya Ziai via Compfight cc A free downloadable lesson, based around a Russian advertising video for shampoo. Despite what is aims to sell, the video is actually quite inspiring, with the...
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All about writing activities
This week has been all about writing activities, with a webinar for British Council Teaching English, and the publication of my ebook for English Language Teacher 2 Writer, on How to Write Writing...
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A collection of lesson plans
Over the last few months I have been writing lesson plans for the British Council Teaching English site. Here is a collection of links. All materials are free to use. Is Slavery a Thing of the Past?...
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Effective and efficient techniques for giving feedback on writing
Marking written work can be incredibly time-consuming, and it’s disheartening when you see the students glance quickly at your detailed comments and put the piece of writing away in their bags never...
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Smoking stinks
A free lesson plan, which I wrote for the British Council Teaching English Teens page. This lesson begins by focusing on some anti-smoking posters with students discussing the message and...
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Changing ideas of beauty
In this lesson plan designed for the British Council Teaching English site, we explore the topic of vitiligo, an autoimmune condition which causes some people to lose pigment in their skin, and look...
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