Teaching writing

1. Writing Activities for an elementary /high beginner/A-2 group of 15 university students

(ages 19 to 23) in Saudi Arabia

Movie subtitles/ Comic Book

I start class with a discussion about movies. I ask students what movies genres they like
to watch, who is their favorite actor/actress and why. I present the class a famous line from a
popular movie:"Why so serious?" - The Dark Knight, 2008, then I ask students to guess who
said this and what movie is it from.
In this writing activity, students watch a movie without audio and they create a dialog
according to what they see.
I split the class in groups. First, I handout worksheets with the characters' names followed
by a blank where students can write down their own lines. Next, I play a movie scene. After
watching the entire scene, I replay the scene and pause to give students time to write down their
lines. When the students are finished, I play the entire scene again with the volume on.
A similar writing activity could be created talking about superheroes and using comic
strips, instead of watching a movie.

Fill out an application form

This writing activity is very practical

because people have to fill out forms
when travelling, to get a job, or applying
for a visa.

This writing activity could be a follow

up for a reading activity in which I
previously explained the words found in
the form.

1
 Postcards
I start this activity with a brief discussion about travel destinations. I ask students where
they traveled, what they saw there, who they went with.
In this writing activity, students have to pick up a travel destination and write a postcard
from that spot to whoever they want (a friend, a family member, a classmate). On the other side
of the paper students can draw a landscape to describe their travel location.
I show students some postcards samples and then I explain what kind of information they
should write down.

2. A low intermediate (B-1) group of five Japanese accountants (ages 28 to 35) studying
English in a language institute in Melbourne, Australia for one month

News Report
Summarizing information improves students' note-taking skills. In this writing activity
students watch a news video, then write a short summary of what they listened to.
Before we start, I show the students a summary of another news video to give them the
big picture of how their summaries should look like. This writing activity could be a follow up
for a listening class in which I taught the vocabulary from the news clip.
I play the news video. The students take notes, writing short sentences about what they
listen to. I let the students watch the video again to make more notes on what they missed. Next,
the students share their notes in groups and talk about what they heard. After discussing the
details of the news video, each groups makes a report. At the end each group shares the report
with the whole class.

Email

Emails are an essential communication

tool in our lives, both personal and
professional.

I introduce students to formal and

informal email writing, showing them
two emails written in different styles.
Looking at the two emails, I talk about
language, structure and format.

The students pair up to write an email

exchange at their choice, either formal
or informal.

2
Presentations: Creating a business plan

In this writing activity students will use

their imagination and analytical
thinking to create a business plan.
Students work in groups to make a
presentation. I show the students a
business plan sample they could guide
themselves after. At the end, the
students share their presentations with
the whole class.