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These two activities give the teacher an opportunity to review what students remember and build their confidence in writing in English. (I’d like to thank the Congress audience who participated fully throughout my workshop and were excellent 8–11 year olds!) Key word writing This is an easy activity with logical steps to build students’ confidence; it requires minimum preparation. Students write the key word down the centre of a piece of paper, for example Halloween. Then they add associated words around the letters of the key word. Next, using structures you have been teaching, they make sentences around the words, for example in our class we had been practising I like … I don’t like ... . Guided text writing This is a good activity to use at the end of a unit because it allows students to consolidate structures and personalise their writing. The only preparation needed is a picture of the topic you are discussing and a prepared text. First of all, show your students a picture of the topic (I have done this activity with the topic of islands), showing them a picture or sketch of, for example, a beautiful tropical island. Explain that this is your dream island and they must now draw their own. Next, brainstorm vocabulary associated with the topic and categorise it in columns on the board. (For example, location, adjectives, things on the island, food, drink, activities.) Remember to number the columns. Then put a prepared description on the board, with the key words covered with pieces of card and numbered. In teams, students use the columns as a guide and guess the covered words. For example, the text could say My island is in ... , so students look at column 1 (location), and guess the correct word. When they have guessed all the words, cover them again. Then students use the text as a guide to write a description of their own island. They substitute the covered words with vocabulary from the columns to match their picture. Jeanette Corbett Huelva, Spain |
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