Lesson for students: Process writing/Write a short essay about your favorite city.
Follow these directions to complete this assignment:
1). Your assignment is to describe your favorite city. (2 paragraphs).
2). You may use our last lesson notes or this link as reference on how to write a paragraph:http://www.ehow.com/how_2250242_write-ehow-paragraph.html or this link:http://www.paragraphorganizer.com/inner/how_to_write_paragraph.htm
3). You may use this website as a resource for new words. Enter the new vocabulary word and press "search" to see the meaning of it: http://www.merriam-webster.com/
4). Use the graphic organizer to record your initial thoughts, you may use the printed hand out of the graphic organizer or the one at this link: http://www.teachervision.fen.com/tv/printables/TCR/0743932080_007.pdf
5). Sign in to blogger.com to complete this activity.
6). List of adjectives you can use to describe your city: interesting, boring, large, small noisy, quiet, old, new etc. (as learned in our previous lessons).
7). Prompts to help you start your essay: "If I could live in my favorite city, this city would be....", or "My favorite city is....because....", or "I like.... because....". Of course you are welcome to start your short essay in your own way.
8). Be sure you follow all the steps of writing a paragraph as directed in our lesson and the above link.
Students: Adult students who are attending a writing course. Students are Hispanic and Asian.
English language level: Intermediate Adult ESL classroom
Lesson: 1 hour and thirty minutes lesson
Class location environment: The class will take place in a computer lab where students have access to a computer to make their entries. This lesson will follow a writing course lesson where we learn how to write sentences to create a paragraph and what the topic of the paragraph could be. In this writing course and lesson we focus on the process of writing rather than the end result.
How will I use this to meet my instructional purpose?
This activity meets the objective of this lesson which is to learn the process of writing by following all the steps: brainstorming, drafting, revising, editing, and publishing. This is an intermediate writing activity where students are asked to follow a process in order to write simple sentences to describe a something that is familiar to them. The main focus of this lesson is the steps of creating a paragraph.
Why is this application and format appropriate for the lesson you plan to create (e.g., level of authenticity, relevance to target language, register, accuracy, interest level, and motivation)?
This is an activity in which students know the topic (their favorite city) and they are willing to share their information and ideas with the class. They are interested to hear and get to know their classmates and share their ideas with them. So I think this activity will motivate them to do so and share their script with their classmates.
What handouts or directions will you provide students to focus learning and adapt this resource for your instructional resources?
I will provide students with a handout which lisst all the adjective we learned in a previous class which they can use to describe their city, instructions on how to form a paragraph (this is already taught in a prior class extensively), and a graphic organizer such as this one: http://www.teachervision.fen.com/tv/printables/TCR/0743932080_007.pdf which they can use to brainstorm as their first step of the process.
What are the potential problems, either language based or technical that you may need to troubleshoot or prepare for?
The process of writing requires gathering, organizing and clarifying thoughts. Some students may have difficulty starting and this is why I will provide them with some prompts to choose. I will also provide them with the steps to follow as well as access to a dictionary (see links above). Some students may need direct instruction on the mechanics of writing and I will be there to assist them. As far as the technical problems they might have, I will demonstrate how to access the links and how to sign in to the blog in order to begin this activity.
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I’m impressed with the thought you put into your exercise. I think that the topic of the writing is great, since everyone has extensive schema on their favorite city. The links you inserted were interesting. I also liked that you discussed the preparation that would be done prior to the point of this lesson, and the background they would have had.
ReplyDeleteI wonder if the order of presentation for the online links might be improved by focusing on the brainstorming and adjectives parts first, then going to the nuts and bolts of paragraph writing. Also, given the time constraints, I would consider doing only one paragraph. Alternatively, doing an outline rather than an essay might be enough for a first go, but that might not meet your goal of using adjectives.
This is a very good way to have them write a paragraph. I might even use this to present my descriptive paragraph lesson.
ReplyDeleteIn doing so, I might use this approach to post an interesting photo to my blog. I found a super, fantastic photo one time of a suspension bridge in Europe and most recently a 'cross over bridge' leading in to Hong Kong.
I would have, like you, gone over some things in the nights previous to this lesson about paragraph writing, and how specifically to write a description.
I would not let them see the photo, though, until the day of class. I would have it be a surprise 'prompt' Then give them the 1/2 of the class period to write their description paragraph of the photo.
I also like you having them work in pairs. I would definitely keep this portion, too. After that, I would have them put it in one of the pairs blog and then assign pairs with other pairs to view each other's blogs about their description of the photo.
I think this type of writing is fun and to integrate it with a blog would make it more interesting. I might also figure out a way to have them diplomatically choose the most descriptive of the entire class - and then have them read it outloud to everyone. When you add the competition, it seems to bring out even more creativeness (at least that is my experience)
Alright, first I will tell you my positive thoughts so you won't feel like I dislike this.
ReplyDeleteI like it very much. It's very well thought out. It's professional. It's clear. It's beautiful.
PROBLEMS: The only thing I am a little worry about is that maybe it's tooooo organized. What I mean by that is...
I think of myself when I am studying Chinese. If I see too much on the paper or if too much is thrown at me, my head spins. This group of yours is intermediate. Will they be able to sift through so much? Maybe yes. Maybe no. So always ask yourself that. Also, remember you don't have to absolutely organize everything online. You can let them struggle with a regular dictionary. Sometimes the NET can be so daunting.
And once again...this is not saying anything negative about your LESSON PLAN which looks very neat and tidy. This is more about how they will feel. If you have SS from underdeveloped nations who are struggling with the language and all of a sudden you throw them into the net and they see so much on there, ...wow...they are going to be overwhelmed.
Let me share one last thing with you. When I moved to Taiwan, the first couple of weeks I used to get headaches just looking at so many neon signs in Chinese. It was like my brain was not processing that and didn't know what to do with the weird images.
BACK TO THE POSITIVE: Thank you for sharing this. You did an amazing job at organization.
I also liked the topic which is a winner.
You get an A+ from me on this. ARAMIS