Teaching writing — Connect Lite

Trainee

1 · Warm-up: the mystery present

A live activity, no screen needed

On a scrap of paper, write an interesting present you could give someone in the room, without saying who it is for (online: type it in the chat). The presents are collected and handed out again, so nobody gets their own back. What do you do when you receive a present? You say thank you. Nobody knows who their present is from, so you are going to write a thank-you letter to find out.

2 · The thank-you letter

Read the model letter. How does it start? What other features does it have? Is the present actually named, or only implied?

Dear Noor,

Thank you for your splendid present. When I unwrapped it, I couldn't stop smiling. Although I've never had a garden, I hung your lovely gift outside my kitchen window, and now the sparrows visit me every morning. It's a thoughtful present and it reminds me of you.

I hope to see you soon.

Best wishes
Theo.

Task

Write your own thank-you letter for the present you received, implying what it is and never naming it outright. Then everyone mingles, letters held up, reading each other's aloud until you can deliver yours to the person whose present you described (online: post the letters in the chat, or read them aloud in breakout rooms and swap until everyone finds their match).

3 · Attitudes to writing

Tap each word, then tap Positive or Negative to sort it.

0 / 8 sorted

4 · What do we think about before we write?

A live activity, on paper

Your tutor hands out a short cartoon strip of someone stuck in front of a blank page. Put the panels in order, then talk about the character's attitude to writing: what was the task, and what was it for? The strip is copyrighted, so it is not on this page.

As a group: what do we need to think about before we write anything? Make your list first, then reveal the checklist and compare.

Considerations in writing

Audience
Purpose
Content
Genre
Organisation & layout
Register
Coherence and cohesion
Grammar
Vocabulary & lexical cohesion
Punctuation
Spelling

5 · Product or process writing

Tap each statement, then tap Product or Process.

0 / 10 sorted

6 · Wall dictation: Tomas and Lena

A running dictation: the text is on a wall outside the room, and one of you runs to it, remembers a line, and comes back to dictate it to your partner, who writes. Swap roles. On screen, the text appears line by line instead.

Comprehension questions (make full questions from the prompts)

Where / Tomas and Lena from?
Where / live?
Where / work?
like television?
like basketball?
eat biscuits?

Answer key

Where are Tomas and Lena from? They're from Brno.
Where do they live? They live in Prague.
Where do they work? They work for Sunbright, the biscuit factory.
Do they like television? Yes, they do.
Do they like basketball? The text says handball, not basketball; check students catch this.
Do they eat biscuits? No, they don't. They don't like them.

Optional speaking follow-up: turn this into an information gap. One student has the Tomas & Lena text, their partner has only the questions (online: send the text to one student privately via chat, or place them in separate breakout rooms briefly before pairing them up).

7 · Now you write: parallel writing

Task

Using the Tomas & Lena text as a model, write a paragraph about Dan and Ruth from these prompts:

Dan and Ruth / from Leeds
live / Bristol
work / Marlowe's / toy factory
Dan and Ruth / like / cinema / cycling
not buy toys
not like it

Dan and Ruth are from Leeds, but they live in Bristol. They work for Marlowe's, the toy factory. Dan and Ruth like cinema and cycling. They don't buy toys. They don't like them!

8 · Controlled, semi-controlled, freer

Tap each example, then tap the zone it belongs to on the control-to-freedom continuum.

0 / 5 sorted

9 · Wrap-up: backs to the board

One of you sits with your back to the board. New term shows a word to everyone else, who describe it without saying it until the guesser gets it (online: the guesser looks away from the screen while the others describe the word in the chat or out loud).

Tap "New term" to begin

Trainer notes Tutor only

Before

Scraps of paper for the mystery present; the model letter is on the page. Part 4 needs the cartoon strip of someone stuck in front of a blank page from your own materials: it is copyrighted, so it is not on the page. A wall for the running dictation, or do it on screen line by line. Online: the page carries the online version of each step in brackets.

Running it

Stage	What you do
The mystery present	Live, no screen. Everyone writes a present for someone in the room, you redistribute, elicit "say thank you", and they will write a thank-you letter to find the giver.
The thank-you letter	Show the model. Ask what the features are, and whether the present is named (it is only implied). They write; then the mingle: letters held up, read aloud, delivered.
Attitudes	Sort the eight on screen in pairs. Ask which attitude their students will have.
Before we write	Your strip, then the brainstorm, then the checklist reveal. Eleven considerations; they will get seven.
Product or process	Sort the ten. Then: which approach was the thank-you letter? (Product, with a model.)
Wall dictation	Running dictation if the room allows, line by line on screen if not. Then the comprehension questions; the key is on the page.
Parallel writing	The Dan and Ruth paragraph from the prompts; compare with the model.
Controlled to freer	Sort the five on the continuum.
Backs to the board	New term, describe it, guess it. Four or five terms is enough.

The key

On the page: the three sorts (attitudes, product and process, controlled to freer), the considerations list, the dictation answers (the handball catch is in there), and the parallel-writing model.

Watch for

The page gives the trainee each activity as a student would get it. The running of it (collecting and redistributing the presents, posting the dictation text on the wall, your copy of the cartoon strip) is yours, above.
The mingle needs the room. Online it is chat and breakout rooms, as the page says.

Sources. The names, texts and examples on this page are made up for this session. Running dictation, parallel writing and the product and process approaches are standard techniques in language teaching.