Els need to be sharpening their writing skills constantly or when they need to go to write anything it will be difficult for them to properly write. By incorporating some key writing skills into your lesson plans, you’ll give them the opportunity to make writing a part of their lives, and you’ll improve their comprehension of other facets of the language, too.
Building on What They Already Know
· Instead of making your students leap into the vast seas of writing all at once, teach them to improve their writing bit by bit. Teach them the skill of constructing their writing on what they already know.
· Their vocabulary doesn’t need to be something extraordinary. You can start them off small and teach them how to develop as they go. Motivate a little writing in every class, whether it be note taking, dictation of a few sentences or a short paragraph about their weekend. Let them try it out.
· Building trust in note taking will provide enough opportunities for your students to practice writing. They will copy what you’ve written on the board or other relevant details you’ve provided. Clue your students in to the importance of using writing as a method and explain how much easier it would be for them later on if they take a few notes from time to time.
Sentences Forming
· Forming sentences is most probably the most critical writing skill. It’s the key of everything that is writing. Without properly formed sentences, there are no subject sentences, no supporting sentences and no paragraphs. Structure isn’t really approachable. The sentence is the glue that holds all other elements of writing intact.
· Then what is a sentence?
o Essentially, it’s a noun and verb with a lot of other additives. Think of a sentence like an entrée on a menu. The key ingredients are mentioned, but the rest are in the background, unseen.
· Eventually incorporating the value and use of capital letters, punctuation, intervals, question marks, quotes and other sentence spices would allow them to see how it all works.
· Presenting all this new sentence structure knowledge to your students can be an easy and enjoyable process. Using examples in your presentation, along with practice, will encourage your students to start seeing and forming sentences.
· Here’s one exercise you can do:
o Start writing a sentence on the surface. Let them shout out a verb and noun to help construct the sentence as you’re going.
o Once built and in view, deconstruct it, together.
o Discuss the reasons behind, for example, the adjective being put in front of the noun or the verb behind.
o Dive deep into the punctuation and let them see the ins and outs before letting them practice forming sentences on their own.
o Implement communication inside sentence lessons so they can get some speaking practice when learning to compose. No student, young or old, wants to hear the material and then sit in silence writing.
· Building Once they get the hang of constructing sentences, you can mix it up by posing them with tough questions or asking for longer sentences with more information and depth. Keep them enthused about forming sentences and they’ll continue to gain trust and comprehension in this skill field.
Clear Paragraphs
· When your students have a solid understanding of how to construct proper sentences, you can pass them into paragraphs. Showing your students how to build paragraphs will teach them a lifelong ability they’ll use in daily life as well as professional projects.
· It might be a good idea to divide sentence formation and paragraph building into two or three separate lessons. Make sure they have a really good handle on sentences before going forward. Otherwise, you’ll waste half the class time backtracking.
· In most paragraphs, the subject sentence is at the beginning, summing up what the essay would cover. Following that are the supporting sentences, covering the thoughts and ideas that keep the subject sentence in place, giving it validity and weight. Explain the structure of a paragraph to your students and let them see a visual of this structure on the board or in a handout.
· You should then give them examples of a subject sentence and a few supporting sentences before making them give their own paragraph-building a shot. Healthy visuals and easy-to-understand instructions can go a long way in this critical field of ESL writing lessons.
· You may also touch on some key connecting terms we use to combine two sentences together. Here are some examples your students will be able to quickly learn and understand:
- but
- however
- and
- so
· These words will help them make their sentences more coherent with a nice readable flow.
With a little scheduling and coming up with ideas, you can build outstanding, exciting and inspiring writing lessons to teach your students critical writing skills. It’s crucial to highlight that the structure in your lesson plans is just as important as the structure you teach in your English Learners. Be imaginative, be engaging, but your students will follow your example into excellent English writing.
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