Get Writing
There are many activities on the British Council’s site for young
learners which you can use with your learners to help them develop their writing
skills. They range from writing poems, making stories, reading and sending book
and film reviews and sending ecards to family and friends.
In the classroom there are many ways of exploiting these activities to
help children practise their English whilst developing their creativity and
imagination. You can find them here: http://www.britishcouncil.org/kids-get-writing.htm
On this page you will find tips for using and exploiting the activities
in the classroom.
1. Play with Poems
http://www.learnenglish.org.uk/kids/makeapoem/index_obtree.html
Play with
Poems can generate an infinite number of creative poems on the topics of
animals, horror and love. They can be as simple or as sophisticated as the
language of poetry allows.
Before making a poem, you could introduce the topics by asking your learners
to think of words they associate with the topic. For example, on the topic of
animals, brainstorm the names of animals, body parts, colours, actions and
places where animals live. Flashcards or pictures from story books or magazines
can help to stimulate associations. For horror, encourage your learners to can
come up with ‘scary' words just think of vampires and ghosts! As for love, think
of relationships or hearts and roses on birthday and Valentine cards.
Encourage your learners to keep a personalised mini-dictionary of words for
them to refer back to, organised by topic, illustrated or translated as desired.
Alternatively, your learners might like to organise their words
alphabetically-poems often make use of alliteration to make a poem more
rhythmical. Challenge your learners to think of as many words as they can that
begin with same letter of the alphabet. For example, one, old, orange, octopus,
on, okay.
Now encourage your learners to play with the words and make connections. For
example, what's orange? What's an octopus like? Draw an octopus and write eight
things about it in place of its eight legs!
Your learners could also make some short acrostic poems.
Your learners could create shorter and longer sentences, arranging and
rearranging their words and ideas. (If you have them, magnetic words or word
flashcards are great for this activity!)
With a class of learners you could also give each learner a word card and
ask them to stand up and arrange themselves in order. How many different
sentences can they create?
Now your learners could view some of the poems online before making their
own poems.
When your learners have finished, they can print out their poems and make
their own book of poetry to read and share with friends or classmates. They may
also email them to their friends and family.
2. Story Maker
Story Maker can generate a great variety of fairy, horror and science fiction
stories, personalised by your learners themselves!
http://www.britishcouncil.org/kids-writing-storymaker.htm
Before making a story, you could introduce the story topics by asking your
learners to tell you about stories they've already read. Let's take fairy
stories as an example. Who are the main characters? What are their names? Where
do they live? What are they like? What happens to them in the end? Have a look
at some real books with visually appealing covers and illustrations, if
available, to stimulate interest and language output.
Alternatively, you could use the questions in the Story maker to brainstorm
vocabulary and draw on your learners' preferences, for example, ‘What's your
favourite musical instrument?' 'Who do you like being with?' ‘What are the
scariest animals or creatures?' With a class, you could make the questions into
a class survey.
You could also turn the questions into a multiple-choice quiz using the
Story Maker options. For instance:
Where is a place you like to
go?
a) the forest b) the river c) school d) my friend's house e) the
shop
Imagine you have a pet. What is it?
a) rabbit b) a parrot c) a
frog d) a monkey e) a cat
Now your learners can create their own story with the Story Maker.
When your learners have finished, they can print out their stories to read
and enjoy with classmates. You could then ask your learners to compare their
stories and comment on the differences in the versions.
dditionally, your learners could illustrate their stories or create
storyboards for each part. Encourage them to talk simply about their pictures,
prompting and interacting with them as necessary.
Your learners might also like to act out their stories for each other.
Whilst more advanced learners could create the dialogue as they perform their
parts, other learners could simply narrate their stories.
As further extension activities, you could ask your learners to come up with
new options for the questions in the Story Maker, or to write questions and
options for different story genres.
For more advanced learners, you could use the final versions of the stories
in the Story Maker as the stimulus for freer writing practice. For example, they
could create different endings for their stories or write an email to one of
their characters.
Finally, encourage your learners to look at the Topics section on
LearnEnglish Kids to expand their vocabulary and the Stories section to extend
their interest in reading and writing-how about Alan and the Alien, for
example?!
3) Write a review
Learners can read and write reviews about books or films:
http://www.learnenglish.org.uk/kids/bookreview_obtree/your_reviews.asp
http://www.learnenglish.org.uk/kids/filmreview/your_reviews.asp
Generate interest and ideas by showing your learners books appropriate for
their ages. If you have enough space, create a ‘reading corner' where they can
sit and read for pleasure during a quiet moment of the day. Display their
reviews so that they can see which books have been recommended. If you have a
library, you could integrate a trip to see all the books available.
You could also introduce the topic of reading through the printable reading
quiz ‘Are you a bookworm?' and find out what kind of reader your learners are
(click on ‘books' in the ‘Topics' section for the quiz) . Now talk about the
books your learners are reading at the moment. What's the name of the book? Who
are the main characters? Who would they like to be? What's their favourite part
of the story?
If you're reading a book as a class, you could elicit the language of a book
review from your learners and create your own model to support them online,
alternatively, you could use the best reviews on LearnEnglish Kids as models,
asking your learners to find the words that describe the characters, for
example.
Print one of the film reviews. Look at the questions. Use these questions to
write a model review. Ask your learners to send in their reviews to LearnEnglish
Kids. Their review might appear!
4) Send an ecard
http://www.learnenglish.org.uk/kidsecards_frame.html
Sending and receiving ecards all over the world is a fun way for your
learners to practise their writing skills.
Ask your learners when they send cards? For what special occasions?
Brainstorm some messages and greetings that they might send for these occasions.
Show your learners the penpal option for ideas of things to write.
Now they can choose an ecard and write their own messages.
Carolyne Ardron
Link to original
article.
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