Adapt model text activities to suit your students’ needs


Students need to see plenty of models of good writing in a variety of text types before they can attempt to write good texts themselves. The Course Book activities based on model texts can be adapted in several ways according to your students’ needs in English. Here are some ideas for activities, going from a lot of guidance to less:


• Simply copying out the model text, or a part of it, will be useful and challenging for speakers of exotic


languages or beginner students.


• Give students a copy of the text with no capital letters or punctuation; students copy the text, adding


the missing features.


• Give students a gapped copy of the text; you can give the first letter of each missing word if you wish.


• Jumble the words in each sentence for students to rewrite in order.


• Jumble the lines in a text for students to write in order.


• Allow students to study the model text for two minutes, check understanding and then remove it; write key words from the text as prompts, and students write the text.


• As above, but let the students choose the key words to write as prompts, then write the text.


• Let students attempt the writing activity, then give them time to compare their work with the model text


and edit where necessary.


Use the process writing approach for freer writing activities


The TOWER writing process will stand students in good stead for the writing of assignments, articles and reports:


T thinking


This is sometimes called brainstorming, but of course it can be personal rather than a group activity. In the case of academic work, it often involves research. Mind maps are often a good way of noting thoughts and ideas.


O organizing This is putting ideas in order, as notes. The order must, of course, be a good


discourse structure for this type of text in English.


W writing


This is sometimes called ‘writing for the writer’; at this stage, the writer produces a first draft, and makes sure that the text says what he/she wants to say.


E editing


This is probably best done by a partner, who marks the draft for mistakes and for problems with readability, but does not correct the mistakes.


R rewriting This is sometimes called ‘writing for the reader’; at this stage, the writer


makes sure that the organization and signposting guides the reader through the text.


At the beginning of the course, it is best if the first four stages (T O W E) are done in class, leaving the rewriting for homework if necessary. Monitor during each stage and give help where necessary.


Encourage students to make longer, more informative sentences


One key aspect of academic English is that sentences are longer than in other genres, such as conversation. This means that students must be able to decode long sentences – see Reading – and must also, gradually, be able to write long sentences. Throughout the course, students are shown how to build longer sentences from basic sentence patterns – see A quick guide to syntactic grammar. But in addition to these specific grammar boxes and exercises, as the course goes on, encourage students to add more information to simple sentences, including:


• extra information about the subject or object/ complement with adjectives in front of the main noun


• extra information about the subject or object/ complement with prepositional phrases after the


main noun


• reasons or results of actions/situations after because/so • adverbs of frequency • introductory phrases, e.g., Some people say that …


Projects


One part of the Over to you! section is a project. The projects are very versatile and they are opportunities for:


• independent research • integrated skills practice


• consolidation and revision of topics, vocabulary and language from the unit


• working as individuals or in pairs or groups


The project work can build to a variety of outcomes, for example:


• Oral • a discussion • a presentation • a role play • an interview


• Written • a poster


• a short text, e.g., a web article • a description of a graph or diagram, or other visual • a set of notes or a mind map • a set of PowerPoint slides


Some or all of the work can be done in class or as an assignment. For example, you may ask students to research and make notes on the project as an assignment, and then bring their results to class to work on for the final activity.


In the case of written outcomes, the results, or the best ones, can be displayed.


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