Model Activities
Activity 1: Simple Description with Visuals.
Have students examine a picture and ask them to name the objects in it. Then ask
students to write a paragraph to describe the picture. The procedure for the
activity may be as follows:
Provide the class with a picture of a room such as the one below. Ask students to
label the objects in the picture and have them write a paragraph to describe the
picture. Provide students with expressions and language structure if needed
such as: “In the classroom there is “ and have students complete the paragraph.
Activity 2: Completing a Description Paragraph.
Have students examine a picture and complete a description paragraph. The
procedure for this activity may be as follows:
Examine the picture in Activity 1 and complete the following paragraph:
Paragraph:
Mary lives in a very nice room. In her room, there is a ———, ———, and a ———.
There are also several———. There are no ———, but Mary does have some
———. She wants to get a ——— for her wall and a ——— for the desk this
afternoon when she goes shopping.
Activity 3: Completing a Description Paragraph:
Give students a picture and have them complete a description by supplying the
prepositions and expressions required by the context.
The procedure for this activity may be as follows:
Have students examine the picture in Activity 1 and complete the following
paragraph:
This is a picture of Mary’s room. Her bed is ——— the window. ——— the bed and
the window is a small chest of drawers. There is a bookcase ——— her bed on
the ———. She has a radio that is ——— the book case, and she puts her books
——— the book case ——— three shelves. ——— the room. She has a very nice
desk where she prepares her work for school.
Activity 4: Writing a Description from Questions.
Have students examine a picture and use a set of questions as a guide to write a
short description of the picture.
The procedure for this activity may be as follows:
Examine the picture in Activity 1 and write a description of it, using the questions
below as guide lines.
Questions :
1. Does Mary have a nice room?
2. What kind of things does she have in the room?
3. What do you like in Mary’s room?
4. Do you have a room like Mary’s room? Describe your room in a few sentences.
Activity 5: Sentence Combining
Give students a set of propositions and have them combine them into complete
sentences:
The procedure for this activity may be as follows:
Provide students with set of propositions such as the ones below:
1. The man is tall.
2. The man has dark hair.
3. The man is standing by the door.
4. The man looks suspicious
Have students combine the propositions in one sentence.
rocess Writing Activities
Pre-writing: A Place to Start
Pre-writing, the first stage in the writing process, begins long before the writer
puts thoughts into writing. The experiences, observations, and interactions that
students have prior to entering the classroom have an impact upon what they will
write and how they will write it. Within the classroom, pre-writing prompts and
activities can be integrated into the writing process as scaffolds by teachers to
help students generate ideas for their writing and to practice the thinking skills
inherent in the activity.
To initiate thinking and generate possible writing topics, it is important for
students to explore ideas for writing topics using a variety of pre-writing
strategies, such as the following:
- Brainstorming
- Constructing thought webs and graphic organizers
- Interviewing a person knowledgeable about the topic
- Engaging in peer or teacher-student discussions and conferences
- Listening to music
- Reading about and researching the topic
- Free writing or timed free writing about the topic
- Viewing media such as pictures, movies, and television
- Listing and categorizing information
- Reflecting upon personal experience
- Examining writing models
- Responding to literature
- Role playing and other drama techniques
- Asking the 5 Ws--who, what, where, when and why.
To explore topics about which to write, the teacher may post suggestions on the
bulletin board for student reference. He/she may invite students to add their own
pre-writing strategies to ideas such as the following:
1. Brainstorming about people, places, and feelings
Write down or tell a partner the names of people you could describe, then quickly
and briefly describe each one. Name several places you have visited and list
descriptive words for each place. List and describe some memorable feelings you
have had, and explain the situation in which they occurred.
2. Talking and listening in pairs or groups
Take turns telling about an interesting person, thing, incident, or object.
Encourage the listeners to ask questions and add ideas. Record possible writing
topics or ideas as they arise during the discussion.
3. Looking at art
Study paintings, photographs, drawings, or sculpture in magazines or art books.
It may even be useful to take a trip to a local museum or art gallery. Jot down
notes and questions about the artwork, the artist and the subject, and any topic
ideas that come to mind during the observation. It may help to talk over your
information and ideas with a partner or small group. Explain to a partner the
stories in the art works.
4. Listening to music
Listen to music you like best or a variety of new and unfamiliar music. Listen to
tape recordings or to the radio, closing your eyes and letting the music paint
pictures in your mind. Record these images as you listen, or turn off the music
and quickly record your ideas. It may be helpful to tell the story you have
imagined to a partner or group.
5. Role playing
Pretend to be any character, ask peers to act as other characters, and dramatize
an event or incident, and what happened as a result of that incident or event.
6. Observing with all senses
Be aware of all that is happening around you, in the classroom, at home, in
restaurants, in malls, and wherever you go. Listen closely to conversations of the
people you observe, and try to capture the details of their manners and dress.
Observe for issues, problems, or achievements in your community. Jot down
ideas and notes as you observe them or as soon as possible after your
observations.
7. Listing ideas and information
List such things as the activities that interest you, the sports you play, the clubs
that you belong to, and the community and world issues that you know about
from the media.
8. Reading
Read such things as nonfiction books, novels, magazines, stories, newspapers,
and poems. Jot down ideas that occur to you as you read and list questions you
might investigate further. Keep track of interesting vocabulary, story plots, and
characters.
9. Newspaper searches
Read the stories and captions that catch your interest. Jot down ideas for writing
a newspaper article or ideas that can be developed into other kinds of writing.
10. Author visits
As the authors share their writing and discuss the craft of writing, students gain
further understanding of the writing process and possibly get ideas for their own
writing.
Pre-writing prompts or activities planned by the teacher can serve as writing
scaffolds for inexperienced writers who have difficulty accessing their own
feelings, ideas, experiences, and knowledge. Teacher-planned pre-writing
activities, such as the samples that follow, give students a place to start and
make them become aware of places from which to get ideas in the future.
Students who have a place to start with will be more motivated to continue
developing their ideas and their own writing voices.
Sample Pre-writing Activity #1
Time allotment (5-10 minutes)
Give each student any book or magazine to use (e.g., Readers' Digest,
anthologies). The teacher should have a selection also, in order to model the
process.
Have students open their books or magazines at any page and choose a word at
random—the first word that jumps off the page at them--and record this as Word
#1; close the book.
Continue this until each student has four words recorded. Students then focus
for about one minute on each word separately, and list all their thoughts, ideas
and associations that the word generates. Students then begin to make
connections among the four words and their lists of personal associations by
writing phrases, sentences, and ideas that demonstrate a relationship among the
words. Students now have had a writing warm-up and may continue developing
the ideas generated or bank these ideas for another day's writing.
Sample Pre-writing Activity #2
Time allotment (5-12 minutes)
Teachers may request that students bring pictures of people, or the teacher
may supply them (photographs or pictures clipped from magazines). Each picture
should show several people in sufficient detail to reveal size, facial expression,
dress, and other facets of character.
Quickly walk the students through this activity, question by question, so they
record the first thoughts and reactions that the pictures generate, rather than
dwelling too long on one question. The teacher should ask students to examine
their pictures closely, and explain that they will need to use their imagination for
the activity. Some questions the teacher might ask are:
- Who is the main character in the picture?
- What is an appropriate name for this character?
- How old is this character?
- What emotions is this character showing in the picture? Describe the evidence
that you have for this (e.g., facial expression, gestures).
- What kind of work might the character do for a living? Give reasons to support
your decision.
- What might the person be thinking or saying? What makes you imagine this?
- What other characteristics are revealed by the character's dress and stance?
- What might have happened before the picture was taken? What might happen
next?
- How are the other characters in the picture related to the main character? What
evidence makes you think so?
- What is the attitude of the main character to the other characters? What is the
attitude of the other characters to the main character? What are some possible
reasons for these attitudes?
- What might it be like to be the main character or one of the other characters?
Instruct students to record ideas briefly, using phrases and words rather than
sentences. Students then may take the opportunity to develop their ideas further,
or save their notes and ideas for use at a later date.
Sample Pre-writing Activity #3
Time allotment (5-8 minutes)
- Prepare the students for free writing by explaining that they should write
whatever thoughts enter their head from the moment that the teacher says "go"
to the moment he/she says "stop", even if it means writing and rewriting, I don't
know what to write. I don't know what to write. When the pen or pencil hits the
paper it does not stop for pauses, erasures, or corrections. Eventually, most
students begin to focus and the writing flows. Students then have the
opportunity to develop these pre-writing ideas further or save them for another
day.
Planning: Organizing for Drafting
After students have generated some ideas, they must decide what they will say
about their chosen topic. Students develop an initial plan for the product they will
compose. As they do so, they must consider the purpose, audience, point of
view, and format because these elements have implications for both the planning
and the drafting of the written product.
To develop an initial plan for drafting, students organize the information they
have generated during pre-writing by using such structures as outlines, story
frames, maps, diagrams, charts, and concept webs.
To consider purpose, students write to express ideas, feelings, emotions, and
opinions, and they must ask themselves, "What is my purpose for writing this
piece?" Some purposes for students’ writings are:
1. to express personal feelings or viewpoints
2. to imagine "What if ...?"
3. to narrate
4. to entertain and/or amuse
5. to describe
6. to inform or explain
7. to persuade or convince
8. to request
9. to inquire or question
10. to explore and experiment with ideas and formats
11. to clarify thinking.
To consider audience, students must consider who they are writing for and
students must ask themselves, "Who is my intended audience?" Some possible
audiences are:
1. familiar, known audiences: self, friends, peers, family, teachers
2. extended, known audiences: community, student body, local media
3. extended, unknown audiences: wider range of media and other publications
To consider point of view, students must determine from which point of view their
ideas or information will be expressed, so they need to ask themselves, "Who is
telling this story/describing the events?" Some points of view for students’
consideration are:
1. physical point of view: where is the narrator in relation to the action?
2. objective and subjective point of view: what emotional involvement does the
narrator have in relation to the situation?
3. personal point of view: who is the narrator of the story? (The narrator may take
a first person, third person, or an all-knowing omniscient point of view.)
To decide what information will be gathered and how it will most effectively be
gathered, students who decide that they need to conduct interviews or go on field
trips to gather information will need to brainstorm and construct a list of
questions. Students who require library research will need to decide the types of
resources and references to consult.
To consider format, students will use audience and purpose to determine format
and genre. They will have the opportunity to write in a variety of narrative,
descriptive, expository, and poetic formats. Their writings may include formats
and genres such as: advertisement, advice column, autobiography/biography,
comic strip, letter of complaint/request/inquiry, diary/journal, readers theater/role
play/monologue, book review, report, fable/fairy tale, greeting card, game rules,
directions, interview, news story, poem/song, anecdote/personal experience
story, sports column, short story, etc.
Drafting: A Time to Indulge
At this point in the process, the emphasis is on content and meaning rather than
on mechanics and conventions. This is the time for writers to get down their
ideas and thoughts, composing rough drafts based upon pre-writing and
planning activities and considerations. As they compose, writers begin to
determine what to include and exclude, and make initial decisions about how
these ideas will be organized. During the drafting stage of the writing process,
meaning begins to evolve.
To produce a first, rough draft, students record their ideas rapidly in order to
capture the essence of what they have to say. They do not have to make any
attempt to revise or edit at this point. They focus on talking to the reader and
begin to develop a personal style as their voices emerge.
To write subsequent drafts, students often accomplish their work by crossing
out, adding, and rearranging ideas directly on the page. The students’ redrafting
does not necessarily require an entire rewrite at this time.
To reflect upon their own writing, students can conference with self, peers and
the teacher. Through conferencing, students can get constructive feedback and
support that may help them to shape their writings. A set of questions or a
checklist can be used to assist writers and conference partners as they strive to
help the writer make meaning clear.
Sample 1: Self-Conference Checklist
As you write ... Ask yourself some of these questions:
- How do I feel about what I've written so far?
- What is good that I can enhance?
- Is there anything about it that concerns me, does not fit, or seems wrong?
- What am I discovering as I write this piece?
- What surprises me? Where is it leading?
- What is my purpose?
- What is the one most important thing that I am trying to convey?
- How can I build this idea? Are there places that I wander away from my key idea?
- Who is my audience?
Sample 2: Teacher-Student Checklist
During the teacher-student conference the teacher may as questions such as
- What is the part that you like best?
- Does it say what you want it to say?
- What do you mean by...?
- Where/when does your story take place?
- Are you satisfied with the beginning/ending? Why or why not?
- Does this sentence/word/phrase make sense to you?
- What reaction do you want your reader to have?
- How do you see your ideas being rearranged or changed? Why?
Sample 3: Steps For A Peer Writing Conference
When peers are conferencing
[Link] writer decides how the written work will be shared. Will it be:
- read silently by the conference partner(s)?
- read aloud by the writer?
- read aloud by the conference partner(s)?
- a combination of the above?
2. The writer identifies what aspects of the written work will be the focus of the
conference (e.g., the beginning paragraph, figurative language).
[Link] conference partner states at least:
- one thing he/she considers that the writer has done well
- one thing he/she especially likes
- one suggestion which addresses the focus of the conference as identified by the
writer. (It is useful to have students complete a written conference sheet to guide their
responses, especially when the process is new to them.)
4. The writer retains the right to the written work and is responsible for making the final
decision about any changes.
To revise the draft for content and clarity of meaning, students will reorganize
and sequence relevant ideas, and add or delete details as they strive to make
their meaning clear. Revisions can take place to words, sentences, paragraphs,
or the whole piece (e.g., the writer may decide that the ideas would have more
impact as poetry instead of prose).
To edit the draft for mechanical and conventional concerns that detract from and
obscure meaning, students will proofread for accuracy and correctness in
spelling, punctuation, capitalization, grammar, and usage. Peer editing and
editing partnerships or groups can be established to assist students who are at
this stage in the process. The use of self and peer-editing checklists can be
useful tools.
To focus purpose, audience, and point of view, and confirm appropriateness of
format, students have to reconsider and confirm the use of the variables, which
were pondered during the planning stage.
