High Intermediate Writing Lesson
Transcript of High Intermediate Writing Lesson
The assump*on I am making is that students have read the text before this class begins. They are capable of reading this text, and are in a 90 minute Wri*ng Class with me. Students have experience wri*ng in English. They know the terms: hook, transi*on, gramma*cal stability; etc.
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I always tell the students what we are going to do. Every class the students will have small handout (agenda) as well as the text. They should have received their text and read it before coming to class. 5 minutes – Gree*ng, hand out agenda
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A Get Ready to Work Exercise. Approximately 5 minutes – spot check to see if they have done this as previous HW.
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8-‐10 minutes I will assign small groups to look at a paragraph. The Introduc*on group will tell us about the first sentence – the hook, and come up with other hooks. The concluding paragraph group will look at the ways to change the conclusion, or to improve it. The body paragraph groups will count the number of words in each sentence, looking for sentence varia*on. They will underline colloquial or slang words, and iden*fy transi*ons.
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10 minutes Each group will read their topic sentence and tell the class whether is suits the text. They will offer other kinds of transi*ons. They will look at ways that different images, facts, or examples could be incorporated into the text. 5 minutes BREAK, STAND UP, CHIT CHAT in ENGLISH.
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5-‐8 minutes As a class we will look for all the verbs in present tense. We will review the usage of present tense: as a regular, repeated ac*on.
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5 minutes Next we will underline the present progressive and look at how it relates to the present tense: Why did the writer use it? What other tenses are in this text? Why?
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8 minutes Next, we examine vocabulary. How many *mes is the word smartphone used? Is there any other way to define this piece of technology? Why do writers use the same word over and over, while other writers prefer to vary their word choice? Which style is more elegant? Which do you prefer?
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8 minutes I will divide the class in half; I will hand out a set of 3x5” cards, half of the cards have the idiom, half have the transla*on. The class members must find their match, stand together, and then tell their partner an example of the idiom in a clear sentence. (Later, I will discuss the use of idioms in academic wri*ng, and I will point out to them that there is a huge gap between academic register and colloquial speaking).
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8 minutes We will examine the text, circling transi*ons. I will ask them why and if there are paragraphs with no obvious transi*ons – no moreover, also, in addi*on, etc. – and then ask them why. (This will be the start of preparing them for the idea that sophis*cated English wri*ng may use a clause, or further an idea by a related phrase).
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8 minutes I will review what we learned, and then ask students open ended ques*ons: Can you explain why you think this text is well organized? What stylis*c devices were used? Was this text stable in gramma*cal use? Are you sa*sfied with the word choice in this text? If not, what colloca*ons would you use?
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5 minutes Assign HW and thank them for their hard work. Refer to agenda with office hours and text due to be read in 2 classes forward. Next week we will examine our wri*ng. The following week we will read another sample text.
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