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Image credit: LitReactor Follow me on twitter @RobbioDobbio This is a lesson plan designed to help students tackle the CAE writing part 1 formal essay task. It walks students through structuring their essays correctly. Download the handout and Powerpoint below: formal-writing formal-writing-handout Student Handout IntroductionIn this day and age a worrying percentage of children are showing signs of obesity. The past few years have seen a steep decline in the number of school-aged children taking part in team sports or getting regular exercise. What is the most effective way to tackle this problem and encourage children to be more active? In this essay I am going to talk about the problem of children not getting enough exercise. I will start by talking about parental influence and then I will discuss the role schools can play. Hardly a week goes by without another article on the topic of childhood obesity appearing in the media. This is clearly a growing issue which must be addressed urgently. There are a number of ways in which this problem could be tackled. Language for introductions
Language for topic sentencesFirst Paragraph
Second Paragraph
Language for supporting ideasLanguage for introducing supporting ideas:
Paragraph SkeletonIt goes without saying that ______________________________________ A clear example of this is ___________________________________________ In addition,________________________________________ Nevertheless,_____________________________________________________________ Language for conclusions:
OR
Credit to Cork English Teacher for some of the language from the handout.
Image credit: Savvy in Second: Stoplight Paragraphs: Helping Structure Writing Follow me on twitter @RobbioDobbio This is worksheet to help students structure their paragraphs correctly when writing formal essays. I prepared it with CAE students preparing for writing part 1 in mind. Download the handout below: Paragraph Structure
Here are some worksheets that my ESL students need to print for the English writing class. PRINT WORKSHEETSPOEMIn class, I wrote two lines from a poem on the board. I asked you to think about that poem. I changed a couple of words (to make it a little easier to understand) but the meaning was the same. Here is the poem.
1. What do you think is the meaning of the poem? 2. In our ESL writing class (which is about writing sentences and paragraphs), what can we learn from this poem? COMMENTS ON ESL STUDENT WRITINGTOPIC SENTENCEThere are many kinds of topic sentences. Here are two examples:
These are simple sentences. But, we are learning to write something different. We are learning to write a thesis sentence as the first sentence. Here is an example:
This sentence is good because it has the idea plus three reasons or examples. PHRASESMany people said “trip around the world.” Should be “travel around the world.” FORMATPlease do this:
PARALLEL STRUCTUREThis is very important when you write a sentence. Parallel structure is really important for the topic sentence. Parallel means equal or the same kind. Parallel structure is useful when you write a sentence with a list of things. You need to make sure these things have the same grammar style. Here are two examples of poor bad parallel structure.
How can we fix these sentences to make them beautiful with parallel structure? Here is a writing worksheet to help my ESL students learn English parallel structure. While and DuringPart 1 Key Words“While” is used with a subject and a verb.
“During” is used with a noun/pronoun
Part 2 Fill in the Blanks
Part B Book Pictures
THESIS SENTENCE PROMPTSThis writing worksheet helps ESL students learn how to write thesis sentences.
This ESL writing exercise gives presents students with several paragraphs, each of which is missing a topic sentence. The students must read the paragraphs, then come up with a suitable topic sentence for each one. Download lesson as pdf Topic Sentences: PracticeRead the paragraphs below. They are missing a topic sentence. Write a topic sentence that introduces the main idea of each paragraph. *Note: You do not have to use a simile or metaphor, but sometimes these are good ways to write interesting topic sentences. __________________________________________________________. Who takes care of you? Who supports you? Who sees you grow up? Family is very important. My family has six people: my grandma, my parents, myself, and my two brothers. My grandma loves me very much. When the weather is cold, she always tells me to wear more clothes. Although I often argue with my brothers, they will give me support when I need it. My parents have taken care of me since I was born. My definition of family is an organization which is full of love. __________________________________________________________. When you travel to Europe, you can visit many different countries, such as England, Spain, Germany, and Greece. Many different languages are spoken in Europe, and the cultures of the countries are all unique. Also, the weather in Europe varies a lot. Countries in the north are very cold, and you can go skiing. In the south, there are beautiful beaches, and these are popular places for vacations. As you can see, Europe is a very interesting place with different kinds of people and many possibilities. __________________________________________________________. Her name is Mrs. Graham, and she not only teaches music in my school, but she is also a friend to all of her students. In class, she teaches us to love music, and she introduces us to different songs and styles of music. She taught me to play the piano and violin, and I am sure that I will enjoy playing these instruments for the rest of my life. Mrs. Graham often tells interesting stories in class, and she always helps us or gives us advice when we have problems. Mrs. Graham is more than just a music teacher, she is like a star in the sky. |