When it comes to writing, students often don’t know where to begin. A writing task like Music – Writing Activity is helpful because there are four questions to guide them. Combine that with our tips on paragraph structure, and your students will be writing with ease!

Writing improves many English skills such as grammar, spelling, punctuation, and sentence structure. You can also incorporate speaking, pronunciation, and listening into this writing project. Put students into small groups after they’ve finished writing, and have each student read their paragraphs aloud. They can practice pronunciation while the others practice listening. Also, tell the listeners that they must come up with one related question each to encourage discussion! (more…)

Whether they love it or hate it, writing is an essential skill for English learners to acquire. Writing also incorporates many other skills: grammar, vocabulary, spelling, punctuation, syntax, organization, etc. For teachers, writing can demonstrate whether or not a student has truly understood a grammar target, and a student’s writing can point to specific areas he or she needs to work on (e.g., forgetting to use articles such as a or the, using the simple past when the present perfect is required, etc.).

There are many ways that writing can be incorporated into the classroom. Blogs, journals, essays, and stories are a few common writing exercises to try. At the heart of almost all writing, though, is the need for a good, well-organized paragraph. Learning the structure of a typical paragraph means students will feel like they have a “guide” to follow. Writing can be daunting, so starting with a how-to lesson is an excellent idea!

Paragraph Structure  (more…)