Writing Exercises
Writing activities can come in many different forms. For a communicative teacher, writing
activities often represent a chance for students to finally show off their learning and respond
to the material presented in class. Thus, writing activities are windows into a learners’
mind, giving teachers a chance to assess what students know and think (focus on meaning),
as well is how well they are performing (focus on form). These two paradigms, focusing
on meaning and form, fundamentally change the kinds of activities teachers create when
assigning writing activities.
Those who focus on meaning are generally interested in how well their learners
communicate their own ideas, and often spend time creating activities that give learners
time to generate, germinate, and expand ideas. On the other hand, for the “focus on form”
teacher, writing activities can represent opportunities for learners to follow particular
linguistic principles. These teachers often create activities that elicit the proper use of
writing conventions or grammatical rules. The activities presented in this section can be
used for both paradigms, and often, with just a little imagination, can be used and modified
in ways that can simultaneously accomplish a teacher’s requirements to pay attention to
both meaning and form.
Notice that many of these activities require a teacher to think of a prompt in order to
be successful. A prompt can be a question, a statement, or even a picture or object that
students must respond to. Writing is often enhanced by the teacher’s ability to inspire
students to WANT to write, which can be achieved with the quality and interest level of
the prompts teachers create. When focusing on meaning, try to ask questions that are
all based on a similar theme. This will activate background information. For example, if
the class will be talking about the beaches of Hawaii for their next lesson, try to ask 4-8
questions that will encourage students to think about Hawaii (animals, people, food, places).
When focusing on form, ask questions that will allow learners to respond to that form. For
example, when teaching the past tense, ask learners to describe what they did last week,
last year, over the summer, and so forth.
1. Workstations
Place four to eight large sheets of poster size paper on the walls of the room, leaving enough
room for learners to form groups. On each paper is a question or prompt that students must
answer. Questions might be personal or impersonal, based on a reading or lecture, or even
based on a grammatical principle you want learners to demonstrate.
When you create these “workstations,” you might want to set up some rules. For example,
you might way to require each student to write one sentence at each station, or move in
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groups to a new station every five minutes. For convenience, you might have students write
at their desk first on small sticky notes, and then have them transfer their notes to the
posters. Upon finishing the activity, you might ask students to read each thought and star
the ones they like best, or you might correct any mistakes or emphasize the vocabulary
shared. This is a great activity to get students moving and generating ideas.
2. Free-writes
Free-writing is a technique in which students write continuously for a set period of time
without regard to spelling, grammar, or topic. Some writers use the technique to collect
initial thoughts and ideas on a topic, often as a preliminary draft to more formal writing.
A free write means that students are “free” to write whatever they want, but often you must
guide the free-write with a prompt.
3. Fast-writes
A fast-write is similar to a free-write because spelling, grammar, and vocabulary are not
evaluated. However, what is evaluated is the number of words written in a given time.
Students can gain a sense of accomplishment as they see their writing speed increase. They
are generally given an easy topic to fast-write about, and sometimes a teacher will discuss
the prompt ahead of time and elicit vocabulary words on the board before the learners
begins. For a fast-write to be accurate, a teacher must ensure that the activity is done the
same way every time.
4. Brainstorming
Brainstorming is an informal way of generating topics to write about. It can be done at any
time during the writing process. Writers can brainstorm the topics for a whole paper or
for just a conclusion or an example. The important point about brainstorming is that there
should be no pressure to be “brilliant.” Students should simply open their minds to whatever
pops into them. Think of it as a kind of free association.
For example, with an advanced group discussing poverty and education, teachers might say
something like, “When I say ‘literacy,’ what pops into your mind?”
Much of what the students will come up with may not be useful, but that’s okay. Part of
brainstorming will involve a selection process. A teacher might write students’ ideas on the
board, or invite a student to write down the ideas. A teacher can also rephrase questions
or add to questions to help students to respond more fully. For example, a teacher might
ask, “Is literacy important? Why?” or “What do you think is stopping literacy today?”
Afterwards, the teacher might go back to the question: “What else pops into your mind when
I say literacy?” As a general rule, when brainstorming with a classroom, expect silence and
expect the need for the teacher to follow up with questions. Teachers may also need to call
on individuals, or invite students to speak in pairs and groups before sharing in front of the
class.