English Language Form 4 - Writing (Lesson 5)

I have been busy with a lot of work for the last few days and could not share much. However, I find time today to share a writing lesson which I developed recently. This lesson is based on the Form 4 Fullblast Textbook (pg.13). 

Well, before I get started, as teachers it is important for all of us to remind ourselves that essay writing is the major part of secondary school and it is our responsibility to explore different ways to engage our students in writing. For some of us, making our students write essays may be a daunting task but that does not mean we should give up and make them copy sample essays instead. So, please try a variety of activities to engage your students in writing lessons. Some may work and some may not. Don't just give up yet!!!

Now, let us get into the lesson. 

For the introductory activity, students were asked a few questions about webpages and websites and how they differ from one another. Learners were then directed to the following reading task : 

Students were required to read the text above and as they read, they were to underline all the sentence starters in the text. They also identified all the linking words in the text such as and, but, so and because. 

After reading, students 'shouted out' the list of sentence starters, followed by the linkers. The teacher listed them on the whiteboard. 

In the next task, students were required to work in their small groups. They were to identify three from the eight categories to brainstorm ideas.  As they brainstorm, they were also reminded that they could actually pick ideas from the text that they have read earlier. I also asked them to write their sentences using the simple present and present continuous tenses(They learnt these in lesson 2). 

After the brainstorming activity, students worked in their groups to create a webpage for "Aminah". They used all the ideas that they have gotten from the text and brainstorming activity to complete their webpages. The following pictures were taken while students were preparing their webpages. 

The following are some examples of the students' completed task : 

After completing the webpages, students did the "Gallery Walk' activity. They moved from one group to another and spent about two minutes identifying spelling and grammatical errors. They were told that the ideas should be developed in simple present and present continuous tenses just like how Ahmad's webpage had been developed. Students were reminded to only work on these two errors and write one thing that they like about the webpage. The pictures below were taken while students were doing the "Gallery Walk" activity. 

All the activities above helped students to build ideas and knowledge that would help them to write up their own webpage. I believe that students have learnt a large deal through all the activities and they are up for an individual task.

So, I asked them to write their own personal webpage by picking any 3 out of the 8 categories of ideas as their homework. The essays must be in about 150 to 200 words.  

And that's all for now.... Happy Teaching and Happy Ponggal to those who are celebrating it!!