Model Activities
Activity 1: Simple Description with Visuals. (For cycles I
& II only)
Have students examine a picture and ask them to name the
objects in it. Then ask students to write a paragraph to describe
the picture. The procedure for the activity may be as follows:
Provide the class with a picture of a room such as the one
below. Ask students to label the objects in the picture and have
them write a paragraph to describe the picture. Provide students
with expressions and language structure if needed such as: “In the
classroom there is “ and have students complete the paragraph.
Activity 2: Completing a Description Paragraph. (For
cycles I & II only)
Have students examine a picture and complete a description
paragraph. The procedure for this activity may be as follows:
Examine the picture in Activity 1 and complete the following
paragraph:
Paragraph:
Mary lives in a very nice room. In her room, there is a ———, ———,
and a ———. There are also several———. There are no ———, but Mary
does have some ———. She wants to get a ——— for her wall and a ———
for the desk this afternoon when she goes shopping.
Activity 3: Completing a Description Paragraph: (For
cycles I & II only)
Function Words
Give students a picture and have them complete a description
by supplying the prepositions and expressions required by the
context.
The procedure for this activity may be as follows:
Have students examine the picture in Activity 1 and complete the
following paragraph:
This is a picture of Mary’s room. Her bed is ——— the window.
——— the bed and the window is a small chest of drawers. There is a
bookcase ——— her bed on the ———. She has a radio that is ——— the
book case, and she puts her books ——— the book case ——— three
shelves. ——— the room. She has a very nice desk where she prepares
her work for school.
Activity 4: Writing a Description from Questions. (For
cycles I & II only)
Have students examine a picture and use a set of questions as
a guide to write a short description of the picture.
The procedure for this activity may be as follows:
Examine the picture in Activity 1 and write a description of it,
using the questions below as guide lines.
Questions :
1. Does Mary have a nice room?
2. What kind of things does she have in the room?
3. What do you like in Mary’s room?
4. Do you have a room like Mary’s room? Describe your room in a
few sentences.
Activity 5: Slash Sentences (For cycles I & II only)
Give students a set of sentence cues and have them write a
short narrative paragraph.
The procedure for this activity may be as follows:
Make comlete sentences according to the model.
Model: The Smiths / Summer / in the country/ spend
The Smiths spend Summer in the country.
1. all / family / In the morning / to get up / arround /
8’oclock.
2. Mr. Smith / the kitchen / coffee / to prepare / to go down
strairs.
3. his / wife / then / breakfast / to go outside / in / the
garden.
Activity 6: Sentence Combining
Give students a set of propositions and have them combine them
into complete sentences:
The procedure for this activity may be as follows:
Provide students with set of propositions such as the ones below:
1. The man is tall.
2. The man has dark hair.
3. The man is standing by the door.
4. The man looks suspicious
Have students combine the propositions in one sentence.
Activity 7 : Composition based on oral interview.
Have students interview a partner and a composition telling
what they learned about the person they interviewed.
The procedure for this activity may be as follows:
Have students interview a partner a certain topics and have then
write a composition to tell what they had learned about this partner
sample topics:
1. Talk about yourself and your family (i.e., where are you from,
where your family lives, your hobbies, etc…).
2. Talk about what you like and dislike about your school.
3. Describe a memorable event.
4. Describe your goals and future plans.
5. Describe a recent vacation.
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Process Writing Activities
The following process writing activities can be used in cycle
I & II of Basic Education.
Pre-writing: A Place to Start
Pre-writing, the first stage in the writing process, begins
long before the writer puts thoughts into writing. The experiences,
observations, and interactions that students have prior to entering
the classroom have an impact upon what they will write and how they
will write it. Within the classroom, pre-writing prompts and
activities can be integrated into the writing process as scaffolds
by teachers to help students generate ideas for their writing and to
practice the thinking skills inherent in the activity.
To initiate thinking and generate possible writing topics, it
is important for students to explore ideas for writing topics using
a variety of pre-writing strategies, such as the following:
- Brainstorming
- Constructing thought webs and graphic organizers
- Interviewing a person knowledgeable about the topic
- Engaging in peer or teacher-student discussions and conferences
- Listening to music
- Reading about and researching the topic
- Free writing or timed free writing about the topic
- Viewing media such as pictures, movies, and television
- Listing and categorizing information
- Reflecting upon personal experience
- Examining writing models
- Responding to literature
- Role playing and other drama techniques
- Asking the 5 Ws--who, what, where, when and why.
To explore topics about which to write, the teacher may post
suggestions on the bulletin board for student reference. He/she may
invite students to add their own pre-writing strategies to ideas
such as the following:
1. Brainstorming about people, places, and feelings
Write down or tell a partner the names of people you could
describe, then quickly and briefly describe each one. Name several
places you have visited and list descriptive words for each place.
List and describe some memorable feelings you have had, and explain
the situation in which they occurred.
2. Talking and listening in pairs or groups
Take turns telling about an interesting person, thing,
incident, or object. Encourage the listeners to ask questions and
add ideas. Record possible writing topics or ideas as they arise
during the discussion.
3. Looking at art
Study paintings, photographs, drawings, or sculpture in
magazines or art books. It may even be useful to take a trip to a
local museum or art gallery. Jot down notes and questions about the
artwork, the artist and the subject, and any topic ideas that come
to mind during the observation. It may help to talk over your
information and ideas with a partner or small group. Explain to a
partner the stories in the art works.
4. Listening to music
Listen to music you like best or a variety of new and
unfamiliar music. Listen to tape recordings or to the radio, closing
your eyes and letting the music paint pictures in your mind. Record
these images as you listen, or turn off the music and quickly record
your ideas. It may be helpful to tell the story you have imagined to
a partner or group.
5. Role playing
Pretend to be any character, ask peers to act as other
characters, and dramatize an event or incident, and what happened as
a result of that incident or event.
6. Observing with all senses
Be aware of all that is happening around you, in the classroom,
at home, in restaurants, in malls, and wherever you go. Listen
closely to conversations of the people you observe, and try to
capture the details of their manners and dress. Observe for issues,
problems, or achievements in your community. Jot down ideas and
notes as you observe them or as soon as possible after your
observations.
7. Listing ideas and information
List such things as the activities that interest you, the
sports you play, the clubs that you belong to, and the community and
world issues that you know about from the media.
8. Reading
Read such things as nonfiction books, novels, magazines,
stories, newspapers, and poems. Jot down ideas that occur to you as
you read and list questions you might investigate further. Keep
track of interesting vocabulary, story plots, and characters.
9. Newspaper searches
Read the stories and captions that catch your interest. Jot
down ideas for writing a newspaper article or ideas that can be
developed into other kinds of writing.
10. Author visits
As the authors share their writing and discuss the craft of
writing, students gain further understanding of the writing process
and possibly get ideas for their own writing.
Pre-writing prompts or activities planned by the teacher can
serve as writing scaffolds for inexperienced writers who have
difficulty accessing their own feelings, ideas, experiences, and
knowledge. Teacher-planned pre-writing activities, such as the
samples that follow, give students a place to start and make them
become aware of places from which to get ideas in the future.
Students who have a place to start with will be more motivated to
continue developing their ideas and their own writing voices.
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Sample Pre-writing Activity #1
Time allotment (5-10 minutes)
Give each student any book or magazine to use (e.g., Readers'
Digest, anthologies). The teacher should have a selection also, in
order to model the process.
Have students open their books or magazines at any page and
choose a word at random—the first word that jumps off the page at
them--and record this as Word #1; close the book.
Continue this until each student has four words recorded.
Students then focus for about one minute on each word separately,
and list all their thoughts, ideas and associations that the word
generates. Students then begin to make connections among the four
words and their lists of personal associations by writing phrases,
sentences, and ideas that demonstrate a relationship among the words.
Students now have had a writing warm-up and may continue developing
the ideas generated or bank these ideas for another day's writing.
Sample Pre-writing Activity #2
Time allotment (5-12 minutes)
Teachers may request that students bring pictures of
people, or the teacher may supply them (photographs or pictures
clipped from magazines). Each picture should show several people in
sufficient detail to reveal size, facial expression, dress, and
other facets of character.
Quickly walk the students through this activity, question by
question, so they record the first thoughts and reactions that the
pictures generate, rather than dwelling too long on one question.
The teacher should ask students to examine their pictures closely,
and explain that they will need to use their imagination for the
activity. Some questions the teacher might ask are:
- Who is the main character in the picture?
- What is an appropriate name for this character?
- How old is this character?
- What emotions is this character showing in the picture?
Describe the evidence that you have for this (e.g., facial
expression, gestures).
- What kind of work might the character do for a living? Give
reasons to support your decision.
- What might the person be thinking or saying? What makes you
imagine this?
- What other characteristics are revealed by the character's
dress and stance?
- What might have happened before the picture was taken? What
might happen next?
- How are the other characters in the picture related to the main
character? What evidence makes you think so?
- What is the attitude of the main character to the other
characters? What is the attitude of the other characters to the main
character? What are some possible reasons for these attitudes?
- What might it be like to be the main character or one of the
other characters?
Instruct students to record ideas briefly, using phrases and
words rather than sentences. Students then may take the opportunity
to develop their ideas further, or save their notes and ideas for
use at a later date.
Sample Pre-writing Activity #3
Time allotment (5-8 minutes)
- Prepare the students for free writing by explaining that
they should write whatever thoughts enter their head from the moment
that the teacher says "go" to the moment he/she says "stop", even if
it means writing and rewriting, I don't know what to write. I don't
know what to write. When the pen or pencil hits the paper it does
not stop for pauses, erasures, or corrections. Eventually, most
students begin to focus and the writing flows. Students then have
the opportunity to develop these pre-writing ideas further or save
them for another day.
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Planning: Organizing for Drafting
After students have generated some ideas, they must decide
what they will say about their chosen topic. Students develop an
initial plan for the product they will compose. As they do so,
they must consider the purpose, audience, point of view, and format
because these elements have implications for both the planning
and the drafting of the written product.
To develop an initial plan for drafting, students organize the
information they have generated during pre-writing by using such
structures as outlines, story frames, maps, diagrams, charts, and
concept webs.
To consider purpose, students write to express ideas,
feelings, emotions, and opinions, and they must ask themselves, "What
is my purpose for writing this piece?" Some purposes for students’
writings are:
1. to express personal feelings or viewpoints
2. to imagine "What if ...?"
3. to narrate
4. to entertain and/or amuse
5. to describe
6. to inform or explain
7. to persuade or convince
8. to request
9. to inquire or question
10. to explore and experiment with ideas and formats
11. to clarify thinking.
To consider audience, students must consider who they
are writing for and students must ask themselves, "Who is my
intended audience?" Some possible audiences are:
1. familiar, known audiences: self, friends, peers, family,
teachers
2. extended, known audiences: community, student body, local
media
3. extended, unknown audiences: wider range of media and other
publications
To consider point of view, students must determine from
which point of view their ideas or information will be expressed, so
they need to ask themselves, "Who is telling this story/describing
the events?" Some points of view for students’ consideration are:
1. physical point of view: where is the narrator in relation to
the action?
2. objective and subjective point of view: what emotional
involvement does the narrator have in relation to the situation?
3. personal point of view: who is the narrator of the story? (The
narrator may take a first person, third person, or an all-knowing
omniscient point of view.)
To decide what information will be gathered and how it will
most effectively be gathered, students who decide that they need
to conduct interviews or go on field trips to gather information
will need to brainstorm and construct a list of questions. Students
who require library research will need to decide the types of
resources and references to consult.
To consider format, students will use audience and
purpose to determine format and genre. They will have the
opportunity to write in a variety of narrative, descriptive,
expository, and poetic formats. Their writings may include formats
and genres such as: advertisement, advice column, autobiography/biography,
comic strip, letter of complaint/request/inquiry, diary/journal,
readers theater/role play/monologue, book review, report, fable/fairy
tale, greeting card, game rules, directions, interview, news story,
poem/song, anecdote/personal experience story, sports column, short
story, etc.
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Drafting: A Time to Indulge
At this point in the process, the emphasis is on content and
meaning rather than on mechanics and conventions. This is the time
for writers to get down their ideas and thoughts, composing rough
drafts based upon pre-writing and planning activities and
considerations. As they compose, writers begin to determine what to
include and exclude, and make initial decisions about how these
ideas will be organized. During the drafting stage of the writing
process, meaning begins to evolve.
To produce a first, rough draft, students record their
ideas rapidly in order to capture the essence of what they have to
say. They do not have to make any attempt to revise or edit at
this point. They focus on talking to the reader and begin to develop
a personal style as their voices emerge.
To write subsequent drafts, students often accomplish
their work by crossing out, adding, and rearranging ideas directly
on the page. The students’ redrafting does not necessarily require
an entire rewrite at this time.
To reflect upon their own writing, students can
conference with self, peers and the teacher. Through conferencing,
students can get constructive feedback and support that may help
them to shape their writings. A set of questions or a checklist can
be used to assist writers and conference partners as they strive to
help the writer make meaning clear.
Sample 1: Self-Conference Checklist