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What I enjoy doing in the evening

In this challenging and competitive world, as students, we should make sure that
we give enough rest to our body and mind. There is also an English proverb
which says “All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy”, meaning that we should
sometimes relax in order to keep ourselves fresh, active and smart. In my
opinion, since most students nowadays are busy with their studies and other
responsibilities in the mornings and afternoons, evenings are the only period of
time when we can indulge ourselves in the activities that we enjoy.

As a high school student, I am usually fully occupied with lessons and school
projects from dawn till dusk. I study most of the time and consequently, I
sometimes feel very tired. Thus, I usually leave my evenings to relax so that I can
be energetic again on the next day. There are a few of my favorite leisure time
activities, among which reading books or magazines in my study is my favorite.
Reading short stories and comics certainly keeps me entertained and puts me in
a good mood because I often find myself smiling or laughing out loud from
reading comics. I also like reading Aesop’s fables because they give me moral
lessons about life. Furthermore, reading international news from various
newspapers is also a great activity of mine since I can often discuss news with
my family over tea or coffee though I leave some of my free time to chat to my
friends on social media like Facebook. Additionally, I try my best to find time to
listen to some music or podcasts of various interesting topics so that I can
improve my language proficiency skills while relaxing myself. Apart from this, I
sometimes agree to sing karaoke with my family or play classical music in order
to entertain my overworked mother, who is mostly tired in the evenings. When I
get bored of watching television or listening to music, I turn to my favorite books
called “Diaries of a Wimpy Kid”. I also make entries in my own diary, noting
down words and phrases I like from ‘Wimpy Kid Diaries’. My brother, who is my
playmate, likes playing some board games such as “Monopoly” and “Uno” with
me and we have plenty of time to laugh together so that my evenings become
enviably pleasant.

In fact, my evenings are my favorite time of the day, which I cannot exchange for
anything in the world. In my view, to make our evenings special, our evening
activities should be totally different from the type of activities we do during the
daytime. Doing nothing but enjoying the amazing beauty of sunset with soft
music is also an activity that I can recommend. After all, evenings are special
moments when we should take things easy and enjoy ourselves in order to
become energized for our next mornings.
(480 words)
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‘What I enjoy doing in my free time’ (Teaching Notes)

This model essay has been written for high school and tertiary level students who are
looking for well-written sample essays to use as references. The topic has been
chosen from Grade 11 old questions of the English paper.

Please note that for this essay, I will discuss how to teach the students writing a
body paragraph first before an introduction and a conclusion but we can also teach
our students to write an introduction first before proceeding to write a body
paragraph.

Pre-writing (Before the students write the body paragraph)

1) Students look at a few pictures of evening pastimes and discuss (in pairs or groups)
what kinds of things they enjoy doing in the evening after school.

2) Students individually note down 10 ideas of what they can do in the evenings to
enjoy themselves
3) They share their ideas with their classmates in pairs or groups.
4) Teachers should pre-teach linkers for adding ideas i.e. in addition, furthermore,
besides, apart from these so that students can write a cohesive text. If we would like
our students to use ‘connectors’ in relation to time e.g. when, when, while, it’s also a
good idea to teach them at this point.

While-writing the body paragraph

5) Students can then write a body paragraph that consists of their favorite evening
activities.
6) It’s a good idea to point out to the students that they will need to use the present
simple tense for this essay since we are talking about our habits – our routine of
what we do every evening.
7) Teachers can also give the body paragraph of this sample essay as a model or can
create a gap fill exercise too as a preparation for the writing task. (It’s also fine to
teach the students how to write an introduction before teaching them how to write
a body paragraph)
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Feedback to the body paragraph

8) Please provide essential feedback on the students’ writing with a focus on the use of
the right tenses, the right choice of words and linkers (connectors)

Pre-writing (before the students write the introduction)

9) Students will need to learn how to paraphrase the question or the statement of the
question and so it’s worth teaching paraphrasing skills.
10) Paraphrasing means re-writing the statement of the question in our own words by
changing the grammar or using the synonyms. Some practice exercises on
paraphrasing can be given.
11) We can also define the key words in the question when writing the introduction and
so it’s a good idea that students learn to define key words in the question.
12) Students will need to give their opinion in relation to the topic and so we should give
them some language for giving opinions, for example, students will need to learn to
use phrases like ‘I am of the opinion that; In my opinion, From my point of view’.
13) Students can also be given this introduction from the model essay as a model.

Writing the introduction

14) Students can start writing their own introduction using the strategies given by the
teacher.
15) Students should not have any interference (if they are doing the task) from the
teacher.

Feedback to the introduction

16) Teachers should give the students necessary feedback particularly focusing on the
paraphrasing and giving an opinion. The teacher can also give some feedback on
choice of vocabulary and grammar.

Before writing a conclusion

17) For the next step, students need to learn how to write a conclusion. The conclusion
should include the summary of the body paragraph, the students’ opinion on the
topic and their recommendation for the future. Teachers can give the conclusion
from this sample essay as a model and students can write one of their own.
18) Students should be taught how to summarize what they have written in the body
paragraph. Summarizing is an important skill to learn to practice. Summarizing
means extracting the most important points in the text and re-writing it in our own
words.
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19) Students should also be given some useful language for writing a conclusion e.g. In
conclusion, all things considered, in summary.
20) Students can then learn how to give a recommendation in their essays. This could
simply be done by explaining what recommendation means and by teaching them
some useful language for recommendation e.g. I would recommend that; my
recommendation is that….

Writing a conclusion and feedback

21) Students then write a conclusion and teachers should give them feedback on the
summarizing and recommendation skills besides giving suggestions on choice of
grammar and vocabulary.

Language for giving opinions

1) It is my view that ….
2) In my opinion, ….
3) I am of the opinion that ….
4) On balance, it seems that…

Language for summarizing

1) To summarize, …
2) In summary, …

Language for recommendation

1) Perhaps in the future, ….

2) It is my recommendation that ..
3) I would like to recommend that …
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Consolidation: gap-fill exercises

(I have chosen some key words in relation to the topic of the question;
teachers can of course blank out the words they feel appropriate)

What I enjoy doing in the evening

Introduction

In this __________ and ____________world, as students, we should make sure

that we give enough ______________ to our body and mind. There is also an English
proverb which says “All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy”, meaning that
we should sometimes ____________ in order to keep ourselves fresh, active and
smart. In my ___________, since most students nowadays are busy with their
_____________ and other ______________in the mornings and afternoons, evenings are
the only period of time when we can indulge ourselves in the activities that we
enjoy.

Body paragraph

As a high school student, I am usually fully occupied with _____________and

school ______________ from dawn till dusk. I study most of the time and
consequently, I sometimes feel very tired. Thus, I usually leave my evenings to
relax so that I can be ___________ again on the next day. There are a few of my
favorite leisure time activities, among which reading books or magazines in my
study is my favorite. Reading _____________ and ______________certainly keeps me
entertained and puts me in a good mood because I often find myself ___________or
____________ out loud from reading comics. I also like reading Aesop’s fables
because they give me ____________ lessons about life. Furthermore, reading
international news from various newspapers is also a great activity of mine since
I can often discuss ____________ with my family over tea or coffee though I leave
some of my free time to chat to my friends on social __________ like Facebook.
Additionally, I try my best to find time to listen to some music or podcasts of
various interesting topics so that I can improve my language proficiency
______________ while relaxing myself. Apart from this, I sometimes agree to sing
karaoke with my family or play classical music in order to entertain my
overworked mother, who is mostly tired in the evenings. When I get bored of
watching television or listening to music, I turn to my ____________books called
“Diaries of a Wimpy Kid”. I also make entries in my own diary, noting down
words and phrases I like from ‘Wimpy Kid Diaries’. My brother, who is my
playmate, likes playing some _______________ games such as “Monopoly” and “Uno”
with me and we have plenty of time to laugh together so that my evenings
become enviably ___________________.

Conclusion

In fact, my evenings are my favorite time of the day, which I cannot _________for
anything in the world. In my view, to make our evenings special, our evening
activities should be totally different from the type of activities we do during the
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daytime. Doing nothing but enjoying the amazing beauty of ___________ with soft
music is also an activity that I can recommend. After all, evenings are special
moments when we should take things easy and enjoy ourselves in order to
become ____________________ for our next mornings.