CA3.

1 Citizen Media: Going viral

Pre-tasks

1. Start by doing the self-correcting exercises which you can find in the classroom in the
Resources section: Citizen Media: Going viral. You can find the Resources section in the
top right corner of the classroom. As you are working through the exercises, take note of any
new language you learn. You will need this to prepare the Tasks below.

When you have finished, share one thing that you have learnt from these resources (e.g.
vocabulary, expressions or grammar) to the I have learnt something today folder in the
Forum.

2. Prepare for the Task — writing a story.

CA3.1 INDIVIDUAL WRITING TASK

a) Task instructions

Stories wanted!

Imagine an international magazine is looking for short stories to publish in its next issue.
Make your submission by writing about a real experience or create a fictional story set in
the past. If you decide to do a fiction story it must start with the following sentence: ‘I was
completely asleep when a deafening sound woke me up.’

1. Think of a title for your story.

2. Organise your story in 4-5 paragraphs.
3. Use a range of past tenses: past simple, past continuous, present perfect and past
perfect as well as at least 4-5 phrasal verbs for experiences.
4. Write 200-250 words.

b) Language focus

● Past tenses
● Phrasal verbs for experiences

c) Task type and format requirements

● Story
● Underline all the forms of the past tenses and the phrasal verbs for experiences
you used in the story.

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CA3.1 Citizen Media: Going viral

ORGANISATIONAL CHART

Paragraph Contents of each paragraph

1 Begin with a suspenseful or engaging first sentence. Then write the

paragraph with a bit of mystery so that the reader wants to find out what
the story is all about. Set the stage: Who was there? Where were they?
When did it happen? Why were they there?

2 What happened first? How did it happen?

3 What happened next? How did that happen?

4 What was the result? How did it end? Your last sentence should end with
an interesting summary statement or a dramatic final comment. You can
end with a question, a statement about the results, or lessons learned
from the experience.

Task 1

Overview
Task type To do Where Length % CA mark
Individual Story Forum 200-250 30
and RAC/ REC words

Make sure to include the required language focus (see next page).

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CA3.1 Citizen Media: Going viral

Individual Writing Checklist

Make sure you have checked all of the following:

Grammar point Points to pay attention to:

Have the right verb tenses been used (i.e. past tenses for a
Verbs story set in the past)? Are they consistent with their singular or
plural subjects?

Subjects and Do all the verbs have a subject? Are the pronouns consistent
pronouns with the nouns (i.e. singular/plural;masculine/feminine/neutral)?
Do any of the verbs have a “double subject” (e.g. ‘the boy who
he lives next door’)?

Sentence Do the sentences have a subject and verb (and object if

structure required)? Do they need to be split into smaller units?

Word order Is the subject before the verb? Is the object after the verb? Do
you need to change the word order for questions?

You should all also look at other areas such as articles, prepositions, vocabulary (e.g.
avoiding repetition and false friends).

LANGUAGE FOCUS

For this task you must use the following structures in the CA3 self-study resources:
narrative tenses to describe past events and phrasal verbs for experiences. Pay special
attention to these two features.

ASSESSMENT CRITERIA
Please see Assessment and Feedback in the classroom.

Task 2

Q & A (FORUM)

Read at least two of your classmates’ stories and think about them carefully as you read.
Think of a question to ask them about what you’ve read.

You can ask questions about the content of their stories or ask them to clarify something you
didn’t understand.

Feel free to continue responding to your classmates in a dialogue!