Writing 1 Teacher’s notes

Test practice: Writing task 1: Describing

Activity: Writing Task 1
Aims: Focus on Writing Task 1; practise task types:
describing trends in a graph; practise using vocabulary
to describe trends
Topic: Outdoor activities
Marking: For Writing task band assessment criteria, see
Course Book, page 190
Classroom dynamics: Pair work; individual
Time: 45 minutes
Procedure
Lead-in
1 Put students into pairs and ask them to discuss the
questions. Get feedback from the class.
2 Check students’ understanding of the outdoor
activities and then ask them to rank the six outdoor
activities in the order they think they are popular in
their country. They can then discuss whether they
think each of the activities is becoming more or
less popular. Check answers with the class.
Test training: Understanding statistical data
3 Put students into pairs and ask then to look at
the graph and answer the two questions. Check
answers with the class.
Suggested answers
1 It shows the percentage of people participating in six different
outdoor activities in Australia between 1997 and 2007.
2 The changes in popularity over the ten-year period of the
different outdoor activities.
4 Ask students to do this individually and then
compare their answers with a partner. Check
answers with the class.
facts presented in a graph
5 Ask students to complete the paragraph
individually then compare answers with a partner.
Check answers with the class.
1 line graph shows 2 can see 3 fell in 4 slightly 5 fall
6 dropped to 7 increasing then falling 8 increased
9 significantly 10 decreased more sharply
6 Remind students that in the IELTS test they do
not need to write about everything in the graph,
but should pick out the main features and trends
to include in their answers. Ask students to work
individually and write a paragraph comparing
the data and trends for the other three outdoor
activities. Set a time limit of around ten minutes to
do this activity, then put students into pairs to read
their partner’s paragraph and give them feedback
on how well they think they have done and what
they could improve on.
Sample answer
This line graph illustrates the proportion of people in Australia
taking part in outdoor activities over a ten-year period, between
1997 and 2007. Of the six activities included in the graph the
least popular was horse riding with participation rates of under
ten percent. This figure remained the same over the ten-year
period. The second and third least popular outdoor activities
were camping and cycling. Only around 23 percent of people
enjoyed each activity in 1997 with this figure increasing to around
30 percent ten years later. However, the percentage of campers
increased to over 30 percent in 2001 before falling slightly. On
the other hand, the number of people participating in cycling
increased gradually from 1997 to 2007.
Follow-up
7 Put students into pairs and ask them to discuss the
questions together. Ask a few students to feedback
to the rest of the class on their discussion.

Suggested answers
1 F The popularity of cycling decreased increased slightly
between 1997 and 2007.
2 T
3 F For the first few years the popularity of water activities
increased reaching a peak in 2007 2001.
4 F In 1997, the most popular activity was walking picnicking.
5 F The popularity of camping fell significantly slightly between
2001 and 2007.
6 F Between 1997 and 2001 the popularity of picnicking
increased sharply slightly.
7 T
8 F The popularity of water activities remained the same fell
slightly between 2001 and 2007.

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