TEACHING WRITING

SOME IDEAS FOR ‘HANDS-ON’ ACTIVITIES

CYNTHIA C. JAMES (SKK2)
SENTENCE CONSTRUCTION
SCAFFOLDING ACTIVITIES TO HELP
WEAKER LEARNERS
• To help students remember vocabulary and key phrases
• Teacher provides the words and phrases for ‘subject’,
‘verb’ and ‘object / complement’
• Students label picture and construct sentences based
on the picture

LABELING ACTIVITY
• In pairs or small groups
• Good students help their friends
• Students match words and phrases based on what they
can see in the picture
• Students work together to construct sentences

MATCHING ACTIVITY
• Turn the activity into a group competition to make it
more interesting
• Students get into small groups
• Distribute envelopes containing words needed
to construct sentences for the picture
• Students work together in their groups to arrange
the words and form the correct sentences for the
picture
• Give one point for each correct sentence
• Group with the most points win

ARRANGING WORDS
• Laminate a few pieces of white A4-sized papers and use
these as 'mini whiteboards' for the students to write
their sentences on, using non-permanent / dry-erase
markers
• Students write their sentences on the 'mini whiteboard‘
• The non-permanent / dry-erase markers on the laminated
piece of paper can be easily erased using tissue paper or
a piece of crumpled paper
• The students hold the 'mini whiteboard' up to show the
sentence that they've written. The pair / group with
the correct sentence will get a point

‘Mini Whiteboard’
• To revise the sentence structure
• Assign students into small groups and give each group
one ‘sentence panel’
• Students work together to form sentences
• Students may write on the panel using dry-erase markers
or post-its

‘Sentence Panel’
• To revise the basic sentence structure
• Melody is used to aid memorisation
• Two basic structures:
• Subject – Verb – Object
• There is / There are

Singing ‘the structure’

How many – Subject – Be
– Verbing –
What/Where/Who
There – be – how many –
nouns - place
WRITING REASONS
IDEAS AND ACTIVITIES
• Help students to organise thoughts and ideas
• Revise vocabulary and aid memorisations

GRAPHIC ORGANISER /
MIND MAP
• Help students distinguish between facts and reasons
• Help students to organise thoughts and ideas

FACTS - REASONS
• Hands-on activities to revise important vocabulary and
key-words
• Aids memorisations

VOCABULARY WORK
• Introduce students to logical connectors to help
make their paragraph more interesting
• Help students to revise and remember some key
sentences and vocabulary

Using songs
‘The Reasons’ ;-)
NARRATIVE WRITING
SOME IDEAS FOR NOTE EXPANSION
Writing ‘in reverse’
Scaffolded Writing
‘Operate’ the sentences
Use simple stories
• For more tips and ideas on ‘hands-on’ activities
for writing and the scaffolded writing strategy,
visit:
‘Beyond Chalk & Talk’
http://cindyjbj79.blogspot.
com