practice fluency, editing, and revising.

Here are the steps:

1. The teacher dictates the beginning of a story.  Even something as simple as; It was a dark and stormy night and all of a sudden I heard a loud crash.  I ran into the….
2. All students will write the beginning of the story as dictated by the teacher
3. Then students continue to write for one minute (this can be changed to accommodate class size and student levels).  At the end of this minute the teacher says ’Switch’.  All students move one seat over (or they can pass their papers one person over).
4. The ‘new’ story is read and then the students continue to write on this story.  I usually allow a minute for the first few switches and then increase the time a bit so students can read and write.
5. Once students are back in their original seat, they have a story that will need editing and revising.
6. Students can then discuss revisions and changes that they made.  A discussion of reading and writing under time pressure can also be a productive outcome from this activity.

Use Subject Matter Related to Academic Success

Write simple sentences related to one, relevant subject matter on as many index cards as there are students in the class. One sentence is written onto each card. Give out one card to each student in the class. Going around the room, have each student read their sentence card aloud. By the time all students have read, the main idea or subject of the activity will be clear and can be written onto the board and some topic sentences can be brainstormed.

Explain to Students that Sentences Have Natural “Pairs”

Since not all sentences lend themselves to being combined and not all subsequent subjects can be linked together, tell the students that they each have one perfect match in the class. In other words, someone else in the class is holding a card that demonstrates a “natural match”. It is their job to communicate, mingle and find the match that best suits their own sentence card.

Mix Up the Matches

Have students “pair” up with their match. They should then combine their sentences into one cohesive sentence. The students then write their new sentence onto the board.

Create Academic Writing

After all the pairs have written their sentences onto the board, tell the students to construct a well-organized paragraph about the subject matter at hand. Students should work individually and should be told that just as sentences have logical matches, a paragraph should move in a logical order; thereby, instructing the students to use a rational sequence by organizing the information cohesively.

Spice Up the Paragraph

Of course the end product will be much greater if it is edited and supplemented by a main idea or topic sentence, so tell students to add one of the previously brainstormed examples or, even better yet, come up with their own!

What is a Phrasal Verb Web?

A phrasal verb web is a simple diagram drawn on the board in order to illustrate varying phrasal verbs that share the same particles. For example, on the board, the particle up could be drawn in the center of the word web. Around the web would be the multiple verbs that share that particle to create a two-part verb. Some phrasal verbs that would be related to an example for a transitive phrasal verb review would include but are not limited to: turn up, give up, set up, bring up, etc.

Word Webs Can Create More Excitement

Word webs are useful since they be used as a game-like activity in which the students are asked to brainstorm, review or test their understanding of phrasal verbs. The activity can be done as a whole class, in pairs or in groups. Most importantly, however, they should be used as a method to grab the attention of the students.

Creating the Web

Students create the webs after the teacher supplies the particle to be used. The students brainstorm the verbs that relate to the particle around the web within a given time frame. When the time frame has been exhausted, the team or pair with the most brainstormed phrasal verbs is rewarded.

Using the Web in Context

After the brainstormed verbs are placed onto the board as a whole class activity, students should be asked to use the phrasal verb in context. This can be done by assigning one phrasal to each student or, if there aren’t enough verbs to do this, to pairs. Students should be given time to review the meaning(s) of their phrasal verb and construct their sentence. The students should come up to the board to write their sentences. At this time, if any of the phrasal verbs have an alternate meaning which has not been used, it would be ideal to discuss and show examples.

1. Explain the concept.
Write on the board the following three statements:

I know this is correct.
I’m not sure if this is correct.
I know this isn’t correct.

In their first language, students know when they’ve made a mistake and usually self-correct.

Explain to students that, in their first language, they know when they’ve made a mistake and usually self-correct. Tell students that they can learn to develop that “sense” in a second language, as well. Give examples by putting three level-appropriate words on the board that are difficult to spell, with one spelled correctly and the other two spelled incorrectly. Ask students to identify which of the three statements on the board express their feelings about the spelling of each word.

2. Practice the Process.
Provide students with a short student-written paragraph that has level-appropriate errors in it. Ask students to identify the statements that they are sure are correct, that they are not sure about, and they know are incorrect by underlining, highlighting, and circling. Then, have them compare.

3. Narrow the Focus.
Explain to the students that they should only focus on fixing the problems in their writing that they are sure about. It is worth explaining to students that focusing on too many problems at one time is both de-motivating and ineffective.

1. Encourage students to keep an error log. In the log (download an example), students will write down 4-5 mistakes that they made in each essay. One simple way to keep a log is to print out tables with four columns:

It is helpful to give examples of completed error logs to students before they do it on their own. Students can use the log to notice patterns in their own writing.

2. Ask students to read the essay out loud. Students can read it to themselves, to a friend, or to a tutor. Many times, students can identify some of their mistakes (especially subject-verb agreement) when they hear it.

3. Highlight specific problems and refer students to the tutoring center. If there are specific and consistent problems in your students’ essays (e.g., informal vocabulary in academic writing, incorrect use of verb forms), you can highlight all the instances of the problem in the essay and refer students to a tutor. You can write a note to the tutor to explain what the issue is for that student (here’s an example). If your school does not have a tutoring center, you can use the specific problems in individual conferences with students.

Cover Expectations
Review this rubric thoroughly with students before they begin to write. Make sure they understand all the grammatical terms and concepts. Provide examples (a model essay is ideal) and explicit instructions particularly on proper formatting in the beginning.

Customize for your Class
Grammar points can be adjusted to fit the particular curriculum for your class or text. Feel free to add or delete the specific grammar points that get called out, or even expand with additional rows or columns. If you have a little time, you can customize the rubric for each writing assignment. Take the common mistakes for the grammar you’ve been teaching and include them in that row. Also add the particular application of grammar in writing that your students have studied.

Increasingly, ESL teachers find themselves teaching “gen 1.5” students who have the oral fluency of native speakers but whose writing is dotted or even riddled with ESL grammar errors.

While we may prefer not to include these nearly-native students in our traditional ESL grammar classes, they may be a great benefit to the classroom. Mixing these two populations in my intermediate and advanced classes has forced me to rethink grammar teaching. Every semester, I review the basic metalanguage of college freshman composition classes and the grammar structures I choose to cover.

Find the Subject

In advanced academic English, locating the subject that the verb must agree with is often challenging.  In the following example, nearly every word may look like the subject to a student:

   S-sing                                                    V-sing

The future employee entrance of the company buildings controls the flow of traffic.

More importantly, adding a final -s to a singular verb seems counterintuitive for students. To heighten student awareness of these challenges, for the first several weeks of class, in every writing assignment, my students locate and label (with sing or pl) every subject and verb in every sentence they have written.

After self-editing, students exchange their work—whenever possible, ESL students exchange with “gen 1.5” students—to peer-edit as well. This process may seem tedious, but once students feel better equipped to “notice” subjects and verbs, I find subject-verb agreement becomes much more purposeful.

1. Be clear about the role of the reviewer. Often students turn into proofreaders (and inaccurate ones at that!) when reading another student’s writing. Be sure to clarify what they should be looking for when doing peer review activities. Because peer review is a good way for the writer to clarify ideas and learn about the reader’s perspective, it is often best to provide the reviewer with content-based goals (e.g., does the essay match the thesis statement?) or specific language use that has been covered in class (e.g., noting how logical connectors are used).
2. Ask students to outline their partner’s essay. Outlines are usually used a pre-writing activity. However, they can also be helpful as a post-writing tool. If students are not able to outline their partner’s essays, it means that some elements might be missing, such as a thesis statement or a topic sentence.
3. Focus on vocabulary. Ask the peer reviewer to notice and comment on the use of academic vocabulary or content-specific vocabulary in the essay. Ask the peer reviewer to identify terms that are well-defined in the essay, as well as terms that are not defined (or poorly defined), and then have them give ways to define it.
4. Make it a positive activity. Encourage students to think of this activity as part of the writing process instead of an evaluation or assessment. Be sure to provide examples of great writers who use reviewers during the writing process to make their work stronger. Suggest that they should consider that they are collaborating more than reviewing.