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Two Writing Activities for Extensive Reading

In: English Teaching Forum 2004, Volume 42, Issue 3 Format(s): Text

These activities promote writing fluency and self-monitoring as well as skills such as getting started with writing and skimming. Students demonstrate understanding of their extensive reading. Timed repeated thinking and writing is similar to free-writing. It includes brief cycles of writing and reflecting. In each cycle, students start their writing over. A similar activity involves cycles of skimming, writing, and thinking. For variation, students can start from where their last writing left off or choose the most important point as a starting place for the next writing turn.

Lesson Plan: Reading, Writing, and Performing Poetry

In: English Teaching Forum 2006, Volume 44, Number 1 Format(s): Text

This lesson plan contains poetry-related activities that aim to help students read and interpret English poetry, and write their own poems. The activities are introduced in each of the following parts: talking about poetry, understanding poetic devices, interpreting poems, using poetry for language acquisition, writing original poems, performing poetry, and organizing poetry slams.

Writing for the Reader: A Problem-Solution Approach

In: English Teaching Forum 2012, Volume 50, Number 3 Format(s): Text

A “how to” piece on using the problem-solution approach to writing academic articles, this article explores (originally published in 1997) defining the audience, defining the author, and evaluating the structure of an article, and it outlines helpful questions for writers and readers.

Story 1: Are You Ready to Learn English?

In: Why English? Comics for the Classroom Format(s): MP3, Text

The stories in Why English? Comics for the Classroom – written by teenagers and young adults – will appeal to learners of all ages. These stories provide an enjoyable opportunity to increase vocabulary, reading comprehension, listening, speaking, and writing.

Reading Eyes Wide Shut: Visualization, Language Learners, and Texts

In: English Teaching Forum 2021, Volume 59, Number 1 Format(s): Text

Using an excerpt from a Jack London story as an anchor text, the authors describe five strategies designed to help students “see” what they are reading; the visualization strategies can “promote active engagement [with the text] both for enjoyment and for learning.”