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- Students can't select proper words as their vocabulary is poor;
- The inappropriate or colloquial vocabulary is used;
- Students are unable to write in a paragraph form;
- Fear of making grammar errors makes the writing process slow and unsuccessful,
- Students can't use their personal experiences as a basis of writing a sequence from
personal and concrete to impersonal and abstract [7].
So, to inspire students the techniques of applying photographs, guided writing, shared
writing, process and product approaches were used, think aloud methods, critical thinking, extra
writing techniques during implementing creative tasks such as: creating riddles, composing
essays, writing stories, composing drama, improvising scenes, etc.
The following activity set was composed in order to have some fun. This lesson was
conducted after we had passed the theme ―Animals in danger‖ with students. It was not an
ordinary dialogue making up, but a drama with a tableau on the background. Before this activity
was set, the students consolidated all new words, they knew a lot of information about animals in
danger, their sphere of inhabitance, what they like to eat. So, the students were got prepared for
this kind of activity.
Activity #1: ―A Talk to Animals‖ [8]
The aim: to write a drama (dialogue)
Objectives: to develop students‘ writing abilities, to consolidate students‘ new vocabulary,
to develop students‘ creative thinking, to develop students‘ speaking habits and to improve their
pronunciation.
Materials: pictures of animals, a poster with a new vocabulary, cards, worksheet.
Procedure
I Pre-writing stage:
1. Warm-up: For this activity the teacher prepares several cards (Name, Lives in, Colour,
Food). Then he gives the cards out saying to choose one animal picture and to fill them.
2. Mind map: The teacher sets a task to brainstorm the themes for conversations with those
animals the students has chosen.
He starts: ―Imagine that you have an ability to talk to animals. What would you talk
about?‖ The students will write them on the board one by one, while the teacher guides.
Possible themes were formulated:
- Problems of the animals‘ inhabitance;
- People‘s treatment of animals;
- Friendship;
- Preference of the animals for foods;
- Different troubles the students get in; etc.
3. The first draft: The students have to choose one of these themes for the first drafting. The
time is given. The students write their first draft.
4. Editing: The students exchange their works for peer-correction. After the works are
returned with grammatical improvements.
II While-writing stage: The teacher gives students worksheets for free imaginative writing,
while they extend their ideas from drafts.
III Post-writing stage:
1. Reading: The students read their works in front of the class, if there are mistakes they
must be corrected immediately. After all students have read their works the teacher and all of
them select the best works for further dramatization.
2. Acting out: As for this activity the tableau is needed, it can be given for a home
assignment. Students are given their roles. So they are divided into groups. Each group prepares
their own dialogues. They are given task to bring all necessary things for a decoration of the
background scene. At least the students must learn their roles in the drama by heart. The dramas
are shot with a camera.
3. Dramas are included into portfolios.
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This activity is the best one in free writing because the students enjoy making and
improvising little scenes. All of the students took active parts. And their writing abilities were
improved.
The main focus of the next activity is on developing writing skills, but it's also good for
developing listening and reading skills and also for practicing past tenses and descriptive
vocabulary. The activity should work at most levels above elementary, as long as the students
have some knowledge of past tenses, but it works best when they also know past continuous/
progressive too. All you need to get things started is a sheet of pla in paper for each pair of
students.
Activity#2: Building up a story
The aim: to make up a story.
Objectives: to develop students‘ writing abilities, to develop students‘ creative thinking and
improvisation from their imagination, to consolidate adjectives to describe appearances and
characters.
Materials: none
Procedure
I Pre-writing stage:
The listening part comes first.
1. The teacher asks the students to draw the face of a person in the top right- hand corner of
the page.
2. Once they've done this, the teacher asks them to give the person a name.
3. Then the teacher asks the students to write on the top left of the page five adjectives to
describe the person's appearance.
4. Next he/she asks the students to write five more adjectives to describe the person's
character.
5. After they've done this the teacher asks the students to write three things that the person
likes doing.
6. Then he/she asks them to write who the person lives with.
In this way they build up a character profile for the person they are going to write about.
II While-writing stage:
The writing part.
1. Now the teacher dictates the following sentence to the students: ―It was a dark and
stormy night and …‖ He/she must stop at this point and should ask them to write in the name of
the person they have drawn and followed by the word ‗was‘.
2. Then the teacher asks the students to complete the sentence from their imagination and
add one more sentence.
3. Once all the students have added a sentence to their stories, the teacher gets them to stop
and passes the paper to the pair on their right (this means that every pair of students now has a
new character).
4. The students then read through the information and the beginning of the story and then
add one more sentence to it.
5. Once they've done this, the teacher asks them once more to pass the paper to the next pair
on their right. He/she continues to do this with each pair of students adding a sentence to each
story, gradually building up each story as the papers are passed around the class.
6. The teacher should continue with this until he/she decides that the students are starting to
lose interest or have written enough and then tells them to finish the story.
III Post-writing stage:
Follow up. Once all the stories are complete there are a number of follow-up options the
teacher can try.
1. The teacher puts the stories up around the class and gets the students to read them all and
decide which is best.
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