Tag Archives: writing

How long’s a piece of string?

Posted on April 18, 2018 by

Photo by Fleur Treurniet on Unsplash Here’s a quick classroom task for upper primary, secondary, teens or adults. I’ve found it appeals most to younger teens. Ask your class a question with “How long” e.g “How long does it take to digest a … Continue reading →

Posted in digital literacy, lesson ideas | Tagged , , | 1 Comment

100 words

Posted on March 6, 2014 by

Following on from the class I wrote about in the last post , I received this piece of homework from one of the students.  I’ve added the photo as it’s one of my favourite beaches too – cows and all! TEXT: MY  … Continue reading →

Posted in musings, reflecting on teaching, thoughts on language, thoughts on learning, thoughts on teaching | Tagged , , , , , | 4 Comments

Carnaval

Posted on February 16, 2012 by

It’s the Thursday before carnival weekend.  Preparations are being made throughout the town. The lights are up, the burger and hot dog stalls are in place, there are fluorescent wigs and plastic hats fluttering in the wind in the cathedral … Continue reading →

Posted in lesson ideas | Tagged , , , , | 12 Comments

Back to the drawing board

Posted on November 23, 2011 by

This is a very simple lesson outline that worked well for me.  It grew out of a lesson plan prepared by a colleague for the team of teachers teaching supplementary skills classes in a local state school.  For me it … Continue reading →

Posted in reflecting on teaching, thoughts on teaching | Tagged , , , , , | 15 Comments

An urban tale

Posted on May 20, 2011 by

… or the glass elevator This has been one of my favourite story-writing activities for a long, long time.  My dad first introduced me to it – or the underlying technique – when I was running a creative writing option … Continue reading →

Posted in creative writing, lesson ideas | Tagged , , | 26 Comments

Plan B

Posted on April 13, 2011 by

One of those days … You know the kind, where nothing really works!  I had planned to use an infographic in class with my high school students. We’re coming towards the end of the course and I wanted to do … Continue reading →

Posted in lesson ideas, thoughts on teaching | Tagged , | 8 Comments

Questioning the question

Posted on April 8, 2011 by

This is a technique I’ve been using with my mixed level high school classes recently.  The aim is to generate ideas before writing a composition using question words as prompts.  It’s very simple, very basic, but so far has been … Continue reading →

Posted in thoughts on teaching | Tagged , , , | 8 Comments

The dog ate it

Posted on April 1, 2011 by

This is a short post about a very simple afterthought that caught my class’s imagination.   Last week I was running a workshop with some teachers at a school in Seville (a big thank you to Els and Enda for … Continue reading →

Posted in reflecting on teaching | Tagged , , , , | 17 Comments

Early mornings

Posted on December 3, 2010 by

[Tick Tock by Kirstea at flickr – a creative commons image] This is my favourite lesson for giving a class a first taste of creative writing.  It’s based on a technique used in workshops with writers writing in their L1.  … Continue reading →

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Writing to learn

Posted on November 23, 2010 by

This post  was inspired by Dave Dodgson in Ankara, Turkey, and his account of using dictogloss with young learners. I’m a big fan of dictogloss*  (or dictocomp as Marisa Constantides calls it in a comment on the same blog post) … Continue reading →

Posted in thoughts on learning, thoughts on teaching | Tagged , , | 6 Comments