Subject: Re: Writing for low-level students
...The students have now had 13 weeks of English instruction, 18 hours a
week, but they are still really low level.
Here are the topics for this term:
1. My favorite spot (written as if they were actually there at the moment of writing.."I am standing in XXXXX". They have to evoke what they see, feel, hear, think, and smell in that spot).
2. Where were you on September 11, 2001? What were you doing when you heard about the attacks on the World Trade Center? Did it change your mind about coming to or being in New York?
3. Describe one of your grandparents (alive or dead)
4. Describe wedding customs in ___________ (they had to interview a class- mate from a different country to do this and then write about wedding traditions in their partner's country)
5. A recipe (we are making a cookbook)
6. Money is the most important thing in life - do you agree or disagree?
7. Describe your dream house - money no problem.
8.
Every week, I work with one or two of the students individually. They tell me what they want to say in their paper and I write it out (in good English!) exactly as they tell it to me. They then have to organize this content so that it makes sense and presents the ideas in a logical and attractive way. I find that since they don't have to worry about the grammar, vocabulary or punctuation that I have done for them, they can concentrate only on their ideas. They love to do this! At the end of the week, everyone in the class reads these "cooperative ventures". I don't let the whole class see them before the end of the week, partly because the writers are still working on the organization of the content but mostly because my words and phrases tend to become models for the rest of the group ...and then they just copy them!
Every student in the class gets a chance to write collaboratively with me at least once in the 8-week term. This term it's much easier than usual because I only have 13 students.
Anthea Tillyer City University of New York
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