writing tasks for the primary classroom - home | … · morgan, j. and rinvolucri, m. (1988) once...

David Bradshaw

TESOL-Spain, 2012

This talk aims to present different writing activities which can be used in the Primary classroom, both in groups and individually. Each activity will be explained and ideas for adapting it to different classroom environments will be provided, paying particular attention to the CLIL classroom.

David Bradshaw has been teaching in bilingual schools in Spain for just over twenty years. He is currently working in the design and development of a bilingual programme in a group of private schools in Madrid. His main interests are in the teaching of writing and the preparation of students for the Cambridge exams.

What do we mean by ‘writing tasks’?

Early Years writing

CLIL: Science, Arts and Crafts

More extended writing activities

Creation of written texts

Communication through written medium

Self-expression through writing

Writing titles for drawings

Scaffolding▪ Teacher acts as scribe▪ Helps child formulate the title▪ Encourage child to copy title

Labelling▪ Pictures▪ Wall displays

Jumbled words▪ Teacher-generated▪ Student-generated

luksl

cbakbone

laoclr bone

lerdoshu blade

sbir

preup mra bone

rwloe mar bones

dnah bones

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Adapted from Deller & Price, 2007

Writing puzzles

Organising texts Group activity

Monsters Gymkhana

Parts of body Have got

Team participation

Penpal project

Writing letters to pupils of other schools, in other cultures

Writing to other classes in the same school

INTRODUCE YOURSELF LETTER: LET ME INTRODUCE MYSELF!

_________________ _____________________(town/village) ( date)

 Hello! My name is ______________________________________. I’m ________________________ years old. How old are you?  I live in _________________, in ______________________________.

(your country)

Where do you live? I’m a boy. / I´m a girl.  I like _____________________and ___________________________. I don’t like __________________________________. Bye for now!  _____________________________________

(your first name)

Describing processes: The water cycle

Write one or two sentences to explain what is happening at each arrow.

Recipes

International food festival Prepare food from around the world Explain recipe to visitors Book-making / blog

Exploring other alphabets

Write your name in hieroglyphics. Don’t forget to put the word in a ‘cartouche’.

Write a secret message in hieroglyphics. Can you read the message of any of your friends?

Copy a message from one of your friends.

Making cards and invitations

Special days. Father’s Day, Mother’s Day, Christmas, Easter

Personal message

For checking comprehension of a story told in class.

Combination of drawing and writing to convey meaning.

Eight picture stories.

(Gray, 2000)(Gray, 2000)

(Gray, 2000)(Gray, 2000)

(Gray, 2000)(Gray, 2000)

Mr Roger and John.

One night a boy called John was studying history in his bedroom until half past ten. He was very tired.

 The next day it was a sunny day. He woke up at half past eight. John dressed up and left the house.

 At 8:45 John was in the bus until he got to school.

 When he got to school it was 9:00. The history exam had started. Mr Roger told him off, but he could do the history exam. The children had already started the exam.

 When they gave him the mark John was surprised because he got an A. His parents were very proud and congratulated him.

DELLER, S. and PRICE, C. (2007) Teaching Other Subjects Through English Oxford, Oxford University Press

GRAY, E. (2000) Skills Builder for Young Learners Flyers 1, Student’s Book Newbury, Express Publishing

MORGAN, J. and RINVOLUCRI, M. (1988) Once Upon a Time: using stories in the language classroom Cambridge, Cambridge University Press

Thank you for your attentiondavid.modernlanguages@gmail.com