We all know how hard it is to make them write. And write well, willingly. This is an activity I created to inspire them in this sense. It has worked well so far. I used it with Advanced students, but some teachers have pointed out that they would try it even on lower levels. I'm still not ready.
It comes from a monologue from TV series Breaking Bad. Breaking Bad "is set and produced in Albuquerque, New Mexico, ans tells the story of Walter White, a struggling high school chemistry teacher who is diagnosed with advanced lung cancer at the beginning of the series. He turns to a life of crime, producing and selling methamphetamine with a former student, Jesse Pinkman, with the aim of securing his family's financial future before he dies." [source: Wikipedia] In this particular snippet, Walter White tells his son about a past memory of his own father.
I use this video to make students identify and reflect about strategies to tell a story in the past. They watch the video and receive the script, watch and then read, and after discussing and learning about how you can use different techniques to tell a story in the past (the use of 'would' and the use of the simple present are examples), I ask them to write themselves a narrative piece in the past. I have had nice surprises with this one : )
Cheers,
G.
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Watch the video:
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If you want more information about writing strategies, here are some suggestions:
Writing for Advanced Level English Learners
Theory: A Taxonomy of ESL Writing Strategies, by the Congjun Mu Queensland University of Technology, Shanghai
Thinking Writing
Teaching Writing - eHow
Teaching writing, from the TEFL bootcamp
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