Category Archives: •Advanced & High- Intermediate Writing

• Engaging Grammar Group Activities (Even For Hesitant Students)

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group-work

Engaging group work

(This posting includes a handout which you are welcome to use with your students.)*

Group work in a grammar class can be a powerful learning tool if it is carefully structured.  The format for the activities that I’ll present here has been effectively used with students from lower level to advanced levels. And the structure of these activities makes it easy for even the most passive students to be active; in fact, many times, the normally quiet students seem to shine while doing these.  Another positive aspect of these is that they are non-threatening for students to engage in.

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• Writing class: Dealing with plagiarism (Don’t take it personally)

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A learning opportunity

A learning opportunity

In October 2016, Tiffany Martínez, a Latina student at Suffolk University in Boston, was accused of plagiarism by her sociology professor in front of the entire class. Huffington Post plagiarism story   What caused him to be suspicious?  The word “hence.”  On her paper, he circled the place where she had written the word “hence” and wrote in the margin, “This is not your word.”

In my many years as an ESL instructor, I’ve witnessed instructors over-reacting in suspected plagiarism situations.  It seems as if those instructors were taking it personally, feeling like they were being disrespected.  Too often instructors seem to see it as a “gotcha” opportunity.

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• Writing class: How many drafts should ESL students write? Three!

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Writing three drafts

Writing three drafts

An academic ESL writing instructor whom I was mentoring recently asked me how I dealt with the different drafts of essays.  She was sure that students needed to write at least four or fives drafts, but she wasn’t sure how she should respond to each draft.

At some point in the writing process, the amount of time and energy that the students and instructor put into an essay outweighs the benefits.  If our goal is to help students develop writing skills and to develop writing techniques, writing more than three drafts can be overkill.  And “marking” more than one draft, can be a less-than-optimal use of time and energy by the instructor.

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