ESL Essay Writing Activities.The Structure of an Essay

The thing that is first will have to do is make sure your ESL students understand how an essay must be structured. Generally, it is advisable to introduce students to the traditional essay structure that is 5-paragraph

• 1st Paragraph: The introduction, which lets readers know what the essay will be about.
• 2nd-4th Paragraphs: the human body paragraphs, which provide arguments and evidence to aid the point that is main of essay.
• 5th Paragraph: the final outcome, which summarizes the body paragraphs and reiterates the point that is main of essay.

Keeping a visual with this structure will allow students to begin to see the whole picture so that they know about what they’re working towards while writing an essay. It may be very challenging for ESL students to place their thoughts in order; therefore, it is vital to introduce activities and methods that will help result in the writing process easier.

Essay Writing Activities

The following activities can be applied in the ESL classroom to greatly help students better understand the essay writing process. Make changes as required to match students that are best‘ English and writing ability.

Hamburger Essay Builder

This could be a organizer that is graphic or piece-by-piece project, to help students better understand the dwelling of an essay.

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1. Give students an image that is outline of hamburger
2. Provide label sections for every associated with the hamburger parts (top bun, tomato, lettuce, meat, bottom bun)
3. Have students label each area of the hamburger to represent every section of the essay (introduction, body paragraphs, and conclusion).
4. Provide students with cut outs shaped like each one of the hamburger parts.
5. Have students write out the description for each of this corresponding essay parts on their buns, lettuce, tomato source hyperlink, and meat.
6. When finished, have students assemble their essay hamburger to use as reference if they begin writing their first essays.

Free Writing

Make use of this fun activity to have students practice their writing skills because they race against the clock. The item of this activity would be to have students focus more about getting words written down, much less on fretting about punctuation, grammar, and spelling. Make sure they know errors will not count. The target is to write as much as possible within the right time period limit for them to see how much that amount will increase every time the game is completed in class.

1. Provide a listing of interesting topics students can select from (favorite hobby, childhood memory, future goals, embarrassing story, family tradition).
2. Tell students they will write for a designated amount of time (2-5 minutes based upon the age/language level) without stopping.
3. When completed, allow students to read their writing aloud, or in pairs, so that they can enjoy the other person’s work.

This really is a way that is great help take the pressure away from ESL students as it pertains to writing. Be encouraging while making sure to keep the experience lighthearted and fun.

Creative Writing Activities

Have students practice their writing skills by incorporating mini creative writing lessons into the day to day routine. Allowing students to publish from many different angles can help them feel more content utilizing the English language in written form.

• Use writing prompts that may spark students‘ interests by having them come up with their favorite sport, movie, book, hobby, vacation, or holiday.
• Have students write a sequence piece explaining just how to do something they truly are great at (cooking a meal, scoring a soccer goal, writing a blog post).
• Ask students an opinion question; for example: could you rather save cash or spend it on a secondary? Do you would imagine it is important to complete homework? Have them write out their answer, along with a reason for that answer.
• Pose the relevant question, “What would you do if. “ and add in different scenarios. As an example, “What would you do if you got lost in a city that is big? What can you do in the event that you won a million dollars?“ Have students write down their responses to made within the scenarios.

Help students identify grammar that is common punctuation, and spelling errors, which will have popped up inside their creative writing pieces by having them work in pairs to edit one another’s work. Emphasizing this step that is important help develop your ESL students‘ self-editing skills.

Argumentative Essay Debates

To really make the process for writing an essay that is argumentative, hold debates in class to exhibit students how to collect supportive evidence, examples, and details before they begin writing. Make note of new vocabulary, concepts, and ideas from the board so students can better understand the key pieces to include in this essay style.

1. Divide your class into two groups.
2. Introduce a topic that is debatable students will be able to understand.
3. Write out a few higher-order questions for each group to go over.
4. Ask the questions aloud; let the debate start out with moderation and extra higher-ordering questioning.
5. Have students take notes regarding the discussed main points, examples, support, and oppositions to their side of the argument.

Once the debate is complete, look at ways for students to set up this information into an overview so it are able to be used to form a solid essay that is argumentative.