PROJECTS

Having taught ESL to children for a number of years now, I can say that by far and away the best way to get children excited to write and use their target language in realistic situations is by doing projects. Project-based learning is a great approach to learning that encompasses not only writing, but when conducted in a small groups, can include elements of reading, speaking and listening also; And all of the these skills in a productive and practical manner. Here are a few of the projects I've done in my own classroom:

1. Writing Newspaper Reports

We recently had a unit about newspapers, which was a blast. We were able to go over vocabulary related to crimes and criminals, natural disasters, and the sections of a newspaper. We discussed grammar points like the past continuous tense used in conjunction with the past tense to indicate interrupted actions.

                 Ex. The woman was walking down the street when a man ran by and snatched her purse.

We looked through newspaper articles and discussed all the parts of a report: headlines, bylines, quotes, photographs and captions. Then practiced paring down information to write headlines.

                Ex. A High Court Judge has blocked the proposed ban on tobacco advertisements.

                Judge Blocks Ban on Tobacco Ads

We reviewed how to write quotes using quotation marks and other punctuation marks and finally, to finish off the unit we wrote our own newspaper reports. Here are some of the reports my grade three students wrote.