Page 110 - Teaching English at Primary Level: From Theory into the Classroom

Reading and Writing

My (dream) pet is a .
Its name is .
It is .(colour)
It has got . (body parts)
It has got . (body parts)
It is . (characteristics).
It likes . (activities)
It eats .
It .
Figure 6.4 Guided Writing Activity: Example 2

If you’re angry and you know it, kick your leg.
If you’re angry and you know it, kick your leg.
If you’re angry and you know it and you really want to show it,
if you’re angry and you know it kick your leg.
(Nadja, aged 9)
Figure 6.5 Guided Writing Activity: Example 3

learners need to describe the dogs in the pictures. As can be seen from the
procedure, the learners become more and more autonomous with each sen-
tence.
In the guided writing activity in Figure 6.4, learners are required to com-
plete sentences with their own words based on the support given.
Another type of guided writing activity requires learners to put sentences
into the correct order or write a text based on a model, e.g. a postcard, an
email, a poem or a song. Figure 6.5 is an example of a song rewritten on the
model of the song ‘If you’re happy.’
Guided writing activities may also be linked to reading tasks, using the
transition from reading into writing as a scaffolding strategy. As we can see
from the task in Figure 6.6, pupils first read a description and complete the
text with the given words and then move on to a guided but at the same
time more personalised activity in which they describe their own picture, us-
ingthe first textsassupport.

Free Writing Activities
Free writing activities practise ‘real’ writing and not just the language forms.
The language is not provided, but instead, it is the learners’ own language,

110