Why is Writing important for an EFL teacher?

1. Why is Writing important for an EFL teacher?
Because teachers are going to teach hoe to write and students need to be involved in writing exercises. It is one of the skills that they need to improve to learn English. Also because it is a way to reinforce what a student has learned.

2. What is the best way to teach writing to children? to teenagers? ( provide examples and references)

• 
  Introduce the topic students will be learning about. You can use pictures if you like.
• Conduct a group discussion of the subject in general – this will give everyone ideas for what to write about. Assign the writing task and deal with any misunderstandings.
• Ask a student to think about who is going to read the piece of writing (e.g. children) considering style, information, layout etc.
• Show the students other short children’s stories to illustrate the correct form.
• Using the initial discussion as a springboard, get the students to brainstorm ideas in groups, which you can then write up on the board. Students can then choose which ones they want to use in their own story.
• Edit and put the ideas into a logical sequence individually or in groups.
• Construct an example framework text in small groups or with the whole class.
• Get the students to prepare a rough draft in groups or individually.
• Get the students to discuss their work with each other and finally with the teacher.
• Prepare and write final text.
• Go through each student’s work individually with them, discussing strengths and weaknesses of the work.

http://www.i-to-i.com/teaching-activities-writing.html

http://www.eflpress.com/how_to_be_an_effectwrt_efl.html

The friendly Dragon

What does it likes to do on Saturdays?
It likes to go to the river to swim.

What is the secret it doesn’t want anyone to know?
It can’t fly

What does it think it’s does well ?
Swim and blow fire.

What is it not very good at?
It is not very good at flying.

What is its favorite memory?
When it was watching the princes in the castle

Is it friendly or nasty?
It is friendly

Who is its best friend?
A little bird

What does it want most in the whole world?
To fly


This is the story of a friendly dragon that lived in the forest and its best friend was a little bird. Once he was trapped by bad king to watch a princes who was captured in a castle but when this king realized that the dragon couldn’t fly, he sent a soldier to kill him, but the dragon escaped running very fast. Everyone laughed and made jokes about him because he couldn’t fly. The dragon felt very sad because of that.
One day its friend saw him crying and asked him what was wrong, the dragon told him what was happening and asked the bird to teach him to fly. The bird got a little bit sad because he thought to himself how could a small bird teach a dragon to fly. They try many ways but no one succeed.
Some day some thing happened, the forest started to burn and all the animals started to run every way. The dragon started to look for his friend, and suddenly he saw the tree where he lived burning and the little bird hurts. Suddenly the dragon started to fly to rescue his friend. The dragon fly until the top of the tree and reach his friend.
After that they had to look for another forest to live in, but it was easier because now they both could fly together.

Opinion

1. What is your opinion about using blogs to teach "writing" in EFL
classrooms?
I think it is a very gut tool to practise writing, it is a different and fanny way to lear how to write in english. Also students got motivated to lear english because they like working on internet.

2. Do you like working using blogs?
Most of the time I like to work with blogs but sometimes there to much to write and we don’t have enough time to do it. But i think it is funny.

3. What are some of the advantages of using blogs ?
It is a fanny activity, you can add as many images as you want, you don’t have to spend money printing .

4. What are some of the disadvantages?
That some times internet doesn’t work, so the class doesn’t go on as it shoud, and that if we made mistakes while writing everybody will see them. I don’t like that.

5. Do you plan to use blogs in the future?
I think thst children will enjoy working with internet so if it is posible I will work with blogs.
Do you have any suggestions to improve these "lab sessions"? or was everything all right?
I think that the classes were ok, the only problem is that sometimes we had to write a lot and the time was not enough.

That Darn parrot

Cats are smart. They make great detectives, the way they sneak around and notice everything.
I ought to know. I am one -- a cat AND a detective.
And I'm telling you, something just isn't right in my house. Trouble makes my whiskers twitch.
It all started when that parrot moved in. If you can call it a parrot. I'm starting to have my doubts. It doesn't look like any parrot I've seen before. Then there's the cage.
That cage is odd. Ms. D hung it up in the living room, and whenever she's out for the day, that parrot unfolds new parts that stick up like metal poles. Then it makes sounds into its metal bird seed tray, like it's talking to someone.
One day, I climbed up behind the curtains to be able to hear. I overheard that parrot-thing said to its tray, "Two more days and the zingplod will be OURS, cat or no cat!"
Well, I don't know what a zingplod is, but my whiskers told me this was trouble, and trouble called for action. I swung out on the curtain, giving that bird a growl to scare the feathers off of it. Then I raised my paw to smack down that radio it was using.
Just then, Mrs. D walked through the door. And don't you know, that parrot started flapping and crying like I had just chewed it up and spat it out. "Oh, you bad kitty!" yelled Mrs. D. She rushed over and grabbed me by the collar.
The cat was locked in the basement and no one could hear or see him.
Sudenly, the cat saw an ugly shadow throw a hole which was in the door. It was a very extrange shadow . So the cat said: I have to get out of here. Then he looked up and saw a small window on the wall, he gave a big jump and reached the window. He went out the basemet and went to see what the parrot was doing. Suddenly he saw a very agly monster, it was from another planet , it was an alien!!!
The parrot and the alien where talking, so the cat got closer to here what they were talking about. He could hear the word zingplod, so he peid more attention, and what he hear was that zingplod was a extrange machine to desappear humans. So the cat said: I will never allow they disappear humans.so the cat started to look for the machine for every corner of the house, but he didn’d find it, so when the parrot went out the cage, the cat saw thate in the cage there was a very small box, he took it from the cage and realized taht it was the zingplod. Suddenly he hear the cat and the alien talking very close, and suddenly they entered to the house and saw that the cat had the box, they started to fight, but the cat was more intelligented than they bouth together, he push a small botton the box had and a very bright light left them almost blind, then the cat saw that there were no alien, and the parrot was again in its cage but he coudn’t speak any more. The cat was very sorprised becuaese he culdn’t understand haw that small box coud capture that big alien.
The cat was very happy becaue finally he could safe the humanity and also because the parrot it wasn’t be a problem any more.


Now, I ask you -- how can I save this house if I'm locked in the basement? Hmmm?

Use your imagination

Ellen was 17 years when she had to move to a new city. There she had to look for a new scholl to study. She was a very shy person and it was very dificult fer her to make new friends. the first day she went to school dhe didn't talk to anybody, because she was afraid taht the other students didn't want to talk with her, she looked haw the other students tolked and laugh, and she wanted to be like them. At the end of the day she came back home very sad because she didn't make new friends. Some days later, one of the students asked Ellen to work with her because they had to work in pairs. Ellen got very sorprised because of that. After that he desided to mke an effot to be more talkative because it was the only way she could make more friens. At the end of the year Ellen couldn't count all the friend she had. So she gave thinks God for have given her the oportunty to know knew peolple.

New vocabulary

Stunned:Someone is stunned when she or he reseives a news, so she or he got very sorprised or scared about it.



Miscarriage: when a woman has a spontaneous abortion.

News Articicle

The article I read was about a woman who was pregnat, whe she went to the doctor the nurse who attended her told her hat her baby was dead so she coul take something like ans aspirin to shorten the dead baby or an abbortion. The woman had just 8 week so she decided to wait some days before duing something like that. after that she realize her baby was't dead so she got so angry with the nurse. She has 2 more children and she is waiting for having her doughter... she sent a complaint to the hospital so this do not happen to another woman. I got very sorprised with this article because I imagine what would happen if that woman had dan what the nurse told her to do with her baby. We all should have more than one opinion when we go to the doctor.
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-513844/Pregnant-woman-told-miscarriage-discovers-baby-alive-month-later.html