Fifty Ways to Teach Writing: Tips for ESL/EFL Teachers

by Maggie Sokolik

Writing ought to be the easiest of the four skills for students of English as a Second or Foreign Language. Unlike listening and reading, the students control all the words. Unlike speaking, the students can go back, check their work, revise it, and resubmit it. It should then follow that writing would be one of the most popular courses to teach. Yet teachers never say, "I can't wait till I get tenure, so I can teach some of those composition classes of 35 students."

However, writing classes also offer the opportunity to see growth, to share important ideas, and to develop a sense of community. The tips in Fifty Ways to Teach Them Writing are chosen with that goal in mind -- to make it easier for students to succeed at becoming better writers, and for instructors to enjoy the teaching of writing.

This book is divided into three categories, which represent the stages of process writing:

a) Pre-writing and planning
b) Writing topics and strategies
c) Editing and revising


The Fifty Ways to Teach Them series gives you a variety of drills, games, techniques, methods, and ideas to help your students master English. Most of the ideas can be used for both beginning and advanced classes. Many require little to no preparation or special materials. The ideas can be used with any textbook, or without a textbook at all. These short, practical guides aim to make your teaching life easier, and your students' lives more rewarding and successful.

101 pages, Kindle Edition

Published December 19, 2012

About the author

Maggie Sokolik holds a BA in Anthropology from Reed College, and an MA in Romance Linguistics and Ph.D. in Applied Linguistics from UCLA. She is the author of over thirty ESL and composition textbooks. She has taught at MIT, Harvard, Texas A&M, and currently UC Berkeley, primarily in College Writing Programs, where she his the Director of College Writing Programs. Most recently, she developed and taught the MOOC course “How to Write an Essay,” through edX (http://edX.org) and in partnership with the US Department of State; this course enrolled over 130,000 students in its first year. She is the founding editor of TESL-EJ (http://tesl-ej.org), a peer-reviewed journal for ESL/EFL professionals, one of the first online journals--nearing its 20th anniversary. Maggie travels frequently to speak about grammar, writing, and instructor education.

Reviews

[Sean Butcher · Rating 5 out of 5]

Smart and Practical

This guide to teaching composition has wide application. Its tips evince the author’s experience and sensitivity to students’ diverse learning needs. Highly recommend.

[Sandy · Rating 4 out of 5]

It is nice to have all of these tips in one place.

[Claudette · Rating 3 out of 5]

(Audiobook) Some good techniques to get students to practice writing.

[Sarah Cowles-Zambon]

Not all of these activities will work in every class, but there are activities in here that will work for your class. Telephone game style story writing went over especially well in my adult ESL class.