PET writing Part 3. The Fun Bit. Part 2

After the not quite borefest but let's be honest not exactly enthralling, yet incredibly useful, opening to this class I provided you with on Tuesday. Today's blog is going to get your students to practice what they've learnt and get it to stick in their memory.

So after you've made Frankenstein's letter and the students have the options available to them to create their own master piece I present the students a chance to really play with it.

Step 1:   Do a secret Santa style phone number swap.

Step 2: Students to find out who their partner is by sending a hello message on whatsapp. From now on the class must remain silent. Only speaking through whatsapp.

Step 3: Get students to decide who will be person a and who will be person b.

Step 4: Person A sends the greeting to person B.

Step 5: Student B sends the first line of the informal letter to student B. In doing so they should use as much of the text talk vocabulary and as many emojis as they can. eg:

  S'up? Thnx 4 the letter,             I was over the  when it arrived.

Step 6: Partner B must then complete the first paragraph with the reason for not writing sooner.

I'm sry I didn't  b4, I've been really busy with work.


Step 7: Students to work their way through the letter until they've finished their correspondence. When they're done I get them to sit together and decode their messages onto the PET writing part 3 template. 

Step 8:  Finally, ask your students to take their completed templates and write their final, perfect, informal letter.

NB for the final step I like to get my students to write up their final letter on a piece of paper wrapped in tin foil. It is that extra bit of writing outside the box which will really stick what they have done in class in their memories. It will also have them writing the final letter once more and not even complaining about it because it's going to look shiny and lovely. They can then be put up around the classroom of a constant reminder of what a great teacher you are and how much fun they have in your classes.

Well, I really hope your students enjoy this class. I've found it's really worked well with mine and it makes them really happy to leave the books aside for a day and focus on developing their writing in a slightly different way.


FULL LESSON PRINTABLE LESSON PLAN HERE

'til next time