Reflecting on my writing class

On the first day back in school after the break, I asked my ESL middle school students to reflect on the writing class, what they learned, what they wanted to learn, which assignments they enjoyed the most, what they'd suggest to improve the class next year, and what kinds of books they have been reading.  Here are a few of their replies:

I improved utilizing advanced vocabulary, the only complication is that I can't use them accurately.I relish that we get to enhance our terminology skills exceptionally. The laborious assignments are having to write a story with a genre, for example fiction, science fiction, and etc. . I don't think any of the assignments should be alternated because it's just hard for me. I have read 21 books so far. I need to read science fiction, but I just can't acquisition any books. I've learned some new words, check Murchison's website, and more to be more gumption. I don't have any propositions. I like engaging in groups of pairs because you can focus on one peer.

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I enjoyed typing the stories, it gives my inspirations for my new story, ( it's out of school story) Mermaid's cove. The stories was creative and I typed so much I wrote over 10 pages, a new record!!!!!!! Back to the idea, I really enjoy writing it you might never know where it can take you, maybe one day I might be an author!

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I improved my writing because i always wrote short stories and i love to write because you can type my stories on the computer and i write more long stories in this year. im very fast typing on the computer an its much more esiere typing in the computer

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This semester I wrote my first story, and in the same time I learned how to use the past tense in a story. Of course, I think I need work again a lot on writing for learn different things, and for extend my vocabulary.I enjoy write stories because I like write in different genres and write in English is great for me !This semester, I enjoy write the two stories, but the first one was more difficult. It was a historical fiction so I wrote in past tense and I did search a lot of informations, also, It was more long.But I think it's a good exercise for my English !I would like read non-fiction the next semester, I read between ten and fifteen books this semester.

For things to do differently, I would like do more quick write like on Thanksgiving, also, I prefer working as a whole class or in center. 

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i learn to improve my vocabarly and my grammer. i loved my story beyond, and all the story we did this semester help me. i still need to work on my writing snd my plannning and summarys. the mose hardest was my vocabulary, i think we should change some things like poem or reading infront of people. I read 10 books or more. what i didnt know was vocaburlary!  What i want to change is reading your story infront of people or poems.

Garage Math & ESL writing

GRE Organizational Tool

This is a tool I have developed to help organize the info you need to understand and answer the Argument Task on the GRE.  Here is the official website explanation of the task.


Remember that you have 30 minutes to read, organize, write, and make corrections, so spend only 5-7 minutes filling in the boxes.  

(Click to enlarge.)


Your final answer should be at least 350 words!

Claim/Argument	Counter-evidence
Evidence	What’s missing?

Alternative explanations:

Download a word doc of this form here.

After the Trip -- Lots of Writing Monday

We took a field trip on Friday and have a lot to do to catch up with our grammar lessons first. But before that, let's talk and write about where we went, what we saw and did, what surprised us, what amazed us, and of course the maddening heat.

After we process through all that within ourselves and within our group, it's time to write a thank you note or two. The first one is required, and that's the one for Richard, our tour guide from Whole Foods

. Listen here for some ideas on how we might do that.

Let's learn the form and format for thank you notes in general, and narrow it down to what elements we want for our class thank-you note.

I will also be thanking Tali, who woke up very early for a vacationing teenager, Pushed my chair around in 100 degree heat, was helpful in every way I asked, and was a pleasant traveling companion for all of us. Perhaps, you can each write a sentence or two to tag onto a bigger thank-you-card from me.

As you know, I am Ms. Electronic Gadget for nearly all of my communication, but for this task I use pretty stationery and nice pens.