Here are some practical ideas for writing that you can try in your own classes.

Problem letters

• Set the scene by showing students a page from either an English or Vietnamese magazine that has a “problem page”. Elicit the idea of problem letters and replies giving advice.
• In advance prepare some short problem letters on a flip chart paper.
• Ask students in pairs to choose one of the problems and write a short note giving advice.
1. It’s my girlfriend’s birthday next week and I want to surprise her with a special present or a special evening somewhere. What should I do?
2. My best friend wants to borrow some money to help buy a motorbike. I have the money, and she says she’ll pay me back next soon. But I’m worried that it’s not a good idea to lend money to friends. What should I do?
3. I’ve become very spotty lately and I feel really depressed and embarrassed. I don’t want to go out as I think everyone is staring at my face. What should I do?
• Get students to swap advice notes and to read each others and guess which problem the advice is for. Is it good advice or not? Follow up with a brief class discussion.

Famous People

• Prepare some notes about a famous person. Try and choose someone that the students will like e.g. a footballer, pop star, actor etc. You can very easily find information and facts about famous people on the internet. Put your notes into 4 paragraphs: 1 personal information, 2 appearance and character, 3 interests, 4 personal opinion.
• In class elicit what the students know about the famous person.
• Students read the notes to see if they are correct. Then elicit sentences from them based on the notes.
• Set the scene for the writing task – tell the students they are journalists for a teenage magazine and they are going to write an article about this famous person.
• In pairs or groups, students use the information to write a short article about the famous person. E.g. David Beckham.


• Students swap articles for peer correction.
• One way to finish the lesson is to stick all the articles on the walls and tell the students that they are now editors of the magazine and they have to choose the best one.



Creative Writing ( this idea came from Alan Maley)

a. Draw three columns on the board and write down words into each column as follows:
              Hope                                                   spoon                                      
              Love                                                    fork
              Hate                    is                             knife             
              Anger                  a/ an                         banana     
              Time                                                   brush
              Age                                                    egg
              Fire

b. Ask students to write down simple sentences which they like. Eg: Hope is a banana; Love is a knife…
c. Call up some students to read their sentences. Remember to give comments and praise.
d. On finishing, ask them to choose their most beautiful sentence and develop a 3-line poem like this:
        “Love is a knife
         It sharpens the senses
         But cuts your heart.”


Poem writing


This writing activity is useful for developing students' fluency and creativity. It’s also fun and motivating.
Thanks to Minh Huong, a trainer from Hue, for this great idea.

1. Select a short, simple and easy-to-understand English poem such as this:
               He never sent me flowers.
               He never sent me letters.
               He never took me to restaurants.
               We met in parks.
               I don't remember what he said.
               But I remember how it was said.
               Most of it was in silence.
 2. Put all the words in the poem in 3 columns:
he
to but wrote letters silence flowers said remember ...
3. Ask students to write as many sentences as they can using only the words from these three columns.
       He wrote me letters but he never sent them.
       He never said they were sent to me.
4. Ask them to choose the sentences they write and put them in the form of a meaningful poem.
5. Ask them to put their poems on the walls for other students to enjoy.

Giving directions

This activity can help to practise writing sentences and develop students' bodilykinesthetic intelligence. This can be used as a warmer or an independent practice activity.
Thanks to Nguyen Kim Hanh, VTTN trainer from Yen Bai, for introducing this activity.

1. Tell students to sit in groups of four to five and have a slip of paper ready for each of them. 2. Ask each person to write an imperative sentence on the slip.
3. Then get them to pass their slips to their partner in the group.
4. Ask them to take turns to mine or act what is written on the paper. Others have to guess exactly what is written on the paper.

From music to writing

Like Poem Writing, this activity can be used to develop not only fluency and creativity in writing but musical, spatial and linguistic intelligences as well. This is also an effective way to motivate students to write. Again thanks to Minh Huong, from Hue, for this creative activity.

1. Choose five to six songs. Choose only one part from each song to play for students.
2. Before telling students to listen to different parts of these songs, make sure they have paper and pen ready.
3. Tell them to listen to the songs and, simultaneously, to draw whatever they like, e.g. a flower, an animal, a house, or a combination of these, etc. according to their imagination and emotions.
4. Every time they listen to a different song, they are required to pass their papers to new partners on the left or on the right, and then continue to draw on their partners' paper.
5. When all the songs are played, tell them to imagine a story from the pictures.
6. Get them to write the story in pairs or groups. The teacher can limit the number of the words.
7. After they finish writing, tell them to swap their stories and read. Students can be asked to choose and correct some mistakes, or just to write their own comments.

Exchanging messages

This is a communicative writing activity which encourages students to exchange information.

1. Tell students to write a message to another member of the class that demands an answer.        E.g.
           To Tuan,
           What kind of house do you live in?
2. Collect all the completed messages and redistribute them to the students, making sure that the message reaches the right person!
3. Tell the students who receive the note to write a reply.
     E.g.
           To Ha,
           The house is small. It has two bedrooms and a garden at the front.
            From Tuan
4. Collect the replies and redistribute them to the original writers
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