Writing Storm Writing Metacognition
At a Glance Students will: ü quickly write about a topic they choose (or you assign). ü generate spontaneous conversations on a wide range of topics ü examine some common writing errors.		Purpose: Working on common writing mistakes and generating conversation Materials: 1 hand-out page Preparation: 20 minutes (to create and copy or cut-up the hand- out) Time: 60 – 90 minutes
Teacher’s Notes	Procedure 1. Variation 1: Tell students that they will have exactly five minutes (reduce or extend the writing time as you feel is appropriate) to write about a subject on the list that you are going to give them. Variation 2: Cut the list of topics into strips and hand a different topic to each student. Tell students that they will have exactly five minutes (reduce or extend the writing time as you feel is appropriate) to write about the topic you have given them. 2. Explain that students shouldn't worry about their writing style, but, rather, they should focus on quickly writing down their feelings about the topic they have chosen (or you have assigned). 3. Have each student read what he or she has written to the class. Ask the other students to write down two questions based on what they hear. 4. Have the other students ask questions about what they have heard. 5. During this exercise, take notes on common errors that occur (see list attached: “Common ESL Errors”). This can be the basis of a list of common errors to be distributed to the students at another time. 6. At the close of this exercise, discuss the common mistakes you have noted with the students. In this manner, no student feels singled out and all students benefit from learning about typical writing mistakes.

Writing Writing Storm Metacognition
Teacher’s Notes	Lesson Extension writing down their feelings - this is a metacognitive strategy to encourage students to practise looking inward. Metacognitive strategies focus on students determining what kind of learner they are and how they learn best. Part of examining the self is to practise writing feelings (“what do I think”, rather than “what am I supposed to think”) ask questions – some students might need a review of question words (the 5 W’s and How), and a review of intonation when asking a question (the voice goes up at the end of the question) common errors – see this website Common Errors in English http://www.wsu.edu:8080/%7Ebrians/errors/errors.html Click on a selected error for explanations and rules At the close of this exercise – emphasize that many of the typical writing errors can be caught with a simple re-reading of what you have written. Emphasize the need to re-read what you have written to check for coherence. Follow-up / Transfer Activities: 1. Prepare and hand out a list of common errors as noted in step 5 of the lesson. Ask students to identify which errors they are most prone to making. Encourage students to refer often to the list when they are re-reading and editing their writing	Additional Resources More metacognitive strategies can be found in the Metacognition unit of this binder.