ESL Text Type Writing Lesson
A Sample Class Plan for Composing a Restaurant Review
As writing skills can differ greatly in an English language classroom, a text type based approach to teaching writing can be helpful. Here a sample lesson is presented.
This lesson will take students step-by-step through the process of writing a restaurant review. It specifically focuses on using adjectives and there is/there are, but can be adapted for any grammar structure or vocabulary focus that is present in the reviews the students will read.
Level:
Beginner and Basic (adults or high school students)
Objectives:
- To describe food
- To notice adjective word order
- To notice use of there is/there are
Materials:
- Three sample texts of restaurant reviews
- Magazine pictures of main dishes, soups/salads, and desserts
- Cloze activity from one of the reviews
- Mixed up sentences from one of the reviews
Procedure:
- Warm up: Ask the students about a restaurant they have been to. What kind of food did it serve? What dishes did they try? Was it good? Why/why not?
Reading samples of the text type
- Pass out the sample reviews. Students read the reviews, thinking about the function of each and underlining any phrases, expressions or words that the three have in common.
Analyzing isolated features of the text
- After reading the reviews, students get into small groups and discuss the different types of information in each review, such as type of food served, location, hours, prices, description of service or food, etc.
- Students use the texts to find one example of each of the following: a sentence that talks about the present, one that talks about the past, and a description.
Exercises to practice features of the text
- Make three piles of food pictures (soups/salads/starters, main dishes, desserts). Working in groups of four, one volunteer from each group chooses one picture from each pile. Groups make a list of words to describe the food in the pictures.
- Students work individually to complete a cloze text from one of the reviews using words and/or structures that they worked on in the previous section (i.e. filling in there is/there are, filling in nouns or adjectives).
- After students complete the cloze, they fill in a chart with two columns. The first column says there is/there are and the second column reads noun that follows. Students go through the text finding examples to complete the chart. (This can also be done with an adjective/noun chart, in which students write the description words they see and the nouns being described). As students fill out the chart, they are noticing the grammar and making judgments on how to use it.
- Students are given one of the reviews (or an excerpt) in which the sentences have been cut up. Students are asked to order the sentences and be ready to explain their choices.
Guided writing practice
- Students have now practiced using language and vocabulary common to restaurant reviews. At this point they have also seen common grammatical structures used in the text type (e.g. there is/there are and adjective word order). They are finally ready to write.
- This part of the writing process can be as structured or free as the teacher needs it to be. For instance, it could be similar to a cloze activity, with larger portions of the text taken out and students simply filling in the information. Or, students could be given a more general prompt, such as instructions to describe the restaurant in the first paragraph, the food in the second and the service in the third, ending with a sentence either recommending the restaurant or not. Other prompts for the guided writing can be pictures of food or menus from actual restaurants.
Adaptations
This lesson can easily be adapted for higher levels by including different grammar points.
Teachers may also want to use a text type approach when teaching writing to ESL students.
The copyright of the article ESL Text Type Writing Lesson in ESL Programs/Lessons is owned by Kari Miller. Permission to republish ESL Text Type Writing Lesson must be granted by the author in writing.
