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Below are two examples of writing tasks which illustrate how the purposes of the project were met:

Example 1: An Email to Uncle John

Purpose To help students become better writers by establishing a link between what they learn in class (through textbooks, for example) and how they apply their learning in the completion of writing tasks

Target writing skills
  • gather and share information and ideas by using strategies such as brainstorming, questioning, interviewing and reading
  • plan and organize information, and express own ideas and feelings by identifying purpose and audience for a writing task
  • write paragraphs which develop main ideas
  • present main and supporting ideas, and where appropriate with elaboration

Textbook teaching

Teaching of Unit 3 & Unit 4
(Merge the teaching of Unit 3 and Unit 4 and start off with Unit 4)
(Focus on Reading and Writing)

Unit 4  “An Email from Uncle John”
Reading
Ask Ss to read the email Uncle John wrote to Cindy (Unit 4) and note down what he said:
  • He has not written to Cindy for a long time → Why? (He has been busy visiting many places in the past 2 months.)

  • Places he has visited:
    • his email was mainly about places in Africa
      • safari park with different kinds of wild animals
      • the hotel he stayed in was very special: a tree house (high up in the tree so that no animals could reach it)
      • has taken many photos of the wild animals, his friend has taken a photo of him holding a big snake (as seen in the picture given on p.22)

    • Beijing (will visit Beijing before coming to H.K.)
      The reading text on p.23 + the listening on p.24 are about his visit there:
      • visited the Great Wall (the longest wall in the world, is like a huge dragon stretching from one mountain to another), felt tired (climbed many steps) and excited (could see far and wide and watched sunset high on the Great Wall – beautiful and amazing)
      • went to the Forbidden City
      • ate Peking Duck

    • Shanghai (not mentioned in the email but on p.25 as a short reading comprehension task)
      • the Oriental Pearl TV Tower (took a lift to get to the top, got a beautiful view of the city from there)
      • a fish and bird market
      • The Bund (walked along the river)

Writing
Ask Ss to take the role of Cindy to write an email to Uncle John telling him the things he can do and see in H.K.

Before Ss can help Cindy write the email, they need to know the following:

  • format of an email
  • opening + body + closing (can refer to Uncle John’s email to Cindy on p.22)
  • content/information they need to include:
    • places to go and things to do in H.K. (take Ss to Unit 3)
    • how to write about the places and things to do (learn from Unit 4 and Unit 3)
Unit 3  “Interesting Places”

Scene-setting
Provide Ss with a purpose for going through Unit 3: remind them that Cindy has to write an email to Uncle John telling him where to go and what to do in H.K.  Tell Ss they will get some ideas from Unit 3 as it covers:
  • a website article about the Bun Festival in H.K. (p.16, p.17)
  • different museums in H.K. (p.19)
  • other places of interest in H.K (matching of names with photos on p.20)

Remind Ss that Uncle John has been to so many different places in the world seeing and trying out different things, so what they suggest:

  • should be special and attractive
  • should include more details and not something everyone knows

Reading
Ask Ss to gather as much information as they can from reading the website article on
Bun Festival

  • when: usually in May
  • where: on Cheung Chau Island
  • what:
    • about 2 weeks before the festival, people build a tall bun tower with steel and bamboo in front of the temple, then cover the tower with sweet buns
    • 3 days before the festival, people on Cheung Chau Island do not sell or eat meat, only eat vegetables
    • on the festival day, a procession along the main streets where people stand in the streets and watch
      • lion dances
      • colourful floats
      • people playing traditional Chinese music
    • at midnight: the most exciting event: Bun-scrambling Competition (people compete to get the highest score, the competitors have 3 minutes to climb up the bun tower and pick as many buns as they can. The buns at the bottom have the fewest points and the buns at the top have the most points.)

Tell Ss they can suggest to Uncle John that he can attend the Bun Festival held on Cheung Chau Island or talk about other festivals in H.K., e.g. Fire Dragon Dance held in Tai Hang around Mid-Autumn Festival

Writing
Ask Ss where else Uncle John can visit. 

Refer Ss to the different museums shown on p.19:

  • H.K. Science Museum
  • H.K. Railway Museum
  • H.K. Museum of Coastal Defence
  • Museum of Tea Ware
  • H.K. Space Museum
    • where
    • how to go there (How can we go to _______? You can go there on foot, by bus, by MTR, by ferry)
    • how long (How long does it take to get there?)
(Encourage Ss to look up for more information of each museum besides relying on the little bit given in the book or Ts can provide them with additional reading materials.)

Refer Ss to other places of interest in H.K. (on p.20)

  • The Avenue of Stars
  • The Big Buddha
  • The Peak Tower
  • The Cultural Centre
  • Tai Fu Tai Mansion
  • The Wishing Tree
(The book only provides the names of these places and nothing else.  Either encourage them to look them up for more information on their own or provide them with extra reading materials.)

Can also invite Ss to brainstorm other places not found in the book and what a tourist can do there, e.g.:

  • Ocean Park
  • Disneyland
  • other outlying islands, e.g. Lantau, Lamma
  • Stanley
  • Repulse Bay
  • Women Street
  • Temple Street
Can also invite Ss to suggest to Uncle John what to eat and what to do in H.K., e.g.:
  • egg tart
  • fish ball
  • take a tram ride
  • watch Chinese opera

Pre-tasks and Writing Task
Pre-task 1: Read the email excerpt to find out what Uncle John wants
Pre-task 2a: Choose one museum to recommend to Uncle John and extract the relevant information from the fact sheet on museums
Pre-task 2b: Choose one Chinese festival to write about and use answers to the MC questions of that respective  festival
Pre-task 2c: Match the places of interest and what tourists can do there
Pre-task 2d: Brainstorm ideas on a special kind of HK food: price, taste, where
Writing task: Write an email to Uncle John (email framework with the beginning sentence of each paragraph provided)

Example 2: Proper behaviours on public transport

Purpose

To raise teachers’ awareness that effective design of a writing task involves the integration of language skills instead of just focusing on writing alone

Target writing skills
  • gather and share information and ideas by using strategies such as brainstorming, questioning, interviewing and reading
  • plan and organize information, and express own ideas and feelings by identifying purpose and audience for a writing task
  • write paragraphs which develop main ideas
  • present main and supporting ideas, and where appropriate with elaboration

TSA Practice Paper
TSA Mock Paper 4: Only the reading article followed by MC questions and the writing task (with instructions, title and the first sentence) provided

Pre-tasks and Writing Task
Pre-task 1: Brainstorm examples of misbehaviour on public transport
Pre-task 2: Match the first halves public transport etiquette rules with the second halves
Pre-task 3: Categorize the rules according to language features, discuss the answers and share extra ones Ss think of (Speaking)
Pre-task 4: Read about Gloria’s bad experience when travelling on the MTR (Reading)
Writing task: Write to the school newsletter suggesting ways on how people should behave when on public transport

 

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