Lesson 7 © Pearson Education Ltd 2012
© Pearson Education Asia Limited 2012
48
The Official Guide to PTE Academic Teacher Notes
Overview
Time allocated: 2 hours
This lesson focuses on the following skills: Writing:
•
Writing for a purpose (to learn, to inform, to persuade)•
Supporting an opinion with details, examples and explanations•
Organizing sentences and paragraphs in a logical way•
Developing complex ideas within a complete essay•
Using words and phrases appropriate to the context•
Using correct grammar•
Using correct spelling•
Using correct mechanics•
Writing under timed conditions Reading•
Identifying the topic, theme or main ideas•
Identifying a writer’s purpose, style, tone or attitudeThis lesson practices some of the skills tested by the PTE Academic item type Write essay. Further skills practice for this item type will be provided in Lesson 15.
Information about the item type in The Official Guide to PTE Academic
Write essay
Item type task description pp. 78–79
Skills tested p. 81
Scoring pp. 79–81
Strategies pp. 81–82
Practice item pp. 82–83
Answer key feedback pp. 178–180
Objectives
By the end of this lesson, test takers will have:
➤ Practiced the writing skills listed above
➤ Analyzed the rubric, format and scoring of this item type ➤ Practiced writing strategies for this item type
➤ Completed practice items under timed conditions ➤ Reviewed feedback to practice items
➤ Practiced written discourse skills related to the successful completion of this item type
Preparation
The following materials should be prepared before the lesson:
•
Official Guide pages 78–83, 84–88, 178–180•
Copies of ‘Understanding the item type’ (1 handout per group)•
Image of ‘Understanding the item type: Answer key’ for projection on board/visualizer•
Image of ‘Model essay plan’ for projection on board/visualizer•
Image of ‘Verbs which signal causes, effects and changes’ for projection on board/visualizer•
Image of ‘Negative verb phrases which signal causes, effects and changes’ for projection on board/visualizer•
Image of ‘Adverbs which signal specific causes, effects and changes’ for projection on board/visualizer•
Image of ‘Noun phrases which describe factors, influences and results’ for projection on board/visualizer•
Copies of ‘Verbs which signal causes, effects and changes’ (1 handout per group)Lesson 7 © Pearson Education Ltd 2012
© Pearson Education Asia Limited 2012
49
The Official Guide to PTE Academic Teacher Notes
•
Copies of ‘Negative verb phrases which signal causes, effects and changes’ (1 handout per group)•
Copies of ‘Adverbs which signal specific causes, effects and changes’ (1 handout per group)•
Copies of ‘Noun phrases which describe factors, influences and results’ (1 handout per group)•
Image of ‘Structures for describing different qualities’ for projection on board/visualizer•
Image of ‘Writing supporting sentences’ for projection on board/visualizer•
Copies of ‘Paragraph editing checklist’ (1 handout per group)•
Image of ‘Paragraph editing practice’ for projection on board/visualizer•
Image of ‘Paragraph editing practice answer key’ for projection on board/visualizerLesson Plan
Introduction
(5 mins)•
Explain that in this lesson (and lesson 15) test takers will look at the Write essay item type. In this lesson, test takers will look at some of the planning, organization and sentence skills required for successfully completing the item. In lesson 15, test takers will practice some of the more complex writing skills.•
Explain that test takers will look closely at the format, rubrics and scoring of this item type; analyze strategies for approaching it successfully, and complete practice items under test conditions.•
Refer test takers to the Communicative Skills which are required to complete this item type, and which are listed on page 81 of the Official Guide.Warm up activity 1
group work (15 mins)Becoming familiar with this item type
Materials: • Official Guide pp. 78–81
• Copies of ‘Understanding the item type’
• Image of ‘Understanding the item type: Answer key’ for projection
Skills: Organizing sentences and paragraphs in a logical way; Using words and phrases appropriate to the context
Aims: Familiarize test takers with the Write essay item type and its requirements, and look at logical connectors
in a paragraph
Steps:
•
To familiarize test takers with the item type, ask them to read pages 78–81 in the Official Guide. Seta time limit of 3 or 4 minutes.
•
Show test takers a copy of the ‘Understanding the item type’ worksheet. Explain that this is a sequencing task which requires them to organize 11 sentences describing the key features of the item type into a logical and cohesive paragraph. The task lets test takers check their understanding of the item type and tunes them into some of the paragraph writing strategies that will be practiced and discussed more explicitly later in the lesson.•
Organize test takers into small groups and distribute a copy of the ‘Understanding the item type’ worksheet to each group. Ask them to sequentially number the sentences on the worksheet so they make a logical and coherent paragraph. Tell them not to look again at pages 78–81 in the OfficialGuide but instead to focus on the clues in the sentences themselves which link them together.
•
Elicit the correct sequence for sentences, and the language clues which allowed test takers to work out the sequence.•
As final feedback, project an image of ‘Understanding the item type: Answer key’ on the board and review answers as a whole class. Draw test takers’ attention to the following points:– Sentence ‘d’ is the topic sentence because it introduces the main topic of the paragraph and is the most general sentence.
– Sentence ‘k’ must follow next because the phrase ‘this item’ needs to refer to a previously mentioned
description of an item.
– The conditional dependent clause ‘If you have not addressed the topic’ tells us that sentence ‘c’ must come after sentence ‘g’ because the reference to topic only makes sense if we already know about content.
Lesson 7 © Pearson Education Ltd 2012
© Pearson Education Asia Limited 2012
50
The Official Guide to PTE Academic Teacher Notes
– Phrases such as ‘The first factor’, ‘The second factor’, ‘Thirdly’, ‘Fourthly’, ‘The fifth assessment factor’ and ‘Finally’ are cohesive devices which allow us to order the factors correctly. ‘In addition to …’ is another cohesive devices which means ‘as well as’ or ‘also’ and so sentence ‘a’ must follow sentence ‘i’ to be logical.
•
Discuss any queries/problems that test takers may have.Main activity 1: part 1
whole class and individual work (10 mins)Understanding the essay prompt
Materials: Essay prompts on Official Guide pp. 78 and 83
Skills: Identifying the topic, theme or main ideas; Identifying a writer’s purpose, style, tone or attitude
Aims: Familiarize test takers with the process of correctly interpreting the essay prompt
Steps:
•
Explain to test takers that the first skill they need to develop to successfully complete this item is to correctly interpret the question prompt.•
Tell test takers to look at the essay prompt on page 78 of the Official Guide and to underline any key words which they think are helpful in guiding them in their answer. Explain that words which tell test takers the topic of the question help to guide them in selecting correct content, and words which tell them the requirements of the essay help them to determine their writing purpose (i.e. to agree/ disagree; to discuss advantages or disadvantages, etc). (Key content words: ‘more educated’, ‘more successful’. Key instruction words: ‘to what extent’, ‘agree or disagree’, ‘support with reasons’.)•
As feedback, elicit answers to the following questions about the prompt:– What is the topic of the essay prompt? (the importance of education)
– What proposition (or opinion) is given in the prompt? (the more educated a country, the more successful it will become)
– What are the requirements of the essay? (to agree or disagree with the proposition) – How must test takers support their answer? (by giving reasons and/or examples)
•
Remind test takers to always underline any words in the prompt which tell them the requirements of the task. Refer test takers to the ‘Before Writing’ prompt tips on page 81 of the Official Guide.Extension
•
As further practice in analyzing a question prompt, ask test takers to look at the essay prompt on page 83 ofthe Official Guide and identify the topic of the essay question (the government’s right to control smoking).
•
Ask test takers to identify the requirements of the task when they are answering this question (give an opinion on the right of governments to legislate on smoking restrictions).Main activity 1: part 2
whole class and group work (10 mins)Essay planning skills
Materials: Image of ‘Model essay plan’ for projection
Skills: Identifying the topic, theme or main ideas; Identifying a writer’s purpose, style, tone or attitude; Supporting an opinion with details, examples and explanations
Aims: Familiarize test takers with planning strategies for successfully completing the item
Steps:
•
Having identified the topic and the requirements or writing purpose of the task, tell test takers that the next skill needed is to plan a relevant answer.•
Organize test takers into small groups. Ask them to look again at the essay prompt on page 78 of theOfficial Guide and to:
– brainstorm and list any words or ideas which help them to answer the question, along with supporting reasons;
– check these ideas against the essay prompt to make sure that they address the topic, answer the main question (about whether they agree or disagree with the statement) and fulfill the requirements of the task;
Lesson 7 © Pearson Education Ltd 2012
© Pearson Education Asia Limited 2012
51
The Official Guide to PTE Academic Teacher Notes
– note a main opinion or argument which describes whether they agree or disagree, and give three reasons why.
•
Remind test takers that if the content of their essay does not address the question’s content, they will be scored zero in all 7 factors.•
Set a time limit of 5 to 7 minutes, then ask each group to briefly report their main argument andreasons.
•
As a model answer, project an image of the ‘Model essay plan’ on the board. Ensure that test takers comprehend all the vocabulary items in the plan (e.g. ‘prosperity’, ‘compulsory’, ‘literacy’, etc).•
Discuss any queries/problems that test takers may have.Main activity 2: part 1
whole class/individual work (5 mins)Sentence skills: expressing a general idea
Materials: Image of ‘Model essay plan’ for projection
Skills: Using correct grammar; Using correct mechanics Aims: Elicit ideas for expressing an argument or opinion
Steps:
•
Remind test takers that successful essay writing requires being able to express opinions or arguments in clear and correct sentences. In this activity, test takers will practice developing the notes from their essay plans to write an accurate complex sentence which expresses their main opinion in an academic style.•
Refer test takers to the projected image of the ‘Model essay plan’. Tell them that they will now write a sentence to express the main argument given in the plan (i.e. ‘education significantly➔ ➔prosperity’).•
Elicit possible ways of expressing the main argument as a grammatically correct statement. Invite test takers to develop and correct or modify possible statements to make them (more) grammaticallyaccurate.