Lesson 7
© Pearson Education Ltd 2011
© Pearson Education Asia Limited 2011
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
• Identifying a writer’s purpose
This 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. 74–75
Skills tested p. 77
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 74–79, 80–84,176–178
• 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
Lesson 7
© Pearson Education Ltd 2011
© Pearson Education Asia Limited 2011
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/visualizer
Lesson 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 77 of the Official Guide.
Warm up activity 1
group work (15 mins)Becoming familiar with this item type
Materials: • Official Guide pp. 74–77
• 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 74–77 in the Official Guide. Set a 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 74–77 in the Official Guide 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 2011
© Pearson Education Asia Limited 2011
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.