Brainstorming and Planning
Aim: |
to give students practice in brainstorming and planning for discursive writing |
Target Audience: |
students |
Relevance to IELTS: |
General Training Writing Task 2 |
Organisation: |
individual and group |
Materials needed: |
A discursive topic & strips of paper for each student (supplied by students) |
- Show students a copy of this General Training Writing Task 2 topic:
It is generally accepted that families are not as close as they used to be.
Why has this change happened and what could be done to bring families closer together?
Give reasons for your answer and include any relevant examples from your experience.
- Ask students to work in groups to analyse the question, identifying exactly what they need to write about and how many parts their answer should contain.
- Ask students to work individually. They should note down one idea for each part of this topic (Part 1 = reasons, part 2 = suggestions) as well as one example for each idea. Ask them to note the idea together with its example on separate strips of paper.
- Put students into groups of three or four to share their ideas.
- Ask students to arrange their strips in the best sequence for writing about them.
- Repeat steps 1- 4 again with another topic e.g.
should children’s leisure activities be educational?
who should pay for the care of old people?
- Ask students to write up their answers to the first topic for homework.
