Most of the time I can hear that many of my colleagues are complaining about students’ lack of interest in writing classes.Maybe we should look for more creative ideas for writing. I want to share one of my international experience with my writing class in today’s post.
Firstly, let’s go back in 1990s. There were letters used for communication with the people around the world. I had a penfriend from Australia which was popular phenomenon at that time. I learnt a lot thanks to this kind of friendship in terms of both English and life.
Then, last year I tried the same thing with the new version of it. It is called e-pal.(As can be expected from 21st century).
I met a colleague from Taiwan many years ago and decided to have e-pal project with his students. Thanks to him and my organization skills, we matched all my Turkish students’ mail with Taiwanese students’.I gave the subjects to my students each week and they wrote and sent it via e-mail, then they were really looking forward to hearing more from their e-pals.
The subjects were very common such as introducing yourself, introducing where you live, your culture..etc.Their writing were for real purpose so they were really motivated for writing.
Dear colleagues from all around the world, maybe we can create the same atmosphere again with your new ideas. If you want to have e-pals from Turkey, I am here and waiting for your comments,
Happy blogging…
- oztrkozge's blog
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I agree completely - if a techer wants to motivate students to write, the best way is to create the profile of the class on http://www.epals.com/ , find a partner class and start exchanging letters through Monitored Mail system. It's easy, safe and very motivating. Students write to real people and get messages very quickly. Even the weakest want to have an ePal and come regularly to the teacher for help when they don't know the words they need for their messages.
Dear bsanja,
Thanks for your comment and the link, woohoo I didn't know about that. The link seems really professional one. Our project was between the two countries and since I know that my friend's class is writing replies to my students. I could trust more and all students need to send their e-mails to two teachers as well (to me and my Taiwanese colleague). I will try that link with my students and already looking forward to what will happen. Have you tried it with yours students? Is it possible to find an exact number of people suitable for your class??
Great topic to take into consideration. It is one of the best things to practise language with real people. I still remember how happy I was when I recieved a letter from my pen pal. We wrote to each other continously for 7 years and I don't know how but it stopped suddenly.
ePals is a great way to find pen pals for the net generation. as Sanja says it is safe and you can monitor the letters easily. Another great way is etwinning. (www.etwinning.net) you can start or join a letter writing project in a very safe environment.
No postmen at the door but it is still very nice to wait for a letter or e-letter :)
Eva
thanks for sharing ;) their motivation about writing is nice...thanks..;)
Dear oztrkozge! Thank you very much for sharing your experience of organising such a project. It must have been successful for all parties. I'll keep in mind your offer as well.
I'd like to thank other colleagues here as well for sharing their XP and valuable links!
Dear oztrkozge,
I am sure that as soon as you create a profile of your class, a few colleagues will contact you offering you to participate in their projects. You can also check the projects on the site, I'm sure you'll find a lot of interesting ideas.
That's what happened to me. My students exchanged messages through Monitored Mail system with a few different classes in the USA, a class in Germany. We also took part in a project with students from Italy. A lot of fun and learning.
I hope your students have as much fun. Btw, how old are they? Mine are 11, 13 and 14.
Dear Eva,
Thanks for your comment and contribution with the link. I am happy to hear that there are many online tools for e-pals. Thanks to you and Sanja, I have already got 2 and will explore them soon. I think, my own experience sounds really primitive and traditional after these links :) Anyway, it is a really good way to motivate our students for writing.
Btw, I really appreciate your performance with your penpal for 7 years, that's a really long time.
Best,
Dear Leman,
after hearing more from the colleagues, I feel myself more motivated to try it again with the new tools. Thanks for commenting,
keep up your good work,
Dear Mike,
Thanks for stopping by and leaving your comment. I am glad to hear that I have a Russian colleague who is open to trying new projects with my classes, appreciated. We should keep in touch for future actions.
Keep blogging,
best,
Sanja,
Thanks for coming up with more great ideas for me to try. I will explore your link soon and then will try what I can do with my students. It sounds really international having countries such as Germany, the USA ...etc. From what you wrote, I can see that this tool is teacher-friendly, I liked it.
I am sure that it must be lots of fun :) My students are university students, they are 18+ and some of them are almost 24. However, they will like the idea of writing like that.
How long did your students keep writing?