The power of a post-it note – informal

email writing

There are many useful things I always keep in my teacher´s toolbox:

 Apart from the basic classroom supplies, I always have a stack of the post-it notes with me. The
sticky notes not only help me stay more organized but also are an incredibly useful teaching tool.
They help increase students´engagement in the lessons, especially needed when developing
writing skills, and make the classes more motivating and memorable. The following lesson idea
aims at improving students´writing skills using the power of the post-it note:
 We use written communication more often now than ever before. Teaching how to write
effectively is one of the most important life-long skills we can provide our students with.
Moreover, in the FCE Writing Paper students are required to carry out two tasks: a compulsory
task in Part 1 (a transactional letter) and one from a choice of four questions in Part 2 (an
informal letter, an article, a discursive composition, a short story, a report, a letter of
application).

In the following lesson idea, students will practise their informal letter or email writing skills.

Level(s): (B1+) Intermediate/(B2) Upper-Intermediate/C1 Pre-Advanced

Aimed at: Teenagers/young adults/adults

Aims: Speaking/informal e-mail or letter writing – useful words and phrases/vocabulary in the
context of things we write

Materials: Post-it notes for the Jumble Activity/Handout 1: Useful phrases for the Jumble
Activity

UsefulPhrasesHandout 1

Copied from the following link:

http://www.rubenvalero.com/english/content/writing-useful-words-and-phrases-fce

Time: +/- 1h 20 min

1. Brainstorming/Things we write

Have students work in small groups and make a list of different things we write on daily basis:

– At school

– At work

– At home

Have their ideas listed on the board and add some of your own ideas to their lists. Take it as an
opportunity to introduce vocabulary, e.g. eulogies or minutes. At the end of this activity you
should have something similar to this on the board:

+/- 10 min

2. Speaking/Things we write/Difficulties with writing emails in English

Students work in pairs and tell each other about the things they have written this week.

The majority will probably mention emails. At this point, ask students about their greatest
challenges when writing emails in English. Have them discuss their answers in pairs.

One of the most common problems we often hear about is how writing emails in English can be
extremely time-consuming. Why? Have students brainstorm their ideas in pairs.

At this point, someone will most likely mention the lack of formulaic expressions as one of the
main problems. Tell students that you are going to look at some useful phrases to help them
organize their emails.

+/-10 min

3. Jumble activity: useful words and phrases

Ask students what are the different parts of an email and write them up on the board. At the end
of this activity you should have something similar to this on the board:
Have students work together (if it´s a small group) and rearrange the words, on the previously
preparred post-it notes, to make meaningful sentences for each part of an email. If you have a big
group, divide the task between them: one group does all the useful expressions for Asking,
another for Making suggestions, and so on:

Have them put the words into the correct order on the board:
At the end of this activity you should have something similar to this on the board:

+/- 30 min

4. Writing an informal email to one of the classmates

Distribute Handout 1 to each student and a piece of paper with a name of one of their classmates
on it. Get students to follow the structure of an email from the board and use some of the useful
phrases from Handout 1 (or the board – they are the same) to write a short email to their
classmate. They can choose to write a request email or, perhaps, an invitation. Ask them to use
their imagination and humour!

Here are some of the emails written by my B2 students:

+/- 20 min

5. Responding to emails

Have students read the emails they received form their classmates. Once they have finished, ask
them to stand up and approach the person who wrote to them. Explain that they have been
walking in the street and run into the classmate from the email. Have them talk about the emails
they received. For example:

Hi! How have you been? I´ve just seen your email! Thank you so much for writing to me!

Unfortunately, I can´t make it to your party this Saturday. It sounds like a lot of fun but I already
have plans for Saturday, etc.

Have a brief class feedback +/- 5 min

This lesson idea worked really well with my students and I truly recommend it. They really
enjoyed the hands-on-approach of the Jumble Activity and the way the post-it notes were
displayed on the board helped them to follow a standard structure of an informal email.

Don´t forget to reuse the post-it notes in your future lessons! Keep them safe in your toolbox!

Hope you´ll find it useful!

Happy creating!

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