Tag Archives: writing

Engaging Students in Job Application Writing: from AI Tools to Traditional Clotheslines

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If you’re anything like me, you probably feel the time crunch every time you try to squeeze in a longish writing task during a lesson. Let’s be honest, finding time for students to practice writing in class—beyond those quick sentences or short paragraphs—is tough!
I mean, there’s so much to cover!!! Besides, the second I announce a lengthy writing activity, I can see how the general mood changes, even mine.I know it is going to slow the pace, break the  flow of our lesson and a long etc , but… we know deep down that this activity is important.

The truth is I’d love to offload some of this writing practice as homework. I mean, wouldn’t it be easier to ask students to draft an essay at home and then review it in class? Sure… in an ideal world. But we’re not living in that world anymore, are we?  ChatGPT or any of its friends sure have something to do here.  I know that if I want to ensure my students are actually developing their writing skills, it has to be done in the classroom.

PREP

Before we get into the writing task itself, I dedicated several lessons to exploring the topic of work—covering vocabulary, discussing job roles, and what makes a strong job application. As you can probably guess, being a bit of an AI enthusiast, I have used different  AI tools to make this lesson happen. Here’s the step-by-step:

Step 1: Create a Presentation with AI Tools to Introduce the Task
  •  I relied on Perplexity for this because it not only generated a well-structured overview but also provided credible sources. This was key for a topic like job applications, where students need to trust the information.
  • I took the generated text from Perplexity and pasted it into Brisk Teaching, which automagically turned it into a Google Slides presentation, complete with relevant images. Now, it wasn’t perfect—just a draft—but it saved me a ton of time! I was able to quickly refine it by adding sections on indirect questions and formal connectors, tailoring it to fit my lesson objectives.

Ready-to-Use Materials: presentation

Step 2: Prepare Sample Sentences and Emails
  • I used Perplexity again to create sample sentences for the opening of the email, as well as two complete sample emails.
  • I printed these out as handouts and gave students 10 minutes to read through them. This step was crucial for modeling good examples and helping students see the structure of a formal email.

Ready-to-Use Materials: handout ,

Step 3: Generate Realistic Job Offers

Excited about writing? Let’s be honest: getting students excited about writing a job application can be really difficult. So, I decided to make it more engaging by giving them realistic job offers to choose from—just like they might find on LinkedIn. Did I create these from scratch? Nope! I used Canva’s AI tool to generate slides filled with job postings. It was fast and looked super professional.

I printed the job offers and hung them up on clotheslines in the classroom, creating a job fair atmosphere. I asked students to head over to one of the clotheslines and pick out the job they’d like to apply for. You can print them here

 

LinkedIn Job Listings de cristina.cabal

Step 4: Time to Write!

With their chosen job offer in hand, it was time to write the email. I set a timer and gave students 20 minutes to complete their task. I encouraged them to use the sample sentences and email structure from the handout as a guide. This focused writing time was key—it kept everyone on task and ensured that the writing was happening in class, where I could support them.

Step 5: Showcase and Feedback

Once the emails were written, we moved into a gallery walk activity. Students pasted their job offer and application email on the walls. They then circulated around the room, reading each other’s work. This was a great way to share ideas and see different approaches.
While they were reading, I walked around and provided feedback, focusing on the most noticeable errors. It was an efficient way to address common mistakes and give students a chance to learn from each other.

That’s all! I hope your students enjoy this activity as much as mine did!  Give it a go, and let me know how it works for you!

Challenge 2: Creating Comics in Under 1 Minute? Yes, Please! Meet AI Comic Factory

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Have you ever thought about how cool it would be if your students could create their own comics in just a minute? Sounds impossible, right? Well, guess what! I’ve found an AI tool that allows you and your students to create comics in under one minute—and it’s FREE! Yes, you read that correctly! Let me introduce you to AI Comic Factory, a fantastic platform that brings storytelling to life with a few clicks.

How It Works

  1. Visit the Playground: Head over to the AI Comic Factory Playground. You don’t need to sign in. It is optional.
  2. Choose Your Style and Grid: Select from a variety of comic styles.
  3. Let the AI Work Its Magic: Type in a brief description or a short story and the AI instantly generates a comic strip based on your input. In seconds, you’ll have a unique, personalized comic!
  4. Redraw: if you don’t like a picture in the grid, hover over the image and change it.
  5. Add a Caption or maybe not: Encourage your students to write short stories or dialogues under the images. It’s a fun and creative way to blend visuals with literacy.
  6. Download and Share: Once you’ve created your masterpiece, download it for free and share it with the class!

Here’s a short tutorial in Spanish. Don’t worry! It is easy to follow! Maybe you’ll learn some Spanish too.

Possible Drawbacks? (Let’s Be Real)

Of course, no tool is without its limitations. AI Comic Factory, while incredibly fast, is somewhat limited in terms of customization. You won’t get the level of control that, say, a student might have. The characters and backgrounds are AI-generated, meaning they may not always turn out exactly as you imagined.

Also, while it’s free, it does require internet access, which could be a drawback for classrooms with limited connectivity. But overall? The pros FAR outweigh the cons.

Get Out of Your Seat! Engaging Peer Correction Activity for the Classroom

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This activity is simple but oh! so good! Here’s a neat idea for improving students’ writing skills with zero prep and a bit of movement. Let’s have students proofread each other’s work! They’ll learn heaps by giving and getting feedback!   And yes, you also have to do something! After all, you are the teacher. 

This is an activity you can do with any level. Highly adaptable. What’s not to like, then?

One of the things that worries me the most ,as the end of a course approaches, is the fear of not having dedicated enough time to a specific language skill and having favoured others. I don’t know if you feel the same way.

It’s true that I try to incorporate activities that integrate multiple language skills to ensure a holistic approach to language learning. However, I know that for some skills, it’s not enough. One of these skills is writing. It seems like there’s never enough time in class to stop and write. That’s why, many times, I assign my students the task of answering one of the questions we discuss orally in writing, usually as homework.  It helps them reinforce vocabulary and, of course, ideas. And that’s only half of it. In this activity, I’ve included peer correction to encourage students to reflect not only on their own mistakes, but also their peers’.

Homework Assignment
  •  After discussing a set of conversation questions in class, ask students to choose one or two and, at home, write a paragraph answering the question(s). Encourage the use of a wide range of vocabulary and structures.  Ask students to write on separate sheets of paper using their best handwriting.
In Class
Round 1
  • Collect students’ assignments and put them up on the walls of the class (gallery style).
  • Assign each pair of students, a piece of writing, ensuring it is not their own. ask them to grab a pencil.
  • Students should now stand up, read their assigned piece of writing, and spot any spelling or grammar mistakes in the text. Encourage discussion about why each identified mistake is incorrect and how it could be fixed, but students cannot attempt to correct the mistake on the piece of paper, just underline it using a pencil.

Round  2.
  • Give the students something to work on, like textbook exercises or an oral expression task. And now, teacher, it’s your turn to work. Correct the written exercises on the wall in this manner.
  • Take a coloured pen (red, green, pink… etc )
  •      if students have correctly identified the mistake, put a tick.
  •      if students have underlined something  thinking it was a mistake but it is correct,          write ” it’s OK”.
  •     If you spot any other mistakes, correct them.
Round  3
  • Students, again, stand up in their pairs and analyse the written expression that they have corrected, paying attention to the annotations made by the teacher.  This will allow them to see where they have identified the error correctly, where they have made mistakes, and they will also be able to see the errors corrected by the teacher that they did not identify.
Round 4
  • This is the final step. Students take the piece of writing they have corrected from the wall and find the student who has written the text, explaining the corrections made.

Let’s hope that by making them reflect on common errors, they will be able to get rid of them

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Let’s Move!!!! A Simple Low-Prep Speaking Activity to Revise Vocabulary

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Hello hello! Still enjoying Easter holidays? Yeahhh me, too! So, I just wanted to pop in real quick with an activity I think might make going back to the grind a little bit easier.

What are the main goals of this activity?

  • Revise and activate newly-acquired vocabulary
  • Reinforce how to formulate questions
  • Boost students’ speaking abilities
  • Introduce movement in the classroom: gallery walks
How to do it
  • Write six to eight words or expressions you want to revise on cards, big enough to see from a distance. Stick them on the walls of the class for everybody to see.
  • Depending on the number of students in your class, ask them to work in pairs or groups of three. For each word on the wall, the group must think of an open question using the target vocabulary.
  • Walk around the room and help with grammar and spelling.
  • Once the group have their question, ask them to write it on a post-it note or a scrap of paper and put it next to the target word on the wall.
  • When they have finished and all the questions are displayed on the walls, ask learners to stand up and, in new groups, do a gallery walk discussing the questions.

Creating Language Chatbots to Safely Share with Students

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I am AI-addicted. I cannot help it.

Artificial Intelligence- you can choose to embrace it or ignore it, but I assure you it is not going anywhere. It is here to stay, so I choose to love it and use it, to squeeze it and to have fun with it.

I am so into it that if I see something AI-related that seems like it can remotely be useful for my classes, I want to try it straight away. So, I had been experimenting with chatbots for a while but being a simple English teacher, all the platforms I tried were either too difficult, not free or not student friendly. And these things  were essential not only for me, but also for the teachers I train.   So, when I read  about language chatbots in Lana  Kandybovich’s blog ,ELTcation,I told myself “Let’s dive right in”. And I did.

You cannot believe how easy it is. It took me less than 30 minutes to create two chatbots, though I have to say that I had my buddy ChatGPT to lend me a helping hand in crafting the instructions.

I have used a platform called Mizou, which is

  • Free for teachers
  • Safe and Student-friendly as they don’t have to register, and it doesn’t share students’ data. Students can interact with text and audio.
  • Shareable. The chatbot can be shared with everyone, or you can create private  sessions, just for your students, for example it can be set as homework. In this case, their interactions will be graded, If you wish so, and feedback offered. The interactions will never be shared with anyone but the owner of the chatbot.
  • Multipurpose. You can create a chatbot for almost anything you can think of and in ; you just need to write the right instructions and be specific about what you want your chatbot to do. You can even upload a document or your rubric so that the feedback is based on it.
  • Multilingual. It supports 50 languages

  • Customizable. You can personalize its appearance to match your classroom style. You can build your chatbot from scratch or have AI assist you.

  • It might not be perfect, but it certainly works for me.

So, to address one of the main problems my students have, I have created

1.Chatbot Magic: Boost Your Writing Skills,

In this tool, Cabal Scribe, the chat assistant, will help students enhance their writing. It analyses their text and provides feedback on grammar mistakes, spelling errors, and other identified issues. Its goal is to assist students in improving their writing. While it may not be as effective as a teacher, it can certainly be helpful when a teacher is not available. Feel free to click on the link to try it yourself and/or share it with your students.

https://mizou.com/preview-bot?ID=3553

 

2. Miss ChatAI: an English Language Practice Partner.

The aim of this chatbot is to interact with students by asking questions and providing answers on any topic they wish to discuss. The chatbot will also offer feedback on grammar and vocabulary mistakes or any other kinds of errors and suggest alternatives when necessary. Students can write sentences, questions, or paragraphs, and the chatbot will provide personalized feedback while continuing the conversation. In its initial interaction with a student, the chatbot will inquire about their English level to tailor its questions and responses appropriately. Once the conversation topic has been established, the chatbot will suggest vocabulary that is both related to the topic and appropriate for the student’s level. Feel free to click on the link to try it yourself and/or share it with your students.

https://mizou.com/preview-bot?ID=3562

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