Free Writing

This is a good way to get students to be more fluent.

First, I tell them that we are going to do some free writing, and I mention the topic they are going to write about. I write these things on the board in a random order:
Spelling, Grammar, Ideas, Erasers, Many words, Writing quickly, Thinking carefully, Organisation, Punctuation, Paragraphs, Complete sentences.
Then I ask which they need for free writing, and which they do not need. As we decide which ones are not needed, I cross them out, leaving the three essentials: Ideas; Many words (because many words will contain many ideas); and Writing quickly (because this will produce more words in the short time they have).

Next I get them to write the topic at the top of their page. The topic should be something familiar, that they can already write about, or that they have been working on, reading about, or thinking about recently. They I tell them that they have five minutes to write as much as they can on that subject. I tell them that we will count the number of words they wrote. Also I tell them that if they cross out a word, that counts as two words. I give them an example of this on the board, writing something like "My name is xPeXterX Mark" and counting 6 words.

At the end of the five minutes, they count the number of words they wrote. This gives them a WPM writing speed. If there's time, it's a good idea to immediately give them another chance to do this, to see if they can write more.

It works well as a computer-room activity, for example using the quiz function of moodle with a single Essay question, and a 5-minute time limit on the quiz.

Usually I don't collect the papers in, as they will hopefully contain ideas that they will find useful for a later activity.