Before your ESL students can write letters or essays, they must master the writing of sentences. Start by asking them to write sentences exemplifying grammatical principles such as tenses or conditional phrases. These sentences can describe their daily lives or photos from a magazine. Ask them to write 10 sentences each day and then review what they've written. While reading their sentences, they should mark down errors in spelling, verb conjugation and misplaced commas.
Before your students can become better writers, they need to strengthen their reading skills. The more they read, the better they will understand grammatical principles and the general mechanisms of writing. One effective teaching strategy involves combining both skills into one assignment. Give your students a short essay of roughly 500 words and ask them to respond to this text in a short paragraph of their own. Ask them to comment on the writer's technique as well as answering questions regarding the article's content.
ESL students may be become more involved in writing if they are asked to write about a topic which is important to them. For this assignment, you can ask your students to describe their favorite hobby or pastime in roughly 200-300 words. Alternatively, you can ask them to give their response regarding a topical issue such as a controversial law: Students can write essays either supporting it or opposing it.
Ask your ESL students to keep a journal in conjunction with their other writing assignments. The journal can describe daily activities as well as their experiences learning English. At the end of the course, look over their journals and correct what they've written more holistically, focusing less on grammar and more on suitable expressions and word choices. The purpose of keeping the ESL journal is to encourage students to become more comfortable with writing.