Comprehending the names of landmarks and being able to provide directions is an imperative skill for English learners. Following a lesson on landmark vocabulary, simple prepositional phrases and relative adverbs, consider engaging your students with a directional writing exercise. Draw a map of a city on the blackboard that includes common landmarks like a city hall, a park, a theater or a police station and mark a coordinate on the map. Ask your students to pick a place on the map as their starting point and to write the directions to the destination. When everybody is finished writing the directions, have your students read their written directions aloud. Speaking the directions helps with their pronunciation and offers the opportunity to compare and contrast their use of syntax.
One of the more difficult skills in learning English is the ability to correctly transcribe spoken phrases. Since your tests will likely have auditory transcription examinations already, create a more engaging and social writing exercise for your lesson plan. A commonly used activity is a modification of the "Broken Telephone" game, which can work whether you have your students in a circle or at desks. Start with one student and whisper a phrase or sentence to them, asking them to write it down. Then, have them whisper it to another student, who in turn writes the phrase down. When all the students have heard and transcribed the phrase, you can have a discussion about what was said and how it was written.
As English learners approach the intermediate level, one of your main focuses is helping them understand different tenses -- the skill used in telling a story. Following a lesson on the simple past or the past continuous tenses, compose a story with a few characters on the white board, leaving the conclusion unfinished. Ask your students to finish the story using the tenses you just covered.
The English lexicon has a vast collection of adjectives, and although it's memorization might be difficult, one of the rudimentary tasks for an English learner is mastering these descriptors in their writing. Rather than simply displaying a picture on an overhead projector and asking your students to describe the figure, include a list of adjectives or adverbs that they are not allowed to use in their description. After a few minutes, ask the students to read their descriptions aloud and write the descriptors they use on the white board -- doing so will help the less advanced students broaden their lexicon.