Crumbs #42 One-minute essays

Ingredients

• A set of topics. We have used a set of wordwall cards. You can find them here.
• A timer, more or less formal and strict, depending on the group.
• Students divided into pairs.
• A list of the linking words typical for an essay, more or less extensive, depending on the group

Procedures

• Teacher presents the framework of the one minute spoken essay and the four stages: introduction, arguments to support one side, arguments to support the other side, conclusion as well as the introductory phrases. The basic set of these included: Nowadays, On the one hand, On the other hand, All in all
• Teacher models the activity: chosing the topic, expressing opinion following the framework and using the key structures. Students time the teacher and signal when 1 minute is up. Afterwords they react with their opinion.
• Students go into the breakout rooms and continue in the same way.

Why we like it

• I used this activity first with my teens, as part of the preparation for the essay writing, the first serious essay ever. I wanted them to practise expressing their opinion in a certain format and I wanted to encourage them to use a variety of appropriate cohesive devices which were introduced in the coursebook. It was a much more extensive list than the one provided here.
• Later on, I used it also with my adult groups as a an opportunity and a tool to work on shaping the discourse, at this point – without the follow-up of the written essay.
• The activity is generative as student A has a chance to produce a mini discourse and communicative as student B also has a chance to react and to provide additional arguments to support their partner’s ideas or disagree with them.
• The main aim of the activity is the development of the speaking skills but the students are also required to listen, in order to be able to contribute their arguments in the follow-up stage. I am hoping that, in the long run, it will lead to students managing their spoken contributions much more effectively.
• It is a very flexible activity. It can be used as a warmer or as an end-of-class activity. It can be also extended into a proper activity. The length of each discourse can be kept at one minute or it can be extended to two or three minutes. The topics can be varied, as in the set above, or they can be associated with one specific topic and it can be used as an opportunity to generate ideas for the essay that the students will be writing later on.

Here you can find one of similar discourse development tricks.

Happy teaching!