WORKSHOP #2 - Classroom activities and oral practice

On Friday (April, 11th) we had an interesting workshop with Mrs. Alessandra Maria Amarante Masson, who is a teacher at Colégio Jesus Maria José and at Peanuts English School, in Poços de Caldas - MG. She talked to us about classroom activities and oral practice and it was very funny. She proposed funny activities which helped us interact with one another and break the ice. She is really friendly and she amazed everyone with her enthusiastic way of teaching.
At the end of her workshop, Mrs. Masson divided us into groups and then asked us to read a handout - which was entitled Teaching Writing. Each group received a different handout - all of them about teaching: grammar, speaking, writing, listening and vocabulary. We were then asked to write here our group impressions of what is important when teaching writing.
The article is written by Jeremy Harmer, a teacher trainer from Longman who has an extensive experience in Latin America, Europe and the Far East. Mr. Harmer shows in his article why it is so important to teach writing, the different types of writing activities and the attention we must draw to some special aspects of writing. After reading the article and discussing with group members, we understand it is essential to provide our students with information about what they are going to write and how to write it. We also agreed we must give students a chance to write freely, creatively. However, some actions proposed by Mr. Harmer were forgotten by us - e.g. handing back our student's task as promptly as we've asked them to hand it in, some writing is done at home and some in class. In the end, we all agreed about one thing: there are several successful ways to practice writing; all we have to do is to find one which is in tune with our students and work it to its fullest. Certainly a challenge for those who really care about their students!