Informal email writing lesson

[SaarO]

Hi,

For my last CELTA teaching practice I'm intending to try (for the first time) a 1h lesson about writing an informal email to a friend for New Year's, including resolutions and plans for the eve's celebration. The lexis and structure for plans, resolutions and celebrations will be taught in the previous 2 hours.
The class (~10) is all educated adults and their level is elementary to pre-int.

I was thinking of introducing the genre, analyzing with the students the fact that as long as the message is clear, they shouldn't worry too much about anything else, while still pointing out the particulars of informal emails (short forms, informal words etc.)

I was thinking that for a fluency practice they'll use the sentences about celebrations and resolutions for constructing their own email, following the models, and choosing one sentence about the past year, one about the next year and one about new year's eve itself.

I don't really know what to concentrate on - cohesive markers (so, but), structure (greeting, how are you?, updates about past year, plans for NYE, asking about their past year & plans, closing) or something else...
I'm also kind of lost regarding the controlled practice.

Any ideas would be greatly appreciated!!
Thanks!
O

[Lucy]

Dear O,

I'm sorry but we cannot help people with assessments for their teaching practice. I will just say that what you are trying to achieve sounds extremely ambitious for an elementary or pre-int class. Talking about the past year will involve the use of various past tenses; talking about next year will involve the use of various future forms. They will probably all be using very different lexical items. I think you need to choose one aspect and focus on that.

All the best,

Lucy