IELTS Writing
How to Teach IELTS Writing Task 2: A Lesson Plan
Short answer: The best way to teach IELTS Writing Task 2 is to start from your own class’s essays. Sort their mistakes by how much each one hurts the reader, teach the top two or three problem types in a 60-minute lesson, then follow up with a personal worksheet and a review a week later.
Most published Task 2 lesson plans begin with somebody else’s essay: a model answer or a band 6 sample from a textbook. That has its place. But your students’ mistakes tell you what to teach next, in what order and with which examples.
This guide walks through one lesson of about 60 minutes. It works face to face or online, and you can do all of it with a highlighter and a spreadsheet.
What is IELTS Writing Task 2?
IELTS Writing Task 2 is the essay task: candidates write at least 250 words in response to a point of view, argument or problem, and it carries more weight than Task 1.
It appears in both the Academic and General Training tests. Examiners mark it against the band descriptors, the public criteria used to award a band from 0 to 9. For Task 2 there are four criteria: Task Response, Coherence and Cohesion, Lexical Resource, and Grammatical Range and Accuracy.
Why teach IELTS Writing Task 2 from students’ own mistakes?
Because students pay far more attention to a sentence they wrote than to a textbook sentence, and a class usually shares a small number of problems.
A model essay shows students where to end up. Their own essays show what is stopping them from getting there.
A class of twelve will not make twelve different sets of mistakes. In most groups a handful of problems do most of the damage:
an unclear position
paragraphs that list ideas without developing them
a linker used with the wrong meaning
a grammar pattern that keeps coming back
Find those few, and your lesson aims at what matters most.
How do you sort Task 2 essays to find the lesson focus?
Read the essays twice, log each problem with the student’s exact words, then rank problem types by how much they hurt the reader. Allow 30 to 40 minutes before the lesson, and use one recent Task 2 question for the whole class so the essays are easy to compare.
Read each essay once for the big picture. Does it answer the question? Is the position clear in the introduction and kept to the end? Does each body paragraph develop one main idea?
On a second read, highlight sentence-level problems. Note the exact words, not just a code. “Wrong linker” is less useful later than the sentence itself.
Log every problem in a simple table. Use four columns: student, the sentence (their words), the type of problem, and its damage level (see the scale below).
Count by type, weighted by damage. Blocking counts three, limiting two, cosmetic one. Sort the list. The two or three types at the top are your lesson. Everything else can wait for a worksheet.
Damage level | What it means | Weight |
|---|---|---|
Blocking | The reader has to stop or guess what is meant | 3 |
Limiting | Clearly wrong but still understood | 2 |
Cosmetic | Most readers would not notice | 1 |
Keep it light. You are not marking to the band descriptors here. You are choosing a teaching focus.
How do you anonymise student mistakes for a class lesson?
Rewrite each example so it keeps the problem but loses anything that identifies the writer.
Change the topic words, swap names and numbers, and never copy a long run of words from one student’s essay. Students should recognise the kind of mistake, not who made it.
A useful test: if a student could point at the board and say “that’s Maria’s sentence”, rewrite it again.
What does a 60-minute IELTS Writing Task 2 lesson plan look like?
It moves from spotting the problem, to fixing it together, to applying the fix on a fresh text and then on each student’s own sentences.
The sentences below are invented examples written for this article. They are not real student work.
Suppose your sorting puts these three problem types at the top for a class writing on “Some people think governments should spend more on public transport than on roads. To what extent do you agree?”
Problem type | Example sentence (invented) | Damage |
|---|---|---|
Position unclear | “There are many advantages and disadvantages of public transport in modern society.” | Blocking: the examiner cannot tell what the writer thinks |
Linker with the wrong meaning | “Buses are cheaper than cars. Moreover, many people still prefer to drive.” | Limiting: the reader expects another point in favour and gets a contrast |
Idea not developed | “Public transport reduces pollution. It is also good for the economy. Also it is convenient.” | Blocking: three claims, no explanation or example |
Here is the lesson at a glance:
Stage | Time | What students do |
|---|---|---|
1. Spot the writer’s opinion | 5 min | Find which introduction states no position |
2. Fix the position | 10 min | Rewrite the unclear introduction in pairs |
3. Linker meaning check | 10 min | Choose linkers by the relationship between ideas |
4. Develop one idea | 15 min | Explain, exemplify and link one claim |
5. Class correction text | 10 min | Find and fix all three problems in a fresh paragraph |
6. Personal rewrite | 10 min | Rewrite their own highlighted sentences |
And in detail:
Warmer: spot the writer’s opinion (5 minutes). Show four introductions, one of them the “position unclear” example, and ask: “What does this writer believe?” Students quickly see that one says nothing.
Fix the position (10 minutes). In pairs, students rewrite that introduction so the position is clear in the last sentence. Compare two or three versions on the board. There is more than one right answer.
Linker meaning check (10 minutes). Give six two-sentence pairs with a linker gap. Students choose moreover, however or as a result and justify the choice by the relationship between the ideas, not by “it sounds academic”. Then fix the example above (However, many people still prefer to drive).
Develop one idea (15 minutes). Take the “not developed” paragraph. As a class, pick one of the three claims and build it out: explain it, give an example, and link it back to the position. Students then do the same with a claim from their own essay.
Class correction text (10 minutes). Hand out a short, invented Task 2 paragraph that contains each problem type once. Small groups find and fix them on fresh text.
Personal rewrite (10 minutes). Each student gets back their own highlighted sentences of these types and rewrites them. This keeps the personal connection without exposing anyone in front of the class.
What IELTS worksheets work as a Task 2 follow-up?
Give each student a worksheet from their own sentences, review what they got wrong a week later, and check the next essay for the same problem.
One lesson rarely fixes a habit. The follow-up is what makes it stick.
Same day or next lesson: an IELTS Writing Task 2 worksheet for each student, built from their own flagged sentences. Use find-and-fix items, “choose the better linker” gaps and one rewrite of a body paragraph.
A week later: bring back only the items each student got wrong. This short review is where much of the lasting progress happens.
Next essay: check whether the same problem type comes back. If it does, it goes to the top of next week’s list. If it doesn’t, celebrate it.
These are IELTS error correction exercises that change writing, because they use each student’s own sentences rather than generic ones.
What are the most common IELTS Writing Task 2 mistakes to teach?
The problems worth a full lesson are the ones that affect the whole essay or keep coming back, not one-off slips.
Position missing, or changing halfway through the essay (“to what extent” questions especially).
Not answering every part of a two-part or discussion question.
Paragraphs that list rather than develop: several claims and no explanation.
Linkers chosen for sound, not meaning: moreover before a contrast, therefore without a cause.
Overgeneralising: “everyone”, “always”, “nowadays all people”.
Recurring grammar patterns, such as article use with general nouns or the verb pattern after suggest or recommend.
How can IELTS Laboratory help with this lesson?
IELTS Laboratory (ielts-laboratory.co) is an independent online platform for IELTS teachers and learners that turns learners’ own Writing and Speaking mistakes into flashcards, lesson packs and practice. It is not affiliated with IELTS, the British Council, IDP or Cambridge.
You mark the essays and decide what gets taught; it does the counting in Steps 1 to 3.
The Mistakes tab ranks a class’s mistakes by damage for the dates you choose. It is built from the corrections and flashcards you write while marking, each labelled with an error code in the background, so it gives you the sorting table from Step 1.
Lesson packs are ready-made lessons that group the mistakes you have sent to a class or a set of students over the dates you choose, by type. Each group comes with the rule, a better version and a quick drill. You can save the plan and reopen it.
The class puzzle builds a fresh practice text from the class’s mistake types, like the correction text in stage 5. It is checked so that no run of four or more words from any student’s essay appears in it. Personal puzzles give each student their own sentences to rewrite, as in stage 6.
Flashcards you write go into each student’s own deck, and cards they miss come back sooner.
First and second drafts sit under one report link, each assessed separately, so you can see whether the lesson stuck.
You mark, band and decide. Nothing in the product is an official IELTS score.
For the Speaking side of the same approach, see how to teach IELTS Speaking Part 2 from your students’ recordings, or read more about IELTS Laboratory for teachers. If a learner asks you how to pick a tutor, how to choose an IELTS tutor covers what to check.
FAQ
How do you teach IELTS Writing Task 2?
Start from your students’ own essays. Sort their mistakes by damage, teach the top two or three problem types, give a fresh text to practise on, then follow up with personal worksheets and a review a week later.
How do you teach IELTS Writing Task 2 to beginners?
Start with the question, not the essay. Teach students to find the topic, the task and each part of the question, then write a clear one-sentence position. For lower levels, run the sorting process on short paragraphs rather than full essays.
What should an IELTS Writing Task 2 lesson plan include?
A clear focus of one to three problem types, examples learners recognise, controlled practice, a fresh text to apply it to, and a personal follow-up.
Are there IELTS lesson plans for Writing Task 2 in PDF?
Yes. The British Council’s TeachingEnglish and takeielts sites and Cambridge English publish free lesson plans for teachers. Pair them with your own students’ sentences for the practice stages.
How long should a Task 2 lesson be?
The sequence above fits 60 minutes. For a 90-minute class, add a timed 40-minute essay on a new question at the end, so you have fresh material to sort for next week.
How do I correct Task 2 essays without spending all weekend?
Don’t correct everything. Sort by damage, teach the top few problems to the whole class, and put the rest on individual worksheets.
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