English language learners ages 11 to 15 take MET Go! to show their accomplishments in their English studies. Every MET Go! test taker earns an international certificate from Michigan Language Assessment. Learners who take the 4-skill exam study for the listening, reading, writing, and speaking sections. Here are some activities for teachers who are preparing students for the MET Go! Writing Section.

1. Write a short story based on a video clip.

A) Choose a 60-90 second long video clip. Watch it with the volume turned off. 

B) Next, ask students to write a narrative based on the video. This can be done in pairs, groups, or individually. Students can share their stories with the class or in their groups. 

C) After, watch the clip with the sound. Ask students to compare their narratives with what was actually going on.

D) The students can vote on their favorite narrative by using a poll in your video conferencing platform.

2. Create a story using prompts.

A) This can be done in groups or as a full class. Find writing prompts online, or create your own in class. Ask who, what, where, and why. 

B) Share the prompts on the whiteboard or screenshare. Students can write their own stories using the suggestions. This can be done individually or as a group. (Google Docs or Padlet may be useful tools for this activity.)

C) For a follow-up activity, students can act out a dialogue from the story.

3. Write a review.

A) Assign a homework task to watch a movie, watch a show, or play a video game. 

B) Give your students guided questions: What’s the genre or topic? What’s the plot or story overview? Did you like it? Why or why not?

C) Before writing the reviews, generate a list of suggested phrases to use in the reviews. 

D) As a follow-up activity, ask students to create a 60-90 second video (YouTube style) to share their reviews.

Learn more about these tips with this short video, and take advantage of these free MET Go! resources.