In traditional ESL writing class, the English teacher/lecturer just gives the students a topic, a paragraph or a series of diagrams and then asks the class to write the essays individually. According to the revised Bloom’s taxonomy [1], there are six levels including Remember; Understand; Apply; Analyze; Evaluate; Create. When we apply the taxonomy in teaching ESL writing and create an innovative and interactive setting, we can lead the learners to go through all the critical thinking stages. As a result, they have widened their scope with more fun after brainstorming and better learning outcomes in writing. I have adopted this method in teaching the ESL undergraduates and adult learners in various universities in Hong Kong, and Zhuhai and found it very effective. In this paper, I am going to explain and analyze how the creative and interactive ESL writing classes are structured with an example and the students’ feedback.

Bloom’s Taxonomy, critical thinking, ESL writing, brainstorming, creative, interactive, effective