Job Discussion Forums

[mjed9]

Does anyone know of any good writing exercises that can be utilised in a one hour class for between 8 and 20 students? Something easy to control and yet productive at the same time?

Ta

MJED

[nolefan]

Ask them to pull out a piece of paper and start writing bases on one of the topics you choose for them ( 5 or 6). Let them write for 5 mn and ask them to stop.
Ask them to pass their paper to someone else who will then correct some of the mistakes then follow up on their story.

After they're done, ask them to give it back to the original owner who will then proceed to finish the story.

[Kitegirl]

Do you have a good collection of pictures (wierd people, situations, objects)? I give each pair or group three pictures and tell them to incorporate them in a story - you get some hysterical results - especially if you do a comic model first. They get really into it. I think the visuals help.

[Lanza-Armonia]

Another one I found that worked very well with kids was what I call mix 'n' match.

You write on the board some objects, abstract ideas and people (whatever basically) in a certain order and then they have to write a story using these objects in the order you wrote them down.

A weord one I used was, Bill Clinton, home (the idea of a home, not a house), pencil, red, justice, America, relation, engine and finally, computer.

I cannot begin to tell you how much I laughed after reading some of the work I was handed back........ The Chinese kids don't like Billy on the best of days, one imagines....

LA

[Roger]

I don't know the age or English level of your learners; I only know they are Taiwanese. My Chinese English students can seldom do a job that requires imagination. Too much "do as I do, but do it your way" demonstrations.
Nevertheless, I suggest the following:
- Dictate the beginning of a story, and have them finish it by themselves. Add a complication such as someone confusing numbers, and see whether they trip up or not, and how they would solve the resulting problem.
My version is that of someone arriving in an unfamiliar place where he must take a bus no. 241 but actually boards a bus no. 214. Then allow them to write 50 words of their own...
- My adult students cannot even write a CV!

[arioch36]

Depends on your purpose and their ability.

For my younger students, they had a picture story and had to write the story (I guess there is no reason not to do the same with college students)

The other one that I thought worked well was where I started a story, for instance the hunter and the boar, and they had to finish. The grizzlied boar was a wily veteran of such campaigns, and at the last second, as the hunter flung his spear, the beast twisted his body and was only grazed by the weapon. The vicious animal then had the terrified hunter at his mercy....

I think my emphasis on that one was using new adjectives and adverbs, and proper placement of adverbs and prepositions of space and time. Some had the hunter killing the boar. Many had the boar and the hunter both living, many as friends. No one wrote a story that had the boar killing the hunter. Very disappointing.