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[withnail]

Here's a little tip for something that can potentially add a lot fun to your weekly lessons with uni students. Not rocket science I know, but can be very effective.

First show your students how to write a simple paragraph and get them all doing it the same way - just 5 or 6 lines, double spaced, on lined paper, with a title top and centre. Have them write their English name, date and student number top and right. Show them on the whiteboard or on a powerpoint how you want it to look.

Teach them to spend a little time brainstorming and making notes to get ideas first and then ask them to try to write 5 or 6 lines about a very familiar topic e.g. My Best Friend. I think you'll be surprised how well they can do it despite the lack of writing practice in their background!

Of course the para will be full or errors but it's only for fun but then in small groups, get them to read each others' paragraphs and encourage them to say something to the writer by way of making an observation or just asking a question.

After you think they've got the idea, you could try telling them that once a week they have to bring in a paragraph and the title/topic can be anything they like. Stress that their classmates will get to read what they wrote and the funnier it is the better! Tell them not to write anything too personal! Really encourage them to express themselves by showing them a silly little paragraph you wrote yourself in very simple English about something silly.

There's no need for you to worry about giving any extensive error correction to these paragraphs, just collect them at the end of the little weekly session and you could even folder them and call each student's efforts their "writing portfolio". If you like you could make it 10% of the grade.

Keep stressing that it's just for fun. Gradually if you wish you could get them to focus on form a little or you could do a little classwork on the recurring errors that you've seen but really it's just for fun!

Here are the pros:

Personalisation - The sts choose what they want to write about (although you could make a list together of ideas for simple paragraphs at first). Should be something out of their life!

Brevity - It's only 5-6 lines! They can either do it for homework or you can allocate regular class time for it.

Affect - The paras are not going to get graded but maybe just that doing it every week will get them a class participation mark.

If you want, just gently and regularly remind them that it's up to them if they want these extra points or not. Hopefully this, the routine and their peers will provide a little motivation to do it. Keep cheerleading for it regularly and give a lot of positive feedback!

Input - The students get good input and reading practice and even new words from reading each others work. The more paras they read, the closer the whole thing gets to extensive reading and all the benefits we know that come from that. If, eventually, there were a common theme each week, the vocab reinforcement/recycling would be very useful but perhaps at first that's unnecessary.

Fun - Students can often get a kick out of trying to surprise and amuse their classmates and of course the teacher.

Teacher friendly - no great admin for you, no teacher error correction, just scribbling for peer reading!

Modelling - Teachers can express themselves a little sometimes by contributing a paragraph - helps the sts see him/her as a real person maybe on a day when there weren't many contributions!

Cons - Many might say - my students just wouldn't do it. I thought so too at first but many classes really get into it! You can always discontinue it if a particular class won't buy it.

Key point - many people report that the whole issue of personalisation and students getting the chance to "find their own voice" can really have a great effect in lessons.

Any ideas from teachers out there/variations/experiences with this would be much appreciated!

[dunc180]

This a good idea.

I did something like this at my old hagwon. Actually, it was CDI. Once a week I had them write a story using words and phrases from that week. I was totally taken aback by some of the stories. Sure, many of them were variations of their favourite Korean drama but they were really entertaining. I ended up making a book out of the best stories and handed copies out on the last day of term. I would read them out in class - a little over-dramatically perhaps - and the kids loved it.

I like the peer reading and discussion aspect of your way, though. And no grading is important.

Kids love stories.

[asylum seeker]

Nice idea. Oddly enough I stumbled into doing this myself after giving them a writing task for last weekend's homework. I was going to just collect and correct them today but one of my students started reading his out instead so I made that the exercise and they seemed to be quite happy with it. You've thought it through a lot more thoroughly so thanks for that.

[Lunar Groove Gardener]

Thanks for another helpful idea!

*I have students brainstorm and then write out questions about the topic;
Topic: My Favorite __________ .
?Who, What , When, Where, How, Why? etc.
Once they are able to formulate relevant questions about the topic, they choose the most important ones to answer in brief paragraphs.

**In a "chain" activity, students each add a new line to a story, which another student writes on the board. You can do it as a run-on sentence and then have them edit for punctuation(use of conjunctions and connecting words helps to keep it rolling...but/or/so/and/because/when... ).

They then copy this onto paper and each write their own ending to the story to be read in the next class.
You can always give them an interesting first line to get it started towards something more/less predictable...(I was flying in a hot-air balloon yesterday...)
"On Saturday I went to the park/ where I saw a beautiful girl /she was riding a green bike/ it was very rainy and cold/ but....
(you can outline questions about the senses on the board so that they respond with a variety of observations).

***I usually give a few questions for their conclusion of the story to address;
What happened? To whom? When, how, was it funny/sad/wild? How did they feel? etc.

****If clause chain: Each student uses the result of the preceding student's "if clause" to begin another...
"If I were rich, I'd buy a big house.../If I bought a big house, I'd invite my best friends to live with me.../If my best friends lived with me...