Write. Fold. Pass.
Time : 30 ~ 50 mins
Directions:
Teacher passes out paper with writing prompt written at the top and 10 lines underneath it, and students write their name and homeroom at the top of the paper. Teacher reviews grammar point and explains criteria (like a word minimum). Sentences can be about any subject the students choose (themselves, a friend, a made-up character). Students write first sentence. To fold and pass, the teacher demonstrates, and then students fold paper over the top sentence (prompt) and pass to their neighbor. Each time a student receives his neighbor's paper, he can ONLY see the sentence directly above his (example: If I am writing line 5, I can read line 4, but not lines 1-3). By the third sentence, students should have a good understanding of the flow of the activity and the teacher can decrease the time given for each student to write.
In large classes, teacher should decide the flow of papers before class.
5 minutes - first sentence
4 minutes - second sentence
3 minutes - third sentence
2 minutes - every sentence after that.
Use a timer and prompt kids to stay on track. You'll find students will push each other to finish as to not cut into their own writing time. Do not let perfection become the enemy of completion.
Target Grammar:
Write prompts based on what verb tense you want the students to focus on. Although the story may go in many different directions, if you start in one tense the story will usually continue in that tense. Here's a list of possible prompts.
"Yesterday the most interesting thing happened." (past tense)
"In the future, things will be very different." (future tense)
"When I close my eyes and imagine I am somewhere else, I..." (present tense)
"If I could change the past..." (conditional past tense, would/would not)
Staggering Difficulty:
If you have more advanced students, you can increase the difficulty of the activity by having them focus on certain vocabulary or make a word minimum (5 words). For a word minimum, remind students to use adjectives and adverbs to increase the word count of even a simple sentence. Be careful not to put too many restrictions. It needs to be flexible enough for the students to be creative and reasonable enough that students can complete it in the allotted time.
Contributors: Elaine West, Ben Levelius
