Story Writing

Elicit:

Start off by writing a sentence or two on the board and then getting your students to make a sentence that goes immediately after it. Be aware of you board work and think about how it would look on the printed page.

Here are a few suggestions:

•  Annie threw the ball at her friend, but she did not catch it.
• Mark had not opened his fridge for two weeks.
•  “I’m not going in there,” cried Julie.
•  Richard pulled himself up the rope. It was raining and the wind was strong.
•  Pat was driving her car when she heard a terrible noise from the engine.
•  As soon as he walked off the plane, Damian noticed how hot it was.

These are just suggestions; please feel free to use your imagination. Be aware of what tenses you are using and don’t make them too complicated for lower– level learners.

Use your learners’ names if you wish to make it personal. Remember that all stories are not fiction; they can be true. When eliciting sentences from your students, listen carefully to what they say. If the grammar is not correct encourage your learners to correct each other.

Once you have filled the board ask your students: “What do you think happens next?”

Practice:

Part One: Pair work

Get your learners to write down what has already been written on the board and to continue adding sentences to it. Although you can ask your learners to work silently, it is also good to get your class to work in pairs, one of them writing whilst the other makes suggestions (get them to exchange roles so that they both have the chance to write). This encourages speaking and your students will be able to bounce ideas off each other.

As they do this, monitor and give encouragement and praise. Be careful that your students don’t start chatting in their own language. If they do, ask them: “How do you say that in English.”

Part Two: Feedback

Once your learners have finished writing (a page should be enough), stick or pin their work to the wall. Now get your learners to go to the wall and read at least one story. For lower levels you will need to give them time to do this. Now get them to tell the stories they have read to their partners or to the class. The number of students you have and the dynamics of the class determine how you will set up this activity.
Remember that you must set rules, such as whether they can take notes when they read another’s story (make sure that they are notes; they cannot actually write the story down!) or whether to set a time limit. It’s up to you.

Alternatively, if your learners are of a high level, you could get them to read out their stories to the class to create a listening activity.

Part Three: Consequences

This is a variation on an old party game. Give your students a new task. Give them the first sentence of a story and they have to finish it. Decide whether your learners will work in pairs or not. Here are some suggestions (taken from classic books):

•  It was seven minutes after midnight.
•  When he was nearly thirteen my brother Jem got his arm badly broken at the elbow.
•  The house stood on a slight rise just on the edge of a village.
•  Flying into Australia, I realised with a sigh that I had forgotten again who their Prime Minister is.

•  The hill people and the Mexicans arrived on the same day.
•  This is a story about a man named Eddie and it begins at the end, with Eddie dying in the sun.
•  When the phone rang, I was boiling a potful of spaghetti…
•  We slept in what had once been the gymnasium.
•  The scent and smoke and sweat of a casino are nauseating at three in the morning.
•  If you really want to hear about it, the first thing you’ll probably want to know is where I was born and what my lousy childhood  was like…
•  I was in my room reading a book.

 Please feel free to choose your own sentences. You can write a selection on the board or give your students a handout. Ask them to choose one sentence (or give one sentence to each of your groups or pairs) and ask them to write it down at the top of an A4 sheet of paper. Their task is to continue the story.

Give them a time limit of ten minutes. After ten minutes, get your learners to pass their A4 sheets in a clockwise direction. They have to read what the previous group has written and continue the new story in front of them. At the end of the lesson you can read out the stories to the class as a form of feedback to your students, often with hilarious results.