This video is about 12 ESL writing activities for teachers to use in the classroom.
The video introduces the importance of writing and how it can improve students’ understanding of English. It then dives into 12 different activities that can be used in the classroom. Here are some of the activities covered in the video:
- Classroom Graffiti: Set up four chart paper stations around the room with titles like conflicts, character traits, settings, and themes. Break the class into four groups and have each group go to one of the stations. The group members work together to brainstorm ideas for a fictional story. Then have them rotate to the next station and repeat the process. Once finished, have each student select one idea from each category to develop a unique narrative.
- Ask the Oracle: This is a writing game where students write a question at the top of a page and then pass it on to the next person who writes the answer. The paper is folded so the question is hidden and the process is repeated. This continues until the bottom of the page is reached and students unfold their papers to see the funny and unexpected stories that resulted.
- Howto Paragraph for Aliens: Students imagine they need to write instructions for an alien to impersonate them for a day. This forces them to break down everyday actions and describe them in detail.
- Analyzing a Video: Show students a video and then ask them questions about the differences they see between the past and present. This can be used as a springboard for a writing assignment about how life has changed.
- Describing an Object: This activity uses a cube to ask six different questions about an item, helping students describe it in detail.
- Two Season Paragraph: This activity helps students write fully developed paragraphs by brainstorming ideas about two different seasons.
- Music Story Pass: Play music and have students write a story according to the mood of the music. When the music stops, they pass their paper on to the next person who continues the story based on what they read.
- Association Chain: Play an association game where you say a word and students take turns calling out words that are related to it. Then have students write a story using all of the words in their association chain.
- Report on a Real Event: Have students choose a news story from a newspaper and write a report about it in their own words. They can write it from a different perspective, like a player in a sporting event, and even present their reports to the class.
- Scattergories: This is a classic game where students take turns coming up with words that fit into different categories, all starting with a chosen letter.
- Sentence Expansion: Start with a simple sentence and have students take turns adding words, phrases or clauses to make it more complex.
