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Pass the story

This can be used for all levels where the students have at least a basic vocabulary. Depending on class size, begin by writing out some beginnings of stories. Only the first line or two. For example, I was walking to the store one day. Or, I had just bought a lottery ticket when I heard the news on the radio.  In groups pass the stories around, giving each group time to add 2 to 4 lines to the story. End activity when you think it is appropriate. Move around the class and work on tenses, grammar and vocabulary with students.

Practice Reading and Writing

This highly motivating classroom and homework activity helps students to integrate reading, writing and pronunciation in order to communicate with their classmates.

Either give the students a topic of general interest, e.g., My Home, My Hometown, My Job; or let them choose a topic they think will be of interest to others. Have them write one page, double-spaced.

Review the compositions. Indicate errors, make suggestions for correction, and hand it back. Students rewrite it until it's error-free.

Make an audiotape of their story and let them take it home to practice the pronunciation.

The whole effort culminates in their reading their story to a group of their classmates (usually I have more than one story going at a time, with one reader and three or so listeners per group). Instruct the listeners to make sure they understand every word, because the grammar is correct and the pronunciation has been practiced. They are usually very keen to hear what their classmates have to say, and ask a lot of questions. Both listeners and readers demonstrate great patience and interest in communicating with each other, and the exercise demonstrates the importance of correct grammar and pronunciation. It is particularly beneficial to have a volunteer who is not used to talking with ESL students, as this person provides the best possible test for pronunciation -- can a native speaker understand what the student is saying?

From: http://www.eslcafe.com/idea/index.cgi?Writing

Writing Situations

Write up a bunch situations on slips on paper like "scored the winning goal for my soccer team", "broke up with my girlfriend/boyfriend", "had my bike stolen and I saw the thief", "my aunt gave me $400 and I spent it all today". Have a slip ready for every student, maybe repeat a couple of the situations if you like them. The students chose a slip from your hand and have to write one page on the situation that they find themselves with. They have to write as if they were writing to their diary that evening. They'll have to use their imaginations a bit to provide more of a story line and details, plus they can add stuff like "dinner was also really good tonight".

From: http://www.eslcafe.com/idea/index.cgi?Writing

Writing with Objects

Have two students come to the front of the room and draw one picture each. The picture can be anything that they like. Then, you have them sit down and elicit ideas about what the pictures could be. Tell the students that they need to write a composition about an interaction of the two pictures. You can incorporate any specific grammar structure or vocabulary by adding that to the criteria for the composition.

Picture Stories

Cut out interesting pictures. Divide the class into groups of 3-4 students. Give each group one picture. Have students write a chain story about the picture by going around the group and having each student add one new sentence to the story.

Variation: To give the groups a "starter," give out the first two sentences of a story with the pictures.

Fanny's Dilemma

Instructions to students: Usually your professor assigns you to read a story and then asks you (the students) a bunch silly questions basically to be sure that you did the assignment and make sure that you understood what you read. Here we do it do it differently. Here are the questions that would have been given to you if you had READ the story, however you must instead WRITE the story. Good luck, authors!

1. Why was it five o'clock in the morning when Fanny returned to the dorms at St. Etienne?

2. What was said by the coffee machines and by who?

3. How did Fanny react when she first found the... well, you know what? What were some of the first things that she did?

4. What made you, the reader, think that someone was playing a joke?

5. Where and what on Earth was the Rotonde?

6. Which of the boys was not real? ... or was he?

7. Who was Mystero and what role did he/she play in the story?

8. Julien seemed shocked or decidedly odd when he first spoke to Fanny. Why?

9. Why did Fanny decide to go down to the basement and what did she bring with her?

10. What things could Fanny have done differently?

11 Did she consider any of those other alternatives?

12. What happened to Julien?

A Collaborative Approach to Writing

Levels: Beginner-Intermediate

Give the students a writing assignment with a specific topic, for example, their weekend, or their hometown.  Collect the assignments and critique them thoroughly, correcting errors and giving suggestions. I then photocopy all the stories and hand back a booklet containing all the stories to each student. We work through several during each class, checking with each writer as to what they really meant, and helping each writer to polish their work. This technique obviously demands a high level of student-student and teacher-student respect, and it builds even greater respect. I often compliment the students on their interesting sentences and thank them for their efforts. I emphasize the miscommunication caused by errors, so they can see that writing correctly is not a matter of pleasing the teacher but of saying what they really mean. I tell the students how wonderful it is that they can all learn from each other, and they really buy into it.

With smaller classes, I have the students all write their paragraphs on the board. I then go through them with a red marker, highlighting what I'd like changed, and we correct it as a class. The students often like to copy each other's stories.

I use some of their sentences on our weekly tests. This validates the importance of the learning that occurs during this activity, as well as the students' experiences and ideas. I have also had the students write about their home and rewrite their stories when corrected, then put them all into a booklet and give it to them for Christmas.

Student-Led Dictation

Level: Intermediate or Advanced

I bring in at least enough of the same newspaper for half the class. I have my students divide up in pairs. They then do timed dictation, from any article we choose, one student with a newspaper dictating to a student without, ONE LETTER AT A TIME. Content is not necessarily important here, just the ability to pronounce and understand English letters. They say "space" between words. The punctuation should also be noted. I call time after 5 or 10 minutes and see who got the farthest without mistakes. Then they switch. I make a half-hearted attempt to make it a contest but my adult students don't seem to really care about competition. They're too busy working on their pronunciation, and sometimes too busy laughing, to care about winning.

Print-Outs

This link has many listed grammar and vocabulary notes, as well as print-out activities and on-line excercises:

http://perso.wanadoo.es/autoenglish/freeexercises.htm#TENSES

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Have some fun activities/ideas?  How about worksheets, review sheets or songs?

Send your ideas to aparedes@cec-epn.edu.ec. Please include a short summary of the activity along with any worksheets or extra materials needed for the activity.