Skills Development – Writing Workshop

Level: A2

Aim: to practise writing a story; to practise sequencing

Materials: a picture story cut-outs (taken from: https://eflrecipes.com/2014/08/31/story/)   word cards (sentence linkers and various verbs and phrasals), name tag holders, name tags, markers/pencils/pens, A3 construction paper, glue

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Procedure:

Step 1:

Ss are divided into 2 teams of 4 (or as many teams of 4 as possible). Here ss can draw numbers from a hat to establish team members and avoid any possible ss’ dissatisfaction with the T’s choice of team members. Every team is given one sheet of A3 construction paper, one marker and one set of picture story cut-outs. Ss are instructed that they are going to write a story (120-150 words) as a team and that it is crucial that every single member of every team fully participates in the process.

Every team member is assigned a specific role:

Story Manager / Story Presenter	• makes sure the team stays focused • makes sure all voices in the team are heard • makes sure that the team moves forward and communicates well • presents the story to the class
Grammar Giant	• makes sure that the verb forms are used correctly • makes sure that punctuation is used properly • makes sure that word order in the sentences is correct
Linking  Leader	• makes sure that there are at least 10 linkers in the story • makes sure that all team members give their own ideas about which linkers to use and where • makes sure that the linkers are used correctly and that there are paragraphs so that the story is easy to follow
Vocabulary Wizard	• makes sure that all team members give their own ideas about which words to use • makes sure that the words and phrases are used correctly • works closely with all team members to check the spelling of words and phrases

 

After all the ss in all the teams have read the responsibilities of each role they themselves decide who is going to assume which role (if you do this activity later in the school year and if your ss are familiar with and accustomed to various peer assessment activities, you’ll be surprised by the extent to which your ss are familiar with each other’s strengths and weaknessesJ).

 

Step 2:

Every Linking Leader is given a set of word cards with linkers on them and instructed to use at least 8 linkers in their stories. Every Vocabulary Wizard is given a set of verbs and phrasal and instructed to use as many as possible. All the teams are instructed that they should first order the pictures to make a story, glue the pictures on the construction paper and start writing/describing what happened in the pictures.

 

Step 3:

The teams write their stories and the T oversees the whole process – going from workstation to workstation.

 

Step 4:

After all the teams have written their stories, every Story Presenter puts up their poster and presents the story to the class.