Creative writing is something we all should be exploring in our lives, but let’s face it, some of our students find writing tasks dull and boring, or difficult to complete. Do you want your class to improve their writing skills? YES, then keep reading!
Are you looking for a way to motivate and encourage your students to write? Do your kiddos find it difficult to creatively write because they lack ideas? Are you looking for some fun new exercises for your classroom? Well, I’ve got ya! Let me give you some great, engaging and entertaining ways to hook your students and help them become better creative writers.
Now I know for many ESL exams across the globe they have to complete a written part of the exam. I also know that ELL’s often dread this part of the examination and become very nervous or negative about it, but what if we can make it interesting and even amusing for them?
One great way to boost our pupils' confidence and grammar skills is to do written group collaboration games and exercises. This way they can find new ideas or develop what they already have far easier, they can gain a better understanding of how to link ideas and correct grammatical errors and spelling, making their creative writing pieces perfect.
So, here are 5 different group creative writing games, suitable for any level or age, for you to try out.
ROUND ROBIN
Good for plot development & connecting ideas
Groups of 4 / 5 students
How to play - Give each student a piece of paper and set a 5 minute timer. Students start writing a story and continue until the five minutes is up. When the timer goes off, all of the students pass the paper to the person on their left. Set and start the timer again and the students read what's already there and then continue the story until the timer goes off. Repeat this action until the paper has made a full circle and the first student has their original paper back again. This person then reads the finished story out loud for everyone to hear.
This game is often a very engaging game and comes out with some hilarious stories. It helps students connect and present new ideas. Students are always so surprised at how their stories turn out in the end, because it’s normally the complete opposite of what they thought when they wrote the beginning.
I play this game quite often as my teens and adults like to play it, and that's a win in my book.
WHAT’S IN A LIST?
Good for elements of a story & ability to link them
Group of whole class
How to play - Everyone has 5 minutes to write 15 words on a piece of paper. These words can be character names, places, objects, verbs, times or days and even adjectives. They can be connected words or random. I find you can achieve good results either way to be honest. Then everyone folds up their paper and then puts it into a hat ( bag or pile on the table) and students one by one draw a paper out of it. Making sure they don’t pick their own paper. Now they have the task of writing a story including all the 15 words on their list. They can use them in any order they like, but must use all words given to them.
This activity is great for giving unusual ideas, or using vocabulary / ideas that the writer would never normally think of. It also practices linking ideas, places and characters in a unique and original way. I’ve seen some great stories come out of this one. The student that writes the list normally really enjoys reading the finished product too.
Side note : This also works really well for creating poems and scripts.
GUESS THE CELEBRITY
Good for point of view for character development
How to play - For this one students need to think of a famous celebrity, someone that the rest of the class will know and will be able to guess. They then are given 10 minutes to write a letter, email, social media post, or article from that famous person. The idea here is to focus on something from that celebrity's life or personal perspective. After they have finished writing students take it in turns to read their piece out loud and their classmates guess which celebrity they have written about.
This is fun and current, meaning it's engaging for teens to do. It’s also not as time consuming as the above tasks and so it’s great for playing at the start or end of the class.
My ESL students like this game as they get to write about their favourite celebrity. I like it as it practices different tenses and therefore improves their grammar. Defo put this on your lesson plans to try out!
WHO ARE YOU?
Good for character creation & development
Groups of 4 / 5
How to play - It works like this, you (the teacher) show each group a photograph of a random person, NO famous people (I find my images on Google by typing in’ photo of a …..’) The group then has to invent this person. They must give the person a name and background information such as job, hobbies, personal info like age and where they live, likes and dislikes, family connections and relationships. Basically as much info as possible and they create it based on their intuition from the photo, and what this person looks like. Then the groups present their person to the class, explaining the character and how they came up with the idea.
I like this one a lot because of the communication it involves in the group. It takes teamwork, creativity and the ability to present ideas to others. It’s great for a short amount of time and a follow up exercise could be for each member of the group to write a story involving the same character they have created and then they can also read and compare what happens to the character too.
STORY CUBES
(If you don’t know about these you are really missing out! For ESL students these little dice are great for improving fluency in English. There are 9 dice or cubes in a set and each side of the dice has a picture or symbol on it.)
Good for plot development & connecting ideas
Groups of 2
How to play - In pairs, students roll the dice, discuss and then decide what order to write the dice in for the story. Then each pair writes their own story. When both are finished they read out loud to the class or each other and they get to compare how the same dice have created similar or different outcomes.
This works well with groups because 1 set of dice can tell many different stories because the events happen in different ways. This is a really interesting and creative activity for ESL’s. I especially like the Story Cubes listed below as they have so many different themed sets to buy. My students NEVER get bored with playing with these and I highly recommend using Story Cubes to add some fun to your classroom.
Here are my favourites - Story Cubes Emergency
*Disclosure: I only recommend products I would use myself and all opinions expressed here are our own. This post may contain affiliate links that at no additional cost to you, I may earn a small commission. Thank you!
All of these games have been a HUGE help for my students to improve their writing skills and fluency, and they are so effective because they are fun!
I mean who wants to make writing boring!? Try them out in your classroom and I guarantee your students will enjoy them and ask to play again!
Adios, for now!
Do you have an idea you would like to share? Be sure to comment below and have a great day!
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