Hello everyone,

How are you? I need your help.

I will be in charge of a creative writng workshop for secondary school students in a mixed level class. Most of them are elementary level and some of them have never studied English before.

Do you have any ideas/websites/materials I can use for these students? Any ideas will help me a lot.

Thank you in advance.

Yamila 

Edit: Sorry if my answer there isn�t helpful - I just sometimes think teachers are asked to perform miracles and I don�t think I could get any creative writing from beginners. No doubt they have the intellectual skills - in their own language. 

Yesterday, I had a comment on one of my wss, which I considered suitable for intermediate to advanced level. The commentator said it had been really good for her pre-intermediates. Maybe these terms mean different things to different people. 

The advice I would give to teach beginners is that there has to be input before they can give any output. I advise DARTs activities - match-up/gap fill/sequencing and as alien boy advises - images, all the time. So my advice would be lots of picture stories and ask them to draw an alternative ending. Label the pictures with single words.  

Good luck - glad that�s your task, not mine!

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Here are some suggestions, from experience.
- start with telling a clear, simple story as an example. Fairy tales or folk stories are good because they�re well known. I probably�wouldn�t give them the ending to the story, however, so that you can use that as a prompt to create their own ending. I also use pictures along with the writing when doing this.
- get the students to suggest endings. Make sure you write them down & put them on display with the rest of the story.
- discuss changing the characters, then the locations, items, & problems/solutions. I often use a �story face � template with the students. I�ll post a link later, or message me with an email address & I�ll send something to you.
You can rewrite the story together with the students, or in smaller groups, or individually, or even a mixture of all 3.
- get the students to create their own stories individually or in pairs, groups or whatever suits. Get them to use something like the �story face�, or another similar construction template, to outline & then create their story.

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Good luck! It can be a lot of fun & very rewarding for you and the students if you prepare things appropriate to their language ability and their age!

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Cheers,

AB�

 

You may find some odd ideas here:

 

 

 

http://www.kidsplayandcreate.com/50-positive-creative-writing-topics-for-kids/

http://bogglesworldesl.com/creativewriting.htm

http://busyteacher.org/classroom_activities-writing/esl-creative-writing-prompts-worksheets/

https://www.wyzant.com/resources/lessons/english/esl/activities_and_quizzes/activities/creative-writing

https://en.islcollective.com/resources/search_result?Tags=creative+writing

https://creativitiesefl.wordpress.com/