My door is on the roof. I climb with a rope. I have stairs from moon. (Maral, age 11)
One of the most favourite activities we do in class is creative writing. It is great for revising grammar and vocabulary. It is also great for unleashing their hidden talents. Although they sometimes complain about drawing, they end up with wonders.
Here is one we’ve recently done:
Creative Writing Task:
Imagine it is 2040. Draw the door of your house an describe your life there.
Aim: Talking about daily routines.
Describing people and and places
Using present simple tense
In the end I was happy with a bunch of creative minds who managed to think outside the box.
Drills are the most important exercises at the 1st phase of learning a new structure. They may be neglected thinking that they are mechanical and meaningless but they may be very effective for some learners. They are repetitive so they can make the form memorable. Making a drill type of exercise a little bit meaningful and adding a pinch of creativity to it can be challenging but it is worth it. I want to list some ideas here and I’ll divide them into two categories. Tools and the Activities …
TOOLS?
1. Ask students to take photos of people or pets at home,in the street or give them your own photos or tell them to draw.
2. Give them an A4 size paper and show them how to fold it as a tiny book , or show them how to fold as 6 equal rectangles, or see more foldables here
4. Buy colourful post-it notes with different shapes.
ACTIVITIES
1. Tell them to write what they were doing/ had done / did when,after before the photo was taken ( I was —ing when my mother took this photo) / I had eaten my sandwich before this my mum took the photo.
2. Give the skeleton and ask them to write a poem. You can see another example here.
