Classroom Activities

Good teaching is one-fourth preparation and three-fourths theatre.
- James Anthony Froude

'I hear and I forget. I see and I remember. I do and I understand.'
- Confucius

LEARNING writing doesn't have to be quiet or passive. In fact, in old times, writers often gathered in groups and shared ideas and debated with great intensity and noise!

Below are some great classroom activities from the Seven Steps Teacher Manual. Try them in your classroom and see the difference they make. Action and laughter means kids learn fast!Kids mock fighting in turban dress ups

Step 1: Plan For Success

Set the class on a hunt for TV ads which tell a mini story. Have students tape the ads and then share them with the class while you discuss how well they follow the basic story structure. It's amazing how even 30 second ads can start with action, build great tension and end with a bang.

Step 2: Sizzling Story Starts

Here's a challenge. The topic is 'Earthquake'. Power up the overhead, get a texta and start 'modeling' the story in front of the class. However for this exercise, you are going to write the WORST story start ever! Put in absolutely everything you can think of so you never get to the real action. 'I woke up that morning...got dressed...ate bacon and two pieces or toast for breakfast...trod on the cat's tail... cleaned my teeth...got on the bus...sat at the back...ate...' Well, you've read it often so I bet you know how it goes.

See how long it is before the class catches on and starts giggling. Ham it up, ask for really bland and bad suggestions:

  • 'What did I eat on the bus?'
  • 'Did I put on a jacket?'
  • 'What are the names of my five best friends on the bus?'

How does the story end? Very quickly. When you've exhausted every boring possibility cut to the action. 'The ground shook. I screamed. Buildings fell down. I went home to bed.'

Sometimes doing something really, really badly can make kids laugh and learn and swear NEVER to fall into that trap again.

Step 3: Tightening Tension

The Circle of Death, the Ghost Train, the Manic roller coaster ride - what do all these have in common?

They all play on our desire to feel fear and excitement.

So try this. Don't wait for the end of year break-up, take your grade now to the local fun fair. Pair students up. Send half your grade on the scariest ride there. And then, when they stagger off, hearts pounding and still shaking, get them to 'brain dump' to their waiting Roller coasterpartner exactly what they are feeling.

For instance:

  • sweaty palms
  • hot
  • voice high pitched
  • panting for breath
  • shaking knees
  • relief

Then (unless you want a mutiny on your hands), get students to swap over so everyone gets to go on the rides.

The feeling of fear on a ghost train is almost exactly the feeling you get in a car accident, a hurricane, or in the middle of an earthquake. Once students have their own 'fear list' created, they can use it time and again in all their writing!

Step 4: Dynamic Dialogue

Dialogue is really a mini play inserted into the story.

Here's a challenge. Ask a student to act out a scene with you in front of the class. The topic: A bratty kid who never hands their homework in on time.

The fun bit: YOU play the bratty kid. The student gets to play the teacher.

Ad lib and see what comes up. Grab another volunteer, act out the scene again. As you are both ad libbing, it will be a very different scene. Repeat a third time if kids are enjoying it.

This gives students LOTS of ideas to choose from. Now, get them to write the scene, picking the bits of dialogue that appeal to them from any of the three act outs. It's a lot of fun – which is what writing is all about!

Step 5: Show, Don't Tell

Try this exercise to help students SHOW the more abstract emotions like love, hate, loyalty, strength, laziness, or even a sense of humour.

  1. Select a concept. e.g. 'loyalty'
  2. For homework, ask students to come up with one event or action as 'proof'. e.g. 'What would show me your best friend is loyal?'
  3. The next day, pool all the ideas in a brainstorming session. Some responses might be:
    • He searched with me for six hours when we lost our cat.
    • She ate the biscuits I cooked even though they tasted like wet cement.
    • He stood up for me when my sister was trying to read my diary.
  4. Now students have a whole range of ideas to select from - many of which might trigger better ideas than their original one. So, using any of the ideas, ask students to write one short paragraph showing their friend's loyalty.
  5. UICK TIP: Suggest that this paragraph must have dialogue (Step 4) in it. This will make them write in the present tense rather than the more passive 'recount' mode.

Step 6: Ban the Boring Bits

Get students to bring in some of their writing from Grade 1 or 2. Kids at this age often write about eating, sleeping and traveling in great detail. Challenge everyone to rewrite their work now, using all the skills they have learnt. They'll love seeing how much they have improved!

Step 7: Exciting Endings

Pity the Poor Script Writer! Show students a TV sitcom and just before the end, (when everything is at its worst and most complicated for the characters), stop the tape. Ignore all howls of protest! Now, in teams of 3-4, students have to come up with a happy ending. That's what script writers are paid to do week after week after week...

If you find these suggestions useful, do subscribe to our newsletter for more.

Seven Steps Teacher ManualSeven Steps Teacher Manual

Photocopiable handouts on all the Seven Steps techniques, including our unique 'story graph'. Buy Now!

PLUS over 40 writing activities that take less than ten minutes a day.