ENGL222

REHEARSALS
Directions: Provide ways/activities (5) to teach writing to grade 1 pupils explained each and provide an example
.
1. The What If Challenge
The Purpose: This challenge helps encourage students to see the link between the posing of
interesting hypothetical questions and the creation of an entertaining piece of writing.
The Process: To begin this exercise, have the students come up with a single What If question which
they can then write down on a piece of paper. The more off-the-wall the better!
For example, ‘What if everyone in the world knew what you were thinking?’ or ‘What if your pet
dog could talk?’ Students fold up their questions and drop them into a hat. Each student picks one out
of the hat, before writing on that question for a suitable set amount of time.
The Prize: Students are most likely to face the terror of the dreaded Writer’s Block when they are
faced with open-ended creative writing tasks.

2. Diary Entry of a Future Self

The Purpose: This activity gives students the chance practice personal writing within the
conventions of diary / journal writing. It also challenges them to consider what their world will be
like in the future, perhaps stepping a foot into the realm of science fiction.
The Process: Straightforwardly, after working through some examples of diary or journal writing,
and reviewing the various criteria of the genre, challenge the students to write an entry at a given
milestone in the future.
This may be when they leave school, begin work, go to university, get married, have kids, retire etc.
You may even wish to get the students to write an entry for a series of future milestones as part of a
longer project.
The Prize: Students will get a chance here to exercise their understanding of this type of writing, but,
more than that, they will also get an opportunity to exercise their imaginative muscles too. They will
get to consider what shape their future world will take in this engaging thought experiment that will
afford opportunities for them to improve their writing too.

3. Comic Strip Script

The Purpose: Give your students the chance to improve their dialogue writing skills, and to work on
their understanding of character development, in this fun activity which combines writing with the
use of a series of visual elements.
The Process: There are two ways to do this activity. The first requires you to source, or create, a
comic strip minus the dialogue the characters are speaking. This may be as straightforward as using
whiteout to erase the words in speech bubbles and making copies for your students to complete.
Alternatively, provide the students with photographs / pictures and strips of card for them to form
their own action sequences. When students have their ‘mute’ strips they can then begin to write the
dialogue / script to link the panels together.
The Prize: When it comes to writing, comic strips are probably one of the easier sells to the reluctant
students! This activity also gives students the opportunity to write for speech. This will stand to them
later when they come to produce sections of dialogue in their narrative writing, or when producing
play or film scripts.
4. Acrostic Associations
The Purpose: This is another great way to get students to try their hand at writing poetry - a genre
that many students find the most daunting of all.
The Process: Acrostics are simple poems whereby each letter of a word or phrase begins a new line
in the poem. Younger students can start off with something very simple, like their own name or their
favorite pet and write this vertically down the page.
Older students can take a word or phrase related to a topic they have been working on, or that they
have a special interest, in and write this down the page before beginning to write.
The Prize: This activity has much in common with the old psychiatrist’s technique of word
association. Students should be encouraged to riff on ideas and themes generated by the focus word
or phrase. They needn’t worry about rhyme and meter and such here, but the preset letter for each
line will give them some structure to their meanderings and require them to impose some discipline
on their wordsmithery; albeit in a fun, and loose manner.

5. Poetry Scavenger Hunt

The Purpose: This activity encourages students to see the poetry in the everyday language around
them, while helpfully reinforcing their understanding of some of the conventions of the genre.
The Process: Encourage students to ‘scavenge’ their school, home, and outside community for
snippets of language they can compile into a piece of poetry or a poetic collage. They may copy
down or photograph words, phrases, and sentences from signs, magazines, leaflets or even snippets
of conversations they overhear while out and about.
Examples of language they collect may range from the Keep Out sign on private property to the
destination on the front of a local bus.
Once students have gathered their language together, they can work to build a poem out of the scraps,
usually choosing a central theme to give the piece cohesion. They can even include corresponding
artwork to enhance the visual appeal of their work too, if they wish.
The Prize: If poetry serves one purpose, it is to encourage us to look at the world anew with the fresh
eyes of a young child. This activity challenges our students to read new meaning into familiar things
and to put their own spin on the language they encounter in the world around them, all while
reinforcing the student’s grasp on poetic conventions.