All posts by Linda Galloway

 It also helps students interact, whether it is in person or on-line. 

 Students are instructed to write between 4 and10 sentences about an experience they have had that might surprise others in the class. It could be a simple, funny, scary, surprising, educational, or emotional story. Childhood stories are especially effective here. Students should know that the stories will be shared with the class. You can also put one in as long as your writing sample is not so much better than the students that they will simply guess from the high vocabulary level, for instance. 

 Once they turn in the stories, you edit them to adjust too-obvious clues and to fix any grammar problems. Sometimes this involves several changes, so I usually show it to the specific writer to ensure that it is accurate or to help them expand with more details (See Writing Tips # 1 and

# 2). 

 When all stories are in and edited (or even before if some students are confused about what to write), one story is read each class.  Make sure the story you have selected is from a student who is present that day. Students ask questions to narrow the possibilities. The writer should answer along with all of the other students but should not reveal too much.   You can either answer them or have all students respond if this could be true for them (for example, ‘How many of you have dogs?’  ‘How many of you have been in a hospital?’) The responses should be available to all students. Eventually, the possibilities will be only a few, and students can then guess, even if they do not know the other students very well. I have always started out by reading the stories aloud and then sharing them on the white board so that students can read them, but that depends on the listening skills of students. After the student is correctly guessed, comments about good writing traits can be pointed out (like nice use of adjectives or adverbs – even if you added them). 

 This activity helps students understand the importance of details for more interesting writing and how thinking of the audience can be essential. 

Last month, we looked at asking reporters’ or detectives’ questions (Who? What? Where? Why? and How?) This time we will use sensory questions. Ask students to imagine a special room from memories of childhood. Very often it will be a room where their family gathered.  They should write this place at the top of the page where they will do pre-writing.  Ask them to close their eyes except when they are writing notes. 

Now they should add three or more items they can ‘ see’ in this memory. That is the usual place where students might end the description. 

Next, ask them to add two details about what they remember hearing.  This might include the voices of special people, laughter, an argument,  a chair rocking, the wind or traffic outside, or the sounds of pans clattering in the kitchen. 

Third, ask them to think about what they might have felt. It could be an emotion or a physical sensation, like the soft hug of their grandmother, the bristly face of their father, or the hardness of the folding chair children were given to sit on. One touch memory is probably enough, but one physical and one emotional detail would make the writing especially vivid. 

 The fourth sense is that of smell.  This is actually our first sense when we are born, and it remains an important sense, but we do not often use it in description. Again, for this it helps if students close their eyes, or you can ask them what helps them think of this place. It is often the smell of a familiar perfume or food, but it might be an unpleasant smell, too, of a dog just in from a bad adventure or an overcooked dinner, for example. 

The hardest one might be the last one: taste. Family gatherings often involve food, making this easier. However, even without food, we can have a taste of fear, dryness or illness in our mouths. If students push themselves, they can often produce a detail about taste. This should be a bonus detail. 

Describing this room or an event in a creative paragraph should be easier with these details, even if not all of them are used.  It may lead to developing second language vocabulary, as well.  This paragraph would make a welcome gift for those who were also there.