A creative twist on post-holiday writing assignment

"Please write a paragraph about your summer vacation" 

"What did you do over your winter break?"

Yawn. This is so predictable and cliché it's featured in classroom scenes in movies and television.

Here is a way to spice it up.

Since writing is meant to be read, it is important to connect the two ideas. The students are not writing for the sake of writing; they are writing to convey an idea or feeling to the reader. Language does not occur in isolation and it is essentially a communicative act. The following keeps these principals in mind.

Lesson Plan:

Level: This could work for any level. My students were advanced.

Materials: paper and pen. Imagination.

Target vocabulary: the 5 senses

Students will be able to:

• describe a specific scene from over their holiday break
• read each others' stories (optional: and give feedback)
• use imagery, sensory details to create a scene

Task Chain:

1. Write the following on the board for students to discuss: “How is reading a book different from watching a movie?”
   
   
2. Ask the students which senses are activated while watching a movie versus reading a book.
   
   
3. The idea is that movies usually only activates hearing and sight but books have the potential to allow the reader to imagine touch, smell and taste as well.
   
   
4. Ask the students to think about a sensory experience. Think about what things looked like, smelled like, tasted like, felt like, sounded like. Put the reader there. Do not begin with, “On my winter break I went to NYC.” Rather start the scene as with a movie: “We were standing in Times Square and lights were flashing everywhere. A river of people flowed around us.”
   
   
5. Let the students write.
   
   
6. I free-wrote an example with them:

The sun was magnified through the windshield. The road was a long expanse in front of the us. The bus was engulfing the boundless hills. The sun warmed my face, pleasant at first, but then slightly uncomfortable, making beads of sweat emerge around my hairline. I shifted in my seat. One of the earbuds fell from my ear. I retrieved it and resumed the audiobook I had been listening to. Despite riding through rural Virginia, where the only radio sections available are country western, gospel and contemporary christian from the 90s, I am transported to Brooklyn, NY, where my sarcastic, hyperbolic narrator recounts his adventures owning an urban convenience store.

7. What are the senses that I experienced? Did you experience them with me? Where was I transported? How? How was it different from where I was? Here, the students see an example of a) putting a reader in the scene b) describing how a certain situation felt c) the contrast of an rural bus ride and an urban deli d) how writing transports the reader- on two levels: the students reading about my bus ride and how the protagonist (me) was transported by reading. You might want to write your own example.
   
   
8. Have the students share their writing in a reading chain. The teacher participates in the reading chain. Teacher may want to use the reading chain as an opportunity to check or make corrections to writing as it comes to her. This way the students are otherwise engaged instead of checking students individually and while students wait idly for the teacher. If corrections are made, make sure to comment on the content of the writing. Writing is mean to convey a message; comment on the message the student is trying to make. Conversely, teachers may want to refrain from making corrections if this is a warm-up activity or if the students are inhibited about their writing. (Alternative exercise: gallery walk: Students post writing on the wall and students read in as if in an art museum.)
   
   
9. Depending on the writing samples and students' confidence level, teacher may lead a discussion about the pieces read: Which pieces do you like the most? Which ones made you feel like you were there in the scene? Etc.
   
   
10. Have fun! Adapt to your students' needs!