Getting students to write might be quite an adventure sometimes. Not everyone likes writing. Some might think it's useless, some might say it's boring. That's why it's so important to make students aware of the fact that - YES - writing is useful in so many different ways, and - YES - it can be fun! In this post, I will show you one of the ways to make your students less reluctant when it comes to writing.
As the title of this post suggests, the story your students will write is going to be from an ant's perspective. However, if you think that any other animal, person, or even an object would be more interesting for your students, do not hesitate to replace it. Truth be told, the teacher knows his/her students best 😃
When it comes to the story itself, it doesn't have to be very long or extremely creative. The most important thing is to make sure that your students feel comfortable with what they are writing.
Setting the aim of this activity beforehand might be a good idea.
If you want to focus on grammar, don't ask your students to write a very long story - whatever they write will be enough to check on their grammar skills and what they need to work on.
If your students really aren't fond of writing, just focus on the creative part of this activity and let them write whatever they like (for artistic students I would recommend encouraging them to draw some pictures to the story).
Lack of ideas?
Some students might find it hard to come up with an idea for a story from scratch. In such situations, you can help them by giving them some incentives, i.e. the place (in the park, near the sea, under the huge tree), a verb (to argue, to play, to trick), etc. This might help them think of their own original ideas.
Story components
This activity can be used to practise the (loose) rules of writing a story. You can prepare some ideas on slips of paper according to four main categories (characters, setting, problem, solution) and let your students draw one from each. This activity might create some really crazy stories!
I hope you will find this activity useful, and that it will make your students like writing even just a little bit more 😃