The best writing games to engage students
A colleague of mine recently shared these ten great writing game ideas to improve literacy skills in the classroom. They are simple to play and can be applied to nearly all year levels.
These are some of the best writing games that require minimal or no setup time and are an excellent option for substitute teachers looking to quickly break the ice with students or English teachers just seeking fresh ideas to brighten up their lessons. Enjoy.
Remember that if you are looking for more excellent free resources and structured guides to teaching all aspects of English, especially writing, be sure to visit literacyideas.com.
Sentence Stretching
Start with a short sentence or group of words. Pass it around to about 6 people, with the rule that each person must add (a word or a group of words) or change ONE word ( to another word or a group of words) to make the sentence more specific and more enjoyable.
Rebus writing
Students write sentences or longer texts and substitute drawings for nouns.
It’s in the bag
Place an object in a bag- ensure the students don’t see it. Students feel the object in the bag and use words to describe how it feels. They take it out and add /alter their adjectives.
Touch and tell
An object is passed around a group of students. Each student suggests an adjective to describe it.
Alternative
Students provide an adjectival phrase or clause to describe the object
Verb Draw
Students randomly select from a box a picture of an animal, person or object that moves. They brainstorm action verbs for the chosen object.
Alternative
The students can supply verbs and adverbs
They can supply adjectives or adjectival groups
Hot Seat
Read a text ( this case narrative), and at a particular point, stop and ask students to select a character and suggest, for example:
- What the character is doing, thinking, and feeling ( focus on processes)
Change the meaning- change one word
Students locate and change one word that will alter the sentence’s meaning.
They share their alterations and discuss which part of speech was the most important in changing the meaning.
Locate and classify
Read a text and ask students to write nouns on cards ( red), adjectives (blue), and articles in orange. Rearrange words to create different noun groups. Students can also locate verbs ( green card) and adverbs (yellow). Rearrange all the words to create new sentences.
Alternative
Students can locate adjectival phrases, clauses, or adverbial phrases and write these on other coloured cards.
Grammar toss- Sentence making
Players must throw a 1 before they can begin. The winner is the first person to make a sentence that includes all of the following:
- A group of words that tell what or who ( singular)
- A group of words that tell when
- A verb in the past tense
- An adverb telling how
- A group of words telling where
They can then rearrange the sentence parts to see how many ways they can make another meaningful sentence.
Alternative
Other parts of speech can be used for each number thrown.
Toss and write
Before the activity, a cube is prepared. Upon each face of the cube, a task is written that requires specific grammar knowledge. For example:
Make a sentence
Make a question
Provide two adjectives
Provide two verbs
Create a noun group (e.g. article, adjective/s noun)
Provide a noun and an adverb
Students select a subject ( noun) from a tin. They throw the cube, and whichever side of the cube faces up is the task they must attempt.
