Note

This activity becomes interesting because the stories are invari,1bly ;111 Box 63 Suggestions for simple sentences that
different. can be used for sentence expansion
l·or intermediate/advanced For beginner students
5.6 Making mine long ,tuclents
• The young man was grateful • He loves to eat.
Aim writing, fluency practice, vocabulary expansion, to his aunt. • The girl loved a boy.
listening • My sister gave me a book. • My mother cooks.
Level intermediate-advanced • Father never understood his • I can read.
Time 45 minutes father. • I eat cake.
• The man gave the woman a • Pizza is good.
Preparation Write some very simple sentences that can easily present. • He can write.
be expanded. (See Box 63 for suggestions.) Have one • The man met his wife at the zoo.
sentence for each small group. • She enjoys movies.

Procedure
5. 7 Sentences into story
1 With the whole class, demonstrate sentence expansion. For
example: 'Write the sentence The cat likes milk on the board and Aim writing, flt1ency practice, vocabulary expansion, listening
ask the class to contribute words that would make the sentence Level intermediate-advanced
more interesting. Students should contribute one word at a time a�
you or a secretary insert these words into the sentence. You could Time 45 minutes
finish with a sentence that reads:
The big, gray, clever cat that belongs to my wonderful, eighty-two­
year-old grandmothe1� who lives on eighty-second street in New Procedure
Yori< City on the 5th floor in a large apartment house, really and In small groups, students each memorize a sentence from the
truly likes only chocolate flavored, slightly heated, evaporated milk suggested sentences in Box 63 or from sentences you have written
in the afternoon. up on the board for them.
2 Each smaJI group gets a sentence and expands on it. 2 Students check to see that each group member has a different
3 Each group reads out its sentence to the whole class. sentence.
4 A secretary from each group ,vrites the group sentence on the 1 Students combine the sentences into a story, adding words and
board. phrases when needed.
5 The class votes for the most original sentence. (Students are not 4 A spokesperson from each group reads the group's story to the
allowed to vote for their own group.) whole class.
Optional follow-ups
- Collect all the stories and make enough copies for the whole class.
Let the class vote for its favorite story. (They are not allowed to vote
for their own.)
- Assign groups that did not write the story to peer edit it.
Let groups that did not write stories expand and change another
group's story and have the new versions read in class.

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