Easy Writing Activities

Every teacher needs easy writing activities. Especially when the activities don’t require teacher feedback. Here are two easy writing activities. They work great at the beginning of the semester, around exam time, or anytime you want to inject a bit of fun into the writing class.

Personification Puzzles

Introduction

This ESL writing activity helps students learn to use personification. The entire activity, including parts 1 and 2, takes about 30-60 minutes.

Part 1 

Show the slide show. It explains personification and provides plenty of examples. The end of the slide show includes several examples of Who Am I riddles with personification.

Next, ask the students to write 2-3 of their own Who Am I riddles. Their riddles must incorporate personification.

If students prefer, work in pairs or small groups.

Part 2

This is an extension activity, and teachers have 2 choices.

Run a jigsaw. Students circulate around the room and read their puzzles to others. Others have to guess the thing.

Each student talks to 3-5 other people.

The jigsaw takes about 10-15 minutes.

The second option is to have students present at the front of the class individually. This takes more time but is a good technique for mixing writing with other skills.

What a confidence builder to stand in front and read your own writing!

The Four Elements

Introduction

This 20-minute activity is based on a common framework.

• Teacher gives students a group of nouns.
• Students write a few descriptive sentences for each noun.
• The teacher reveals a code. The code explores each student’s character by interpreting the meaning in the writing.

This version works along that common template.

Pair Work

The attached slide includes task instructions. They’re pretty simple.

Add a pair work component to transform a solitary writing exercise into a multi-skill language activity.

• Students work in pairs to write descriptions for 4 nouns.
• Show the code interpretations.
• Students jigsaw and talk to 2-5 other people.
• Students read their short stories. Listening students check the meaning and ask, “Is that you?”