Flyers writing booklet – Let’s write!
In this, my final post on the Flyers writing skills booklet, we’ll put everything we’ve covered in the previous posts into practice!
So, let’s do this!
Let’s work through various steps to write this story. (Many learners immediately start writing without thinking or using their imagination first!)
I usually show learners the pictures one by one. And ask them to write ten words they could use for each picture.
My ten words are under each picture.
living room, grandma, grandpa, brother, sister, asleep, bored, pointing, saying, listening
wood box, guitar, black boots, black sunglasses, blue cap, grandma, brother, sister, find, looking
playing the guitar, singing, wearing the black boots, blue cap, black sunglasses, laughing, grandma, grandpa, children, fun, brilliant, enjoying
You can see that by the last picture, whole phrases/chunks of language were starting to come to mind. This is what happens when you slow down and get those brain cells working!
Same: grandma, brother, sister
Different: grandpa, living room/attic, sitting/looking and finding/playing music, singing, laughing, smiling
The story is mainly about the grandma and brother and sister. The part of the house where they are changes, and the things they are doing.
It would be very boring if we just talk about ‘the brother and sister’ all the time. Let’s call them Jane and Nick. We can still use Grandma as a name, but we should write it with a capital letter. (the same with Grandpa).
I already wrote some words to describe this – Jane and Nick are bored in picture 1, excited in picture 2, and laughing and enjoying themselves, having fun in picture 3.
Tip: Remind learners that they can talk about feelings using adjectives (bored, excited) and verbs (laughing, enjoying, smiling).
One day, Jane and Nick were at their grandparents’ house. They were bored.
Then, they went upstairs with Grandma. They looked inside a big wood box. They found a guitar and some black boots. Grandma found a blue cap and some black sunglasses.
Later, they had lots of fun because they put on the cap and sunglasses and sang songs. Grandma put on the black boots and played the guitar. Grandpa didn’t sing, but he laughed a lot.
One day, Jane and Nick were at their grandparents’ house. ‘We’re bored, Grandma’, they said. ‘Let’s go upstairs!’, said Grandma.
Then, they went upstairs with Grandma. They looked inside a big wood box. ‘Wow, look at this guitar!’, said Nick. ‘Whose are these black boots?’, asked Jane. Grandma found a blue cap and some black sunglasses.
Later, they had lots of fun because they put on the cap and sunglasses and sang songs. Grandma put on the black boots and played the guitar. Grandpa didn’t sing, but he laughed a lot. ‘What a great afternoon!’ everyone thought.
Final comment: I wrote my story in the past. Learners can, of course, write their stories in the present. Both are perfect. But they should be consistent.
I hope you’ve enjoyed these posts and that they will be useful for you and help your learners become better writers – but most importantly, for them to see how writing can be enjoyable and that, by slowing down, their imagination has more time to work!
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