It was a dark and stormy night - story writing

A few years ago I stumbled upon a wonderful activity to practise story writing - it was called ‘It was a dark and stormy night’. The main idea behind it was to have students sit in a circle and after dictating the first sentence (‘It was a dark and stormy night’) engage them in collaborative one student-one sentence type of writing.

I’ve used this activity many times and students loved it. The only problem was that I was gradually getting bored with it and felt the need to adjust and improve it. What is more, the students’ stories sometimes lacked a proper structure and were often senseless or monotonous. 

So here’s how I’ve decided to make the activity more fun!

Before writing:

Ask students for examples of traditional stories/ tales. Try to elicit stories such as Cinderella, Little Red Riding Hood, Three Little Pigs etc.

Elicit typical features of a well written sorry:

• each story has a title
• a story has a pretty simple plot and not many main characters (show examples from the traditional tales)
• a well written story has a beginning, middle and ending – out of the three the middle part should be the longest,  the beginning should introduce the story, the ending should be short and provide a conclusion

Copy an example of a short story from any coursebook (FCE coursebooks should have some good examples), cut into pieces and let students unscramble it.

Analyze it and make students notice all the features you have discussed before.

• point to examples of direct speech (‘I love you’, Cinderella said) which often appear in stories
• look for adjectives and adverbs used for description and dramatization

Tell your students that they are going to write a story. Get ready for moaning and groaning!

Make them sit in a circle, each student with an A4 sized piece of paper.

Tell them to choose a name of the main character of their story and draw a small photo-sized picture of him/her on the top left hand corner. Next to it, the students can write: three adjectives describing that person, what she/he likes, who she/he lives with, their relationship status etc.

Dictate the following sentences:

It was a dark and stormy night and ________ (students write the name of their character) was in/on/at ________ (students write a place name e.g a church, a beach, the street).

S/he was feeling really ________ (students write an adjective). S/he really wanted to ________ (students write a verb e.g. to drink water, to pee, to call his mom).

Suddenly a phone rang. It was ________ (students write a name of a person e.g. Santa, the Queen of England, her sister).

Ask students what they have just written and elicit that it is an introduction.

Now tell them to pass the paper to the person on their right and continue with the story.

I guess that in the original version every student was supposed to write one sentence and pass the paper. As I have said before I have decided to improve it.

Imagine you have 10 students in class.

Student 1 begins the story.

Student 2 adds 1 sentence.

Student 3 adds an element of romance.

Student 4 adds 2 sentences.

Student 5 adds an element of crime.

Student 6 adds 1 sentence.

Student 7 introduces a new character.

Student 8 adds 2 sentences.

Student 9 adds an element of mystery.

Student 10 ends the story.

Obviously, all of the above suggestion can be altered and modified. You might want to add a fun/surprise element, introduce new places or change the order of what I have come up with.

Some students always finish their task earlier than others, so I have stuck to a slow countdown after a minute or two to make them all finish on time and pass the paper at the same time. Just say something like ’10-9…1. Time’s up. Pass the paper. Now add a new character.’

An alternative idea involves bringing a bag of different objects e.g. a postcard, a spoon, a scarf etc. to the classroom. Before writing, each student draws an object and later includes it in the story.

As a follow up, collect all the papers, number them and stick on the walls of the classroom.

Tell the students to walk around, read the stories and choose one they like best.

Have secret voting for the best story and read it aloud.

Ask students why they chose it and check whether it has features of a well-written story that you have discussed before.

Coming up next – samples of my students’ writing!

Do you have any interesting ideas for story writing? Would love to hear some!

SEETA week Day 1 - Getting students' attention

As you may remember I'll be hosting a SEETA week from 14th till 20th of May with the topic Classroom Management.


Today is Day 1 and the issue discussed is getting students' attention.


If you feel like sharing ideas or leaving a comment, join in now!


*Coming up tomorrow - To praise or to punish?

Things that amaze me in Turkey

• Nobody I have talked to likes Orhan Pamuk – the only Nobel Prize winner from Turkey

• Students are given homework for the weekend, winter break, summer holidays and any short holiday that comes up

• In any type of organization there are at least 5 levels of management with general director, director, manger 1, vice manager1, vice manager 2...

• Kids in private schools have at least eight 40 min classes a day and frequently attend extra courses after school i.e. they have hardly any free time

• The number of students in public schools can be close to (or more than) 60 per class

• A lot of Turks have never been abroad and have no desire to do so (reason: their country offers them everything they need so why bother and look for something nicer elsewhere)

• It’s very easy to get a passport in Turkey, the only problem being its price (more than $100 for a year)

• A great majority of people who live in Istanbul or the western part of Turkey have never been to the eastern part of the country (reasons: it’s dangerous or there is nothing interesting there anyway)

• It is very difficult (sometimes impossible) to use a pre paid Turkish sim card in a non Turkish cell phone

• Although the redenomination took place in 2005, a lot of people still talk about prices using the ‘old money’

• You will be loved instantly if you tell Turks you support one of their teams – Beşiktaş, Galatasaray or Fenerbahçe. In other words, they are crazy about football.

• People genuinely like artists like Bülent Ersoy (I am still not sure whether he is a she or she is a he)

• The majority of Turks are Muslims but the country is secular. Anyhow, most people drink alcohol but they dread eating pork

• The patriotism, nationalism and unconditional love for Atatürk (founder of the republic) are unimaginable

• Turks use kolonya to make their hands smell of lemon all the time

• They eat bread and yoghurt with almost everything they consume and drink sweet tea with it

• Different stores selling similar items are located in close proximity e.g. stores selling lamps are to be found in Şişhane, fabrics and things for hamam are sold in the Eminönu area

• Some websites including www.youtube.com and many others are blocked (still wondering when www.facebook.com will be blocked as well)

• Turks love eating breakfasts out, especially in groups and at the weekends

• The sell things everywhere – in the streets, on the ferries, in the middle of the highway…

• A lot of Turks are fascinated with communism, maybe because they have never experienced it

• They love music and a lot of them can play a musical instrument

• A couple can legally get married if they are first cousins

• People eat a lot of fruit, vegetables and nuts, especially pistachios. They can be even an ingredient of ham.

Jug, jug, jug, Videojug

With http://www.youtube.com/ blocked in Turkey, teachers are left with a minimal number of websites offering videos to use in their classrooms.



There is one website, however, that I am particularly fond of. Having come across it by chance, http://www.videojug.com/ turned out to be a very pleasant surprise.


There are ten thematically organised categories (Beauty&Style, Creative&Culture, Family&Education, Food&Drink, Health&Wellbeing, Lifestyle&Home, Love&Dating, Money&Careers, Sports&Outdoors, Technology&Cars) each including a vast amount of videos.


Most of them are pretty short, ranging from 1 to 5 minutes and some are clearly inappropriate for kids. That is why make sure that you watch a video before showing it to your students.


What are the advantages of using www.videojug.com in the ESL classroom?

• Videos collected there are an inexhaustible source of authentic language use provided in a compact, concise form

• It is a chance to introduce new, interesting vocabulary or phrases

• Because the videos are short, students are left with no time to get bored while watching them

• The website contains videos to match almost any topic you discuss in the classroom

• Bearing the Multiple Intelligences theory in mind, a video watched in the classroom increases the learning abilities of Visual and Auditory students


How can we make use of the videos in the classroom?

• Let students simply watch. It might be a great opportunity to introduce a topic and set up a context relevant to the lesson you are planning to teach

• Watching something controversial or surprising might be a starting point for a productive discussion

• They may watch and simply answer some questions provided by the teacher

• Students might take notes and later compare them with a partner

• Use it as a dictogloss – the students first watch and listen, then listen and take notes, after that compare with a partner and produce a final version of what was being told

• Students can write a summary of what they have seen

• You may choose two similar videos and ask students to pinpoint similarities and differences

• Try to play only the sound, the students have to imagine and visualise what takes place in the video (what the speaker looks like, what the location and time of the day are); allow time for checking if their guesses were correct

I used http://www.videojug.com/ with my 4th graders last year when we were talking about cooking and practised writing recipes. Having watched quite a lot of videos, they were supposed to write about and present an interesting recipe of a dish they like. The outcome was amazing!

Classroom Management - Football English

The Football English activity works best with older students who have at least some idea about football. It works particularly well in classrooms where the kids are mainly boys.
To make it work you need to prepare a set of YELLOW and RED cards.

You set up the activity by explaining the rules:

• if a student talks, interrupts, refuses to engage in an activity etc, s/he will be given the first YELLOW card
• s/he will be given one more chance but in case s/he continues to misbehave, another YELLOW card will be given
• if the situation continues,  a student is given a RED card
• a RED card means extra homework, detention, a talk with the principal etc.

The students will realize immediately that the game is similar to football with one exception i.e. the players are given two yellow cards instead of one and the second yellow card does not automatically generate a red card.


A problem that might occur while you try the activity out is the students themselves. They will most probably start writing on the cards or damaging them in some way. In such a case, a good solution might be using colored chalk. Instead of giving the cards to naughty students, mark their desks with red and yellow chalk and you will get a very similar effect. It will also save you time on preparation of the cards.