Prose
On longer creative tasks.
Duration: 04:49
Alternate Endings
Alternate ending activities can be used with any text (from stories, music, or film). For known texts, students can simply come up with a different ending. Or they can predict an ending of a story from the class reading.
The class displays all the possible endings and votes on the best story (as in, the "Oscar goes to..."). This vote can be repeated after the class reads the actual story to the end -- and the "real" ending does not always win.
Similarly, students write a sequel to the story that takes place five years later. Or have students re-write the story (or parts of the story) from the perspective of one of the minor characters.
Alternate endings can be included as early as first-semester courses, but the assignment might best work as a group activity to ensure that students are not overwhelmed linguistically. Group writing can enhance creativity, lower anxiety, and foster student-to-student learning.
Short Story
Short stories can range from a single paragraph to as long as 15 pages at the advanced language level. Think "creativity" and not "accuracy" when designing short story activities.
Short stories can include a modern fairy tale or a parable, a moment-in-life description, or even a mystery. While most of these constructs can be assigned individually, mystery stories seem to be best written collaboratively due to the complexity of the story structure. The class decides on the crime and even the victim for their story. Then students, using asynchronous computer-mediated-communication or a wiki site, write a mystery over the course of a week. Ideally, the class reads a mystery story beforehand, to learn relevant vocabulary, grammar, and narrative structure before they write. Students can edit each others' statements, insert comments/events into already existing paragraphs, or simply add to the story sequentially.