Creative Writing Activities

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By the Creative Classroom eTwinning group

July 2011

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Creative

writing

Activities


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1st Activity

M@ths on Fingertips

A Constructivist Teaching Experiment2007-2008

Teacher Vasilescu Irina

Project description:The French and the Romanian teacher organized this as a parallel experiment to take place in

their schools, in order to compare their reactions and the way they solved the tasks. After comparing

our syllabus, we decided to work with the 5th grade in Romania (11years old) and the 6 th (12 years

old) grade in France, because there were many similarities in the curriculum.

My class has 29 pupils, 18 girls and 11 boys. They are in he fist year of the Lower Secondary

School and they were selected to study English language intensively. Therefore, they are middle to

very good students, but none of them has proved a special interest in studying Mathematics so far. Its

the first year were working together and I am also their class master. As they came from different

classes, I am very concerned about creating a good class environment and avoiding conflicts.

As both classes were getting the fist Geometry notions, both in plane and solid Geometry, we

decided to help them by teaching a few Geometry lessons in a constructivist manner. This would givethe pupils a different experience of already known concepts such as perimeter and area, net of a cube

etc.

As the 5th graders are a very curious and collaborative group, we decided to start an eTwinning

project called M@ths on fingertips. This allowed the results to be put in a more visible and therefore

satisfying form and at the same time gave the children the feeling they were working together and

communicating with their French partners, due to the eTwinning portal tools. As the tasks were seen in

a totally different approach than the usual teaching manner, the lessons took place outside the school

timetable, with the parents agreement. Each task took us one hour, except the the third, that took

twice as much.

The main differences between the usual teaching manner and the way we solved the tasks

were that the pupils made and manipulated the objects themselves, worked in their own pace and their

own manner, with no indications or algorithm, with different tools, worked in groups all the time, notjust for a sequence of the lesson, and decided their own group strategy.

Work process:At first, I wanted to work with only part of the class, but since they were all very eager to take

part, I decided to form 7 groups, 6 groups of 4 pupils each and one of 5 pupils. Each group had both

boys and girls, except for the last one that was formed of 5 girls. It was the one that had the weakest

activity because they argued a lot. Every group had a name and they used it both in their works and in

the communication with their French partners. Of course, we had to rearrange the classroom in order

to work like this. The members of each group were assessed both by observing the way he/she was

integrated in the group activity, by the level of commitment and by the contribution to the work.

The materials we used were easy to find: thread, pins, scissors, white boards to pin the thread

to for the first two tasks; cubes, coloured paper, scissors, tape, pins, colored pencils, paper for the lastthree tasks. We used the blackboard to draw tables with the measurements and to write our

conclusions. As the scheduled time was needed for solving the tasks, the materials were already

prepared (cut, for example).

The pupils were only explained what each task was about at the beginning of the class. No

worksheets were prepared for them and all the groups did the whole task. During the classes, I moved

between the groups to observe them, ask questions, encourage them, emphasize the conclusions they

came to, took notes and made photos and videos. The French teachers and I exchanged opinions and

compared our pupils reactions by emails. We elaborated Powerpoint presentations of the tasks and I

also uploaded photogalleries, videos and short task descriptions on the eTwinning portal, to show how

the tasks had been solved.

Conclusions:I think my goals were met because:

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almost all the students were very happy with this kind of work, they looked forward to the

next task and were eager to see the materials on the Internet and to compare their work with

their partners.

they found this approach quite different, but they could still easily make connections with the

previous knowledge, even with more subtle notions, such as divisibility.

they enjoyed the less abstract approach and the game. each one was able to work in his/her own pace, because they were not obliged to solve

everything.

each group was free to choose its own strategy. Some of the them decided to do everything

together while others divided the roles. Pupils in one of the groups, the fastest, were very

much concerned about finding the best strategy and found a very efficient way of splitting the

work, according to their skills. All the group members accepted their roles, unlike in the girls

group, and therefore they were always the first to finish the work. They were very proud and

aware of their strategy and I think they really learned about the value of team work.

pupils curiosity and interest in Mathematics was enhanced, as well as their ability to transfer

abstract knowledge into every-day life and the opposite.

at the end of the experiment, both my pupils and I were satisfied with the way we had worked

and eager to try some other similar work.

First task: Buying LandYou are to buy a rectangular piece of land that can be fenced with a 20 m long fence, having

both the length and the width integer numbers. Make a table with all the possible rectangles,

containing the length, width, perimeter and area. What can you say about the area and about the

perimeter? Which is the piece of land with the biggest area (your best option in order to get the largest

surface)? The students were given a piece of tread divided into 20 segment by knots, a board and pins.

They would pin the thread to the board in order to fix and get a better look at the rectangle. They

recorded the data into their own notebooks as well as on the blackboard. They also wrote the perimeter

and area formulas and checked them for each particular case.

Comments:Strong points:

Pupils worked in teams and planned their tasks;

They arrived to conclusions quite easily;

They noticed the largest area;

They noticed and eliminated the (0, 10) case;

They noticed that the perimeter was constant.

Weak points:

The students did not see the square as a rectangle;

They had difficulties noticing the rule for the variation of the surface;

They thought of wrong pair of numbers, such as (5, 3)

Only two kids saw why these were all the possible pairs.

Conclusions:

This was the first task and a different way to learn Maths, so it took some time to get used to it;

Both students and teacher thought this was interesting, funny and very challenging;

Thestudents are looking forward to the next task

.

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Second task: Fencing

This time, the task is to find the width and length of a given area rectangle, in order to have thesmallest perimeter.

We put it like this: what dimensions should a rectangular piece of land of given area have in

order to spend less with the fence? Make a table with all the possible rectangles, containing the length,

width, perimeter and area. What can you say about the area and about the perimeter? What are the

length and width for the area?

The students were given 36 equal squares and asked to make all the possible rectangles using

all the squares each time.

Comments:

Strong points:

The pupils saw very quickly all the possibilities and why.

They made the connection with the divisors of 36. They asked if (12, 3) was the same as (3, 12) and decided it was not.

They decided we cant have l=0 because length cant be as small as one single point.

They understood that the area was constant and the variation of the perimeter.

They discovered the smallest and the largest perimeter.

Weak points:

There were very few weak points, the kids were already familiar with the idea of a perimeter-area

connection from the fist task

Even if they explained that the length multiplied by the width should always be 36, they still

tried other pairs, such as (5,7). At first, they made rectangles without using all the given

squares.

Third task: Dressing Mr. Cube

This was the task the pupils liked the best, although it took the longest.

The task was presented as a story: Mr. Cube has just arrived on Earth coming from the Cube Planet

and he has no clothes.

We have to find as many clothes patterns for him as possible.

Each pattern will be made of six squares.

We have to make sure he can put on the new clothes

As a supplementary task: find the zippers of the clothes.

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The clothes should be coloured in an attractive way.

Find the symmetrical patterns.

Are they all in pairs?

Do you think you have found all the nets? How many are there?

The pupils were given plastic cubes and paper squares sized to match the cubes faces, as well

as coloured pencils, tape, pins and a big sheet of paper to draw on. They were asked to try on each

net and then draw it on the paper. Then they had to find the zippers and mark them on their drawing.

Some groups preferred to use pins instead of tape. Every group had a single big paper with all the nets

they had found. Their paper was their final product for this task, so it had to wear the groups name

and look as nice as possible. They also has to find the symmetrical nets, that they called twins. At a

certain point, a group had also found a third position for the same net, by using vertical rotation, and

they proudly announced: We have triplets!

Comments

Strong points:

Some of the pupils had the idea of using first pins instead of stickers to connect the squares.They grasped the zippers idea very quickly.

The approach was different for boys and girls: boys were looking for new nets, while girls were doing

the detail part, such as finding the zippers.

Some groups shared roles and therefore worked very quickly. They even expressed the cause of their

efficiency: teamwork.

They had the idea of having five fixed squares and a mobile one, in order to find more nets.

They found symmetrical nets (brother and sister).

Weak points:

There were very few weak points. One of them was that the time we needed was twice as long as we

had planned.A funny one: after finding two symmetrical nets, they turned one of them upside down and said: we

have triplets!

Conclusions:

It was a task the pupils particularly enjoyed, despite the time and effort they had to put into it.It took

them into 3-dimensional space and had a story attached to it, these are two of the reasons it was so

popular

.

Fourth task: How Many Nets?

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One group of pupils had already found all the cube nets. They were very happy and willing to

help the others to complete the task, so the others only found all the nets wit help. It was a bit difficult

for them to decide weather a newly found net was not a twin of an older one, so we hung their sheets

of paper and they superposed each new net to the similar ones. There was a bit of a competition

concerning finding new nets and showing them to the whole class. They were so eager to find new

nets, that they presented wrong ones, that is patterns that did not fit Mr. Cube.

The S03b) task was a little more difficult for them. They regarded two symmetrical nets as

different, so the number seemed very big. They were insisting to get help or at least to be told how

many more there were. This was a moment when both the pupils and I found it hard to work in a

constructivist way. They had the idea of the go around strategy for a pentomino, so it was easy to

suggest that they start a bit earlier. However, the task was not completely successful, as they were

not entirely convinced.

Comments:

Strong points:

they found the task quite challenging.

some of them had already found all the nets by themselves.

they each helped one of the other groups, which vas very motivating.

they were very curious about the final number.

they were hoping and trying to find more.

they were very competitive, but in a good way.

Weak points:

they found a lot of wrong nets and failed to check

them.

they had difficulties deciding weather they had a new net or an already found one.

they try to make new nets using 5 or even 7 squares.

some found the second part difficult. the girls group had a big argument and another group had a disagreement, too.

the group strategy did not function so well.

Fifth Task: Tailors Shop

With this task we were back to the story of Mr. Cube and we had to assemble the parts in

order to make his clothes. The pupils were given the squares and they were instructed to make the

needed poliominos themselves. The task took a bit over the scheduled time. We did not aim to exhaust

the nets in every case, but to make as many nets as possible. They finally found all the possibilities,

but only as a whole class.

Some of the students preferred to work directly on the cube, while others used the sheets withthe patterns already found during the previous tasks. This second method seemed a bit more difficult.

Even so, the one working directly on the cube used the sheet to identify which pattern had they found.

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Comments:

Strong points:

the students grasped the idea and were capable of making the poliominos themselves.

they found it easier to work directly on the cube.

they were still curious which net was the one they had found. they were eager to find as many patters as possible for each case.

the groups helped each other.

although each group only found one or two nets in each possible case, as a whole class almost

all the nets were found.

Weak points:

there were still attempts to work with poliominos with a total of 7 squares. However, I think it

was just hurry, lack of attention or boredom.

the second way of work, using the sheet and the patterns on it, seemed more difficult.

they came to the conclusion that some cases were impossible very hastily.

As a final conclusion for a future experiment, I think I should plan ahead better in such a way as

to allow the weaker students to solve a smaller part of the task, and the better ones to have some

optional more challenging work to do. I am not quite sure groups should be homogenous, this time

they were not and this seemed a good approach. And, by all means, I will separate the 5 girls.

2nd Activity

Describing Autumn Elements

Were in Autumn , so all the classroom activities in class second B are

centred on the Autumn theme. Im guiding children to observe

various autumn elements using all their senses and to describe them

using appropriate words.

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Firstly they bring at school real autumn leaves many and different in

colours, sizes and shapes and observed in this way:

They look at them, touch, smell them, listen to them.

They describe in Italian in oral way .

They register the adjectives the use.

They use them to write the descriptions in the various phases

( looking, touching, smelling, listening,..), to invent little chants

and poems.

They use the adjective to describe with acrostics.

Together we translate them in English.

They use the list of the English adjectives and photos of the

leaves to produce using Word the descriptions below.

Then we pass to describe in the same way some autumn fruits:

chestnuts and a pumpkin, they observe them looking, touching,

smelling, tasting and produced written in Italian and in English on the

copybook and on the computer using Word and Power Point.

Francavilla 8 novembre 2010

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My leaf is yellow , brown, pierced, rough and shrivelled.

Complete the ACROSTIC with adjectives:

Light

ElegantAutumn

Fragile

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Francavilla

My leaf is brown, black and light.


LIGHTELEGANT

AUTUMN

FRAGILE

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My leaf is brown and yellow and shrivelled.


Light

ElegantAutumn

Fragile

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My leaf is yellow, brown, withered, rough and light.


Light

Elegant

Autumn

Fragile

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Francavilla 3 novembre 2010oo

My leaf is brown, black, shrivelled and light.

Complete the ACROSTICS with adjectives:

Long

Elegant

Autumn

Fluttering

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Francavilla

My leaf is small, yellow and light.


LightElegant

Autumn

Fragile

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My leaf is yellow, narrow, long , fluttering.


Light

Elegant

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Autumn

FragileFrancavilla 3 novembre 2010

My leaf is gold, long, fragile, yellow, narrow, big and smooth.


Light

Elegant

Autumn

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Fragile

Francavilla

My leaf is yellow, small and light.


Light

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Elegant

AutumnFragile


My leaf is big, fragile, light, brown.


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Light

ElegantAutumn

Fragile


My leaf is big, fragile, light, brown.


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Light

ElegantAutumn

Fragile


My leaf is green, yellow and brown, pierced, rotten, large, big,

long, fluttering, light, fragile, withered, roung.

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LightElegant

Autumn

FragileFrancavilla 3 novembre

My leaf is brown, shrivelled, rotten, large, big, light, rough.

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LightElegant

Autumn

Fragile

Francavilla 3 Novembre 2010

My leaf is brown , rotten , narrow, long, light, fragile, rough.

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Light

Elegant

Autumn

Fragile

Francavilla 3 NOVEMBRE 2010

My leaf is yellow and brown.

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LIGHTELEGANT

AUTUMN

FRAGILE


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My leaf is brown and black.


Light

ELEGANT

AUTUMNFRAGILE


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My leaf is YELLOW, LARGE, FLUTTERING, LIGHT,

FRAGILE ,

WITHERED.


LIGHTELEGANT

AUTUMN

FRAGILE

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My leaf is yellow and fragile.


LightElegant

Autumn

Fragile

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My leaf is yellow, shrivelled, beautiful.


Light

ElegantAutumn

Fragile

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describe the chestnut:

It s round, brown, yellow, small and good.

A little rhymeDown, down

all around,

small and brown

chestnuts are falling on the ground.

Down, down

smooth and round,

yellow and brown

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chestnuts are falling on the ground.

3rd Activity

Today with my students I wanted to do something they had never tried before:

ACROSTIC POEMS. When I told them that they were expected to write

poems, their first reaction was a discouraging smile worse, sort of smirk. When

I added that the poems would be acrostic poems they looked quite puzzled: what

the hell is an acrostic poem? This is what their eyes were telling me. Then I

wrote an example on the blackboard: ANT

Animals are

Not

Tolerated here.

An easy one but above all short. Reaction: how are we supposed to be able to do

it? Using a pen and a paper, was my answer and they felt the challenge. I told

them they had to use the word SCHOOLand I must say they started working at

once. They formed small groups they are 32, quite a large group and startedexchanging ideas.

They way they approached the task was different: some started with great

enthusiasm and created the first poem after few minutes, others could not

manage with vocabulary very well and took out the glossary in their texbook, but

they all worked and the results really are unexpected. Here are some examples:

self-analysis

Students are

Creative,Happy and

Original, but

Often

Lazy

I really like this one! Another:

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One

Lifestyle against omologation?-

Sometimes we

Can

HangOut with an

Old

Love this was made by a group of girls,

Sisters are

Chatty and they

Hate

Of course

OurLifestyle probably some family problems here,

and this one

Sandwiches are

Cheap but

Huge and

Often they make youOverweight and

Lazy a protest against the bad quality of the

food they find in the school vending machines.

These are some examples, there are many more. The comments came out of the

discussion that followed the composition and they really enjoyed it. After the

discussion, they asked me for another word

When they finished, I asked them to use some adjectives to describe the

activity (we are studying how to express likes and dislikes and motivate our

opinions) and what they wrote on the blackboard was: funny, nice, thrilling,

interesting, constructive, creative. What I think is that they worked together

and helped each other, they worked in autonomy and used the material they

needed, they used new vocabulary and practised what they already knew.

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4rth Activity

21st November 2010Secondary School 4th form 1 hour of lesson

ACTIVITIES ON IF-CLAUSES1ST ACTIVITY

First I explained the 4 types of if-clauses (0-1-2-3 conditionals), trying to make my students

understand their communicative functions.

We did lots of exercises:

sentences to be completed

translations reading of dialogues where the characters used the conditionals

personal production of different levels of conditionals

Then I thought of introducing an activities which can improve their creativity because it was

more like a game then a boring exercises.

So the night before at home I had prepared a great number of if-clauses on pieces of paper

and then cut them into two parts: the main clause and the secondary clause.

I divided my class into couples and handed them some pieces of paper in a scrumbled order.

I gave them 10 minutes to rearrange them and then each couple had to read them aloud.

Hereunder some examples of clauses, divided into two pieces.

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I would have done all my

homework

If my friend Tom hadnt come to visit

me

If I were you Id train more to have a chance towin the next competition

If I go out when it rains heavily

without an umbrella

I get wet

I will Go and see that movie

again

If I have time


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I prepared 15 complete sentences for each couple, so I gave them 30 pieces of paper to be

reordered.

Almost everybody was successful, they had to concentrate about grammar, meaning and

vocabulary.

Then I suggested a second activity about the same topic.

2ND ACTIVITY

I handed out a piece of paper to a student with a part of if-clauses and he or she had to

complete the sentence orally in a very short time. This was an individual activity: one student

had to answer and the others had to listen in order to answer in turn if the student was wrong.

Hereunder some examples:

.OPEN ANSWER

.

. OPEN ANSWER.

.. OPEN ANSWER..

At the end of the lesson both the students and I were very satisfied because they were able to

produce orally using a grammar structure usually considered not very easy. The game aspect

helped students to chill out. I preferred not to go deep into the particularities the if-clauses

have, but making students manage the basic aspects.

The bell surprise us and we said: Wow, an hour has already gone.!

I WOULD LEAVE MY BOYFRIEND

IF..

IF I WAS IN YOUR

IF MY BROTHER HAD BEEN IN

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