expressive writing
 : The Conversation
Approach: Team
848k
Resources: 2 copies of fire photo; 4 blue pens; 4 red pens.

Questions / instructions:
In this writing activity you will be working in pairs.
A1 [name] and A2 [name] will work together, and A3 [name] and A4 [name] will work together.

Hand each pair a copy of the photograph.
Here is a photograph from the newspaper. It is about a fire. The two people in the photo are a fireman and a detective.
Write a really interesting conversation between the two people. You will need to show which person is speaking alongside what they are saying.
I will give you five minutes to do this. Then you can share what you have written with the other pair. They can give you some helpful ideas about your work.

Give the students the paper and blue pens. Allow 5 mins.
Read your ideas to the group. As you do this, one of you can be the fireman and the other can be the detective. While one pair is reading out their work, the other pair should think of some ideas to help them make their work more interesting.

Allow time
Now see if you can suggest ways that the other pair's work could be improved.

Allow time
Now go back to your pairs and work on your writing for another five minutes. Think about the helpful ideas you got from the other pair and add any other words or punctuation that will make your work even better.
Write your changes using the red ballpoint pen.
Give students red pens and take in the blue pens. Stop the students after 5 minutes.

  % responses
y8

conversation

Two-way dialogue interactivity of characters:                  excellent
good
some
none
29
48
20
3
Story relates to picture:                           yes
partially/sometimes
no
76
21
3
Interest/originality:                 very high
good
some
little or none
12
44
34
10
Editing Extending (at end):             substantial
slight
none
45
30
25
Inserting (in middle):             substantial
slight
none
8
17
75
Re-organising:            substantial
slight
none
1
3
96
Deleting:            substantial
slight
none
1
8
91
Grammar/punctuation/spelling:            substantial
slight
none
9
16
75
Enrichment: eg. richer vocabulary             substantial
slight
none
0
4
96


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