I had a last minute replacement this week, so armed with my trusty board pen I entered the arena and…

Firstly we had a good laugh drawing our picture to elicit vocabulary on the theme I’d chosen, in case you’re wondering the students were aged 14-15 years old.

I then “read” them the following story…

“It was a bright sunny day so my friend, Claire and I went to the beach. We put our towels on the sand, got out our parasol and started sunbathing. Claire started reading her book but I was bored so I got up, took my flippers and snorkel and went snorkelling. It was amazing, I could see the fish swimming among the coral reef and seaweed. I even saw a shipwreck and I dived down hoping to find some treasure! As I was diving I suddenly saw something big and white out of the corner of my eye..”

The students wrote the end of the story together in pairs ( I love collaborative writing, it’s a great chance for students to teach each other and more active than silent writing in class). Those who wanted to read out their endings to the rest of the class.

You don’t have to choose the beach, any setting will provide vocabulary and a story, the woods in autumn, a shopping mall, etc.