Short Stories and English I

My students are ELL students. I gave them a series of short story starters. The goal was that they each write a story with beginning, middle, and end individually after writing a story as a class. They were interesting.

One boy decided to change the beginning of the story and instead of his father bringing home a dinosaur egg he met the little, talking, happy, bouncy, lost dinosaur baby walking home from school one day. He decided that instead of caring for the dinosaur, they would become friends and he would have to find a way to get the dinosaur home to it’s father.

A girl decided that the seed in the jar would grow to the size of a building. This seed became a tree that divided a city. It grew so big that it blocked the sun. Half the city protested it’s continued growth and the other half protested cutting it down. Eventually, the roots grew so thick that they knocked over buildings and destroyed roads. The city had to decide to cut down the tree and dig up the roots before it destroyed the city.

Another girl decided that an invisibility potion would be used so that she could go out to a bar like she did in Cape Verde. This potion would allow her to sneak in and out of the house without her father knowing what she was up to.

Even though my students didn’t want to do this assignment, I rather think that it got them to think creatively. They didn’t want to think. They don’t really like creative. However, I think that they really excelled at it once I got them to sit down with pen or pencil in hand. I was rather impressed once they stopped being obnoxious and started working.