Hello everyone,

First of all, Merry Christmas! Can you give me some pieces of advice as to how I can make my writing classes more student centered and fun? Especially I �m stuck when it comes to giving an in-class feedback to my students � writings (peer feedback etc.) Any advice appreciated!

Show an interesting visual. Put them in threes and ask each student to write 6 words about the picture. Then discuss the 18 words, choose the best 9. Write a short paragraph including the 9 words. Swap with other groups and read each other �s paragraph. Decide as a class what would make the best basis for a story. Once they have the basic idea for a story, they each write it up - but every ending must be different. Then, they read each other �s stories and a form of peer assessment can be on voting whose has the best powerful verbs/best adjectives/best ending/ characterisation etc. Something like that to get them thinking. Some great ideas here:

Creative writing ideas 

For giving feedback, try the GALLERY technique: put all the pieces of writing on the walls/board/doors/windows with some sellotape or patafix. At eye level so that they could have easy access to the pieces of writing. Give each one 2-3 stickers to "vote" for the best writing work. 

Then students move freely around the room, reading all the essays (provided they are not too long for that) and choosing the best in their opinion. They attach the stickers to the pieces of writing they found the most creative / logical / interesting / persuasive etc. In the end the "champions" get the praise and students can work in groups and comment on their choices.

This is really student-centered and does not involve too much pressure from the teacher. 

You can find lots of ideas for giving meaningful feedback on students writing 

but you �ll have to try and see what works best for YOU and YOUR students. 

write a message in a bottle and throw in the sea and see if you get an answer back! 

or put five objects in a bag and ask them to write a story about them