Random Word Stories

Winter break was a long 18 days, and I did not think about school one time, as I was in the process of selling one house and buying another. Fortunately, the AVID community on Facebook came to my rescue as I scrambled to figure out what I was going to teach the first day back to school with everyone suffering from back-to-school-itis. 

Another AVID teacher posted that she uses random word generators to spark collaborative writing. Easy enough! I set up the lesson by explaining to my students that I would be providing them with six words from the generator. After discussing word meaning, I would provide them with six minutes to write a VERY short story with their table mates, using all of the provided words. We would then share out to practice listening and speaking skills. 

Apparently, there are a significant number of random word generators online. I clicked on the first one. I generated a different list for each class period. For some of the classes, I had to click through a few times, as there were words that I did not even know popping up. Sure, I could have used those words as an opportunity to model my own learning, but I was tired! 

The lesson went quite well. The time limit helped to keep students engaged. Many of the groups were amused with themselves for what they had created. Some wrote a couple of sentences, working in the words as quickly as possible. Others managed to write short novels in the time provided. If I had not been discussing new procedures for the second semester, I probably could have worked in a second round of this activity. I did have requests from many students to do this again, and I am pondering how to use this to inspire my seventh grade students for their STAAR writing test in a couple of months. 

If you find yourself in need of a fifteen to twenty minute time filler (or you are having an off /I-can-barely-keep-my-eyes-open day and need to improvise), this requires little energy and planning on the part of the teacher. Give it a shot.