I've been doing lots of different games in the drama classes that I have with Yr 7. I thought today that a few of those games could be translated into literacy activites.

The first one is - Alphabet Conversation
As a drama game, the way this works is to have students working in pairs and have a conversation with each sentences beginning with the next letter of the alphabet. For example:
A: Anyone seen my cat?
B: Black one, with funny eyes?
A: Can't say I remember.
B: Don't tell me you've forgotten what it looks like?
A: Every cat looks the same to me.
B: Fortunately, I found one yesterday.
A: Gee, that's great.

Instead of having a spoken conversation the kids could just write one like that. They'd have to keep the sentences short though.

Another one is - Martian and Earthling
In pairs, one is a martian and one is an earthling. The martian chooses and everyday object and imagines they have found it, but don't don't know what it's used for. The describe it's shape, texture, colour, weight etc to the Earthling, who can ask any questions (apart from it's name) and then must guess what it is.

To make this a writing activity, you could get the kids to write their descriptions instead of just saying them, and then read them out.

The last one for the moment is - Yes, and...
It's really important to accept each other's ideas in drama (and in writing!). In pairs, each person takes it in turns to start a sentence with "Yes, and..." The idea is to try and build on your partner's ideas, not block them. For example:

A: Yes, and it's raining.
B: Yes, and I've got a large umbrella
A: Yes, and we can shelter under it
B: Yes, and the wind is blowing us into the air
etc

To change this into a writing activity, you could have a piece of paper with the first sentence written at the top. The it is passed onto the next student who has to add his or her 'Yes, and...' sentence. There could be several of these pages going around the class at any one time.

I hope these are useful. My apologies if I'm writing about things that are really commonly done in literacy classes! :-)
Jess