Wild cards, crazy stories

5th December 2003, 12:00am

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Wild cards, crazy stories

https://www.tes.com/magazine/archive/wild-cards-crazy-stories
I use a pack of index cards with the name of an object or a photograph on them to stimulate pupils’ ideas for writing stories. It’s an alternative to giving them a title or opening sentence and is especially useful for able writers who need something different.

I try to vary the the objects and photographs between the mundane and the exotic. I have about 150 cards and items include a wristwatch with a cracked glass, a pair of cheap sunglasses, a silk tie with a floral pattern, a penknife, a mutilated class photograph, a tin of brown shoe polish, a library card and a notebook filled with code. Each student chooses two or three cards at random. Each chosen item must then play a significant part in the story they write.

Another way of using this pack is to give pupils random cards while they are writing their story: the idea being to introduce that item into the story as soon as possible.

This has roused the jaded interest of many a class and has led to stories from the horribly contrived to the subtle and clever.

Gareth Evans, teacher, diocese of Victoria Nyanza in Isamilo School, Mwanza, Tanzania

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