Creative Writing to Summarize, Review and Test               
   By:  Lucille Lever


Test taking can be a learning process instead of a nerve-wracking experience for students. Multiple choice tests and cramming for exams are unnecessary


After a mad rush to get the material completed, both the teacher and student have to face the testing stage of the learning process.


Checking the Progress of Learners


When teachers have completed a section of work and want to ensure that their students have understood the material, they inevitably give some kind of summarizing activity, quiz or test, either orally or in written
form. The test serves not only to ascertain if the students have grasped the work, but also ensures that the teachers, themselves, have taught the subject adequately.


An alternative, kinder, and more effective way of testing is getting the students to undertake a project of creative writing to show that they have learned the material. This alternative kind of testing, shown in
examples below, enables students to really absorb and study the texts so that they can present what they have learned to others.


Creative Writing Tasks Have Positive Effects

Teachers can give the students a creative task that will:

 

• test their comprehension and new knowledge 
  reduce test anxiety
• enable them to show true understanding of concepts 
  make the material become meaningful 
  help them internalize the information they have learned

Ideas for Creative Writing

Here are some ideas teachers can use to structure a test. Different activities can be chosen to suit any given topic in most fields of study. There are a variety of tasks to select from here, and teachers can add
their myriad of ideas too. Students can choose from the options:
 

   

1. Write a diary entry through the eyes of one of the    
   characters of a story (literature); historical character (history); a    
   traveler to a particular part of the world (geography); a tiny person    
   traveling through the body (biology).


2. Write a story for children. High-level students must    
   simplify information and write a story about the subject, for young    
   children. Younger students can write and illustrate their stories. 
3.  Write dialogs or a play. The students have to use the    
   information they have learned about in a dialog or play setting. 
    
   Make a crossword puzzle and create clues using the material. 
   


4. Write an article for a newspaper as if the person is still
   alive (a historical character, literary character) or a news event as if it
   is still current (testing history as if the event has just occurred).
   


5. Write a poem about the material. For example, write a     poem
   about how the heart works, the limbs move, etc.
   


6. Create a comic strip format that will enable students to write about the material being tested in a cartoon
   format.

Teachers can brainstorm with their classes while giving some suggestions, and have the students come up with ideas too. Many minds are more creative than one – even if teachers have a large number of highly creative ideas of their own. And successful ideas from students can be added to teachers’
repertoire of questions for future tests and quizzes.


Tests like these can be fun and useful! Students can really learn through a process of creative presentations.


 

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