Writing stories in a circle

This works with all levels of ESL, and would succeed in a regular English class.  Write the beginning of a story on the board.  All the students write down what you wrote, on their piece of paper.  Now, each student has to add to the story.   The teacher can decide if the students should add one sentence or two sentences only, or if they just write for a given amount of time.

At the end of that given time, stop the students and have them each pass their essay on to the next student.  The next student has to read the composition given to him/her and then continues the new story with a sentence/time limit as before.  This continues until their own paper returns to them.

This activity means that students are composing, reading material written by others, using their imagination, practicing writing clearly so others can read their writing, and of course, practicing their English.  Students always love the final results when they receive their original paper back with a story developed by everyone.

---