Show and Tell Presentation Template

Name of your writing activity: Pyramid Writing

Teaching Context
Level of students Grade Level
beginner intermediate advanced ■ Middle School 1 ■ Middle School 2
mixed level Middle School 3
High School 1 High School 2
Number of Students High School 3
<10 10-20 ■ 20-40
Class Time
Other; please specify __________ ■Regular Class Afterschool Class
50 min 90 min Other; please
specify __________
Activity Description
What writing skills does this activity teach?
- Sentence Construction
- Story re-construction
- Collaborative writing
- Sequencing skills
- Analyzing content
List steps/instructions required to perform this activity.
1) Students read a story first.
2) Students in a group write a story based on the given text in pyramid shape. If there are 7 students in a
group the last sentence / phrase includes 8 words (or we can give students freedom to their last
sentence).
3) The first phrase or sentence has two words; the next has three words, and goes on.
4) After writing, students share their result with other groups.

Rationale
Why would you use this writing activity in your classroom?
To increase awareness of individual words.
To incorporate writing with reading.
To motivate students to enjoy writing
Could this activity be easily adapted to different teaching contexts? If so how? If not, why not?
Yes. We can adjust the level of difficulties.
1) the number of sentences
2) Topics of texts
Activity Strengths Activity Weaknesses

Connection between reading & writing Difficult to assess (creativity or accuracy)

Less stressful for individuals Students might rely on a few advanced
Motivates students to write more students in their groups
Can be practiced in any sizes of classes /
level