P I Z ZA Z
People Interested in Zippy and ZAny Zcribbling

PIZZAZ has been an Online Resource since 1995 from Leslie Opp-Beckman
For Scribblers and Teachers of English to Speakers of Other Languages (ESOL)

http://www.uoregon.edu/~leslieob/pizzaz.html

Description for this website: Simple creative writing and oral storytelling activities with printable handouts for: Poetry | Fiction | Bag of Tricks.

ESOL student level:
These activities scale well to beginner through advanced level proficiency and can be used with all ages.

For more activities:
Return to PIZZAZ!


Poetry

 
Cinquain Poems Five-line poems very easy to write. They do not have to rhyme.
Diamante Poems Diamond-shaped poems - real gems! Seven lines in all. They do not have to rhyme.
Haiku Poems Short, three-lined poems (originally from Japan) with 5, 7, and 5 syllables on each line respectively.
Headline Poems Use popular media to create these interesting poems. Adapted from Iris Moye.
Limericks How-to teaching ideas with templates.
Persona-Poems A structured 8-line poem, biographical in nature. Works well as a paired activity.
Sausage Poems For vegetarians and carnivores alike, these simple chained poems are easy to write and fun to read.
Twist Poems Bi-directional spiraled poems using contrastive themes or topics.
Up and Down Poems Structured poems using a word or phrase in a top-to-bottom ("up and down") direction. Adapted from Sylvia Helmer.
[Top]

Fiction

Basket Stories Students tell stories based on a basket full of prompts that they have generated.
Chain Stories Multi-authored stories. (Can also be done with email.)
Magazine Marvels Students create stories from magazine picture collections.
Story Boxes Create stories using physical prompts. Also see Bits and Pieces, a similar site from Houghton Mifflin [external link].
Wacky Web Tales Web-based Mad Libs from EduPlace. Fill in the blanks with parts of speech (verbs, nouns, etc.) to make funny stories [external link].
[Top]

Bag of Tricks

A-to-Z Discovery Game Students work in pairs or groups to create a discovery activity on a central theme or topic.
Tongue Twisters Create individualized tongue twisters with names.
More coming...  
[Top]

© 1995-2016, Leslie Opp-Beckman, Ph.D., Director of Innovative Programming
Email: leslieob@uoregon.edu
URL: http://www.uoregon.edu/~leslieob/
5212 University of Oregon, College of Arts and Sciences, American English Institute Eugene, Oregon 97403-5212 USA
Permission to copy and distribute for educational, non-profit use only.
This page last updated: 08 April 2016, LOB
University of Oregon