The Spanish story writing activity, Pasa el papel (Pass the Paper) gets students using their language skills in a creative and spontaneous way. Students work in groups. They pass a piece of paper to each other with each person writing a sentence to add to the story. This activity is like many found in our homeschool or class use lesson plans. Hands-on and lots of fun!
The students are provided with a Pasa el papel Idea Sheet to help them as they write. The sheet provides Spanish verb, Spanish vocabulary, and Spanish grammar ideas they can use to form their sentences.
They are instructed that they can make their stories funny. They write for a specified amount of time. Or, sometimes I tell them a specific number of sentences to write. While they are writing, I walk around the room to provide help. I also help with needed corrections.
After they finish their stories, they share them with the class. I tell them ahead of time that I will be asking some questions after each story to see if they were able to understand what they heard. I ask the questions in Spanish, but sometimes in English if needed. The students are usually pretty motivated to listen because they enjoy seeing if they can understand what they’re classmates have written. And, they enjoy when the stories are funny!
I think this activity is beneficial for various reasons:
- It gets students working together in a fun and collaborative way.
- Students practice helping each other in a kind and encouraging way. They help when someone has difficulty spelling, conjugating, or thinking of a Spanish vocabulary word.
- It allows students to use their Spanish creatively. They can express themselves freely as opposed to practicing exercises.
- It provides spelling and conjugation practice since students need to write things as correctly as possible.
- Students get great speaking practice reading their stories aloud. I like to have the group read the story aloud together, if possible.
- Students get beneficial listening practice from hearing the Spanish stories read aloud.
- We all get some Spanish conversation practice from the comprehension questions I ask after each story.
A Spanish story writing activity, like Pasa el papel, provides so many Spanish learning benefits. I love activities like this because they are super simple and effective. Give it a try with your students!
You may also like this idea for writing Spanish journals or stories.