This document provides information about an intermediate level pair activity to practice writing skills using a comic strip. Students will complete the speech bubbles of a comic strip template using different verb tenses and linking words. They will come up with a title for the story and design the last two parts. The teacher will provide materials, pre-teach vocabulary, show comic strip examples, and monitor students as they work in pairs to complete the story in a given time limit.

1. LEVEL: Intermediate (B1)
TYPE OF ACTIVITY: Pair work
SKILL: Writing
AIM
• To practise the writing skill using a comic strip.
• To review verb tenses and linking words.
LEXICAL AND GRAMMATICAL AREA
• Different tenses and verbal forms.
• Vocabulary related to story writing and linking
words.
TASKS
• To complete the speech bubbles of a comic strip
using the story templates provided, to find a title
for the story and to create the last two parts of the
story.
PREPARATION AND MATERIALS
• One copy of the comic strip templates per pair of students.
• PowerPoint Presentation with linking words to be projected on the board.
TIMING
+1 hour.
PROCEDURE
• Tell students that they are going to complete a story in the form of a comic strip
in pairs. They will have to use different verb tenses and linking words. Hand out
one copy of the story templates per pair of students.
• Pre-teach vocabulary like speech bubbles, carriage (on first picture) and give
examples of the different types of verb tenses. You can also show some
examples of comic strips.
• Project the linking words PowerPoint presentation on the board and tell
students that they have to use at least six of these linking words in their stories.
Make sure they understand them all.
• Explain to the students that they have to come up with a title for their story and
complete the speech bubbles of the comic strip. They also have to design the
last two parts of the story, drawing the necessary pictures, the speech bubbles,
then writing the text in the speech bubbles and matching it to the pictures.
• The teacher has to circulate and monitor the students’ work.
• Give students a time limit to complete their stories: 30 minutes, for example.
• Students can share their stories reading them out loud in class and vote for the
most amusing story.
ANSWERS
Open, depending on students’ stories.
• Follow-up: the students can create their own comic strips for homework.