If you want to take the time to plan this one and your students have access to the internet and a printer, have them go onto craigslist.org and find any classified ad from any city as long as it's in English. It can be an ad for anything; a car, a job, a used jacket, even a personal ad or a "casual encounter". Have them print the ad out and bring it in to class.
If you want to use this opportunity to expose the students to a little literature, bring in any vignette from "The House on Mango Street" by Sandra Cisneros. I use "No Speak English" but it's just because I randomly got a copy of it. Read it, and explain what a vignette is... you know, like a snapshot as opposed to a story (vignettes don't really have a typical beginning, middle, end).
The assignment:
Write two vignettes based on the classified ad. One will be about the person who places the ad, and the other will be about the person who answers it. This should not be a boring description of a character, but rather a creative snippet of this character's life. Use a minimum of 1/2 page per vignette. Attach the ad to the vignettes.
So, have them share with each other, then collect them and correct the grammar, spelling, etc. These are really fun to read for us, too!
If you want to use this as a last minute thing and don't have time to ask them to bring in a craigslist ad, just get some newspapers before class, and even the the ads are in Castellano, they can still write in English. Obviously, they can share newspapers if you have a big class... that way they can bounce ideas off each other too.
Enjoy,
Kristal
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