"Criminal Sentences" – Creative Writing Card Game for GCSE English Language (Paper 1 Question 5)

Can you gamify creative writing?  That was the question posed to me by a colleague a while ago.  The game I amabout to describe (created for students working towards GCSE English Language – and more specifically the creative writing question – Paper 1 Question 5 in the AQA specification that I deliver) was my response.  The answer to the question? A resounding “yes”.   The game is called “Criminal Sentences” – so called because players can steal from each other (sometimes in the middle of game play). You can find the game here but this article is more about they how and why of its development.

The decision to create a card game was an easy one (bringing it into the world was a little more challenging!).  Every break time, I see my students get packs of card games out of their bags and proceed to engage with them in a thoroughly engaged and animated way.  I like to think that my classes are interesting – and varied – but it was rare to see this kind of energy from my students when teaching creative writing, even from those who say it’s their “favourite part of English”.  I wanted to harness that energy (even fleetingly) and incorporate that into their writing.

So – a card game. Next, the angle. Sentences.  When I read through my students’ GCSE English creative writing, the first feedback I often offer them is that they must try to include a greater variety of sentence structures for effect.   Why exactly is that? In preparing them for Paper 1 Question 5 (I teach the AQA specification) one of the skills descriptors for “Technical Accuracy” is around “sentence forms”.  However, the assessment objective calls it “sentence structure” so although it necessarily includes simple, complex and compound sentences, there is more to it than that.  The structure of a sentence can depend on the order of its words as much as whether it links ideas or uses a conjunction Its structure can be affected by punctuation: it can change meaning, emphasis, and clarity. Where you place a simile – at the beginning or the end of a sentence, for example - also has an impact on the structure and impact of a sentence and hence its overall form.

..and so on!  Here is a complete list of the sentence forms and structures included.

Criminal Sentences is a fast-paced, flexible card game designed to boost students’ creative writing skills for AQA English Language Paper 1, Question 5.  The game comes with 180 cards, including sentence types and structure, punctuation, language and structural techniques and more - you name it, it’s probably in there! Some cards cover the basics (like simple, compound, and complex sentences), while others push for more sophisticated control of structure and style.  Its primary aim is to encourage a variety of sentence structures in student creative writing.  However, I have found that it also enables students to learn about and remember a variety of writing techniques and incorporate them into their sentences.

In terms of game play – you don’t have to use the full pack - teachers can easily mix and match cards depending on group ability or focus. Cards come in print-ready pages of 9 per sheet, so you can print out multiple sets and mix them all together. It doesn’t matter if they come back in separate stacks - it’s designed to be flexible and low-maintenance.  Yes, it will include some use of scissors or guillotine – but that’s a necessary evil, I’m afraid.

There are full instructions included but here is a short version of how to play the game.

• Players are dealt 3 cards each and take turns drawing, stealing, or discarding up to 6 cards.
• Each card has a sentence type/structure, effect, example and a point value (1–5).
• The aim is to build a “stack” worth 15+ points before writing.
• Wild cards (and the rounds) allow students to steal from each other - hence the name Criminal Sentences!
• A genre randomiser (included) decides what they’ll write about (optional but the students like it).
• Students then write a paragraph (or more), using the effects shown in their cards - as creatively and clearly as possible.  They can write more sentences – so if they have five cards, they can write ten sentences as long as the sentence structures on their cards are included somewhere.

So, a "hand" could possibly look like this...

My students took to this game like ducks to water.  They read through the instructions quickly and they were off.  I was surprised at how ruthless some of my usually placid students could be when it came to stealing off others! 

They also like the randomiser, a PowerPoint roulette that indicates the creative genre to be used in their writing.  The wheel can be spun before the game begins (so students can start planning their response according to their hand of cards) or you can spin the wheel once the game is over and writing is about to begin.

This game works brilliantly as a starter, but can also grow into a full lesson with extended writing, planning and peer feedback.  Once the game is over, I tend to see how long the momentum lasts.  More often than not, I am able to extend the writing time in order to get a complete story out of the students.  So, for example, once they have spent the ten or so minutes needed to incorporate all the sentence types in their “hand”, I often ask them to swap their hand with one another student has and simply carry on.  As such, the rules can be changed by the teacher or even new games – or extensions - evolved (see below).

I’ve included two “versions” - only the backs of the cards are different. In one set (Set 2) they are all the same (this is my preferred version as students cannot see how many points a card is worth until they turn it over). The other set has how many points the card is worth on the back (this was for a group of students who wanted a set to use at lunchtime and requested this format, but would not elaborate why!). I think they invented their own, more twisted, version!

My students have been overwhelmingly positive about the game but in terms of teaching and learning, this has been a great way to encourage them to diversity the structure of the sentences they are using – as well as increasing the variety of punctuation and more mindfully incorporating both language and structure into their work.  Not only that, I have found that students are using subject terminology more spontaneously, even if it is just “compound” or “complex” – I had one recently tell me he was “trying to write a sentence with epistrophe” but was finding it challenging.  I think my jaw slackened in shock as he was on my “least likely to engage with anything that doesn’t involve chatting with mates, or dozing off” list.  Small victories.

 You can access the game here.