WHAT IT IS:

From The Writing Strategies Book, Mix & Match Elements is a collaborative/social writing task that encourages creative or spontaneous writing. 

HOW IT WORKS:

The teacher groups students in small groups and assigns a number of elements that will be included in a piece of student writing. This may be such elements as elements of a story, like character, setting, and conflict.

First, each student writes an example for each of the elements on a separate sticky or notecard. Students may potentially write several examples of each element, if desired.

Then, each student selects randomly from each of the elements. Using the examples selected, the student writes the assigned task.

This task may also be adapted to focus on events in a series or topic.