Concise Communication through Flash Fiction

In this activity, students worked in pairs or small groups to first distill the day's reading into a haiku and then into a six-word story, sharing and discussing each with the class.

Author: Srijani Ghosh, Lecturer in Theater, Dance, and Performance Studies

Course Number & Title: Female Playwrights and XEnglish R1B: Girls, Misunderstood?: “Deviant” Women in Literature

Grant Type: Lecturer Teaching Fellows Program (LTF)

This work is licensed under CC BY-NC-SA 4.0

Details
Activity Title	Concise Communication through Flash Fiction
Delivery Format	In-person/Online synchronous instruction
High Impact Practices (HIPs) Categories (Review definitions for each category)	Collaborative Assignments and Projects Writing-Intensive Courses
Learning Objectives	Develop concise communication skills by distilling complex ideas into short and simple explanations Enhance critical thinking skills by identifying the key takeaways from the reading material Foster creative interpretation of the reading material through artistic expression
Brief Summary of Activity	Distilling their ideas into a few concise but impactful sentences is often a challenge for students. I use flash fiction as a tool to address this by asking students to work in pairs/small groups to transform the day’s reading into a micro-narrative. I split up the activity into two steps. First, each group creates a haiku and then shares them with the whole class along with a brief explanation of their thought process. Second, the same groups transform the day’s reading into an even shorter six-word story, sharing their stories and thoughts with the class again.
Innovative Teaching Reflection	Writing flash fiction about the reading material is a playful and creative way to help students practice the concise organization of their thoughts. These engaging activities help students evaluate the importance of each word and/or punctuation to convey their ideas while also maintaining clarity.
Activity Length	30-40 minutes

Content tags