Present a paragraph that contains short, blunt and colorless words to the class. This paragraph can be about any subject you wish. For example, "I like summer. It is sunny. It is hot. I like to go to the beach." After the class has had a chance to study this, change the paragraph, expanding on ideas and joining certain sentences. Your sentence may now look like this: "I like summer because it is hot and sunny. On clear days, I enjoy going to the beach." Present this to the class. Write another flat, basic paragraph like the first example and ask each student to rewrite this one in their own way. This will help your students learn how to vary sentence beginnings and combine and enrich short, uninteresting sentences to create smooth and flowing writing.
Present your class with a simple sentence. This might be, "The boy fell." Ask the students to look carefully at this sentence before giving them certain "building materials" to use in order to rebuild it. Ask the students to think about where, when, how and who. An example of the reformed sentence might be, "The little boy fell clumsily into the mud." Ask your students to compare and discuss different possibilities and exchange different ideas. This will teach them to expand on thoughts and clarify basic ideas with significant details. It will also energize their writing and make it more interesting.
Come up with a basic, simple sentence for your class to work with. For example, "The dog barked." Ask each student to add to the sentence in some way, contributing only one word or phrase. By the time this activity is complete, read the sentence you are left with to the class. It does not matter if the sentence no longer makes complete sense. This can be an effective way to teach students how to expand on sentences, making them richer and more descriptive.
Get your students to read out loud. For this to work, the reading material needs to be appropriate. Choose a fluent example of literature or poetry and ask students to read various sections of it. By reading fluent sentences out loud, they see how effectively the text plays to the ear. Practicing this skill helps them learn how to express their feelings through their writing, ensuring readability at the same time.